WOMAN-POWER FOR MAN-POWER
The first result of the outbreak of war for women was to throw
thousands of them out of work.
Nobody knew--not even the ablest financial and commercial men--just
what a great European war was going to mean, and luxury trades ceased
to get orders; women journalists, women writers, women lecturers, and
women workers of every type were thrown out of work and unemployment
was very great.
A National Relief Fund was started for general distress and the Queen
dealt in the ablest manner with the women's problem. She issued this
appeal: "In the firm belief that prevention of distress is better than
its relief, and employment is better than charity, I have inaugurated
the 'Queen's Work for Women Fund,' Its object is to provide employment
for as many as possible of the women of this country who have been
thrown out of work by the war. I appeal to the women of Great Britain
to help their less fortunate sisters through the fund.
"MARY R."
This appeal was instantly responded to and large sums were subscribed.
A very representative Committee of Women was established, with Miss
Mary MacArthur, the well known Trade Union leader, as Hon. Secretary
and the Queen was in daily touch with its work.
In the dislocation of industry which had caused the committee's
formation, it was found that there was great slackness in one trade or
a part of it and great pressure in other parts of it or other trades.
The problem was to use the unemployed firms and workers for the new
national needs.
The committee considered it part of their work to endeavor to increase
the number of firms getting Government contracts, and they created a
special Contracts Department, under the direction of Mr. J.J. Mallon,
of the Anti-sweating League. They, as a result, advised in regard
to the placing of contracts and they undertook to get articles for
the Government, or ordered by other sources, manufactured by firms
adversely affected by the war or in their own workrooms. They worked
with the firms accustomed to making men's clothing and now unemployed,
and found that they could easily take military contracts if certain
technical difficulties were removed. They interviewed the War Office
authorities, modifications were suggested and approved and the full
employment in the tailoring trade which followed gave a greatly
improved supply of army clothing. Contracts were secured from the war
office for khaki cloth, blankets, and various kinds of hosiery, and
these were carried out by manufacturers who otherwise would have had
to close down.
The Queen gave orders for her own gifts to the troops, and
considerable work was done through trade workshops, care being taken
to see that this work was only done where ordinary trade was fully
employed. Two contracts from the War Office, typical of others, were
for 20,000 shirts and for 2,000,000 pairs of army socks. Over 130
firms received contracts through the committee.
New openings for trades were tested and the possibility of the
transference of work formerly done in Germany.
In its Relief Work the committee had its greatest problems. It was
clear that if rates paid were high, women would come in from badly
paid trades, and it was clear that if they sold the work, it would
injure trade--so in the end it was decided to pay a low wage, 11/6 a
week--and to give away, through the right agencies, the garments and
things made in the workrooms.
The inefficiency of many workers was very clear and training
schemes resulted--for typing, shorthand, in leather work, chair seat
willowing, in cookery, dressmaking and dress-cutting, home nursing,
etc.
Professional women were helped through various funds and workrooms
were established by other organizations, several being started in
London by the N.U.W.S.S.
[Illustration: CLEANING A LOCOMOTIVE]
[Illustration: WOMEN AS CARRIAGE CLEANERS]
As the months went on women began to be absorbed more and more into
industry. Men were going into the army ceaselessly, our war needs were
growing greater and our women found work opening out more and more.
The Women's Service Bureau had been opened within a week of the
outbreak of war and had done valuable work in placing women, before
the Board of Trade issued its first official appeal to women,
additional to those already in industry, to volunteer for War Service.
It was sent out by Mr. Runciman, President of the Board of Trade, and
read as follows:
The President of the Board of Trade wishes to call attention
to the fact that in the present emergency, if the full
fighting power of the nation is to be put forth on the field
of battle, the full working power of the nation must be made
available to carry on its essential trades at home. Already,
in certain important occupations there are not enough men and
women to do the work. This shortage will certainly spread
to other occupations as more and more men join the fighting
forces.
In order to meet both the present and the future needs of
national industry during the war, the Government wish to
obtain particulars of the women available, with or without
previous training, for paid employment. Accordingly, they
invite all women who are prepared, if needed, to take paid
employment of any kind--industrial, agricultural, clerical,
etc.--to enter themselves upon the Register of Women for War
Service which is being prepared by the Board of Trade Labour
Exchanges.
Any woman living in a town where there is a Labour Exchange
can register by going there in person. If she is not near a
Labour Exchange she can get a form of registration from the
local agency of the Unemployment Fund. Forms will also be sent
out through a number of women's societies.
The object of registration is to find out what reserve force
of women's labour, trained or untrained, can be made available
if required. As from time to time actual openings for
employment present themselves, notice will be given through
the Labor Exchanges, with full details as to the nature of
work, conditions, and pay, and, so far as special training
is necessary, arrangements will, if possible, be made for the
purpose.
Any woman who by working helps to release a man or to equip a
man for fighting does national war service. Every woman should
register who is able and willing to take employment.
The forms were sent out in large numbers through the women's societies
of the country, and it was stated on them that women were wanted
at once for farm-work, dairy work, brush-making, leather stitching,
clothing, machinery and machining for armaments.
By next day the registrations were 4,000, mostly middle-class women,
and in the first week 20,000 registered and an average of 5,000 a week
after, but the mass of women who registered waited with no real lead
or use of them for a long time. The Government seemed to suffer from
a delusion a great many people have, that if you have enough machinery
and masses of names something is being done, but you do not solve any
problem by registers. You solve it by getting the workers and the work
together.
The Government had not approached employers at first, but had left
it to them entirely to take the initiative in this great replacement.
This they had to a considerable extent done, using the Labour
Exchanges and the other agencies and women were more and more quickly,
steadily, ceaselessly replacing men.
The appeals for women for munition work were most swiftly responded to
and educated women volunteered in thousands, as did working girls and
women.
The question of assisting employment by fitting more women for
commercial and industrial occupations was considered by the
Government, and in October, 1915, the Clerical and Commercial
Occupations Committee was appointed by the Home Office--a similar
committee being set up for Scotland. It arranged with the London
County Council and with local authorities that their Education
Committees should initiate emergency courses all over the country for
training in general clerical work, bookkeeping and office routine. The
courses lasted from three to ten weeks, and the age of the students
varied from eighteen to thirty-five.
Many free courses were inaugurated by business firms in large London
stores, notably Harrods and Whiteleys, where their courses included
all office and business training. Six week courses of free training
for the grocery trade, for the boot trade, lens making, waiting,
hairdressing, etc., were also given.
Our woman labor has been found to be quite mobile and girls have moved
in thousands from one part of the country to another, and the munition
girl travelling home on holiday on her special permit is a familiar
figure.
The registration, placing and moving of our workers is all done by
our Labour Exchanges, now renamed Employment Exchanges and transferred
from the Board of Trade to the Ministry of Labour.
When the National Service Department was set up, a Women's Branch
was established with Mrs. H.J. Tennant, and Miss Violet Markham as
Co-directors, and they made various appeals, registered women for the
land, munitions, W.A.A.C. and for wood cutting and pitprop making.
A great demonstration of "Women's Service" was held in the Albert
Hall in January 17, 1917, at which Mrs. Tennant and Miss Markham,
Lord Derby, Minister of War; Mr. Prothero, President of the Board of
Agriculture, and Mr. John Hodge, Minister of Labour, spoke and at
which the Queen was present. It was an appeal to women for more work
and a registration of their determination to go on doing all that was
needed. The men's message was one to equals--they asked great things.
A message from Queen Mary was read for the first time at any public
meeting and it was the only occasion on which she has attended one.
The number of women now in our industry directly replacing men,
according to our latest returns, is over one and a quarter millions.
This does not include domestic service, where our maids grow less and
less numerous and Sir Auckland Geddes, Director of National Service,
tells us he is considering cutting down servants in any establishment
to not more than three, and it does not include very small shops and
firms.
The processes in industry in which women work are numbered in
hundreds. The War Office in 1916 issued an official memorandum for
the use of Military Representatives and Tribunals setting forth the
processes in which women worked and the trades and occupations, and
giving photographs of women doing unaccustomed and heavy work, to
guide the Tribunals in deciding exemptions of men called up for
Military Service.
In professional work today women are everywhere. There are 198,000
women in Government Departments, 83,000 of these new since the war.
They are doing typing, shorthand, and secretarial work, organizing and
executive work. They are in the Censor's office in large numbers and
doing important work at the Census of Production. There are 146,000 on
Local Government work. The woman teacher has invaded that stronghold
of man in England, the Boys' High and Grammar Schools, and is doing
good work there. They are replacing men chemists in works, doing
research, working at dental mechanics, are tracing plans. They are
driving motor cars in large numbers. Our Prime Minister has a woman
chauffeur. They are driving delivery vans and bringing us our goods,
our bread and our milk. They carry a great part of our mail and trudge
through villages and cities with it. They drive our mail vans, and
I know two daughters of a peer who drive mail vans in London. I know
other women who never did any work in their lives who for three years
have worked in factories, taking the same work, the same holidays, the
same pay as the other girls. Women are gardeners, elevator attendants,
commissionaires and conductors on our buses and trams, and in
provincial towns drive many of the electric trams.
[Illustration: WINDOW CLEANERS]
[Illustration: STEAM ROLLER DRIVER]
In the railways they are booking clerks, carriage and engine cleaners
and greasers, and carriage repairers, cooks and waiters in dining
cars, platform, parcel and goods porters, telegraphists and ticket
collectors and inspectors, and labourers and wagon sheet repairers.
They work in quarries, are coal workers, clean ships, are park-keepers
and cinema operators. They are commercial travellers in large numbers.
They are in banks to a great extent and are now taking banking
examinations.
There was a very strong feeling as the replacement by women went on
that there must be no lowering of wage standards which would not only
be grossly unfair to women but imperil the returning soldier's chance
of getting his post back.
Mrs. Fawcett, on behalf of the Women's Interests Committee of the
N.U.W.S.S., called a conference on the question of War Service and
wages in 1915, and Mr. Runciman stated at the conference:
As regards the wages and conditions on which women should be
employed, as a general principle the Exchanges did not, and
could not, take direct responsibility as to the wages and
conditions, beyond giving in each case such information as
was in their possession. In regard, however, to Government
contractors, it had been laid down that the piece rates for
women should be the same as for men, and further special
instructions had been given to the Exchanges to inform
inexperienced applicants of the current wages in each case,
so that they should be fully apprised as to the wage which it
was reasonable for them to ask. A general safeguard against
permanent lowering of wages by the admission of women to take
the place of men on service would be made by asking employers,
so far as possible, to keep the men's places open for them on
their return.
Wages in most cases are at the same rate as men, and as women are
organized in Britain in large numbers, the Trades Unions and Women's
Committees are always alive and ready to act on the question of
payment and conditions. Our workers, men and women, are very well paid
and despite high prices, were never more comfortable, and never saved
more. The call for women to replace men still goes on in Britain.
Miners are going to be combed out again. The Trade Unions have been
again approached by the Premier and Sir Auckland Geddes on this
question of man power. The Battalions must be filled up--in France we
need 2,000,000 men all the time and of these 1,670,000 are from our
own Islands.
It is calculated there are in Britain today--Ireland is not tapped in
woman power any more than in man power--less than a million women who
could do more important work for the war than they are now doing.
Most of these are already doing work of one kind or another, but could
probably do more.
Our homes, our industries, munitions, the land, hospitals, Government
service and the Waac's are absorbing us in our millions. Britain could
not have raised her Army and Navy and could not now keep her men in
the field without the mobilization of her women and their ceaseless,
tireless work behind her men, and as substitutes for them, in the
working life of the community.
WOMEN IN MUNITIONS
"For all we have and are,
For all our children's fate--
Rise up and meet the war,
The Hun is at the gate.
* * * * *
"Comfort, content, delight,
The ages' slow-bought gain,
Have shrivelled in a night,
Only ourselves remain.
* * * * *
"Though all we knew depart,
The old commandments stand,
In courage keep your heart,
In strength lift up your hand."
--RUDYARD KIPLING.