ample to secure desired rights. Further agitation, however, and more
mature reflection always show that what looks like a simple social
problem is a complex one.

"If women's wages are small, open new careers to them." As simple as
this did the problem of women's wages once appear; but when new avenues
of employment were rendered accessible to women, it was found, in some
instances, that the wages of men were lowered. A consequence which can
be seen in different industrial centres is that a man and a wife working
together secure no greater wages than the man alone in industries in
which women are not employed. Now, if the result of opening new
employments to women is to force all members of the family to work for
the wages which the head of the family alone once received, it is
manifest that we have a complicated problem.

Another result of wage-earning by women, which has been observed here
and there, is the scattering of the members of the family and the
break-down of the home. A recent and careful observer among the chief
industrial centres of Saxony, Germany, has told us that factory work has
there resulted in the dissolution of the family, and that family life,
as we understand it, scarcely exists. We have demoralization seen in the
young; and in addition to that, we discover that the employment of
married women outside the home results in the impaired health and
strength of future generations.

The conclusion by no means follows that we should go backward, and try
to restrict the industrial sphere of woman. It has been well said that
revolutions do not go backward; we have to go farther forward to keep
the advantages which have been attained, and at the same time lessen the
evils which the new order has brought with it.