512 
American Agriculturist, May 31, 1924 
How Much Is a Woman Worth? 
An Attempt to Calculate the Value of the Farm Wife in Cold Cash . 
First, we hear from the man, which surely is 'politeness 
itself in a number planned especially for the women. 
There’s a great deal of common sense in what Mr. Moffat 
says, and Mrs. Anderson also presents a practical angle. 
The table of figures on page 515 is vouched for by a sub¬ 
scriber who wisely remains anonymous. Other readers 
have sent in equally interesting statistics and this is chosen 
only as a representative set .— The Editobs. 
ISS MARGARET FEDDES of the 
Department of Home Economics, Uni¬ 
versity of Nebraska, is evidently right 
up-to-date in her chosen field of inves¬ 
tigation and real good at figures too. Miss Feddes 
has figured right down to the last simoleon exactly 
what the wages of the average farmer’s wife should 
be—in Nebraska at least. 
The housewife whose endless round of drudgery 
has made her the butt of a lot of very ill-timed 
jokes, perpetrated chiefly by soured and satur¬ 
nine bachelors, has, at last, been recognized as 
occupying a place of dignity and importance in 
the economic world. 
She is now no longer listed by the census-taker 
as having no vocation but stands forth in the full 
regalia of her ancient, honorable and most exalted 
profession, that of “housewife.” 
The very title, however homely it may seem, is 
expressive of beauty, comfort and order, and 
stands in intimate association with the thought 
of “home” and “mother.” Where is there a home 
worthy of the name wherein the housewife is not 
the presiding genius? 
Miss Feddes, as far as I know, is the first per¬ 
son to give to the public a detailed and scientific 
appraisal of the value of the housewife’s services 
in terms of dollars and cents. True, husbands 
have lauded her memory, sons and daughters have 
arisen to bless her, and even poets have sung in 
lofty strains of her imperishable worth, but Miss 
Feddes is far more practical. She says that the 
armer’s wife in Nebraska is entitled, as a tan¬ 
gible reward for her services, to four thousand 
and four dollars per annum. Mind you no off¬ 
hand guess—not $4000.00 in round figures—but 
the scientifically accurate amount of $4004.00. 
Here is a list of the housewife’s labors with 
their money value: 
Planning, cooking and serving meals—$10 per week. $520.00 
Washing and ironing—2 days per week, $2.50 per day 260.00 
Cleaning, scrubbing, etc.—2 days per week. $2.50 per 
day.. . a. 260.00 
Care of children and sick, $25 per week . . . . 1,300.00 
Assisting hired man, helping with milking, care of 
poultry, etc., $20 per week. 1,040.00 
Sewing and mending, two days per week, $3 per day 312.00 
Miscellaneous services—$6 per week. 312.00 
Miss Feddes truly observes that the wife is a 
“partner” in the business, but, that from the 
farmer’s point of view, “a right smart woman 
is one who can do the work of three people and 
live through it.” 
What will the bewildered agriculturalist think 
of the above claim when presented by his' smiling 
“partner” at the end of the year! 
We opine that his views will have to undergo a 
radical change before he will be ready to pay 
his wife $333.67 per month for just “piddlin’ 
about the house” sixteen or eighteen hours 
a day, seven days out of the week. 
He has always 
recognized her as a 
partner of a few of 
his joys and all of 
his sorrows, but this 
is a horse of an¬ 
other color. 
Things may be 
better nowadays on 
the farm than in 
generations past. 
Labor-saving de¬ 
vices, the tele¬ 
phone, the radio, 
and the automo¬ 
bile serve to alle¬ 
viate the drab ex¬ 
istence of the farm¬ 
er’s wife. 
It is a well es¬ 
tablished fact how¬ 
ever, that many 
thousands of good, 
conscientious wo¬ 
men have slaved 
themselves to death 
on the farm, in this 
“land of the free 
and home of the 
brave.” They sank into untimely graves to make 
way for new household drudges. The farmer’s 
second wife would wear out in a few years and 
fold her toil-worn hand for the long rest. 
The minister would comment anew, vaguely 
but feelingly, upon the “inscrutable providences” 
of God. Often before the clods were well dried on 
the grave of the departed, “our bereaved brother,” 
the victim of these “inscrutable providences,” 
would cast a calculating eye over the visible sup¬ 
ply of marriageable maidens, looking for another 
husky young female, willing to work eighteen 
hours a day and “mother” ten step-children for 
her board and keep. 
However, I am very anxious to see strict justice 
accorded to all. 
I recognize the fact that the horny-handed son 
of toil himself has exchanged the sweat of his brow 
for very inadequate compensation. 
Under the new economic order instituted by Miss 
Feddes why should not he also, as a “partner” in 
the business present a bill against the firm for ser¬ 
vices rendered? It might run something like this: 
Chopping wood and making fires—$5 per week. $260.00 
Slopping pigs and feeding other stock—$6 per week.. 312.00 
Bossing job and helping hired man—$20 per week.. . 1,040.00 
Stoking, greasing, driving, and cussing family buzz- 
wagon—$10 per week. 520.00 
Walking 3200 miles between plow handles—at 20 cts. 
per mile. 640.00 
(Should he drive a tractor the charge would be the 
same.) 
Hollering “gee beck,” “haw beck” or “wo beck,” 
12,800 times..._.. . 384.00 
(Three cents per “holler” is a mere nominal 
charge.) 
(In case he should use a tractor instead of mule 
power, a like amount of energy would be expended 
in grumbling, and profane expletives directed at a 
certain well known citizen of Detroit.) 
Damages for indigestion, stomach trouble, and gen¬ 
eral disability superinduced by eating his wife's 
cooking, whereby she was enabled to “stick” him 
with a heavy “nursing” bill. 536.00 
(See wife’s schedule, item 4.) 
Miscellaneous services—$6 per week. 312.00 
After paying themselves their salaries and 
meeting all operating expenses, the “partners” 
could proceed to a division of the year’s profits.— 
Josiah Moffatt. 
H* *f* 
The Self-Supporting Farm Woman 
HO is the self-supporting farm woman, 
anyway? She is any farmer’s wife who 
does her own work or as much of it as her health 
will permit, whether or not she keeps a houseful 
of summer boarders and runs a public laundry and 
has a summer restaurant and tea room and tends 
an acre of garden and raises a million chickens. 
My husband used to say “If you keep our house, 
that’s enough; I don’t want my wife to earn her 
own living outside and when I want a hired man 
I’ll hire one but I won’t marry him.” 
There certainly are some very peculiar phases 
of this much discussed subject, and unquestion¬ 
ably many farmers do marry with some such idea 
as the young man in the story, who contemplated 
marriage and, when his friend asked what he had 
to marry on, replied, “Why, I can almost take 
care of myself and it’s a poor wife that can't help 
some ,” but I have observed a number of farm 
women who surely were voluntarily self-support¬ 
ing. To quite an extent, I believe the average 
ambitious wife sees a thousand and one things 
she might do and, in her mistaken youthful zeal, 
attempts them all—and once the habit is formed, 
it is very hard to drop these things as her house¬ 
work increases. 
I was surprised and amused once when a girl 
who had married the hired man and who there¬ 
fore, originally owned everything they had, was 
working like a beaver saving windfall apples be¬ 
cause she “she could have what she could make 
out of them.” It struck me as amazing generos¬ 
ity to give h'er the culls from her own fruit on 
condition that she gather and market them her¬ 
self. 
Ours is a strictly dairy and fruit section, which 
probably accounts for the fact that the “butter 
and egg money” curse is unknown to us; here, if 
a man gives gives his wife the butter money she 
would often have practically the entire income. 
Since the two are seldom combined very extensively 
(Continued on page 515) 
The Answer: By twos' and threes, with improvised 
uniforms and their hunting muskets, the colonial 
patriots turned out to defend their homes. (Scene 
from America, an impressive moving picture 01 
Revolutionary days.) 
The Call: Paul Revere’s ride to rouse the New England farmers against the oncoming 
British Army—a dramatic scene from D. W. Griffith’s photoplay America. 
$4,004.00 
$4,004.00 
