Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 225, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1916 — In France Woman Usually Is “Man” of the Family [ARTICLE]

In France Woman Usually Is “Man” of the Family

The French woman is the “man” of the family as a rule. This was illustrated in our hotel in Parts, where madame attended to the office and ran everything, while she kept her husband on the go from early till late doing the upstairs work. Practically all the '‘chambermaids” in Paris are men. The first thing we noticed on reaching Paris was a woman cab driver. Most of the street hucksters and venders are women —but they are busky specimens, who are well able to look out for themselves. Some of the cries of the hucksters are very musical. We pre specially taken with the call of the fish women, who in announcing for instance “bon maquereau”—“good mackerel” —would sing a regular little song. As you go along through Paris you are struck with the large number of women who run stores and all kinds of enterprises. They invariably keep strict accounts, and after closing hours they will be seen poring over their ledgers. It seems rather strange that the French women should never have made any special demand for the suffrage or other “rights of women” —perhaps because they realize that they already rule the roost.—Paris Letter in Pathfinder.