The Pittsburgh Press (September 16, 1946)
Ferguson: Work is fun
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
Girls don’t work for the fun of it, says the Labor Department. They take jobs for the same reason men do – in order to eat.
But isn’t this too theoretical? Most men do work for the fun of it. They growl about it, but separate the average man from his job and what happens? He either dies or goes berserk.
Behind the economic urgency, is a deep and everlasting need. Men and women simply can’t live without routine occupation. Maybe we should always call it that, for “work,” noble as the word is, carries an ignoble meaning in our time.
Girls who do not work for the fun of it won’t succeed in their careers. They can be sure of that. The greatest advance in human happiness will be made when society learns to fit the job to the person.
Many people are forced by necessity to do work which they dislike. So they believe that all effort is unpleasant, and that idleness is desirable.
But education has failed completely if it has not yet proved to literate men that work is the most blessed gift God gave to Adam’s sons.
A large number of women and girls have taken jobs outside the home because they have to ear – but they will never eat well until they realize that work is fun, too – the greatest of all fun and the only sure way to a satisfying life.