The work of single women has never been very clearly defined. Those that are without means are often without any to guide them; and the limited avenues of employment open to women, and the fear of becoming a burden on others, have poisoned some of their best hours, and paralyzed some of their strongest powers. There is a large amount of female talent in the United States lying dormant for the want of cultivation, and there has been a large amount cultivated that is not brought into exercise for the want of definite plans and opportunities of making it available. It exists like an icicle, and requires the warmth of energy, thought, and independence to render it useful. It shrinks from forcing itself into notice, like the sensitive plant, and may live and die unseen and unknown. Widen, then, the theatre of action and enterprise to woman. Throw open productive fields of labor, and let her enter.
Of those who speak so bitterly of women engaging in some pursuits now conducted by men, we would inquire, What would you have destitute single women and widows do, by which to earn their bread? You surely would not have women steal, that cannot obtain employment. What, then, can they do? Why may they not have free access to callings that will insure them a support? Those that oppose them, generally do so from selfish motives. Many men would banish women from the editor's and author's table, from the store, the manufactory, the workshop, the telegraph office, the printing case, and every other place, except the school room, sewing table, and kitchen. The false opinion that exists in regard to the occupations suitable for women must be changed ere women have free access to all those in which they may engage. Yet I would love to see thrown open to women the door of every trade and profession in which they are capable of working.
"Women have not devoted their time and talents to mechanical arts, except to a very limited extent, and only within fifty years. How then could they be expected to equal men in proficiency, who have from the creation of the world been so employed, and who have had the advantage not only of their own exertions, but the experience of their fathers and forefathers to profit by? The superior mechanical talent of the United States is becoming known throughout the civilized world, and some of the work dictated by that talent is executed by women.