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
(_c_) Marriage.
(_d_) The introduction of the Linotype machine, of which there are
three in this establishment. This was urged as the most important
cause of the change back to men.
Of the work in general, it may be said that some intelligence is needed,
that no dangerous machinery is used, and that the health of the workers
depends largely on the character of the workroom. The special trade
disease is that to which men are similarly subject, viz., "consumption"
in some of its many forms.
In Glasgow the Typographical Association has strenuously, and, with the
above exceptions, successfully, resisted the introduction of women into
the composing-room. The attitude taken up by the men may be summarised
as follows: No objection would be offered to the employment of women at
the case provided that they served the usual seven years' apprenticeship
at the same rates as male apprentices, and then on its completion were
paid the full standard wage. "Underpaid female labour is equally unjust
to the legitimate employer and employee." To allow women unrestricted
access to the composing-rooms would probably lead in time, not only to
the reduction of the men's wages, but to the undermining of the trade
itself. The various branches of the trade which now demand many years of
apprenticeship before they are completely mastered by one man would be
split up and distributed among a number of highly-specialized workers.
Women would be employed for separate departments, and by being
continuously kept at one job or branch would become expert therein, but
would have no knowledge of the trade as a whole.
The employers, on the other hand, are aggrieved that, while the union
prevents women from acting as compositors in Glasgow, the same trade
society allows them to work in Edinburgh. The result of the present
arrangement is to divert a certain class of trade, viz., "solid dig," or
book work, from other centres to Edinburgh. The cause of this is to be
found in the non-employment of women compositors in Glasgow, and is not,
as sometimes suggested, due to the superiority of Edinburgh printing.
In answer to the claim of the union to equal pay for equal work for
women and men, it is urged by the masters:--
(1) Women when employed as compositors at piecework rates get the
best, _i.e._, the simplest jobs. They are put to do what boys
would be at when half through their apprenticeship. They are kept
always at pretty much the same kind of work, and thus become very
skilful at it. Boys, on the other hand, would claim to be shifted
on to the higher branches of the trade.
(2) The man who now does the solid type-setting, which the
employer wishes to see a woman do, is paid higher than a woman
would or should be, because he is liable to be called on at any
moment to undertake the more complex operations of his craft,
while a woman is not. In other words, the man is paid for
potential ability.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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