In London, several firms refuse to employ married women as regular hands. In some cases this is a policy of the forewoman only, and not a rule of the firm. In others the head of the firm is responsible for the order. The motives vary. Some refuse on principle, holding that husbands should support their wives; _e.g._, "She won't countenance husbands living on their wives' earnings and idling themselves"; or, again, that it is "hard on single girls," or undesirable to have married women working amongst unmarried girls, because, "They spoil a shop by talking about all sorts of things." Other employers refuse to have them because they are too irregular--"You can't get them in in time"; others because "one has no hold over them," or because "they are tiresome, being so cocky." "Out of seventy-five girls," runs one of our reports, "he had none married till recently, when he failed to get enough unmarried. Dislikes having them because influence bad."[93] [Footnote 93: Reasons given for not employing married women, taken from a batch of London reports:-- (1) Irregular. (2) Principle. (3) Principle. (4) Principle. (5) No hold. (6) Chance. (7) Principle. (8) Chance. (9) Irregular. (10) Irregular. (11) Principle. (12) Moral principle. (13) Moral principle. (14) Principle (?). (15) Principle (?). (16) Expediency. (17) Principle. (18) Principle. (19) Principle. (20) Principle. (21) Principle. (22) Rule. (23) Rule. (24) Rule. (25) Expediency. (26) Principle. (27) Principle. (28) Principle. (29) Principle. (30) Principle. (31) Irregular.] As a rule, however, there is a certain number of married women on the staff, and all houses who have recourse to job hands in busy seasons must, on occasions, have married women on their premises, though they may object to employ them as regular workers. The exact proportion of married to unmarried women in these trades is impossible to judge. Accuracy could only be obtained by taking a census of each shop. Estimates vary. A forewoman of experience calculated that more than half were married. A Trade Union secretary and an experienced worker estimated that about half were married, whilst of the job hands taken separately, more than three-fourths were married women. Another Union official, however, reckoned that, taking the trades as a whole, there were four unmarried to one married; taking job hands separately, two were married to one unmarried. Most of those conversant with the trade are careful to give no figures, "a large proportion" are married, or a "good few," and so on, are the common expressions. All, however, agree that the largest proportion of married to unmarried is found amongst the job hands; that, in fact, the majority of that class of workers have husbands. A few instances of the proportion amongst the regular staff in houses taken at random are given below. In most cases, it was impossible to obtain any figures, but the following may be taken to be types:--