The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Business of Being a Woman, by Ida M.
Tarbell

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Title: The Business of Being a Woman

Author: Ida M. Tarbell

Release Date: August 21, 2005 [eBook #16577]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

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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
New York . Boston . Chicago
Dallas . San Francisco
Macmillan & Co., Limited
London . Bombay . Calcutta
Melbourne
The Macmillan Co. of Canada, Ltd.
Toronto
Norwood Press
J.S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

1921

TO

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

INTRODUCTION

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

A great problem of human life is to preserve faith in and zest for
everyday activities. The universal easily becomes the vulgar and the
burdensome. The highest civilization is that in which the largest
number sense, and are so placed as to realize, the dignity and the
beauty of the common experiences and obligations.

* * * * *

The courtesy of the publishers of the _American Magazine_, in
permitting the use here of chapters which have appeared in that
periodical, is gratefully acknowledged.

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