Life, 1911-02-23 · page 33 of 44
Life — February 23, 1911 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a letter-to-editor essay by Margaret Lewis arguing for women's rights. Lewis critiques men's performative "reverence" toward women—removing hats on trains, refraining from smoking at dinner—as empty gestures that mask deeper inequality. She demands genuine respect through equal treatment in workplaces and public life, arguing that improving women's conditions benefits men too. The accompanying joke, attributed to the Washington Post, satirizes gender segregation in employment. A man fired from his customs inspector job plans to work in "millinery" (a traditionally female field), boasting he knows "all there is" because of his previous experience. The humor relies on the era's assumption that women's work requires no real skill—that a man's unrelated government job qualifies him instantly for "women's work." Together, these pieces ironically illustrate Lewis's point: society simultaneously devalues women's labor while restricting their opportunities to specific fields.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
h-Wil < Sun, same ¢ able “eption ned in Spar. 10 wit: le to ase to that ndable to be erence B.C. y time in the states. pray, on, Of woman lines— woman IDEAS MAY BRING YOU A FORTUNE ives Ust of needed Inventions tells hoor Patents Obtained or Fee Returned. send sketch or model, YOUR From Our Readers (Concluded from page 408) ter an express train at any hour nd no seats vacant, often- ‘mes every seat occupied by a man, she the only woman in that car; : men show their reverence by » at least arising and offer- In very rare instances. public dining-rooms of the men show their rever- women by refraining from during the meal?) Or in adeville houses where nost obscured by a thick co smoke! men show their reverence by trying to help her hard nd factory and office by he has not the same phys- |; and her hours should not Do the men show their for women by helping to far as lies within their al evil? know and cannot tell whether the ballot will help woman this I do know, that it is inalienable right to expect n and kindliness from | man, whether she be a The Egyptian Cigarette of Quality AROMATIC DELICACY MILDNESS PURITY a At your club or dealer's THE SURBRUG CO., Makers, New York “PREMIER ‘MOTOR | MFG. “co, ‘Dept. A, “INDIANAPOLIS. queen of society or the humblest scrub woman, and when men begin to prate less about what women should or should not do and look more to their own conduct and morals, then will this world be a very much brighter place for the majority of women, and by making it happier for all women, will men reap their own rich reward. Very truly yours, Marcaret Lewis. New York, February 2, 1911. 409 “Our of a job, eh?” “Yes. But I'm going to get a good situation in the millinery department of a big store.” “Why, what do you know about milli- nery? “ Allthere isto know. I've been work- ing for several years as a United States customs inspector."—Washington Post, Best Perfumery and Legrand= Paris "i gsind For Sale All Deoters., comicbooks.com