Women in the Printing Trades: A Sociological Study.
General
Women in the Printing Trades: A Sociological Study.
Printing industry -- Great Britain; Women -- Employment -- Great Britain; Women printers -- Great Britain; Working class women -- Great Britain
ORGANISATION.--He had no knowledge of any Women's Unions covering the
women employed here. This is a Society house in every branch for the
men, but the manager said, "Trades Unionism is all humbug," and he would
like to do away with it altogether, if possible; but it is so strong in
London that if you want to get good men you must be a Society house.
MARRIED AND UNMARRIED.--He employed 2 or 3 married women amongst litho
feeders. The firm ask no questions, but he said he knew most of the
workers.
A lot of the job hands were married, but none of the regular hands in
binding room.
LEGISLATION.--In manager's opinion legislation had not in any way
injured the position of women workers. It did not affect him at all. He
never employed men to fold at night, because it would not pay.
Occasionally, when the litho machines had to be kept working late, he
had to draft in men from other departments to feed them, and he could
understand that a small printer, without different departments, would
find it awkward.
He would not himself have the place open at night with girls working in
it. He would not take the responsibility of that; they would "lark
about, etc." He thought it all to the women's advantage that they must
not work at night.
The intentions of the Factory Acts are good, and he approved of them in
principle, but there was a lot of humbug about them and the L.C.C.
regulations,[95] _e.g._, making him have six basins for lavatory for his
workers. They never used more than two, preferring to follow each other,
and they broke the others, and then round came the inspector and said
you must have six.
[Footnote 95: This is allowed to stand as an indication of the frequent
misunderstandings our investigators met with regarding the L.C.C. This
body appeared to be charged with everything that caused irritation.]
The L.C.C. put a premium on burglary by making it compulsory to have a
way out on to the roof. The Factory Inspector was not a practical man,
and ordered a great deal of unnecessary fencing of machinery. He told me
how one night he kept the girls late without giving notice (the work
came in unexpectedly), and sat by the telephone so as to send up notice
to the forewoman if the inspector came. It was not the Factory Acts
which kept women from being compositors.
MEN AND WOMEN.--Women did litho artists' work at home, and there was no
reason why they should not be quite as good at it as men. It was paid by
the merits of the sketch.
_Feeding Litho Machines._--He used to have boys, and a few years ago
introduced girls. They were much better at it, cleaner, quieter, and
more careful to place the paper exactly than boys.
He still had boys for _feeding letter-press machines_--why, he did not
quite know, except that it was the custom; then, having thought about
it, he said further, that it was because less care was needed. Girls
were no cheaper than the boys were, and were introduced solely on
account of being better workers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account