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
Spring and fall are the busy seasons, but work is
furnished all the year. Board, $2 to $2.50." The Union Glass Co.,
Boston, write: "We employ women in assorting the different qualities of
ware, in cementing glass and brass parts together, and in cleaning
glass. Their average pay is $3.50 per week, ten hours a day. There is no
comparison in the prices of male and female labor, as they do not
perform the same kind. The laws of supply and demand regulate pay,
excepting that very valuable women get twenty-five to fifty per cent.
extra pay. Men spend from seven years to a lifetime learning the
business--women a year or so to learn the best paid kind of labor. There
is little chance of women rising above $5 per week, as they perform only
a certain department of labor. There is generally constant employment to
good hands all the year. We employ fifteen, because it is customary and
found expedient. Men can be employed at a better profit in other
departments. Remuneration twenty-five to fifty per cent. less than men
would require. The glass manufacture is carried on chiefly in the New
England and Middle States."
=266. Blowers.= I called in a factory where men were blowing glass bells
to color and gild for Christmas trees. The man, a German, said in
Germany women make them. The women there earn fifty cents a week at it,
while men earn $2, though they do the work no better, and no more of it.
There a person can live as well on $3 a week as on $10 here.
=267. Beads.= Beads are made to a limited extent in this country, but
nearly all are of French or German manufacture. Some cheap beads are
made of potato and colored, and some made in imitation of coral. E.
employs girls to make baskets, headdresses, &c., of beads. They cannot
earn more than $2.50 a week of ten hours a day. He has most of it done
in winter. Another gentleman, who has beads made into bracelets,
necklaces, &c., gives the work mostly to married ladies, who do it in
their leisure hours, and to school girls. They do so, because they can
get it done more cheaply than if they employed those who do it to earn a
living. They pay for such work by the gross, and a person could not earn
over $3 a week at it. Putting the necklaces on cards is done by some
ladies they employ by the week. Spring and winter are the busy seasons.
The importation and selling of beads have formed quite a business in New
York for some years. G. judges from the appearance of the applicants
whether they are to be trusted with materials, takes an account of the
kind and quantity given, and the address of the applicant, requiring
them to be returned in a week's time. B. has children's coral bracelets
and armlets made up, for which he employs two English girls, who each
earn $1 a day at their work.
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