Workplace Poetry, 1920

You think fax machines are obsolete? Check out this comptometer, a machine popular in business offices roughly 100 years ago and mentioned in the first poem below.

Back in 1970 when my first-grade teacher asked us to go around our classroom, telling what our fathers did for a living (can you imagine that happening today without myriad phone calls to the principal?), I was the only one who spoke up to say what my father and mother did. In fact, my mother was a writer, working in her home office, and even as a child, I understood that her job was important. What a role model she was for me.

Today I'm hopeful that the value women bring to home and the workplace are understood to be equally important. But you might be surprised how long the debate has gone on.

In 1920, sociologist Annie Marion MacLean published work-related poems in the Y.W.C.A.'s  Association Monthly. A sociologist and also a professor at the University of Chicago, MacLean focused her work on advocating for women's workplace rights. Two of her poems (below) address each side of the work-at-home and work-outside-the-home debate.

The Comptometer Operator

Alice is happy as can be.

She runs an adding machine

In an office downtown

At seventy-five dollars a month,

With a chance for promotion. 

And is infinitely happier

Than when she was nursing children 

At sixty a month and home.

"Silly," you say.

"Girls don't know when they are well off."

"Don't they?" sings Alice. 

"I have a key to the front door

Where I live, and no one reproves me."

"Stuff!" say you.

"Stuff of life," says she.

One of the Idle Rich

She was only a lady of leisure.

Yet she kept regular office hours

Like a paid worker,

For a philanthropic organization.

And superintended a household

Besides. She served on committees

To the number of ten, and

Kept her eye on the health 

Of her family.

People knew she would do

What she promised to do,

And urged work upon her. . . 

When the census taker came around,

He listed her as 

"A woman without occupation."

Swim suits and high heels

A 1911 issue of Puck magazine featured mermaids. Library of Congress.

SO HOW HAVE YOU BEEN SPENDING YOUR SUMMER? In a tent? By a pool? In front of a fan?

 

One hundred summers ago, girls and women were also trying to keep cool (1911 temps soared past the 100-degree mark in early July on the East Coast—sound familiar?) — plus living their lives and making headlines. Read the news’ items below and guess which ones are true. Then check out the answers — and the rest of the story.

TRUE OR FALSE?

1. Thousands of young women were irate when scolded for “promenading on the beach and on the streets of this resort, clad in bathing suits and high-heeled shoes” by the Atlantic City mayor.
2. A group of girls canoeing on the Allegheny River fought off 20 large muskrats as they tried to climb into their canoes.
3.  Who needs lunchtime yoga? Many Manhattan “office girls” spent their breaks skipping lunch to ballroom dance to such hits as “The Glow Worm.”
4.  The minister at a New York church started a girls’ gun club, hoping to develop his congregation’s young women into “crack shots.”
5.  Seniors at a women’s college in South Carolina refused to receive diplomas at graduation from their state’s governor.
6.  Despite the plane’s steering wheel snapping in two, a female aviation student brought the plane safely to the ground in St. Louis.
7.  Female hotel employees played – and beat – a male baseball team.
8. A teenage girl swam a whopping 21 miles — in 8 hours and 7 minutes — from East 26^th Street in Manhattan to Coney Island.

ANSWERS:

1.  True. While the combination of a swimsuit and high heels creates a scandalous vision today, back in 1911 the latest swim fashions meant knee-length woolen swimsuits, worn with black stockings and buckled shoes — hardly enough to get your undies in a bunch, even back then. 
2. True. A couple of the girls actually fell out of the canoes and were bitten by the swimming rats. Yikes.
3. True. Young women flocked to a restaurant that offered complimentary ballroom dancing to a live orchestra over lunch. While there were some male-female couples, most young women danced in groups for exercise.
4. True. The minister at the Broad Street Park Methodist Episcopal Church founded the Girl Rangers Club.
5. True. Winthrop College seniors snubbed tradition — and Governor C.L. Blease — for his racist policies and asked their college president, Dr. R.B. Johnson, to instead hand out the diplomas.
6. True. Nina Hibbard grabbed the plane’s “elevator rod” and landed the plane with finesse. Onlookers cheered her death-defying feat. 
7. True. The male players wore “ballet costumes, draperies of lace curtains” and other costumes. Perhaps they thought doing so would put them on equal footing with the women? Not so much. Go, girls!
8. True. A crowd of thousands welcomed 17-year-old Rose Pitonof for her amazing swim.

Suffragists parade on the Fourth

Kids ride atop the shoulders of three patriotic women — perhaps on the way to a parade.

Many citizens celebrated last month when the New York State legislature passed same-sex marriage legislation. One hundred years ago, demanding equal treatment was another group of citizens: women. Suffragists joined New York City's Fourth of July parade in stage coaches decorated with flags and bunting; they said they were both celebrating the Spirit of 1776 and demanding the vote. 

"Some of us have come here in stage coaches, the public vehicle of the historic days of the American Revolution," said Mrs. Penfield, addressing the crowd from one of the coaches. "We visualize for you the difference between coach and motor car. It is as if we placed side by side the handloom and the modern factory. Coach and handloom are discarded. Let us remember that men and women of today who would be good citizens and helpful members of society cannot use the methods that were effective in the days of the handloom and the stage coach. We are living in the day of the motor car and the biplane."

The New York Times, which reported on the event, noted at the conclusion of the article that lemonade and sandwiches were served at the Woman Suffrage Party headquarters before the parade began and tea afterward. I guess even revolutionaries need sustenance.

"Bachelor" women

Brides are depicted as June flowers on this Puck cover illustration, 1905. Library of Congress.

We often think of women pursuing education and careers as a modern occurrence — since the 1950s or so. But even at the turn of the century, this phenomenon was happening at such a significant rate that many single women, dubbed "bachelor women," were beginning to view marriage as a choice, not their "only means of livelihood." Men did not always welcome the change:

"One would have thought that all potential husbands would have welcomed a change offering assurance that in the future their proposals would be accepted on their merits, but this is not so. Many men feel it as a slight upon their sex that women, once the pressure of hard necessity has been removed, should choose single blessedness. Such perverse action on their part runs counter to the cherished masculine belief that any and every woman would always prefer some sort of husband rather than none at all." — The New York Times, June 4, 1911