What Shall I Do? 



Delivered at th6 Farmers' Institute, Rhinebeck, N. Y., January 29, 1931. By Miss Helen Reed, A. B. 



Rhinebeek, N. Y. 



When the invitation was extended to me to address this meet- 

 ing on some subject which had especially interested me, at the 

 close of the nineteenth century, I selected one which may not 

 have any special reference to a meeting of this hind, but one 

 which I trust may not be wholly out of place, and so I will present 

 to you a few thoughts on a subject which should be of vital 

 interest, not only to every woman present, but to every man 

 upon whose shoulders rests the burden of the care of others. 



"We are living in a time of clubs, of conventions, of institutes, 

 a time when every one is interested in some particular line of 

 work. It may be art, philanthropy, social or domestic science, 

 but there is one question which every woman should ponder, 

 and not leave until she can satisfactorily answer, and that is, " If 

 compelled to support myself, how shall I do it? ' : 



Neither wealth nor social standing should prevent a careful 

 consideration of this problem. The present possession of the 

 former is no guaranty of its continuance. Accident and sickness 

 and death invade every household, and not one of us can tell 

 at what moment the burden may fall upon our shoulders, and 

 no woman who respects herself, desires to become a pensioner 

 upon the bounty or generosity of those on whom she has no claim. 



Some years back the public attitude was somewhat different 

 toward the self-supporting woman, and even, to-day, in the South 

 especially, there still exists the feeling that a man is disgraced 

 who will allow a woman, even though she be a most distant rela- 

 tive, to labor for a money compensation, outside of her home. 



This attitude had two bad features. It took from a man's 

 own family what rightly belonged to them, and it made a depend- 

 ent and a pauper of the woman who could and who should have 

 earned her own living. It made her life a burden and one long 

 martyrdom for which marriage was the only relief, and many a 

 woman was forced into a connection against which all the finer 

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