Women in the Printing Trades Part 15

The exact proportion of married to unmarried women in these trades is impossible to judge. Accuracy could only be obtained by taking a census of each shop. Estimates vary. A forewoman of experience calculated that more than half were married. A Trade Union secretary and an experienced worker estimated that about half were married, whilst of the job hands taken separately, more than three-fourths were married women. Another Union official, however, reckoned that, taking the trades as a whole, there were four unmarried to one married; taking job hands separately, two were married to one unmarried. Most of those conversant with the trade are careful to give no figures, "a large proportion" are married, or a "good few," and so on, are the common expressions. All, however, agree that the largest proportion of married to unmarried is found amongst the job hands; that, in fact, the majority of that cla.s.s of workers have husbands. A few instances of the proportion amongst the regular staff in houses taken at random are given below. In most cases, it was impossible to obtain any figures, but the following may be taken to be types:--

A. _Printing._--12 married out of 86.

B. _Printing and Magazine Binding._--Half the staff.

C. _Printing._--2 regular hands unmarried, 1 married taken on when busy.

D. _Envelopes, etc._--5 girls, 2 married.

E. _Binding._--3 married out of 20.

F. _Card Mounting, etc._--2 married out of 30.

G. _Binding._--3 married in machine room out of 60; 1 in perforating department.

H. _Stationery._--9 married out of 20.

J. _Printing._--1 married out of 10.

K. _Binding._--2 married out of 30.

L. _Printing and Magazine Work._--5 married out of 100.

M. _Printing._--1 or 2 out of 56.

N. _Printing._--2 out of 128. (In most departments won't take them.)

These houses show a much lower percentage of married workers than anyone hazarded at a guess.

[Sidenote: (b) Bristol and district.]

"Seventeen houses in Bristol, employing about 1,170 women, have no married hands. In three of these, it is the rule that girls must leave on marriage, because the employer or the forewoman dislikes having married women, either 'because they are not such good workers after they have got the breakfast for their husbands and children, and seen to the house, and are not then much good for work in a factory,' or else because of a feeling that it is wrong to take married women from home duties.

"In eight houses, employing about 1,200 women, there is no rule against employing married women, and a few are employed. The exact proportions were impossible to ascertain, but mostly box-makers.

Employed. Married.

A. 100 Most leave when married, but a few good workers kept on.

B. 6 Two.

C. 5 One or two.

D. 30 A very few kept on.

E. 2 Both married.

F. 18 One married.

G. 40 Generally leave; a few kept on.

H. 1,000 A good many married.

"So few married women are employed in these trades in Bristol that it is impossible to find any evidence of their influence on rates of pay, and the generalisations as to the quality of married women's work are made on very little information. One employer (B.) declared that married women are better workers because they do not go out unless they have good-for-nothing husbands and _have_ to be the breadwinners, a remark corroborated by G., who a.s.signed the same reason for their superiority, adding that married women make 2_s._ or 3_s._ a week more at piecework than the unmarried, and seem more anxious to get on. C. regards them as steadier than girls: "They take life more seriously."

"In two houses in Gloucester with twenty-two and fifty-five girls, there are no married women. 'They don't want to stay.'

"In Frome, a leading printing establishment employs 130 girls, but none are married. There is a rule against employing married women. It is regarded as immoral to do so--'It means that the husband spends the extra money in beer.'

"In Stroud, amongst thirty girls, none were married.

"In Bath, in a firm employing forty girls, a few were married, but none whose husbands were in work. 'That would be considered _infra dig_.'

[Sidenote: (c) Leeds and Bradford.]

"Married women are rarely employed in these trades in Leeds. Out of seventeen houses visited, only three had married women as regular workers. One of these is an account-book maker's, where a few out of the thirty hands are married; another is a wallpaper manufacturer's, where no difference is made when girls marry, and the third is a paper-bag house, where a few out of the thirty women employed are married. In the remaining fourteen houses, comprising about 930 girls, no married women work. It is a custom recognised by masters and workers alike that women leave on marriage, so that the industrial career of these workers stops usually at twenty-two or twenty-three. In two houses old hands who have married are taken on for occasional rushes of work.

"This dearth of married women in these trades seems strange in a town where married women's work is such a common feature in the mills, but is accounted for by the fact that the girls employed in the printing trades belong to a comparatively comfortable cla.s.s, marry in their own cla.s.s, and are not expected to be breadwinners. One employer suggests that the work requires more regularity than can be expected from a married woman, but this does not seem to be a serious difficulty in London.

"Bradford conditions are practically the same. Seven firms have no married women, one has one married out of 100 workers, and this is an exception, married women not being employed as a rule. As in Leeds, the hands who have married come in to help when there is a rush of work. One manager remarked that, if the girls think they are not going to marry they leave for the mills, where pay is higher."

[Sidenote: The moral influence of the married worker.]

There seems to be a pretty widespread objection to the moral influence of married women in the workshop. "Mr. ---- objects to the employment of married women. He dislikes the way they talk to the unmarried girls....

Lately he has been obliged to employ them as he could not get enough unmarried women."

[Sidenote: Family health.]

As regards the effect of work in these trades on family life, again the evidence is spa.r.s.e, but so far as it is clear it tends to show that the employment of women makes little difference to the ordinary state of things. The work is not unhealthy, and the woman worker does not do much of the heavy tasks, such as lifting formes, using presses, and so on.

The instances where she does this are rare, and the men have always, in this respect, turned their chivalrous instincts to industrial purpose and to protect their own interests. One investigator reports that a girl suffers from weak knees on account of long spells of standing at a machine for making envelopes, and that a vellum-folder complains of having to lift heavy weights. Another reports against "powdering" in book-binding; and employment in typefoundries, where girls handle type, is dangerous, since it may lead to lead-poisoning. Another says that bronzing, even when the bronzing machine is used and the precautions specified by the Factory Act are taken, is unhealthy. A case is given of a woman permanently injured by the excessive strain of working a guillotine cutting machine.

The bookbinders have always been ready to point out that certain parts of their work are too heavy for women, and the compositors have done the same. The latter also show that consumption is a trade disease amongst them, and recently have defended their attempts to exclude women from working the linotype on the ground that the fumes and gases which are generated by its typefounding arrangement are injurious to health. They also maintain that standing for long periods at a stretch is injurious to women, but in at least one large printing firm in the provinces women were seen by our investigators setting type whilst sitting on stools in front of the case. The conditions of some wallpaper factories seem to be unhealthy, partly owing to the hot air, the smell, and some of the material used, especially the a.r.s.enic. Some reports state that the constant "standing about" necessary in these trades gives headaches and produces anaemia. What valid objection there is against married women leaving their homes and children for long periods at a time during the day, must of course be added to this, in common with all other kinds of continuous work in which married women engage, but there is no special danger to life or health in these industries from which the coming generation may suffer.

CHAPTER X.

_WAGES._

We have succeeded in getting the authentic records of wages from about eighteen firms in London, representing every branch of work in connection with printing, binding, and despatch, and employing together 1,000 hands--more in busy, less in slack weeks. We have also less detailed information about some half-dozen other firms.

These studied together and apart will no doubt give a correct general impression of the amount and variability of wages paid, but circ.u.mstances have made it very difficult to group them so as to give a simple bird's-eye view of the whole.

These circ.u.mstances are partly due to the very great differences between the cla.s.s of work done by the various firms, and the difficulty of tabulating the workers under a few definite heads; partly to the difficulty of collecting records. Our investigators were recommended:--

i. To get complete wage sheets for as many weeks as their time and the courtesy of the manager allowed, making the record as complete as possible for 1899, and extending their researches back as far as the books existed, choosing the wage sheets of one week in every month.

ii. To trace individual workers through as long a period as possible, choosing workers who would best ill.u.s.trate all the various conditions of employment.

iii. To note any other information.

As regards i., we have the wage sheets for some 470 separate weeks, in addition to the complete lists of two very small firms for one and four years respectively; ii., the complete earnings of about 130 hands for periods varying from one to fourteen years.