Part 22 (2/2)
”Which Mr. Woodward?”
”The young one--Burdon.”
”What did he discharge you for?”
”That's it. That's the very thing I asked him.”
”Perhaps they need your places for some of the men who are coming back.”
”No, ma'm. We wouldn't mind if that was it, but there's n.o.body expected back this week.”
”Then why is it?”
There was a moment's hesitation, and then the one who had been crying said, ”It's because we're women.”
A shadow of unconscious indignation swept over Mary's face and, seeing it, the four began speaking at once.
”Things have never been the same, Miss Spencer, since you were sick--”
”First they shut down the nursery--”
”Then the rest room--said it was a bad example for the men--”
”A bad example for the men, mind you--us!”
”And then the canteen was closed--”
”And behind our backs, they called us 'Molls.'”
”Not that I care, but 'Molls,' mind you--”
”Then they began hanging signs in our locker room--”
”'A woman's place is in the home' and things like that--”
”And then they began putting us next to strange men--”
”And, oh, their language, Miss Spencer--”
”Don't tell her--”
As the chorus continued, Mary began to feel hot and uncomfortable. ”I had no right to leave them in the lurch like that,” she thought, and her cheeks stung as she recalled her old plans, her old visions.
”And now they've got to go back to their kitchens for the rest of their lives--and told they are not wanted anywhere else--because they are women--”
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