Home or Career?

Such homes will be founded, with the Savior's help, whenever there is that love and feeling of mutual esteem which is happy to begin wedded life humbly and with self-denial, and to count no interests on earth stronger than those which center about the family hearth.

1922 Walter A. Maier Walther League Messenger

The following article by Walter A. Maier can be found in the December 1922 issue of the Walther League Messenger on page 171.

"Can a Woman Run a Home and a Job, Too?" is the rather blunt but important question which the "Literary Digest" asks and which it attempts to answer by quoting statements of a number of more or less well-known women in different stations and positions of life. The majority of the women whose opinion has been printed are of the opinion that it is possible for a woman to have a career and at the same time to be a successful homemaker.

This is a question which more or less directly concerns all of the young people of our church, for the idea is becoming more and more prevalent that when a girl marries she need not give up the position or profession which has engaged her efforts up till that time, but that she can continue and take part in a life that is divided between home duties and the pursuit of an outside career.

Our young men and young women should realize that the place for any woman after marriage is the home. There are exceptions, it is true, but the average girl will find that the multiplicity and variety of duties connected with the proper care for the home and for the family are so great and so numerous that there is little time and less energy left for any form of work that is not directly connected with the home life. The widow of Admiral Perry, discoverer of the North Pole brings this out quote strongly when she says: “It is impossible to serve two masters at once and do it well.” Mrs. Benjamin Harrison, wife of one of our former presidents, comes to the same conclusion and states that no woman can succeed in business "and bring up her children properly and make a desirable and successful home at the same time."

Experience has proved that either the home or the work will suffer. Very often both suffer, but the home much more than the work. Family trouble, absence of children, furnished-room-homes, overwork and other evils very often follow in the wake of a married life that is torn between business and the home. The young bride who ventures out into the sea of matrimony with only half of her attention on the compass of happiness need not be surprised if she finds herself heading toward rocky shores or drifting about in untried waters. And the young husband who permits his wife to keep up her former business connections should not complain when he realizes that his dreams of home and happiness have only partially been fulfilled.

The business of woman's life lies only in her home and with her children, and until our young people realize this with its full meaning they have not grasped one of the fundamental requisites for happiness in married life. What our country needs today is strong and happy homes, for the home is the foundation of the nation. What our church needs today is determinedly Christian homes, where children are reared in the fear and admonition of the Lord, for the home training, especially in matters of religion, is the basis and support of all subsequent education. What all normal, healthy, and sincere young people need is a helpful and harmonious home, where the Savior reigns and where He has given them large and increasing responsibilities.

But such homes can be founded and will endure only when there is no division of interests, no power that draws away from the home, no influence that makes the duties toward the home seem irksome and monotonous. Yet such homes will be founded, with the Savior's help, whenever there is that love and feeling of mutual esteem which is happy to begin wedded life humbly and with self-denial, and to count no interests on earth stronger than those which center about the family hearth.

W. A. M.