Daily Dose

From No Stopping Us Now: The Adventures of Older Women in American History, by Gail Collins

ACCEPTABLE

"Writing was an acceptable calling, since it could be done within the confines of the home, but the number of writers who made money was tiny. There weren't really any nonliterary professions for women. Even in1870, almost all the women who worked for wages outside the farm were either domestic servants or laborers in factories. We can presume that most of them weren't looking forward to continuing their employment into old age."

From Chapter 4, The Mid- 1800s, "Travel Cheerfully Toward the Sunset!"