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WOMEN IN MODERN INDUSTRY
* * * * *
"What is woman but an enemy of friendship, an unavoidable punishment, a
necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable affliction, a constantly
flowing source of tears, a wicked work of nature covered with a shining
varnish?"--SAINT CHRYSOSTOM.
"And wo in winter tyme with wakying a-nyghtes,
To rise to the ruel to rock the cradel,
Both to kard and to kembe, to clouten and to wasche,
To rubbe and to rely, russhes to pilie
That reuthe is to rede othere in ryme shewe
The wo of these women that wonyeth in Cotes."[1]
LANGLAND: _Piers Ploughman_, x. 77.
"Two justices of the peace, the mayor or other head officer of any city
(etc.) and two aldermen ... may appoint any such woman as is of the age of
12 years and under the age of 40 years and unmarried and forth of service
... to be retained or serve by the year, week or day for such wages and in
such reasonable sort as they shall think meet; and if any such woman shall
refuse so to serve, then it shall be lawful for the said justices (etc.)
to commit such woman to ward until she shall be bounden to
serve."--_Statute of Labourers_, 1563.
"Every woman spinner's wage shall be such as, following her labour duly
and painfully, she may make it account to."--JUSTICES OF WILTSHIRE:
_Assessment of Wages_, 1604.
"Sometimes one feels that one dare not contemplate too closely the life of
our working women, it is such a grave reproach."--Miss ANNA TRACEY,
_Factory Inspector_, 1913.
"The State has trampled on its subjects for 'ends of State'; it has
neglected them; it is beginning to act consciously for them.... The
progressive enrichment of human life and the remedy of its ills is not a
private affair. It is a public charge. Indeed it is the one and noblest
field of corporate action. The perception of that truth gives rise to the
new art of social politics."--B. KIRKMAN GRAY.
* * * * *
WOMEN IN MODERN INDUSTRY
by
B. L. HUTCHINS
Author of "Conflicting Ideals" and (with Mrs. Spencer, D.Sc.)
"A History of Factory Legislation"
With a Chapter Contributed by J. J. Mallon
London
G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.
1915
PREFACE.
It may be well to give a brief explanation of the scheme of the present
work. Part I. was complete in its present form, save for unimportant
corrections, before the summer of 1914. The outbreak of war necessitated
some delay in publication, after which it became evident that some
modification in the scheme and plan of the book must be made. The question
was, whether to revise the work already accomplished so as to bring it
more in tune with the tremendous events that are fresh in all our minds.
For various reasons I decided not to do this, but to leave the earlier
chapters as they stood, save for bringing a few figures up to date, and to
treat of the effects of the war in a separate chapter. I was influenced in
taking this course by the idea that even if the portions written in happy
ignorance of approaching trouble should now appear out of date and out of
focus, yet future students of social history might find a special interest
in the fact that the passages in question describe the situation of women
workers as it appeared almost immediately before the great upheaval.
Moreover, Chapter IVA. contained a section on German women in Trade
Unions. I had no material to re-write this section; I did not wish to omit
it. The course that seemed best was to leave it precisely as it stood, and
the same plan has been adopted with all the pre-war chapters.
The main plan of the book is to give a sketch or outline of the position
of working women, with special reference to the effects of the industrial
revolution on her employment, taking "industrial revolution" in its
broader sense, not as an event of the late eighteenth century, but as a
continuous process still actively at work. I have aimed at description
rather than theory. Some of the current theories about women's position
are of great interest, and I make no pretence to an attitude of detachment
in regard to them, but it certainly appears to me that we need more facts
and knowledge before theory can be based on a sure foundation. Here and
there I have drawn my own conclusions from what I saw and heard, but these
conclusions are mostly provisional, and may well be modified in the light
of clearer knowledge.
I am fully conscious of an inadequacy of treatment and of certain defects
in form. Women's industry is a smaller subject than men's, but it is even
more complicated and difficult. There are considerable omissions in my
book. I have not, for instance, discussed, save quite incidentally, the
subject of the industrial employment of married women or the subject of
domestic service, omissions which are partly due to my knowledge that
studies of these questions were in process of preparation by hands more
capable than mine. There are other omissions which are partly due to the
lack or unsatisfactory nature of the material. A standard history of the
Industrial Revolution does not yet exist (Monsieur Mantoux's valuable book
covers only the earlier period), and the necessary information has to be
collected from miscellaneous sources. In dealing with the effects of war,
my treatment is necessarily most imperfect. The situation throughout the
autumn, winter, and spring 1914-15, was a continually shifting one, and to
represent it faithfully is a most difficult task. Nor can we for years
expect to gauge the changes involved. With all our efforts to see and take
stock of the social and economic effects of war, we who watch and try to
understand the social meanings of the most terrible convulsion in history
probably do not perceive the most significant reactions. That the position
of industrial women must be considerably modified we cannot doubt; but the
modifications that strike the imagination most forcibly now, such as the
transference of women to new trades, may possibly not appear the most
important in twenty or thirty years' time. Even so, perhaps, a
contemporary sketch of the needs of working women; of the success or
failure of our social machinery to supply and keep pace with those needs
at a time of such tremendous stress and tension, may not be altogether
without interest.
I have to express my great indebtedness to Mr. Mallon, Secretary of the
Anti-Sweating League, who has given me the benefit of his unrivalled
knowledge and experience in a chapter on women's wages. I have also to
thank Miss Mabel Lawrence, who for a short time assisted me in the study
of women in Unions, and both then and afterwards contributed many helpful
suggestions to the work she shared with me. To the Labour Department I am
indebted for kind and much appreciated permission to use its library; to
Miss Elspeth Carr for drawing my attention to the "Petition of the Poor
Spinners," an interesting document which will be found in the Appendix;
and to many Trade Union secretaries and others for their kindness in
allowing me to interview them and presenting me with documents. Miss Mary
Macarthur generously loaned a whole series of the Trade Union League
Reports, which were of the greatest service in tracing the early history
of the League. I regret that Mr. Tawney's book on Minimum Rates in the
Tailoring Trades; Messrs. Bland, Brown, and Tawney's valuable collection
of documents on economic history; and the collection of letters from
working women, entitled "Maternity," all came into my hands too late for
me to make as much use of them as I should have liked to do.
B. L. H.
HAMPSTEAD, _September 1915_.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PART I
CHAPTER I
SKETCH OF THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN IN ENGLAND BEFORE THE
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 1