Life, 1908-01-30 · page 3 of 22
Life — January 30, 1908 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Cartoon**: The illustration titled "After the Honeymoon" depicts a newlywed couple with the husband asking whether his bride must kiss all family members, and she replying she'll only kiss grandma and the baby. This is a gentle marital humor cartoon common to the era. **The Article**: "Woman's Natural Occupation" reports on a speech by President Eliot of the Collegiate Alumnae Association arguing that child-rearing is women's primary role. The piece debates whether higher education for women is wasted if they become mothers and housewives. **The Satire**: The juxtaposition suggests irony—celebrating women's education while simultaneously endorsing their confinement to domestic duties, reflecting early 1900s tensions over women's roles and rights.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
AFTER THE HONEYMOON “MUST I KISS ALL TE “OH, NO, DARLING—ONLY GRANDMA AND THE BABY.” Woman's Natural Occupation RESIDENT ELIOT told the members of the Collegiate Alumnz Association at their recent meeting in Cam- bridge that t ing of children is the normal occupation of women, and the one which the majority of women, married and unmarried, take up. The higher education of the future must recognize this fact, he thought, and aim to train women for this natural employment. This is good sense, and involves no particle of disparage- ment or limitation of woman’s education. We read in the paper that some club women of New York object to Dr. Eliot’s conclusion, but their objections are not impressive as objections. One says: “Let the training of children be woman’s duty, but man must assist.” To be sure he must, and his assistance should be very valuable. But it will hardly be more than assistance. The burden of the work will naturally fall on the woman, if she is competent. She will boss the job; the man, if he is competent, will back her up with his authority, advise with her, and help her all he can. The old, traditional scheme which assigns to man the obligation to go out and make E MEMBERS OF YOUR FAMILY, DEAR?” a living and to woman to raise the family has not, in general, been superseded, and is not likely to be, individual exceptions notwithstanding. Dr. Eliot is right. The great natural occupation of women is training children, and for the great majority of women the education that best fits them for that duty is the best education. There is no special difficulty about fitting a likely girl for some other wage-earning work, and there are many cases where that has to be done, But the majority of parents who can choose what career they shall try to fit their girls for, see the same large truth that President Eliot sees, and try to fit them, not to be lawyers or doctors or women of business, but to train children. It is impossible to bring too much sound education to that work, for it equals in importance and in scope any work that is done in the world. But some kinds of knowledge are more important in it than others, and when the educational founda- tion has been laid that makes in girls and boys alike for the general development of the mental powers, the aim should be to teach the girls the things that best qualify them to excel in their natural specialty. comicbooks.com