“So I hastened to apply for the vacant post. I was not the first this time ; I met a girl on the stairs, less strong than myself, coming down from the office with a most dejected countenance. If this were the struggle for life, it made my heart ache (for her sake) to think I must engage in it.” (117)
She understands the difficulty of the girl going down the stairs, as she needs a job more than she does. Juliet was the daughter of a prominent figure and was given an inheritance after her father’s death she did not need this job as much, which is this cause. Later after meeting the man in the office, he states that the girl who had descended the stairs as Juliet ascended them was incompetent. This is likely due to the fact that she was incapable of having the necessary education due to the systemic challenges of women at the time. If not for Juliet’s fathers’ position she would not have been able to have such a good education which allowed her to have more qualifications for this job. During the meeting with her possible employer, she was tested and was able to know the Greek necessary to spell out larger words, something that the average woman during this time would not be capable of acquiring the ability to do. The employer was also highly focused on the clothes she wore during her interview, which was a privilege that other women during this time were probably unable to achieve.
After ascending the stairs into the office and acknowledging the prestige of the front desk worker and her possible employer and such young ages, do you think that it was a purposeful device used by the writer to demonstrate the abilities of men during this period to accel while women struggled at the same time getting into far lesser positions?
