EQUAL PAY FOR WOMEN SUGGESTED….IN 1829!

females-mh.jpg“They are fully entitled to an equality of wages.”

National Intelligencer, Washington, DC
Thursday, April 30, 1829

The front page contains a full-column article titled: “ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF FEMALES” where, in a fascinating letter, a woman philanthropist argues the case of equal pay for men and women. In responding to men working outdoors, the lady writes, “Is it not as great a labor to stand at a wash tub, and ironing table all day, and then sew and attend to housefold duties in the evenings?–to white wash, clean, paint, and scrub–and worse than all–to sit from six in the morning until nine in the night at her needle, with , maybe, three or four children around her?….I can answer the men, that very few women, having young children, know what a good night’s rest is….seeing that women labor equally with the men–that their life is of no longer duration—shewing an equality of suffering….and that they are fifty per cent more moral and industious than the men—they are fully entitled to an equality of wages. It is only in Cochin China that the wages of the women are equal to the men’s; but there the women do all the hard labor.”

A superb 4 page issue in fine condition of the famous Intelligencer, the premier DC newspaper at the time. It’s filled with notices for huge parcels of land in Great Falls, DC, Prince Georges County and Virginia. And, yes, there are the normal large advertisements offering large rewards for “RUNAWAY SLAVES.”

$139

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Posted by mmitchell | Filed Under American Expansion, All Historic Newspapers 

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