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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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In other words, you can't put your child in a nursery school and expect that that will solve the problem of the wage bill for a fully qualified, trained child's nurse. There will be a day when the child is sick and can't go to school, or is sent home from school because he has the sniffles or a fever. You've got to have constantly in the house a fully trained, fully paid, adequate person to take care of the child. You must always also have a second anchor to windward in case the nurse falls sick. In other words, you've got to pay about twice as much for living costs as other people do and you must be prepared to do that if your lines have fallen in such a way that you've got to pursue your professional calling and activities and at the same time see that your family gets brought up, fed and so forth.

People do it all the time. I'm always saying to these young women now who are trying to make this adjustment, “Don't do it unless you earn a lot of money - a lot of money.” I used to say that it cost a woman $4000 to go to work. I still think I'm right, although a lot of women who don't earn $4000 go to work and get away with it. I mean a woman with a family, because alone it doesn't cost her any more to live than it costs a man to live. But a “working mother” it costs about $4000 to go to work. She





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