before. The requirement of attendance at the work-
room (usually for forty hours weekly) was a guarantee
of genuine need. This method of dealing with the
problem of distress is probably as satisfactory as any
that could be devised off-hand, though the workrooms
did not escape criticism on the score of attracting girls



250 THE EFFECTS OF THE WAR

away from " normal employment." 1 This is no doubt
possible, the scale of women's wages in " normal
employment " being still unfortunately so low. Ten
shillings a week would not attract workers away from
decently paid work done under decent conditions.
The criticisms, however, point to the desirability of
such arrangements being carefully co-ordinated to
avoid overlapping, especially with the technical training
provided by the Education Authority.

Although the working of the plan was good as far
as it went, it went unfortunately only a little way.
By the first week in November a couple of dozen
centres of employment had been started, and perhaps
i per cent of the unemployed women had been provided
with work in the workrooms. 2 There were besides
uncounted thousands whose work and wages were
reduced to a mere fraction of what they had previously
been. Had the local authorities been already educated
by the Local Government Board to take a broader
view of their responsibilities and more scientific
measures in discharging them, a great deal more of the
ground might have been effectively covered. It is
to be hoped that if similar measures are needed after
the war, as seems likely to be the case, the experience
of 1914-15 will bear fruit.

The New Demand for Women's Labour. With the
continuance of war an unexpected situation gradually
shaped itself. The clothing and accoutrement of the
great army that was speedily recruited, as well as
urgently-needed supplies for France, and for Russia, so
far as they could be transported thither, created a huge

1 See a letter by Mr. A. J. Mundella, L.C.C., in the School Child
for De^mber 1914.

1 New Statesman, November 7, 1914.



ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN 251

demand for labour, and by December the shortage of
skilled labour was a serious problem. More especially
was this the case with the munitions group of trades,
which became the largest and busiest of all. With some
lack of foresight too many men from these industries
had been allowed to enlist, and eventually some were
even brought back from the front. Thousands of
women poured into armament making ; factories have
been adapted to meet the new demands ; trade union
rules and legislative requirements have been consider-
ably relaxed ; women to a limited extent are replacing
men. These are some of the outstanding features of a
situation which is already bewildering in its complexity.
The shortage of skilled workers which has formed
and still forms so serious a difficulty in supplying the
army, is due not only to the enlistment of skilled men,
but also to the tendency which the past thirty years or
so have unfortunately shown to be increasing, for the
displacement of the skilled by the unskilled worker.
The ignorance of parents and the attraction of the
" blind alley " occupations for the children of poor
homes, where every shilling counts, combined with the
organisation of business primarily for profit and the
inadequacy of social safeguards in this matter, have
created a difficult position. The lack of training and
experience is, however, much more general among
women than among men, and has formed a serious
obstacle to their employment. The replacement of
men by women in manufacturing industry has thus
been less than might have been expected. Women
have to a considerable extent replaced men in com-
mercial and clerical work, in some occupations in
and about railway stations, also as shop assistants,
lift-attendants, etc. There are even suggestions that



252 THE EFFECTS OF THE WAR

the underground railway service of London might be
entirely staffed with women ; but up to the time of
writing this has occurred only to a limited extent.
There has of course been an enormous increase in
women's employment, but a large part of the war
demand is for goods on the manufacture of which
women normally predominate, as clothing, food-
stuffs, etc. Another large part of the demand is for
work on such processes as the filling of shells, and is
now swollen to an unparalleled degree. What has
happened has been that subdivision of processes and
grading of labour have been introduced, as well as
mechanical adjustments to facilitate the employment
of women. As usually happens when women are
introduced to a new trade or branch of a trade, the
work is more or less changed in character. No doubt
the pressure of war conditions has had the effect that
women are now performing processes that were
previously supposed to be beyond their strength or
skill or both, especially in leather, engineering, and the
wool and worsted trades. The line of demarcation
between men's and women's occupations is drawn
higher up. But women have not to any great extent
replaced men in the skilled mechanical trades, the
immediate and insurmountable obstacle to such
replacement being their lack of skill and training.
In certain trades, however, where women have been
given opportunity and facilities to undertake work
involving judgment and skill, they have, aided by the
stimulus of patriotism, shown both intelligence and
initiative, revealed unexpected powers on processes
hitherto performed by men, and done work " of which
any mechanic might be proud " (see report mentioned
below; compare the Engineer, Aug. 20, 1915).



ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN 253

The lack of training therefore may perhaps explain
the very small results that have so far followed from
the appeal to women to register for war-work, made
by the Government in March 1915. As to the origin
of this appeal, little is definitely known. It may have
been intended as a recognition of the efforts and
sacrifices already made by women during the war. It
may have been, as some suggest, probably not without
foundation, that the measure was instigated by the
Farmers* Union, in the hope of getting cheap labour
on the land instead of raising the wages of men. The
women's organisations were not consulted, and even
the Central Committee on Women's Employment,
then anxiously engaged in reviewing and where possible
adjusting the dislocation of women's employment,
had, we believe, no previous notice of the appeal.
A very small proportion only of the women who
registered were called upon to work within the next
few months ; only three or four thousand out of 80,000.
This small result is said to be due to the fact that only
a very small proportion were capable of the skilled
jobs awaiting them. 1 In great part the new demand
for labour has been met by the overflow from other
industries, though it has been supplemented by the
addition of voluntary workers of the class usually
termed " unoccupied," that is to say, not working for
wages. There are obvious risks in bringing women
from the upper and middle classes into a labour market
the conditions of which are usually much against
working-women ; on the other hand, such an arrange-
ment as was made, e.g. that amateurs should train so
as to replace ordinary working women for the week-end,

1 Report on Outlets for Labour after the War, British Association,
Section F., Manchester, 1915.



254 THE EFFECTS OF THE WAR

seems an admirable device to use the superfluous
energies of the leisured so as to give the workers time
for rest and recuperation.

Another problem arising out of the present extension
of women's employment relates to the enormous strain
imposed upon the women and the inadequate pay they
have in many cases received. We have touched on
this point above in connection with the wool and
worsted trades. Incidentally these conditions show
that the unorganised state of women prevents their
taking full advantage of the labour market even
when the position is strategically in their favour.
In some of the processes on which women have been
introduced the skill required is quite considerable,
and the output varies, depending greatly on the
worker's health and strength. High speed cannot be
maintained without proper intervals of rest ; prolonged
fatigue reduces capacity. The prime conditions for a
persistently high output are a scientific adjustment of
hours of work, adequate food, ventilation, and necessary
comforts. These facts in the twentieth century are
not unknown, but in war-time they were practically
ignored. Many of the women on war -work were
grievously overworked, and though praised for their
patriotism in working overtime, did not receive wages
sufficient to afford them the extra nourishment and
comforts they should have had. In some cases,
especially if doing men's work, they were highly paid ;
in others the pay was not only below the standard of
a man, but was inadequate to maintain the physical
endurance required. The patriotic feelings of women-
workers were shamefully exploited, and the state of
mind revealed by persons who should have known
better was deplorable. In one case of a prosecution



ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN 255

by the Home Office the magistrate refused to convict,
although a girl under eighteen had been employed
twenty-four hours without a break, after which she
met with an accident.

Yet another problem arises out of the substitution
of women for men. We have seen reason to suppose
that this is taking place less extensively than is sup-
posed, but it undeniably occurs, and may assume
much greater proportions before the war is over.

Are women who replace men to be paid merely the
wages that women of the same grade of skill usually are
paid ? In that case they will be undercutting men, and
preparing a position of extreme difficulty after the war.
Or are the women to be paid the same wages as the
men they replace ? They certainly should, wherever
the work is the same. As we have seen, in many cases
the women do not do exactly the same work as men,
and indeed in the interests of their health and
efficiency it is often highly desirable they should not
do quite the same. It may be quite easy, e.g., for
a woman to cut off yards of cloth to sell across the
counter, but it may happen that the man she replaces
not only did this but also at intervals handled heavy
bales of goods which are beyond her strength. In
such cases as this a rearrangement of work with due
regard to relative strength is desirable, and a rigid
equality of wages should not be insisted on. Organisa-
tion of all women-workers employed to replace men is
become a more pressing need than ever, to ensure first
that women should not be paid less than men merely
because they are women ; second, that women should
not have work thrust upon them that is an injurious
strain on their constitutions; third, that the future
interests of the men now serving in the field should not



256 THE EFFECTS OF THE WAR

be disregarded. The point insisted on in Chapter IV.,
that women need not only to be enrolled in Unions
but to have a voice in the management and control
where they are organised along with men, has been
made plainer than ever. So strongly was this felt at
Manchester that a special committee was formed for
the protection of women's interests in munition work,
and for co-operation with the interested trade unions
in any movement towards the organisation of the
women. A special campaign for the organisation of
munition workers was initiated and carried on by the
National Federation of Women Workers.

The Results the War may have. It is impossible as
yet to estimate what effects the war will ultimately have
in modifying the position of women. The surplus of
women, in itself a source of much social ill, will be
increased ; the young girls of to-day have a diminished
prospect of marriage. At the same time the spending
power of the community must almost certainly be
curtailed, and apart from military requirements there
will be a less demand for women's work in many
occupations. Thus at the very time that women will
need more than ever to be self-dependent, their oppor-
tunities of self-dependence will be narrowed. Another
aspect, a more hopeful one, is that the scarcity of men
may improve the position of women and lead to their
being entrusted with posts, not necessarily identical
with those of men, but more responsible and more
dignified than those women have usually filled. Objec-
tions of a merely conventional nature are likely to
disappear. It seems also possible that the present
shifting of women's employment out of the luxury
trades that ebb and flow according to fashion and idle
caprice, into Government service and trades vitally



ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN 257

necessary to national existence, may remain after the
war, only that women's energies may then, as we hope,
be turned once again to save life rather than destroy it.
There are signs that a deeper and more intimate
consciousness of society as a whole may operate in
favour of women. The recruiting campaign, for
instance, may induce certain reflections. Between
1891 and 1900, 781,475 male infants died under a
year old in England and Wales alone, making an
average death-rate of 168 per thousand births. If
even the very mild measures for the improvement
of sanitation and the care of infants and nursing
mothers that have been adopted in recent years
had been customary twenty years ago, we should
have now in England some hundreds of thousands
more lads of recruiting age or approaching it than are
actually here, and many of those who survived the
high death-rate of those years would have escaped
damage in early years and be stronger and finer men
than they are. If we now adopted much more generous
measures to the same end, we could probably save
some hundreds of thousands more to serve their
country in twenty years' time. And ail this would
cost an infinitesimal sum in comparison with what is
now being poured forth to make these young men as
strong and fit for the field as possible. The militarists,
if they were consistent, would realise that at the back
of the army stands another army the army of the
poor working women, underfed, overworked, badly
housed, and insufficiently clad. The patriots, if they
were more clear-sighted in regard to their own desires,
would spend a great deal more time and energy in
demanding, for the sake of military efficiency, that the
conditions under which the nation's babies are brought

s



258 THE EFFECTS OF THE WAR

into the world and the mother nursed and nourished
should be changed in a quite revolutionary manner.
Some of us may not love this style of argument ;
the view of men as " food for powder " and women as
mere feeders of the army may seem an ignoble one.
Those who hold such views will, however, have to
consider their implications more closely.

It was a curious coincidence, perhaps even not a
wholly fortuitous one (who can say ?), that in the very
week preceding our declaration of war, when Europe
was already resounding with the tramp of armed men
and the rumble of artillery wheels, the Local Govern-
ment Board should have issued its first memoranda
on the subject of Maternity and Child Welfare. These
circulars, addressed to County Councils and Sanitary
Authorities, advocated a considerable extension of the
work of Public Health Departments in the direction
of medical advice and treatment for pregnant and
nursing mothers and their infants, and an extensive
development of the system of home-visiting of women
and infant children already in existence in some places.
Parliament has already voted a grant to the extent of
50 per cent of the cost in aid of local schemes for
Maternity and Child Welfare. The immediate appeal
of the War Relief Fund and the difficulties of its
administration have, no doubt, combined with the
inertia characteristic of many local authorities to efface
any very bold initiative on the more fundamental
but less clamant questions raised in the Local Govern-
ment Board memorandum. Still, the fact remains
that the needs of the woman and the young child have
been at last recognised as vital, however inadequate
the means taken to meet them have so far been. These
needs will be urged by Women's Societies and by labour



ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN 259

organisations, and the war will have the effect of
bringing them into stronger relief as time goes on, and
may supply the impetus for a still more drastic scheme,
on the lines advocated by the Women's Co-operative
Guild. 1

It is now recognised, or is coming to be recognised,
that it is not alone the soldier who serves his country
in war ; the great part played by industry in building
up the nation's life is equally vital. " Industry and
commerce," writes Mr. Arthur Greenwood, " are not
primarily intended as a field for exploitation and
profit, but are essential national services in as true a
sense as the Army and Navy/ 1 Such a recognition
should have its effect in raising the woman's position,
the special economic weakness of which is, that her
value to the community is greater than any that
can be measured in pounds, shillings, and pence,
while nevertheless she, like others in a competitive
society, is compelled to measure herself by com-
petitive standards. During the war industrial women
have been working day and night to supply
military and naval requisites, taking their part in
national defence as truly as if they could themselves
aid in slaughtering the enemy, and not without con-
siderable overstrain and damage to their own health
and strength. Others, again, have spent their time
and strength toiling to make good the deficiencies in
Government organisation, not only for the relief of
distress and unemployment, but even for the needs of
recruits themselves. Working women in their homes

1 See The National Care of Maternity, by Margaret Bondfield,
published by the Women's Co-operative Guild. The proposals
include the administration of Maternity Benefit by the Public
Health authorities in lieu of the approved societies, the raising of
maternity benefit to 5, and other changes.



260 THE EFFECTS OF THE WAR

bear a disproportionately heavy share of the burden
of trouble and anxiety caused by the rise of prices in
the necessaries of life. Vast numbers of women have
offered up their sons and brothers in battle ; hundreds
of thousands have lost their employment and been
reduced to poverty and distress. The efforts and
sacrifices made by women cannot have passed wholly
unnoticed by the Government, and we may hope
that some real development of the position of woman,
especially of the working woman, will follow the
hoped-for settlement of this terrible crisis.

Even the thoughtless sentimentality of the well-to-
do leisured woman has been touched to finer issues.
Impelled to "do something " for the soldiers, she
turned instinctively to the traditional or primeval
occupations of women, and wanted to make shirts,
etc., with her own hands. She was, however, here
confronted with the new idea that the needs of the
unemployed working woman must be considered. In
the autumn it was suggested those who could
afford new clothes should order some to stimulate
employment. In the spring and early summer, on the
contrary, the utmost economy was advocated, capital
being scarce. The most irresponsible class in the
community were thus asked to realise themselves as
members of society, to understand that philanthropy
was not merely an opportunity for them to save
their own souls, that even their personal expenditure
was not a merely private matter, but that both
must be considered in relation to the needs of the
commonweal. 1

Constructive Measures. The experience of the war
should certainly lead to some better - thought - out

1 B. Kirkman Gray, History of Philanthropy.



ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN 261

method of dealing with times of stress and unemploy-
ment than has ever yet been in operation, especially
with regard to women. It would be beyond the scope
of this volume to draw up such a scheme in detail, but
some points may be indicated. The need of better
training has become plain. To raise the upper limit
of school attendance is urgent, if education is to be
worthy of the name. A better all-round training at
school would give girls more choice of occupation,
and would not leave them so much at the hazard of
one particular process or trade. Develop a girl's
intelligence, train her hand and eye, and she will be
helped to master the technical difficulties of whatever
occupation she may wish to follow or work she may
need to do. For older girls special technical and
domestic courses may be most valuable, especially if
taught in such a manner as to occupy the mind and
increase the capacity, and not as mere mechanical
routine. It was noted during the boom of work for
the army that girls who had been trained in a trade
school could adapt themselves more readily to a new
and unaccustomed process than could those who had
only ordinary workshop training. As a further develop-
ment of the education question the experience of
1914-15 should lead to the provision of increased
facilities for physical exercise in the open air (and time
to use them) for young people of both sexes. In the
first winter of war we were all amazed at the change
effected by a few months' training and fresh air, at the
fine well-set-up young men who had lately been weedy
clerks and pale-faced operatives. It may perhaps
dawn upon us after the war that if the country can
afford to satisfy the elementary needs of healthy life
in young men when they stand a good chance of dying



262 THE EFFECTS OF THE WAR

for her, it might be worth while to do something of the
same kind for those who are to live for her and make
her future. Perhaps eventually even the physical
health and soundness of girls may be held to justify
some provision for exercise in the open air.

In the second place, the local authorities should at
times of stress offer all the useful employment they
possibly can find to women at fair rates of wages.
The more genuine employment a municipal body can
find for women in time of need the better, whether by
anticipating work that would normally be wanted a
few months later or by increasing the efficiency of
special services, such as the educational or health
services, district nursing, cleansing and sweeping of
schools and other buildings. Why not organise a
grand " spring cleaning " of neglected homes, with
domestic help to aid the overtaxed mothers of
families ? Special investigation of particular industrial
or sanitary conditions as to which information was
needed might well be carried out at times when
educated women of the secretarial and clerical pro-
fessions are unemployed.

It is evident that we need a better scheme of Em-
ployment Bureaux for women. There should be a
centre of information and a clearing-house where
workers, found superfluous in their previous occupation,
could be drafted into such new ones as they were
capable and willing to undertake, and this might
possibly be worked in conjunction with a system of
training. The comparative success of the work
hurriedly improvised, and with many difficulties, by
the Central Committee on Women's Employment, is
a clear indication that some similar organisation on a
larger scale, say a National Advisory Council, linked



ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN 263

up with the Labour Exchanges and representative of
women's organisations, might be infinitely valuable.

Another constructive movement that seems to be
gaining ground is that for the organisation of women
as consumers. At the end of Chapter V., written
early in 1914, I ventured to prophesy that some such
form of association would be needed as a complement
to the work of organising industrial women- workers.
In June 1915 a number of women's societies were
engaged in forming an association to take measures
to counteract the war scarcity and increase the supply
of food, to extend agricultural and horticultural training
for women, to improve the feeding of children in
schools, to establish cost -price restaurants for the
poor, and to urge the Government to form an Advisory
Committee to deal with the whole subject and take
steps to control the rise of prices, such a committee
to include representatives of women householders. 1

1 Daily News and Leader, June 24, 1915. It may be remarked
here parenthetically, though not strictly germane to the subject,
that not only the local authorities, but the Departments, even the