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THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

NEW YORK ·  BOSTON ·  CHICAGO
DALLAS ·  SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED

LONDON ·  BOMBAY ·  CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
TORONTO

THE
BUSINESS OF BEING
A WOMAN

BY

IDA M. TARBELL

ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF THE "AMERICAN MAGAZINE"
AUTHOR OF "LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN"
"HISTORY OF THE STANDARD OIL CO."
"HE KNEW LINCOLN," ETC.

New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1921

All rights reserved

1912,
By THE PHILLIPS PUBLISHING COMPANY.

1912,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1912.

Norwood Press
J.S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

TO

E.I.T. AND C.C.T.

INTRODUCTION

The object of this little volume is to call attention to a certaindistrust, which the author feels in the modern woman, of thesignificance and dignity of the work laid upon her by Nature and bysociety. Its ideas are the result of a long, if somewhat desultory,observation of the professional, political, and domestic activities ofwomen in this country and in France. These observations have led tocertain definite opinions as to those phases of the woman questionmost in need of emphasis to-day.

A great problem of human life is to preserve faith in and zest foreveryday activities. The universal easily becomes the vulgar and theburdensome. The highest civilization is that in which the largestnumber sense, and are so placed as to realize, the dignity and thebeauty of the common experiences and obligations.

The courtesy of the publishers of the American Magazine, inpermitting the use here of chapters which have appeared in thatperiodical, is gratefully acknowledged.

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