Already it is such a common occurrence in some cities and in many parts
of the country, not to find any woman willing to do housework, that
many housewives are beginning to think that their future comfort in all
household matters will depend entirely upon new labor saving devices and
upon the help of the community rather than upon the increased knowledge
and skill of domestic employees.

There exists a prevailing impression, too, that housework has lost its
dignity, and that at this period of the world's social history, it is
impossible to restore it for women have stepped above it. But this is
not true. The fact is that housework has remained stationary while other
work has gained in freedom and dignity. Without noisy protestations, or
indignant speeches delivered in public, women have slowly and silently,
one by one, deserted housework as a career on account of the narrowing,
servile, and unjust conditions inseparable from it at the present day.
Let these conditions be removed and new regulations based upon modern
business principles take their place, and then it will be seen that
housework has never lost its dignity, and the very women who abandoned
it will be the first to choose it again as a means of earning their
livelihood.

As a proof of this, the following experience may be cited of a New Work
woman who wished to obtain a domestic employee for general housework.
She went to several employment agencies and at the end of a week she
had seen four applicants; three were foreigners and spoke English so
brokenly that they could never have been left in charge of a telephone.
Not one of the four was worth considering after investigating their
references, and these were the only women she could find willing to do
general housework. Upon the advice of a friend, the perplexed housewife
advertised in one of the daily newspapers, but only a few women applied