Some job advice never changes

  • Kristi O’Harran / Herald Columnist
  • Thursday, October 11, 2001 9:00pm
  • Local News

Thousands of Boeing workers will receive 60-day layoff warnings today. My husband was laid off from his construction job last week. On dark days of growing unemployment, let’s peek at a chapter called “Occupations Specially Adapted to Women” from “The Home Manual,” written by Mrs. John A. Logan.

The precious book, with some timeless advice, was published in 1889.

History left us no first name for the author. She wrote that it took from five to seven years to become proficient at cigarette making. Women could earn good wages becoming tobacco strippers and sorters.

Things were not so good for translators. “Ladies thoroughly conversant with any foreign language could turn it to account by obtaining such work from publishers, though there is much competition and the pay is low.”

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If a woman in 1889 wanted to become a waitress, “the requirements are neatness and a good appearance, with the ability to receive and execute orders with dexterity and dispatch. Those who can carve, as well as wait, command higher wages.”

Teaching is always an honorable and fairly remunerative profession, she wrote. “Patience and grace are indispensable to the successful trainer of the youth. A teacher should be able to give instruction in one or more of the foreign languages, music, calisthenics, painting, dancing and elegant deportment.”

Deportment. Now there is a lost art.

Reporters needed a knowledge of shorthand. Proofreading was deemed fatiguing and required quickness of eye and a good knowledge of punctuation and orthography, the art of writing words with proper letters.

Pleasant-mannered girls who could type 50 words per minute could find jobs, and nurses could easily find work. If you had a good ear and delicate touch, you could be a piano tuner.

Those with good health, sound judgment and considerable executive ability could be matrons in an insane asylum. Those with a literary turn, of good education and address, could admirably fulfill duties of a librarian. Logan wrote that doing medical drawings, though not a pleasant occupation, was good for women because women were more painstaking and accurate.

Laundry work was available for strong, young women who were able to labor 10 or 12 hours a day. Women could make boxes or paper bags. Embroidery work was deemed a good job, though wearying to the back.

Then again, raise chickens. “No branch of farming pays better than intelligent poultry breeding. Select good stock, give personal supervision each day to your fowls, adopt a regular system whereby you sell your eggs when they command a good price, use them for hatching when the market is down, and you will find a gratifying balance to your account at the end of the year.”

Also in the farming line, she suggested growing medical herbs. “It will be found to repay the labor and time expended. Those living in the country have the best chance, but a sunny yard or even a deep window box may be made to yield gratifying crops of lettuce, radishes, curly parsley, cucumbers or strawberries, which, if not enough to sell, would make pleasant additions to one’s bill-of-fare.”

Girls could always find comfortable homes, wholesome food and high wages as household servants. Wages were low for glass making. Older women were out of luck if they wanted to be a civil service clerk; to take the hiring exam, you had to be no younger than 18 and no older than 45. “Young women, as young as 13, may take up bookbinding.”

Prospective beekeepers should prepare by the study of some reliable textbook on the subject and then apply the knowledge patiently and intelligently. “Telephone operators should speak distinctly and be a person of intelligence, unwearied patience and good hearing.”

I liked her suggestion to become a paid shopper. “Ladies engaging in this industry must keep themselves posted in the latest fashions and fabrics.”

Women in 1889 wanted to find interesting work in a reliable profession. Some things never go out of style.

Kristi O’Harran’s Column appears Tuesdays and Fridays. If you have an idea for her, call 425-339-3451 or send information to oharran@heraldnet.com.

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