WOMEN IN THE HOME
I We are forever being told that the place for women is in the HOME. Well, so
be it. But what do we expect of her in the home? Merely to stay in the home is not
enough. She is a failure unless she attends to the health and welfare, moral as well as ‘
physical, of her family, and especially of her children. She, more than anyone else, is held ~
responsible for what they become.
SHE is responsible for the cleanliness of her house. ,
SHE is responsible for the wholesomeness of the food.
SHE is responsible for the children’s health.
She, above all, is responsible for their morals.
, How :Far Can the Mother Control These Things?

She can clean her own rooms, BUT if the neighbors are allowed to live in filth,

she cannot keep her rooms from being filled with bad air and smells, or from being infested
' , ‘ with vermin. . >

She can cook her food well, BUT if dealers are permitted to sell poor food, unclean
milk or stale eggs, she cannot make the food wholesome for her children.

She can care for her own plumbing and refuse, BUT if the plumbing in the rest of the
house is unsanitary, if garbage accumulates and the halls and stairs are left dirty, she can-
not protect her children from the sickness and infection resulting.

She can take every care to avoid fire, BUT if the house has been badly built, if the
fire-escapes are inadequate, she cannot guard her children from the horrors of being maimed
or killed by fire.

‘ She can open her windows to give her children the air that we are told is so necessary,
BUslefuthe air is laden with infection. with tuberculosis and other contagious diseases,
she cannot protect her children from this danger. , H

She can send her children out for air and exercise, BUT if the conditions" that
surround them on the streets are immoral and degrading, she cannot protect them from
these dangers.

Alone, she cannot make these things right. Who or what can?

, The city can do it—the city government that is elected by the people, to take care of the
interests of the people. _

And who decides what the city government shall do?

’ (FIRST, the officials of that government; and, SECOND, those who elect them.

Do the women elect them? NO, the men do. So it is the Men and not the women who ,
are really responsible for the .

' Unclean Houses Bad Plumbing
Unwholesome Food Danger of Fire * ‘
Risk of Tuberculosis and Other Diseases
Immoral Influences of the Street

In fact, MEN are responsible for the conditions under which the children live, but we
hold WOMEN responsible for the results of those conditions. If we hold women respon—
sible for the results, must we not, in simple justice, let them have something to say as to
what these conditions shall be? There is one simple way of doing this. Give them the
same means that men have. LET THEM VOTE.

Women are, by nature and training, housekeepers. Let them have a hand in the
city’s housekeeping, even" if they introduce an occasional house-cleaning. ‘

, National American Woman Suffrage Association
' cw Headquarters: 505 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK ‘ ‘