The Canadian Girl at Work Part 1

The Canadian Girl at Work.

by Marjory MacMurchy.

PREFACE

The object of _The Canadian Girl at Work_ is to a.s.sist girls in finding satisfactory employment. The further aim of showing them what const.i.tutes a right att.i.tude toward work and toward life through work, underlies the account of each occupation. The book is meant for girls, and for the a.s.sistance of fathers and mothers, of teachers, and of those who are interested in questions of training and employment.

The life of the average woman is divided, generally, into two periods of work, that of paid employment and that of home-making. No adequate scheme of training for girls can fail to take account of this fact. They should be equipped with knowledge and skill for home-making, and a.s.sisted in making the best use of their years in paid work. Happily, it appears from an investigation of the conditions affecting girls as wage-earners that the knowledge which helps them to be good home-makers is necessary to their well-being in paid employment. Technical training and skill are not more helpful to a girl at work than specialized knowledge in matters of food, clothing, health, and daily regimen. Lack of training in home-making is probably the greatest drawback which a girl in paid employment can have.

Her business during her first years of paid employment may not require much skill or experience, but her living conditions require all the specialized woman's knowledge that training can give her.

To bring about in the life of a girl a satisfactory connection between paid employment and home-making, and to show the home employments in their rightful place as occupations of the first importance, are necessary objectives in any book of this character.

When considering the employments of to-day as part of their own lives, girls of the twentieth century may well look back through the long ages to women's work in the past.[1] The study of anthropology appears to indicate that in primeval ages women began the textile industry and, possibly, agriculture. There seems to be no doubt that they were primitive architects, and that they tamed some of the smaller domestic animals. They had most to do with the preparation of food and may have introduced the use of herbs and medicines. They were spinners, weavers, upholsterers, and sail-makers. Most of these employments were taken up by men and specialized and developed almost past imagination. It is evident that women have always worked, and worked hard. If they had not done so, the race would not have reached its present position, and women themselves would have remained undeveloped, without a realization of their own possibilities.

The history of Anglo-Saxon times shows women engaged in spinning, weaving, dyeing, and embroidering, carrying on these industrial arts in the home, side by side with the work of the house. The work of women in home manufactures was a by-industry, not occupying the worker's whole time, but nevertheless an important occupation. Later, women were employed in many kinds of industrial work as a.s.sistants to their husbands and fathers. It is doubtful if wages were paid for such work. Employment of this kind is not to be thought of merely as a romantic or picturesque accompaniment of home life. Houses and comforts centuries back were not such as they are to-day; and the work of women was toil, side by side with men who toiled also.

The modern factory did not originate industrial work. The factory carried many industries away from the home where they had originated; and women followed their work to large establishments where they were trained to work collectively. The statement can be made with truth that machinery has made it possible for women to perform work for which their strength would otherwise have been insufficient. Through the industrial revolution brought about by factory work, the general body of women workers became wage-earners, rather than unpaid workers who contributed to the financial earnings of their fathers and husbands.

In Canada, the process of development of women's work in the past fifty years has been rapid. The grandmothers of the women of this generation carded wool and used spinning wheels within the memory of workers of less than middle age. One old woman who died not many years ago told how she used to bake in an oven out-of-doors and had dyed homespun with b.u.t.ternut.

The soap cauldron stood on the levelled stump of what had been once a forest tree. Candles were moulded in iron moulds. Household industries were carried on expertly in the homes of pioneers by the women of the family.

When these days had gone, there followed other days in which the children of the pioneers devoted themselves to the schooling so highly esteemed but rarely enjoyed by their parents. The boys, after school life, turned to business, railway employments, teaching, banking, farming, became ministers, lawyers, doctors, or gave their thoughts to politics.

The girls taught school, were milliners or dressmakers, went into shops, or became the wives of nation builders in every walk of life. A few were nurses, journalists, doctors, or missionaries.

The work of that generation has been followed by a century in which Canadian girls are invited to share in nearly every form of activity. This great freedom with its many opportunities has come for n.o.ble ends. What the girls of to-day must strive to do is to take up their work with a vision of what it may be made to mean--men and women in co-partners.h.i.+p laying the foundations of a new earth.

It is probable that the social and domestic conditions of the earliest workers were far below those of the average worker of to-day. But, although present conditions are better than those of the past, the process of amelioration should be greatly advanced by this generation. The increasing opportunities of girls, both in home-making and paid employment, are likely to become a contributing factor in the humanizing of every form of industry. We have learned to realize the possibilities of machinery.

What we must do now is to imagine and realize the possibilities of the individual worker. This can be done only through study, experience, and actual work in industrial occupations which offer employment to women.

The woman of the home has work of unrivalled value. She has to study new standards of living, to help to control the food supply, to improve the health of children, and to lower the rate of infant mortality. A standard of living in each community might be tabulated by women home-makers. Such information should be available in each locality and should be accessible to all cla.s.ses in the community. How are workers--girls, boys, men, or women--to know on what sums individuals and families can live and maintain health and efficiency in one district or another, if these matters are not studied, determined, and published for their use?

[Footnote 1: Acknowledgment is made to Miss B. L. Hutchins' _Women in Modern Industry_. G. Bell & Sons].

THE CANADIAN GIRL AT WORK

CHAPTER I

THINKING ABOUT WORK

Thinking about work is the beginning of one of the happiest and most useful of our experiences. Through work there comes to us the pleasure of a growing knowledge of the great world and its wonders, the delight of intercourse with other people, and the happiness of friends.h.i.+p with our fellow-workers. Work well done is a doorway to whatever good things we most desire. Best of all, perhaps, to the girl who is earning her living, is the satisfaction of feeling that she is a useful citizen, doing her part in the development of Canada.

Canadian girls have a wide field from which to choose their particular form of occupation. To choose wisely is a duty we owe to ourselves and to our country--to ourselves, because a wise choice helps to secure our happiness in work; to our country, because she has a right to the best we can offer her in return for the peace and freedom in which we live under her laws.

Every year new varieties of employment and new positions in old employments are being added to the field of work for girls and women. Work at home is being systematized, and new devices are increasing the efficiency of the work of a home. Among the girls who are beginning work to-day are some who will develop further the management of the home on modern economic and social lines. Forward-thinking people antic.i.p.ate a great advance which will be made by the girls of the twentieth century in the management of homes.

But what of the workers outside the home? Opportunities of employment are steadily increasing. Already women are making a business of growing vegetables and flowers, are engaged in the work of poultry farms, bee-keeping, and in dairy production. Women are undertaking the work of chemical experts in factories. Girls are driving motors and collecting waste. They are shopping experts, employment experts, house furnishers, agents for renting houses, and one woman has become an expert in testing flour for a great milling industry. These are new employments. Hundreds of thousands of girls and women are at work in the long-established women's employments, as factory workers, saleswomen, stenographers, house workers, telephone and telegraph operators, waitresses, milliners, dressmakers and seamstresses, teachers, and nurses.

Some opportunities for employment are close at hand; others are farther away. Sometimes it is best to begin with the nearest work. But in any case the girl should take time to think of her employment. There are various helpers to whom she may turn when she is beginning to think about work--her father and mother, her teachers, the Government Employment Bureau, a good private employment expert such as may be found in the Young Women's Christian a.s.sociation, or an older friend who is able to advise her and, finally, the girl should help herself. She should think carefully of the kind of work it seems likely that she may get to do and ask herself what employment she finds most attractive and whether she has some apt.i.tude for it.

The following are some of the questions a girl should ask herself when she is thinking of her employment: Shall I be able to improve and become more skilful in my work? Will the work give me good companions.h.i.+p? Are the surroundings clean and comfortable, and will they be good for my health and the health of other workers? Is the employment likely to give me a fair wage?

The statements made about wages in different employments apply generally to the scale of wages paid in one particular city. No one set of figures can be given which will state accurately the wages in many cities and towns and country districts. The value of wages cannot be estimated properly by the girl unless she knows at the same time what her living expenses are to be.

She must know, too, the standard of efficiency required in the employment.

These questions are discussed specially in Chapters XXIII and XXIV. When the girl reads any statement concerning wages, she should remember that the figures given represent only an approximate estimate. That is, while these wages have actually been paid in one place, the same wages will not be offered in these employments in every part of the country. Generally speaking, the figures quoted represent mid-war wages.

The most important fact for the girl to learn about employment is that when she does well-chosen work in the right spirit, she will find in it happiness and usefulness. Through her work she will learn what an interesting place the world is, and because she is a worker she will be the companion of great workers who are advancing civilization every day.

She may feel sure that there is work for her to do, that she will find work good, and the world a friendly place.

CHAPTER II

THE GIRL WHO WORKS IN A FACTORY

A girl's first impression of a factory is likely to be that it is a busy place. The people at work and the work itself will seem strange to her.

She may even feel that she will never get used to her new surroundings.

But she should not allow herself to be discouraged. Although she may have forgotten her first day in school when she was a little girl of five or six, no doubt the schoolroom seemed to her then a very strange place, but how quickly it became familiar and homelike.

The girl will enter the factory as a learner. Her wages will not be high, but she will be paid for her first week, although it is hardly likely that her work at first will be worth the money she receives for it. One of the more experienced factory employees will be given the task of training her.

So the girl beginning work in a factory is really learning as she did at school although now she is getting wages. The factory finds it worth while to train beginners, and it does so in the hope that they will become capable operators who will be in their places regularly.

One of the most important truths for the girl in the factory to realize is that the more there is to learn about her work the better her future will be as a worker. If there is so little to learn that she needs only a few days to become independent of any training, then she will be sure to find unskilled girls and low wages in this place of employment. She should not be satisfied permanently with such work. The best positions are for skilled employees and, therefore, every girl ought to become a skilled worker.

To be a skilled worker means that you can command good wages and that you are more certain of steady employment than an unskilled employee, since your employer will wish to retain your services even when the work in the factory is slack. The girl, therefore, should not be anxious to find that there is little to learn about her work. When she discovers that it will be some time before she can carry on all the operations required, then she may be sure that she is learning an employment which will be of value to her. It is exactly the same as in school. No one was ever so clever as to be able to learn to read in one day, yet we all know how well worth while it is to be able to read.

How is the girl to choose the industry in which she hopes to find work?[2]

She should make inquiries about a factory before she enters it. She may have a friend who is working in a whitewear factory, or a biscuit factory, or who is making boxes. The friend probably will be willing to speak to the foreman or forewoman about the girl's employment. But she should notice the surroundings in which she means to work. Is the workroom light and airy? Are the conditions under which she must work sanitary? Are the workers respectable and well-behaved? If she is to work where there is machinery, it should be properly guarded, so that she will not be in danger. She should not choose a factory where the hours are longer than the average nor one where over-time is encouraged. The management also should be fair and considerate.

The kind of work carried on in the factory should give her an opportunity to become a skilled worker. If the girls employed are all young girls earning only a low wage, and there is little chance of promotion, then, while it may be convenient for her to begin in such a factory, she should not be content to stay there. She must be sure to make herself a skilled worker, with a good chance of promotion and a fair certainty of receiving a higher wage than is usually paid to a beginner.

When the girl knows the kind of factory for which she ought to look, she may very well ask herself what qualifications she should possess in order to become a successful factory worker. She should be healthy, of good average physical strength, quick in her movements, with some natural mechanical ability, good eyesight, and quick, steady hands. If she is to begin where there is power machinery, it is an advantage to have had some practice in running power machinery. Such practice she can get at a trade or a technical school, most of which have night cla.s.ses. Otherwise there is not very much that a girl can learn about the actual work of a factory before she enters it. She must make up her mind, however, to learn when once she is in the factory. She should learn as many different operations as possible. Nothing so increases the value of a worker as to be able to fill a number of different positions. She should try to understand as much of the business of the establishment as possible. Then she will find herself taking a keen interest in the work and she will be better able to enjoy her own part in it.

The girl's first wage in a factory is not likely to be large enough to cover all her expenses. But, when she is a skilled worker, her wage should provide her with reasonable necessaries and comfort and leave a margin for saving, emergencies, and improvement. Every worker should realize that good conditions are an important part of what one gets for one's work. It is advisable to be satisfied with a little less money in an establishment where opportunity is given for promotion, the guarding of health, and recreation, and where the surroundings are clean and attractive, sometimes even delightful, rather than to get a little more money, and be driven beyond one's strength, or compelled to spend a great part of the day in unpleasant surroundings. Lunch and rest rooms, a separate locker for her clothes, books to read, an open tennis court or other opportunity for play, are greatly valued by the girl at work, as they const.i.tute, in reality, a bonus in addition to her wages.

As soon as she is experienced, the girl in the factory is almost certain to find herself on "piece-work." That is, instead of being paid a daily or weekly wage, she will receive a set price for each article or "piece"

completed.

Speed in piece-work as a rule is a means by which she can earn high wages.

The wages of a beginner in a city may be eight or nine dollars a week; wages vary, however, according to the locality and the character of the work. The wages paid to experienced operators vary in a number of cases from fifteen to twenty dollars a week. Exceptional workers who have special ability earn more. With regard to piece-work, the girl should have sufficient judgment not to force herself beyond her strength. She may lose her health by a few years' overwork and become unable to support herself.

The speed of the worker is a subject for careful study both by the girl and her employer. The girl will find that she can maintain high speed for a certain length of time only and that her output actually will be greater, week in and week out, if she slackens when she begins to feel a strain.

The most successful girl will not change about readily from one place to another. If a girl is certain that she can improve her work and her position, and if she has come to a careful decision, feeling sure that her present conditions are not what they might be, then she will be wise to change her place of employment. But the young girl who changes every few weeks or months is in danger of spoiling not only her prospects as a paid worker, but her whole life. While this danger is found in other employments, it is perhaps greatest in the case of the factory worker.