and girls the companionship and guidance they needed.
RS: I know any number of cases just like that.
ER: Of course you do. But now, Rose, before I go on to the other questions I want to ask you, Virginia Barr has a word to say.
(MIDDLE COMMERCIAL)
ER: What do you think, Rose, is the most vital question facing working women today?
RS: I would say getting over their economic inferiority complex. I think girls should realize that they are just as important to the nation industrially as men are. Iâve known many women who have felt they could never hold down a job, and even when they find they can, they carry this feeling of inferiority into business and industry and are willing to work for much less pay. You know, in unskilled work, women get one-third less for the same work men do.
ER: Like everything else, working conditions change. What would you say is the most significant change going on before our eyes today?
RS: Thatâs a large question. But there is one stage of evolution weâre going through right this minute. When immigration was unrestricted,the American girl went into âbusiness.â That is, she worked in an office. We depended on the immigrants for the factory work and domestic employment. Now an increasing number of American-born girls are needed and are going into these fields.
ER: Many women consider housework demeaning, which it is not, of course. But I donât believe that American girls are going to be willing to go into domestic service unless better working conditions prevail.
RS: I think household workers have a right to expect a room of their own, some chance for that privacy which we all must have. Hours are excessive, especially when a girl is on call from six in the morning until the last member of the family goes to bed at night.
ER: And thereâs another point in that connection. All women who are going to employ labor in the home, or in any other way, should know what it means to work themselves. If not, they can never be good employers.
RS: Hereâs something Iâd like to ask you. What about the girl who stays at home who doesnât go to work?
ER: I sometimes think that the wife who stays at home, and carries on all the work in the household, should be paid a definite salary. She earns it, without any question. Any girl who is needed at home has a job just as surely as the girl who operates a machine in a factory. If she is not needed at home, I think she loses out by not working. I think she limits her contacts with other human beings and her whole personality suffers. Now, Rose, how would you answer this question? Do you think men really resent women in industry?
RS: Emotionally, I think they do sometimes. But they need them just the same. But, Mrs. Roosevelt, can you imagine what would happen if close to 11 million working women in the United States suddenly quit their jobs and just waited for the men to support them?
ER: Well, then the men would resent them! In solving all the problems of the world, men and women must work together. When theyhave worked side by side in the factory, for example, they understand each other better. I am convinced that often the girl who has worked is a more capable wife. She is more valuable to herself than the girl who has never known the give-and-take of the working world. (PAUSE)
Now Miss Schneiderman and I must leaveâshe to go to a meeting of the North American Housing Exposition, and I am going to the theater again. Two plays in one weekâan orgy which I havenât indulged in for a long time. Next Wednesday I am going to talk to you from Washington, and Iâm going to tell you a little about the White House, some of the interesting and amazing things connected with it that I have learned only through living there. Good night.
16.
âLife in a Tenementâ
The Pondâs Program
Wednesday, June 23, 1937
ER: Good evening. In the studio with me this time is Mrs. Ida Harris, who was born
RS: I know any number of cases just like that.
ER: Of course you do. But now, Rose, before I go on to the other questions I want to ask you, Virginia Barr has a word to say.
(MIDDLE COMMERCIAL)
ER: What do you think, Rose, is the most vital question facing working women today?
RS: I would say getting over their economic inferiority complex. I think girls should realize that they are just as important to the nation industrially as men are. Iâve known many women who have felt they could never hold down a job, and even when they find they can, they carry this feeling of inferiority into business and industry and are willing to work for much less pay. You know, in unskilled work, women get one-third less for the same work men do.
ER: Like everything else, working conditions change. What would you say is the most significant change going on before our eyes today?
RS: Thatâs a large question. But there is one stage of evolution weâre going through right this minute. When immigration was unrestricted,the American girl went into âbusiness.â That is, she worked in an office. We depended on the immigrants for the factory work and domestic employment. Now an increasing number of American-born girls are needed and are going into these fields.
ER: Many women consider housework demeaning, which it is not, of course. But I donât believe that American girls are going to be willing to go into domestic service unless better working conditions prevail.
RS: I think household workers have a right to expect a room of their own, some chance for that privacy which we all must have. Hours are excessive, especially when a girl is on call from six in the morning until the last member of the family goes to bed at night.
ER: And thereâs another point in that connection. All women who are going to employ labor in the home, or in any other way, should know what it means to work themselves. If not, they can never be good employers.
RS: Hereâs something Iâd like to ask you. What about the girl who stays at home who doesnât go to work?
ER: I sometimes think that the wife who stays at home, and carries on all the work in the household, should be paid a definite salary. She earns it, without any question. Any girl who is needed at home has a job just as surely as the girl who operates a machine in a factory. If she is not needed at home, I think she loses out by not working. I think she limits her contacts with other human beings and her whole personality suffers. Now, Rose, how would you answer this question? Do you think men really resent women in industry?
RS: Emotionally, I think they do sometimes. But they need them just the same. But, Mrs. Roosevelt, can you imagine what would happen if close to 11 million working women in the United States suddenly quit their jobs and just waited for the men to support them?
ER: Well, then the men would resent them! In solving all the problems of the world, men and women must work together. When theyhave worked side by side in the factory, for example, they understand each other better. I am convinced that often the girl who has worked is a more capable wife. She is more valuable to herself than the girl who has never known the give-and-take of the working world. (PAUSE)
Now Miss Schneiderman and I must leaveâshe to go to a meeting of the North American Housing Exposition, and I am going to the theater again. Two plays in one weekâan orgy which I havenât indulged in for a long time. Next Wednesday I am going to talk to you from Washington, and Iâm going to tell you a little about the White House, some of the interesting and amazing things connected with it that I have learned only through living there. Good night.
16.
âLife in a Tenementâ
The Pondâs Program
Wednesday, June 23, 1937
ER: Good evening. In the studio with me this time is Mrs. Ida Harris, who was born
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