Women in the Printing Trades Part 9

The physiological differences between men and women have sociological results. These differences have no doubt been exaggerated and emphasised by traditions of propriety, and the change of opinion indicated generally by the expression, "the woman movement," has done a great deal to bring down those differences to their natural proportions and relations. If certain claims of equality, such as women's suffrage, were generally accepted, men and women might tend to occupy a much more equal industrial status. But when all false emphasis and exaggeration have been removed, a considerable residuum of difference must remain.

The special status of the married woman will no doubt survive all readjustment of traditional modes of thought, and will tend to withdraw her mind from the steady pursuit of industrial efficiency, because she will never consider wage earning to be her special task in the world.

That has tempted her hitherto to steer off from the currents in the mid-stream of industrial life, and float upon those that flow more sluggishly by the margin. Hence she has entered industry, not with expectations of long employment, but with hopes of a speedy release, and she has therefore been in haste to earn money at once, and unwilling to sink capital (either in time or money) in making herself efficient. She is found in the more mechanical and more easily acquired branches of work, and also in those which provide no future for men,[63] and her willingness to take low wages has been her great protection against competing machinery. She has preferred to remain incompetent. "Out of twenty-six girls," is the report from the manager of a well-known firm for high-cla.s.s artistic bookbinding, "not one could he trust as a forewoman."

[Footnote 63: An interesting ill.u.s.tration of this is afforded by the recent employment of women in typefounding in London. London has not been a place where women were much employed in this industry. For twenty or thirty years girls have been employed in Edinburgh typefoundries, at certain processes through which the type, when cast, has to go, but they have been introduced only within the last year or two in London, to take the place of boys who could not be got because the work offers no very satisfactory prospects for them, and because the introduction of the linotype and mono-type threatens the future of the typefounding industry. _Cf._ Aberdeen, p. 47, Manchester and Birmingham, p. 50.]

[Sidenote: The lack of openings and ambition.]

Moreover, this enquiry has shown that there is but little chance for women in these trades to improve themselves. Openings for responsible employment are few, and the ambition of the woman is not stirred by the possibility of material improvement as the reward of skill and industry.

When responsible places become vacant, it is sometimes difficult to get women to consent to fill them. They seem to have little of that divine discontent which is the mainspring of progress. "They never ask for a rise as a man would, ... though after a time when they are useful, the firm would be quite willing to give one." "He finds that girls want to earn a certain wage. As a rule they will not take less, and they don't trouble to earn more." A Manchester correspondent reports: "There is very little chance of rising, and no particular desire for it, on the part of the ordinary girl, whose main aspirations are otherwise directed."

Reporting generally on her enquiries, an investigator writes: "The progressive young woman, eager to show that she is man's equal and can do man's work, seems to be a product of the middle cla.s.ses. I never met girls with ambitions of that sort among the employees I talked with. On the other hand, I have met with cutting reproofs from forewomen and others in the bookbinding houses when I tried, in my innocence, to find out why they did not turn their hands to simple and easy processes which were being done by men. 'Why, that is man's work, and we shouldn't think of doing it!' is the usual answer given with a toss of the head and a tone insinuating that there is a certain indelicacy in the question."

Another investigator reports: "In a paper-staining department an attempt was once made to have a forewoman instead of a foreman over the girls, but she was not successful in watching the colours and had to be replaced by a man. The employer in consequence came to the conclusion that such a feat was beyond a woman's power, and the workers themselves are of the same opinion and scorn the idea of a forewoman."

[Sidenote: s.e.x reputation.]

Women in slowly increasing numbers seem to be settling down to a thorough industrial training, but except when they start businesses of their own, the general reputation of woman as workers, especially their liability to marry and leave, must permanently handicap the most efficient in search of employment.

Even the woman who has paid a premium of 50 or 100 for thorough instruction in the art of bookbinding is warned that "a worker cannot be taken on anywhere, but has to set up on her own account," and even then she often does not enter the regular open compet.i.tive market, but attaches certain customers to herself, owing to her special work.

The exceptional woman will always have to bear the burden of the average woman.

The questions put to employers upon this point received very emphatic replies: "It does not pay us to train women," they said in some form or another; "We only want them for simple processes such as folding, and if we tried to make them skilled in more complicated work they would leave us before we got the same return for our trouble as we get from men."

[Sidenote: Physique, hours, etc.]

The low standard of women's living also diminishes their stamina and strength, and though in the course of this enquiry we have not discovered any very serious complaint that women were irregular at their work owing to ill-health (a common complaint against women in offices), yet the drawback has been mentioned.

Moreover, it must be noted that when a girl's work in the workshop is finished she has often to go home to commence a new round of domestic tasks from which a boy is exempted. This aggravates the seriousness of her long hours of mechanical work as a wage-earner, and increases the difficulties placed in her way should she desire to attend evening technical cla.s.ses. The directors of several educational inst.i.tutions and the teachers of technical cla.s.ses for women have strongly urged this point upon us.

We have to face the fact that, for various reasons, in modern industrial society there is of necessity a tendency to specialise the work of men and women and centre the one in the workshop and the other in the home, and to incline women to take a place in industry second to their male relations. Hence, in the workshop women have hitherto been adjuncts to machines; they have taken up simple mechanical processes, and have shown little interest in complete series of industrial operations. They have picked up the arts, but have shunned the sciences. The factory and the workshop have been to them the scenes of "meanwhile" employment.

[Sidenote: Gentility in trade.]

In such circ.u.mstances one is not surprised to find such considerations as conventional gentility determining the branches of trade taken up by the women. The printing trades generally do not attract the most genteel girls, but there are grades within them. One informant says, "In Manchester, up to 1870, to be a folder was looked upon as being next door to being on the streets;" but now folders look down upon feeders.

"Folding and sewing girls look down on the machine girls tremendously, and would not sit at the same table with them for anything." Perhaps the manager who said in a shocked tone of voice that "The women never care to talk of the Sunday's sermon" was hypercritical, but undoubtedly certain sections of these trades are staffed by rather rough specimens of women.

Then again, a folder, despised herself by those above her, is reported to "look down upon the litho and bronzing girls. They are of the very lowest cla.s.s (she says), with hardly a shoe on their feet. They are on quite a different floor and have nothing to do with the folders." Or again, for reasons of gentility, girls prefer to become book-folders, where the hours are longer and the pay lower, rather than to become paper-bag makers. The distinction between these various sections is not similar to that between skilled and unskilled labour. The simple explanation is that amongst women engaged in industry convention is particularly potent in determining what trades are desirable and proper and what are not, so that when certain employments acquire a reputation for gentility, the others will be filled by a goodly proportion of una.s.sorted girls, and will ultimately acquire characteristics which appear to justify the feminine prejudices against them. It has been suggested that these notions of gentility have, as a matter of fact, a deeper significance, and that the favoured trades are the lighter ones.

To some extent this is true. The heavier employments are staffed by a rougher cla.s.s of women. But, as in the case of the Manchester folders cited above, fas.h.i.+ons change, and we must recognise that reputation for gentility is a very important factor in determining the distribution of character amongst the trades. This appears to be the main reason why high wages do not always attract the better cla.s.s of girls to certain kinds of employment, and also why there is a reluctance on the part of many self-respecting girls to enter a course of industrial training.

CHAPTER VI.

_LEGISLATION._

1. THE LAW.

The printing and allied trades were not brought within the scope of legislation until Mr. Walpole's Factory Acts' Extension Act of 1867.

[Sidenote: Conditions of employment, 1866.]

The Commission on Children's Employment in 1866[64] first disclosed the fact that substantial abuses prevailed throughout the printing and kindred trades. Long hours, frequent nightwork, Sunday labour, irregularities regarding meal times, and insanitary conditions--such, roughly speaking, were the hards.h.i.+ps which made it desirable to bring them under State supervision. Mr. Lord, who took an active part on these Commissions, said that the general state of printing houses in London was very bad; not only were the composing rooms generally overcrowded and ill-ventilated, but even machine rooms were often extremely dirty, close and unhealthy. He cites the case of a machine room, where the roof was so low that a hole was cut in the ceiling for the head of the boy who was "laying-on" to go through. "The heat of steam printing," says he, "is very deleterious in close cellars, such as many places in this town are."

[Footnote 64: Children's Employment Commission, 1862-1866 (Report V.).]

Speaking of the factories of wholesale stationers, the same witness says, "Many of the workrooms are ill-ventilated and overcrowded. The cubical contents of one large room measured by me were 136 ft. per head; those of another only 87 ft. per head."

With regard to hours, the Commissioners report: "These ordinary hours (viz., 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for females, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. for men and boys) are from time to time exceeded to the extent of one or two hours, and sometimes more. In the case of those who bind for publis.h.i.+ng houses the four or five winter months are the busy season, and the six weeks immediately preceding Christmas those of the greatest pressure; at one such place work often continued from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. in those six weeks. The 'push' of 'magazine day' also affects this trade as it does the printer, keeping the workpeople for several days at the end of each month until 10 or 11 p.m., and on rare occasions till 1 or 2 a.m. The case of railway guides is even worse than that of magazines, for females sometimes have to work the whole night through till 6 a.m., returning to work at 10 on the same morning, and when the first of a month is on a Monday, work the whole of the preceding Sunday. On Sunday, April 30th this year, at one place twenty females worked from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and after a rest of two hours went on again through the night. Even girls of thirteen had worked in the same week once from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m., and twice from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Another rather older (fourteen and a half) worked on one day from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and on the preceding day from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. A boy aged fourteen had worked two or three times in a week from 7 a.m. to 10 or 11 p.m. and three Sundays through."

"With paper-box makers," the Commissioners say, "it is not uncommon to make two or even three hours overtime (this after a day of from 9 a.m.

to 8 or 9 p.m.). For two months in spring and six weeks in autumn fourteen hours is the usual length of a female's working day. At one place females over fifteen are said to work constantly in the busy time from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., and in some places till 1 or 2 a.m., especially with 'little men' working at home with their family and two or three girls to help. These are instances of London work, but in Manchester the hours are even longer. One girl worked, at sixteen years old, night after night in succession, from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m.; the younger ones there worked from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.; at another place the same witness had frequently worked from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Another, at nine years old, worked from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. generally; she said that the older ones worked a good deal later than that. Some young women had worked on three or four occasions all the night through."

"Boys of fourteen and fifteen employed at making cardboard, have in some cases worked from 8 a.m. till 10 or 11 p.m. twice a week for four or five weeks running, but that is not general in the trade. Girls of that age have worked at making paper bags nearly every night for a similar period, till 10 or 11 p.m. from 8 a.m., and were very much tired by it.

As paper-box making is all handwork and paid for by the piece, it is not uncommon for work to go on in the meal hours--'they please themselves.'"

The following was the experience of one girl which she gave before the Commissioners. "I am thirteen; I have been here twelve months. Some of the girls worked all night last month for two nights together. I call 'till 4 in the morning' all night. We generally work one night till 4 a.m., and three or four nights till 12. My mother thought all night hurt me and so would not let me go on, but I work till 12. Last month I worked five times in the night till 12. It is only in that week; we get very tired towards the end of it."

With regard to the moral conditions of the workers the Commissioners reported: "The indiscriminate mixing of the s.e.xes which still prevails in many workrooms is generally condemned. The evil of such a practice is especially conspicuous where they are late and irregular in their hours.

The bad language and conduct of the boys is made the subject of very strong comment by two witnesses, who go so far as to say that there is a marked deterioration in this respect during the last ten years."

Again, "The younger children were in many cases unable to read. The evil of late and irregular work in letting women loose on the streets at all hours of the night is justly censured by an employer as necessarily leading to great immorality."

[Sidenote: Legislation, 1867.]

In consequence of the Report of the Commissioners, the Factory Act Extension Act, 1867, was pa.s.sed. It applied specifically to any premises where paper manufacture, letter-press printing and bookbinding were carried on; and generally to any premises where fifty or more people were employed in any manufacturing process. The hours allowed for women and young persons were from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., or from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with intervals amounting to one and a half hours for meals; on Sat.u.r.day, work had to cease at 2 p.m. By way of exception, women employed in bookbinding could work fourteen hours a day, provided that their total hours did not exceed sixty per week.

To those trades, such as litho-printing, that did not come under the above Act, was applied the Workshops Regulation Act of the same year, the provisions of which resembled, though they did not coincide with those of the foregoing enactment. The same aggregate number of hours per day and week was established, but more elasticity was permitted in workshops, women and young persons being allowed to work in them for the hours specified at any time between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m., and until 4 p.m.

on Sat.u.r.days.

[Sidenote: Factory and Workshop Act, 1878.]

The discrepancies in the regulations applying to different cla.s.ses of work were productive of a good deal of inconvenience, and after the Commission of 1876 came the Factory and Workshop Act, 1878, having as its object the consolidation and amendment of the existing statutes with a view to rendering their administration more even and secure. The main provisions of the law as it now affects the printing and kindred trades were laid down, although since that date there have been various additions and amendments. By this Act a distinction was drawn between factories and workshops, the chief difference being that, in the former, machinery propelled by steam, water, or other mechanical power must be in use; while in the latter, no such agency must be employed. Certain cla.s.ses of works, however, apart from all question of mechanical power, were defined as factories and not workshops. Under these came paper-staining works, foundries (including typefoundries), except premises in which such process was carried on by not more than five persons, and as subsidiary to the repair or completion of some other work--paper mills, letter-press printing works, and bookbinding establishments.

[Sidenote: Factory and Workshop Act, 1901.]

As regards hours of work and overtime, slight modifications have been effected by legislation subsequent to the year 1878, and the present state of the law as laid down in the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, is as follows:--The regular hours for women and young persons except Sat.u.r.day, are 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., or 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with an allowance of one and a half hours for meals, one hour of such meal-time being before 3 p.m. On Sat.u.r.day the period of employment may be 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., or 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with not less than half-an-hour for meals. But where a woman or young person has not been actually employed for more than eight hours on any day in a week, and notice of this has been affixed in the factory or workshop and served on the inspector, she may be at work on Sat.u.r.day from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., with an interval of not less than two hours for meals.

There are various special restrictions and exceptions applying to different cla.s.ses of work. No protected person may take a meal or remain during meal-time in any part of a factory or workshop where typefounding is carried on, or where dry powder or dust is used in litho-printing, playing-card making, paper-staining, almanac-making, paper-colouring and enamelling. In certain industries, including printing, bookbinding, machine ruling and envelope making, women may work three days a week, and for thirty days during the year, two hours overtime, provided that such employment ceases at 10 p.m., and that they have two hours for meals. But this limit of overtime applies to the factory or workshop as a whole, and not to the overtime of individual workers.

2. ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL EFFECTS OF LEGISLATION.

The foregoing brief summary of the law has naturally preceded the question as to how far legislation has affected women in these particular trades. When restrictions are imposed upon the labour of any cla.s.s of wage-earners, their economic position must be altered for good or evil, unless the trade can so adjust itself as to meet exactly the requirements of these restrictions. If the worker is of great importance, an effort will be made to adapt the trade to the novel conditions; if another cla.s.s of workers or machinery, free from all restrictions, can be as easily used, it is probable that the labour affected will be ousted.

[Sidenote: Has legislation displaced women?]