Office or home

It is good for a woman to work outside the house—then she has less time to gossip with the neighbours. Besides, it is said that a woman makes a better employee than a man. She is attentive, obedient, tidy, and efficient—in fact, she has all the qualities in office that are expected of her at home. 

In the office, she is a business executive, private secretary, salesgirl, typist or clerk; at home, she is the boss. It would be an interesting situation should a wife, working in the same office as her husband, have to take orders from him.

For too long now has woman needed a change from her place by the sink; her change in work appears to have done the man-of-the-house some good—he is kept physically fit by the bending exercise provided by household chores.

A man’s way of living today is largely determined by his wife’s desire to reap benefits outside the home. He need no longer struggle to pay for her luxuries—all he needs to do is to resign himself to a little homework. 

It does not perturb him that she has not sufficient time to cook and serve a proper meal, or cope with the mess at home. What matters more is that she is learning a new and rare virtue, the virtue of arriving on time.

She may now have less time to devote to her children—but she has few children to look after. She has decided upon a small family: it being rather awkward for her to request her employers for maternity leave every other year. Her being away from home also does away with the problem of unwanted guests.

It is her privilege to earn, but her birthright to spend. She learns to spend long before she sets out to earn. With her spouse’s money going out and her own coming in, the better half is also the better off.

The competition between them is almost over. The mere male finds his position in the office more and more usurped by his female counterpart, while any offer of help from him at home is welcomed. Soon, he will be wondering if it isn’t the most natural thing in the world to find the woman at the computer and the man at the sink.

 Some men shudder at this prospect. They compel their wives to stay at home. Others shudder to think of their wives at home. They let them go to work. Then it is like the boss being away.

But sometimes, the exit of one woman means the entry of another—the mother-in-law. In such a maze of circumstances, they are forced to realise that this is a world of Eves where Adam is overpowered by Madam.