The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's WorkPenny, Virginia
General
The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's Work
Penny, Virginia
Women -- Employment
is essentially different from men's, we cannot make a comparison in the
prices paid." At another homoeopathic pharmacy, I was told they employ a
few girls to wash bottles, to put on labels, and place them in the
boxes. They are paid from $3 to $3.50 a week. At a wholesale drug store,
one of the proprietors told me they "employ a number of women, and pay
by the piece, the workers earning from $3.50 to $6 per week. Different
kinds of work have different prices. They pay from the first. Those who
put up perfumery earn most. The greater part of the duties in a drug
store can be performed by well qualified ladies as efficiently as by
men." So few ladies are employed in that way, that they might feel timid
about assuming the responsibilities of a drug store in a city. Yet,
after they had spent two or three years in a store of others, where they
were properly instructed, why need they feel any more responsibility in
a drug store of their own? I was told that no drug broker and no retail
druggist employs women. When employed, it is by those in the wholesale
business. I called on a German widow keeping a retail drug store, but
who employed a young man to attend the store. She regrets that she did
not learn to compound of her husband. She can sell simple medicines, and
buys all her own medicines. She had heard of one lady druggist, in
Switzerland, that performed all the duties of a druggist, and one in
Germany; but it is not common to see women in the business there. H. &
R., druggists, employ women to put up patent medicines, and pay $4 or $5
per week. Mr. M., maker of patent medicines, employs some girls all the
time. When busy, they pay from $6 to $8 a week, but at other times $3.
It requires some experience to put up pills. The pills are mixed,
rolled, and cut by men, as it is heavy work when done extensively. Their
girls get $2.50 the first week of their work, and their wages are
increased in proportion to their skill and abilities. Messrs. K. & K.,
wholesale druggists, employ a woman to put up Seidlitz powders,
furnishing all the materials, and paying by the quantity. They pay her
about $250 a year, but suppose she is assisted by some of her sisters at
home. Mr. H. employs a woman to put up Seidlitz powders, paid for by the
gross. A smart woman can earn from $1.25 to $1.50 a day. A measure is
used, containing the right quantity for filling the papers. A house that
makes extract of ginger, in Philadelphia, formerly employed women to put
it up; but they now employ men and boys in preference, because of the
work they can do at intervals, that women cannot do. I called at Mrs.
S.'s drug store. The youth that stood behind the counter said drug
stores kept by ladies, or where they are employed to dispense, would not
be patronized by physicians. He said, if any trouble should occur, from
want of knowledge or skill in putting up medicines, and the case was
brought into court, the man that employed female dispensers would be
punished.
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