Generally, the results of our investigations show the following summary of the advantages and disadvantages of women's labour to the employer, and their employment in preference to men depends upon how far in any given case or under any given circumstances the balance of these advantages and disadvantages is on the side of the women--or, it must also be said, how far the employer is bound by conservative use and wont so as to be protected against any impulse to employ the best organisation for the efficient conduct of his business. The advantages of the woman worker are:-- 1. That she will accept low wages; she usually works for about half the men's wages. 2. That she is not a member of a Union, and is, therefore, more amenable to the will of the employer as the absolute rule of the workshop. 3. That she is a steady[44] worker (much emphasis must not be placed upon this, as the contrary is also alleged), and nimble at mechanical processes, such as folding and collecting sheets. [Footnote 44: "In Mr. W----'s youth, men used to do all the card mounting. Women were introduced for it about twenty-nine years ago. They were brought in because the men drank so and kept away." But later on the same informant said that he had to introduce a varnishing machine because women "kept away so."] 4. That she will do odd jobs which lead to nothing.[45] [Footnote 45: Birmingham boys, for instance, would not feed printing machines, because it "leads to nothing," so girls were employed. _Cf._ Aberdeen, p. 47, etc.] Her disadvantages are:-- 1. That she has less technical skill than a man, and is not so useful all round. 2. That she has less strength at work and has more broken time owing to bad health and, especially should she be married, domestic duties, and that her output is not so great as that of a man.[46] [Footnote 46: An employer with considerable experience both of men and women in the printing trade in Scotland, says, "given a certain area of floor space for men and women, on the former would probably be produced half more than on the latter."] 3. That she is more liable to leave work just when she is getting most useful; or, expressing this in a general way, that there are more changes in a crowd of women workers than in a crowd of men workers. 4. That employers object to mixed departments.[47] [Footnote 47: 1, 2, and 4, together lead London employers to conclude that an extension of women's employment is impossible, because it would mean larger workshops in proportion to the numbers employed, and consequently ruinous rents.]