The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work

The great, urgent, universal wants of mankind, in all classes of society, are food, clothing, shelter, and fuel. After these come the comforts and luxuries pertaining to the condition of those in easy circumstances. Above and beyond these animal wants, but of nearly equal importance, are those relating to the mindwritten and printed matter, oral instructions, as lectures and sermons, and the handiwork of the fine arts. These, in addition to health, freedom, and friends, comprise the greatest blessings man enjoys. I would add that the means of transit are necessary to make him entirely independent. Nearly all honest occupations are founded on these wants; but they have been divided and subdivided until their name is legion. The contents of this volume might be arranged in the same way that the articles exhibited in the Crystal Palace of London were, under the headsProducer, Importer, Manufacturer, Designer, Inventor, and Proprietor. But we think the arrangement pursued, though rather irregular, may be quite as convenient. So great is the variety of subjects treated, that it is difficult to condense the contents in a smaller compass. The general difference in character and habits of those engaged in various occupationstheir comparative morality and intelligence, the effects of a decline in wages, the effects of trades-unions, are all, more or less, involved in this subject of employments; also the opinions of the working classes on machinery and its results. Employments that have for their object the health, comfort, and protection of mankindthose that produce the necessaries and the luxuries of lifethose for amusement and capable of being dispensed withare all treated of to some extent.

Dettagli