A ROOM OF OUR OWN

...For the smaller communities I have long felt that such a formal organization should not be necessary but that there is a real field for enterprising personnel work...

...This," says the article, "is Britain's answer to the shortage of domestic workers...

...Again and again I have asked^her if she eared to help out desperate friends, but she knows what she wants...

...Sometimes it might be a couple of hours in the morning or afternoon, perhaps a half day 3 times a week, or some prefer a, full day a week...

...Arid for all the fun poked at it, many a gal has grown to rely on and enjoy the precept that this "is the way to a man's heart...

...A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La Follette ACARTOON by Richard Decker in the New Yorker shows a powerful cook sitting at the kitchen table reading the paper with coffee cup in hand and the toaster going while a timid figure in the door-way murmurs, "Did you ring, Nora...

...I replied that I didn't really know them but that the woman left early in the morning with her husband and did not get back until late...

...The story goes on to say that this new kitchen army will take two years to train, and every member will be given a thorough knowledge of cooking, home management, and all practical household duties...

...Recently a neighbor called her begging her to do a huge accumulation of ironing, and Mrs...

...In the 20 years I have employed domestic help— full time, part-time, university students both male and female, of all backgrounds and descriptions, I have never found 2 people alike in their own personal values...

...The Domestic Dilemma Aside from the ordinary standards of consideration which any self-respecting employer maintains, there is a whole realm of give-and-take which depends entirely upon the personal tastes and adjustments between the 2 people involved...

...We cannot tell at the moment whether this is more or less permanent, or whether a possible economic collapse after the war will throw many woma willy-nilly back into the kitchen working for their families or for someone else...

...Although it sometimes seems as though the genus had practically disappeared, I still find people with domestic help even though they complain about the wages and the "attitude" they must meet...

...that it must be very hand with two school-age young people and a large house to have only evenings and Sundays for the home...

...A successful relationship depends on mutual respect and good-will...

...I wonder if this is the "answer"—I'd like to think there were one...

...There are many housekeepers whose homes do not take all their time and who would like to supplement the family income with a few hours' outside work...

...That Old Precept If the hours could be fitted together, a real service could be done for both employer and heuseworker...

...Evans inquired about the family...

...Of course a period of upheaval like wartime affects the domestic worker like any other...

...they always hunted up a younger sister, cousin, or friend to take over in their place...

...Farm girls went into domestic employment to earn cash and, just as important, to learn the eity way of doing things...

...What is to be the "answer ?" Perhaps the aforementioned British plan is suggestive, especially for large cities where a professional attitude and pride needs to be built up...

...So here we are right back at the personal equation again...

...The soldiers may have roast beef and other delicacies denied us civilians at the moment, but I have yet t© hear of one who would not trade mass-made Army chow for simple home-cooking...

...As I told some friends who protested at my departing for the kitchen to get the meal on the table, I have not yet found a way to produce good food without labor...

...Doubtless ethers will wish to keep on with their outside work, and this means a certain amount of labor for someone if the home is to be kept up...

...I thought it humorous, but Judy remarked, "They have worked that subject to deathI" "True," I thought to myself, twit wait until Miss Judy takes more than an academic interest in the question t A Progressive reader sent me some time ago an interesting clipping entitled, "Women plan new army—to invade British kitchen...

...Evans' retort floored me: "What's the point in living like that ?" , Many women who have worked outside the home for patriotic or other motives during the war period are very conscious that there is no "point to living like that," and wish to return to a way of life they enjoy...

...For some months I had a young woman who earns at 10 o'clock in the morning and whose husband called for her on his way home for noon lunch...

...Now please don't write in to me about the glories of communal kitchens and modern apartment house cafeterias ! I said good food, and with wartime restrictions, the more ingenuity and skill are required...

...Unfortunately for me, she worked until she had the money for new furniture, but the relationship was pleasant while it lasted...

...They will wear distinctive uniforms, live in community houses, have set hours of work, regular holidays with pay, and a minimum weekly wage...

...As a matter of fa«t, one needs qualities in the intimacy of sharing a home and responsibility for young children not necessary in many another relationship...

...I had a series of these girls who generally stayed with us until they married...

...Then, too, these girls were acquiring skills which they expected to use in homes of their own in the future...

...They were under no such silly illusion as the girl who once convulsed my mother by telling her that she was going to get married so she wouldn't have to work any more...

...In great areas of America—such as the Middle West—divided between farming and cities, there has heretofore existed a mutually satisfactory custom...

...Too many factors, economic and personal, are involved...

...She left me after 2 years to marry an equally successful young farmer...

...I remember that one of them came to Phil one evening with a $1,<MM> bond her father had given her for her birthday, and asked bis financial advice about it...

...The point I am trying to make is that there was- no thought on the part of these girls' or their families or their employers that domestic serviee was any different from any other...

...I'm inclined to think, however, that this question is almost as complicated as the "marriage problem," since it involves the vital question of personal taste...

...Personally, I do mot think there is amy way of predicting at this juncture what the attitude of these girls, or any wage-earning women for that matter, will be after the war...

...It is true that most of these girls are not now available, attracted either by high wages in the factories or, more common, needed at home on the farm to replace their men-folk...

...Perhaps the postwar home and the postwar woman will find some way to avoid household labors, but there will still be a lot of us anachronisms left on the landscape...

...She is a widow and with her son's allotment plus a couple of days' work a week she lives as she chooses...

...At the moment I have the help once a week of a woman who likes us, especially our Chow dog, Ming Foo...

...I have a hunch that statistics would show that there was little more turnover on the domestic labor market than in practically every field of work in wartime, but for the household geared to competent domestic help its removal assumes catastrophic proportions...

...When these girls left (if your standing was good...