been promoted, women delegates have been appointed
to serve at the Convention, and local Unions of women
have been directly affiliated. Many national Unions,
of course, are not directly concerned with female
labour, and a small number entirely forbid the admis-
sion of women. Of these are the barbers, watch-case
engravers, and switchmen.
Moulders do not admit women, and penalise members
who give instruction to female workers in any branch.
Core-making, for instance, employs some women, and
the Union seeks to restrict or minimise it. The opera-
tive potters, upholsterers, and paper-makers admit
women in certain branches but not in others. The
upholsterers admit them only as seamstresses. But
in all trades making these restrictions the number of
women employed is small, and the effect of the restric-
tions is probably insignificant. Other Unions encourage
the organisation of women- workers. In some of these
men predominate, as in the printers, cigar-makers,
boot- and shoe-makers, and women compete only in
WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS 147
the lighter and less-skilled branches. In others women
predominate, as among the garment workers, textile
workers, laundry, glove, hat and cap workers. Some
Unions make special concessions to women, e.g. a smaller
registration and dues, in order to induce them to join.
The motive for these concessions is clear, as the pro-
portion of women to men in these industries is much
higher than the same proportion in the Union.
In San Francisco the steam laundry workers have
been organised with considerable success. Down to
1900 the condition of these women was extremely bad.
" Living in " was the prevailing custom. The food
and accommodation were wretched in the extreme,
the hours inhumanly long, sometimes from 6 A.M. to
midnight, wages eight to ten dollars a month for
workers living in, ten to twenty-five for other workers.
An agitation was started to give publicity to these
facts, and an ordinance was passed to prohibit work in
laundries on Sundays or after 7 P.M. The ordinance
was not observed, however, and the girls formed a
committee and complained to the press. It was pro-
posed to form a Union. Three hundred men employed
in the industry applied for a charter to the Laundry
Workers' International Union. The men did not wish
to include girls as members, but the International would
not give the charter if women were excluded. On the
other hand, the women were timid and afraid of
victimisation. One girl with more courage or more
initiative than the others, however, was chosen to be
organiser, and carried on her work secretly for about
sixteen weeks with extraordinary energy and effective-
ness. Suddenly it came out that a majority of
employees in every laundry had joined the Union.
They had refrained from declaring themselves until
148 WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS
they had a large and influential membership, and then
came out with a formal demand for shorter hours,
higher wages, and a change of system. Public sympathy
was aroused, and by April 1901 the conditions in the
San Francisco laundries were revolutionised. Boarding
was abolished, wages were increased, hours shortened
to ten daily, with nine holidays a year. In more recent
years these capable organisers have succeeded in
obtaining the eight hours day by successive reductions
of the working time.
In the same city an interesting case is recorded in
which the girls in a cracker (or biscuit) factory struck
against over-pressure. The packers, who had to
receive and pack the crackers automatically fed into
the bins by machinery, found the work speeded up to
such a degree that they could not cope with it. Their
complaints were received with apparent respect and
attention, but after a short interval the same speeding-
up occurred again. With some difficulty, many of the
girls being Italian and speaking little English, a Union
was formed and affiliated to the Labour Council, whose
representative then approached the employers. The
matter was settled by arranging to have extra hands
so as to meet the extra work occasioned by speeding,
and an arrangement was also made to allow each girl
ten minutes' interval for rest both in the morning and
afternoon spell.
The Industrial Workers of the World, a Labour
Society with a revolutionary programme, has a large
membership of unskilled workers, in textile and other
industries. It doubtless includes many women, for
women took part in a conflict with the city government
of Spokane, Washington, over the question of free
speech, the city having attempted to prevent street
WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS 149
meetings. The workers were successful, but not
without a severe struggle, in the course of which 500
men and women went to jail, many of whom adopted
the hunger-strike.
In the great strike of textile workers in Lawrence,
Mass., in 1912, a remarkably spontaneous effort was
made by the Polish women-weavers at the Everett
mill. The hours of work had been reduced by legisla-
tion from 56 to -54 per week, and the employees
demanded that the same money should be paid to
them as before the change. In the Everett mill about
80 per cent of the weavers were Poles. In one of the
weave-rooms the Polish weavers, almost all women,
stopped their looms after receiving their money
on January n, and tried to persuade the workers
in some other sections of the mill to come out
with them. 1 The story of this strike shows that
women are fully capable of feeling the wave of class-
consciousness that brings about the development of
what is called " New Unionism " ; but probably the
difficulty of their taking a serious part in control and
management is even greater than in craft Unions.
Information is, however, very scanty as to the rela-
tion of women to the I.W.W., which in its literature
is quite as prone as the more aristocratic craft Union
to ignore the part taken by women in organisation.
In 1908, when the Bureau of Labour made its
enquiry into the conditions of women wage-earners
in the U.S.A., the number of Unions containing ten or
more female members was 546, and the number of
female members was only 63,989, estimated at only 2
per cent of the total membership of the Unions.
1 Report of the Strike of Textile Workers in Lawrence, Mass.,
p. 63.
150 WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS
The largest group of women Unionists are those
engaged in the making of or working at men's garments ;
these number over 17,000. The textile workers came
next with 6000 ; the boot and shoe workers, hat and
cap workers, and tobacco workers form three groups
of over 5000 each.
This census, however, was taken at a most un-
favourable moment, when many Unions were suffering
from the trade depression of the previous autumn and
winter. It is also true that the numbers in actual
membership are not a complete measure of the numbers
under the direct influence and guidance of the Unions.
It has been found that the numbers of women ready
to come out on strike and enrol themselves in Unions
or enforce a particular demand at a particular moment
are considerably in excess of the number normally
enlisted.
At the same time there is little use in denying that,
speaking generally, the results attained by women's
organisations, after eighty or ninety years of effort,
are disappointing. Women's Unions in America have
been markedly ephemeral in character, usually organised
in time of strikes, and frequently disappearing after
the settlement of the conflict that brought them into
being.
A great obstacle to the organisation of women is
no doubt the temporary character of their employment.
The mass of women -workers are young, the great
majority being under twenty-five. The difficulty of
organising a body of young, heedless, and impatient
persons is evident, especially in the case of girls and
women who do not usually consider themselves per-
manently in industry. In the words of the Com-
missioner :
WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS 151
To the organiser of women into Trade Unions is furnished
all of the common obstacles familiar to the organiser of male
wage-earners, including short-sighted individual self-interest,
ignorance, poverty, indifference, and lack of co-operative
training. But to the organisers of women is added another
and most disconcerting problem. When men marry they
usually become more definitely attached to the trade and
to the community and to their labour Union. Women as
a rule drop out of the trade and out of the Union when
marriage takes them out of the struggle for economic
independence.
Another great difficulty is the opposition of the em-
ployers. " Employers commonly and most strenuously
object to a Union among the women they employ."
When once an organisation has attained any size,
strength, or significance, the employers almost always
set themselves to break it up, and have usually
succeeded. In Boston, for instance, a Union of some
800 members was broken up by the posting of a notice
by the firm that its employees must either join its own
employers' Union or quit work. Some employers look
upon female labour as the natural resource in case of a
strike, as see the case quoted by Miss Abbott (Women
in Industry, p. 206). There are reasons why employers
object even more strongly to Unions among women
than among men. In a number of cases production
is mainly carried on by women and girls, only a few
men being required to do work requiring special
strength and skill. In such instances the employers
do not particularly object to the organisation of their
few men, whom, as skilled workers, they would any-
how have to pay fairly well. But when it comes to
organising women and demanding for them higher
wages and shorter hours, the matter is much more
serious.
152 WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS
The present unsatisfactory condition of women's
Unions is, however, only what might be expected in the
early years of such a movement. Men's Unions have
all gone through a similar period of weak beginnings,
and in America there are special difficulties arising from
the presence of masses of unskilled or semi-skilled
workers of different races and tongues, and varying in
their traditions and standard of life. There is much
encouragement to be derived from the fact that the
leaders in men's Unions, both national and local, now
have more faith than formerly in Unionism for women.
The American Federation of Labour calls upon its
members to aid and encourage with all the means at
their command the organisation of women and girls,
" so that they may learn the stern fact that if they
desire to achieve any improvement in their condition
it must be through their own self-assertion in the
local Union." From 1903 onward every Convention
has favoured the appointment of women organisers.
Women also are developing a greater sense of comrade-
ship with their fellows and of solidarity with the Labour
Movement generally. As we have seen, there are now
few Unions which discriminate against women in their
constitutions, and the universal Trade Union rule is
" equal pay for equal work for men and women."
Even the special condition of this instability in
industry, the temporary nature of women's work, which
is so great an obstacle to organisation, is thought
to be changing. Within the last thirty or forty years,
changes in industrial and commercial methods have
opened up numerous lines of activity to women, in
addition to the factory work, sewing and domestic
service, which used to be her main field : " marriage
is coming to be looked upon less and less as a woman's
WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS 153
sole career, and at the same time the attitude in regard
to wage -earning after marriage is changing. The
tendency of these movements is to create an atmosphere
of permanency and professionalism for woman as a
wage-earner, especially among women in the better-
paid occupations, which in time may markedly change
her attitude toward industrial life." Such a change of
outlook and habits of mind must doubtless be slow,
but there are signs that it is in progress on both sides
of the Atlantic. The future of Unionism for women is
therefore not without hope, however unsatisfactory
the immediate prospect may be. Miss Matthews, the
writer of an interesting study of women's Unions in
San Francisco, sums up her observations on the subject
as follows :
Experience in contesting for their rights in Union seems
to have developed leaders among the Trade Union women.
Wages, hours, and shop conditions have all shown the
impress of the influence exerted by the organised action
of the workers. But if wages, hours, and shop conditions
did not enter into the question at all, still Trade Unionism
among women would show its results in a higher moral
tone made possible by the security which comes from the
knowledge that there are friends who will protest in time
of trouble and offer hope for better days ; it would display
its influence in a more awakened and trained intelligence ;
it would make evident its effort in a happier attitude
towards the day's work, arising from the fact that the
worker herself has studied her industry and has participated
in determining the conditions under which she earns her
livelihood.
In 1903-4 a Women's Trade Union League, on the
lines of the organisation of the same name in England,
was formed, and is doing excellent work to promote
solidarity and union among women-workers.
CHAPTER IVA.
WOMEN IN UNIONS (continued).
Women's Unions in Germany. 1 In Germany the
obstacles have been far greater than in England.
The relative prevalence of " Hausindustrie " and the
greater poverty stood in the way of women's organ-
isation, and until a few years back the law did not
allow women to join political societies. Women were
not, it is true, prohibited from joining Trade Unions,
but the line between political and trade societies is
not in practice always easy to draw, and full member-
ship of Unions has thus been often hindered.
The first Women's Unions were started in the early
'seventies of the last century, by middle-class women
who were also in the forefront of the battle for the
Suffrage. The authorities dissolved the societies.
Women-workers did not long maintain the alliance
with the " Women's Rights " Party. An independent
organisation was formed, which greatly exceeded the
previous efforts in numbers and significance. The
immediate impulse to the formation of this Union was
given by the proposal of the Government to put a
duty on sewing-thread, which would have been a
great burden on the needle-women who had to provide
the thread. Three societies were formed, the first
1 This chapter was written before the outbreak of war.
154
WOMEN IN UNIONS 155
being the " Verein zur Vertretung der Interessen der
Arbeiterinnen," which was followed by the " Nord-
verein der Berliner Arbeiterinnen " and the " Fach-
verein der Mantelnaherinnen,'' both of which were
founded and controlled by working women. Investiga-
tions of the wages and conditions of working women
were undertaken by these societies, in consequence of
which a debate in the Reichstag took place, followed
by an official enquiry into the wages of the women-
workers in the manufacture of underclothing and
ready-made garments, which only confirmed the con-
clusion already reached by private enquiry. The Truck
Act was made more stringent, in response to the
working women's movement, but as a secondary result
all the societies were dissolved and the leaders pro-
secuted. The authorities were taking fright at the
increase in the Socialist vote and in the membership of
Trade Unions; and the Reichstag, under the tutelage of
Bismarck, in 1878 passed the notorious Anti-Socialist
Law, under which not only Socialist societies but even
Trade Unions were harassed and suppressed. During
the twelve years in which the law was in force, however,
propaganda work was still carried on with heroic
courage and perseverance, and the solidarity and
class-consciousness of the workers, both men and
women, was developed and strengthened by their
natural indignation against the persecution suffered.
The men's attitude towards the women -workers,
which had been formerly reactionary and sometimes
hostile, gradually changed, partly because of the
energy and courage the women had shown, partly
through a growing recognition, which was intensified
by the enormous increase in women industrial workers
shown in the Census Report, 1895, that exclusion of
156 WOMEN IN UNIONS
women from the men's Unions could only exasperate
industrial competition in its worst form. In 1890
a Conference was held at Berlin at which the Central
Commission of German Trade Unions was founded,
and its attitude towards women was indicated by the
fact that a woman was a member of its Committee.
Measures were taken that in the committees of societies
which excluded women from membership, resolutions
should be proposed for an alteration of rules, and in
most cases these were adopted. Under their guidance
an agitation was set on foot to induce women to join
Unions. Into this agitation the women organisers
put an energy, patience, and self-sacrifice that is
beyond praise. Now the German Free Unions
(" freie Gewerkschaften ") are not identified with any
political propaganda, and cannot legally spend money
for political purposes if they have members under
eighteen. But in practice they are largely led and
controlled by members of the Social Democratic
Party, and thus it has happened that working women,
who were forced to abandon their own societies and
to join forces with the general Labour Movement, are
now largely under the influence and identified with
the movement for social democracy. It is incorrect
to speak of the Unions as " Social Democratic Unions,"
and yet in fact the two forces do work in harmony.
In the Labour Movement women found their
natural allies. Their co-operation secured men against
" blackleg " competition, and on the other hand the
social democrats have worked for women. In 1877
they petitioned for improvements in the working
conditions of women, and in 1890, that women should
have votes for the industrial councils that were then
under consideration. Bebel's Die Frau und der
WOMEN IN UNIONS 157
Sozialismus appeared about this time, and made a
profound sensation. In this work the relations of
the social question with the woman question were
analysed. " Nothing but economic freedom for
woman/' said Bebel, " could complete her political
and social emancipation."
In 1908 some of the remaining obstacles that im-
peded women from taking part in political and trade
societies were done away with by the Federal Associa-
tion law. The outstanding fact at the present time
is the enormous relative increase in the numbers of
women Unionists. Frau Gnauck gives the numbers
in 1905 as 50,000 in the " Free " or social democratic
Unions, 10,000 in the Christian. The figures for 1912,
from the German Statistical Year-Book, will be found
at the end of the section. 1 It will be observed that
although, as with us, the largest group of organised
women is in the textile trades, the members are more
generally distributed, and the non-textile Unions show
larger numbers, both absolutely and relatively, than
is the case in England.
The centralised Unions undoubtedly owe their origin
chiefly to the Social Democratic exertions, and are
strongly class-conscious. They, however, favour the
view that it is the duty of the State to protect the
workers by legislation from excessive exploitation,
and that it is the main business of the Unions to achieve
as far as possible immediate improvements in wages
and labour conditions. The comparative ease with
which new Unions have been built up and existing
Unions amalgamated is very largely due to Social
1 It is a curious reflection on the tardiness of our Government
statistical work, that figures for German Trade Unions are here
actually accessible for a more recent date than those of English
Unions. [Written early in 1914.]
158 WOMEN IN UNIONS
Democratic influence. Before Trade Unions existed
to any extent worth mentioning, Lassalle's campaign
for united action had taught the workers that the
engineer and his helper, the bricklayer and his labourer,
were of one class and had one supreme interest in
common ; that there was only one working class, and
varieties of calling and degrees of skill were not the
proper basis of organisation even for trade ends. The
ideal no doubt is one great Union of all workers, regard-
less of occupation. This is in practice unattainable ;
but the Germans, in whom class-consciousness is so
strong, are reducing the Unions to the smallest possible
number, and are also linked closely together by means
of the General Commission.
The General Commission of Trade Unions has its
office in Berlin. It publishes a weekly journal called a
Korrespondenzblatt, containing information of value to
Trade Unionists and students of Trade Unionism.
Connected with the Commission is a secretariat for
women, the work of which is to promote organisation
among women -workers. Still more recently it has
been arranged that each Union with any appreciable
membership of women should have a woman organiser.
The rapid increase among women members is an
indication of the increasing interest taken by the women
themselves. Considerable diversity in the scale of
contributions is one characteristic young persons, as
well as women, being admitted members along with
adult males.
It is evident that the German form of organisa-
tion is much better calculated to catch the weaker
and less-skilled classes of workers than is the more
aristocratic and old-fashioned craft Union of our own
country. The Germans hold that the organisation of
WOMEN IN UNIONS 159
the unskilled labourer is as important as that of the
mechanic, and their great industrial combinations
include all men- and women-workers within the field of
operations, irrespective of their particular grade of
skill. Endeavours are made to enrol all workers in
big effective organisations, and the success of these
tactics has been most significant. While in Germany
two and a half million workers are organised in forty-
eight centralised Unions, all affiliated to the General
Commission as the national centre, in England there
are more than a thousand separate Unions with about
the same total membership. In England barely one
million Unionists out of the two and a half belong to
the General Federation. These facts are not without
bearing on the position of women-workers. English
working men complain of the competition of women ;
the moral is, organise the women.
Another important field of Trade Union activity is
in the education of their members. There is a Trade
Union School at Berlin supported entirely by Trade
Union funds and managed by Trade Unionists. Care is
also taken that members of Unions should be politically
educated to understand their rights and duties as
citizens. Women -workers in all the "freie Gewerk-
schaften " enjoy the same privileges as men, and are
eligible for all boards or elected bodies of their respect-
ive Unions. There are as yet, however, only two Unions
in Germany which have a woman president, and the
majority on the executives of the other Unions are men.
This is not due to opposition by men, or to^rules
impeding the appointment of women on these bodies,
but rather to the indifference of many women-workers,
who, as in England, fail to interest themselves in the
affairs of their Unions. This lack of enthusiasm on the
160 WOMEN IN UNIONS
part of women is ascribed to their position in the home
and to the difficulty that they have in combining house-
hold work with wage-work, and at the same time
retaining any leisure or energy to concern themselves
with Union matters.
Contributions and benefits are usually somewhat
lower than in the case of men, because women's
earnings are usually less. Five national Unions have,
however, adopted the principle of equal scales for men
and women. In these cases the amount of contribution
varies according to the wages earned, and benefits are
graduated to prevent the risk of women becoming a
greater burden on the funds than men.
It is a patent fact that the number of organised
women -workers is very small when compared with
men in the same organisation, but the relative increase
is great, and the spirit of association is said to be gaining
a strong hold on women. The fact that so many
German women continue work after marriage is said
to be one cause of the increasing interest taken in