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
"The prohibition of overtime for young persons imposed by Section 14 of
the Factory Act of 1895 has, in my opinion, proved to be the most
beneficial clause of that Act. It has, moreover, been carried out
without any serious interference with trade and without causing much
difficulty to the inspectors.
"The further restriction in the same clause of the overtime employment
of women by reducing the number of times on which it may be worked in
any twelve months from forty-eight to thirty was also a step in the
right direction. If overtime were abolished altogether except for
preserving perishable articles, the season trades would soon accommodate
themselves to doing without overtime in the same way that the cotton,
woollen, linen and silk manufacturing trades have done, for they also
are season trades."
[Sidenote: Opinion of employées.]
Among the older workers in the trade are men and women who remember
conditions before the passing of the 1867 Act, and the experience of
some of them and the comparison they make between work done before and
after the Act is worthy of note.
A. used to work till 10 every night when she first entered the trade.
She was glad when the Act was passed to get home early, and never liked
working late.
B. used to work from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. regularly, including Saturdays.
Frequently she had to work till 10 or 12 and sometimes to begin at 5
a.m. The "young governor" used to take her and some of the other girls
home at night as they were afraid to go alone. She disliked overtime,
was tired out at the end of a day's work, and thought the other women
were too, and she had often noticed how badly the work was done after
eight or nine hours at it. Later on, as a forewoman, she noticed that
the girls after overtime always loafed about the next day and did not
work well. Some women liked overtime, but she noticed it was always
those who spent the extra money earned on drink. She did not think that
work had gone from the women in consequence of factory legislation, but
thought that married women were employed for a little while during a
rush of work where before the regular hands were kept working late. She
remembered how tiresome it was for the married women to get home in
time to fetch their babies from the _crêches_ when the hours were from 8
to 8.
C. has often heard her mother-in-law say that as a girl she constantly
worked all night and then had to work just the same the next day. She
used to consider that to get home at 7 on Saturday was early, and now
every young lady looks forward to her Saturday afternoon. Workpeople
have a much better time than they used to. There were no proper meal
hours. She used to get "just a snack between her work."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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