Women -- Employment -- Great Britain; Women labor union members -- Great Britain; Working class women -- Great Britain
It seems, however, highly improbable, from what one knows of the working
woman's point of view and outlook, that as she becomes able to voice her
wishes she will favour an indiscriminate levelling of sex-restrictions in
industry; on the contrary, it seems likely that as she becomes more
articulate and has more voice and influence in the organisation she
belongs to, she will favour regulations of a fairly stringent nature in
regard to the processes within an industry which may be carried on by
women. Many of the observations that have been made on industrial women in
recent or comparatively recent years show that although at times they are
driven by stress of need to compete with men or to do work beyond their
strength, yet that they regard themselves mainly from the point of view of
the family and believe that to keep up the standard of men's wages is as
important as to raise their own.[48]
_The Middle-Class Woman's Movement._--There is, however, a complication
between the labour woman's movement and the woman's movement for
enfranchisement and freedom of opportunity generally, and great care is
necessary to avoid confusing the issues. The labour woman's movement is a
class movement in which solidarity between man and woman is all important.
The women's rights movement aims at obtaining full citizenship for women;
that is to say, not only the Suffrage but the entrance to professions, the
entrance without special impediments to local governing bodies and,
generally, the abolition of belated and childish restrictions that hinder
the development of personality and social usefulness. Now these two
movements are not in principle opposed, and there is no reason why the
same women should not take part in both, as in fact many do. The
opposition consists rather in a difference of origin and history. The
labour movement is born of the economic changes induced by the industrial
revolution, and tends towards a socialistic solution of the problem. The
women's rights movement is the outcome of middle-class changes, especially
the decreasing prospect of marriage, which, together with the absence of
training and opportunity for work, has produced a situation of extreme
difficulty. The middle-class woman's agitation was inevitably influenced
by the ideals of her class, a class largely engaged in competitive
business of one kind or another. Equality of opportunity, permission to
compete with men and try their luck in open market, was what the women of
this type demanded, with considerable justification, and with admirable
courage. The working woman, on the other hand, the victim of that very
unrestricted competition which her better-off sister was demanding, before
all things needed improved wages and conditions of work, for which State
protection and combination with men were essential.[49]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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