r pain, hunger,
thirst, and death. The disagreeable is the balked desire, the obstructed
wish, the offended taste. It is a main thesis of this book that the
neurosis of the housewife has a large part of its origin in the
increasing desires of women, in their demands for a fuller, more varied
life than that afforded by the lot of the housewife. Dissatisfaction,
discontent, disgust, discouragement, hidden or open, are part of the
factors of the disease. Furthermore there is an increasing sensitiveness
of woman to the disagreeable phases of housework.

What are these phases that are attended with difficulty? 1. The status
of the house work.

It is an essential phase of housework that as soon as woman can afford
it she turns it over to a servant. Furthermore there is greater and
greater difficulty in getting servants, which merely means that even the
so-called servant class dislikes the work. No amount of argument
therefore leads away from the conclusion that housework must be
essentially disagreeable, in its completeness. There may be phases of it
that are agreeable; some may like the cooking or the sewing, but no one
likes these things plus the everlasting picking up; no one likes the
dusting, the dishwashing, the clothes washing and ironing, the work that
is no sooner finished than it beckons with tyrannical finger to be
begun. To say nothing of the care of the children!

I do not class as a housewife the woman who has a cook, two maids, a
butler, and a chauffeur,--the woman who merely acts as a sort of manager
for the home. I mean the poor woman who has to do all her own work, or
nearly all; I mean her somewhat more fortunate sister who has a maid
with whom she wrestles to do her share,--who relieves her somewhat but
not sufficiently to remove the major part of housewifery. After all,
only one woman in ten has any help at all!

It is therefore no exaggeration when I say that though the housewife
may be the loveliest and most dignified of women, her work is to a large
extent menial. One may arise in indignation at this and speak of the
science of housekeeping, of cleanliness, of calories in diet, of
child-culture; one may strike a lofty attitude and speak of the Home
(capital H), and how it is the corner stone of Society. I can but agree,
but I must remind the indignant ones that ditch diggers, garbage
collectors, sewer cleaners are the backbone of sanitation and
civilization, and yet their occupations are disagreeab