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The Employment of Women: Conservative and Liberal Views (1872)

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Simply consider, gentlemen, what you would achieve by restricting women’s avenues for honest occupational activity. Do you really think it is better for society and the poor if you turn them out onto the street, only to become victims of prostitution? Are they worse off getting into disagreeable commercial dealings: for example, an unpleasant conversation with some insolent customer that might injure their sense of delicacy?”

The primary source of prostitution, according to Dr. Löwe, is not immorality but poverty; when deciding about women’s occupational capacity one must clearly recognize the link between prostitution and gainful employment. – Since freedom of occupation has left it up to women to test their strength and to fill positions, or fail, according to their abilities, it is out of place for us to “act like providence, [ . . . ] and first check how many nightshifts the person can take, whether her strength suffices for the work and whether she has certain characteristics that render her unsuitable for the job?” – In the case of a man, such criteria are not applied; and when it comes to gossip-mongering and vanity, these things are just as widespread among men as women – as a doctor, he knew what he was talking about!

Dr. Löwe points to positive experiences in southern Germany, especially Baden. There, Karl Mathy had hired women because they provided cheap labor – and when the Postmaster General rejected that, he agreed with him, noting that “if a woman does the same work as a man, she ought to receive the same pay and be employed in the same way as any man.”

Women were particularly well-suited to the telegraph service, Löwe continued; experience in England and Baden had shown that women were more skilled than male candidates. If the Postmaster General wanted quality, he ought to consider employing women and ask them to prove the same knowledge of geography and orthography demanded of men. Afterwards, their level of bodily fitness would have to be tested.

One would also have to wait and see whether a woman got married or not, and in case she did whether she ought to relinquish her position – “after all, once hired, women are subject to the same disciplinary regulations, and if they do their job badly because they got married, then you simply relieve them of their duties.”

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