Women wanted: The story written in blood red letters on the horizon of the Great World WarDaggett, Mabel Potter
History
Women wanted: The story written in blood red letters on the horizon of the Great World War
Daggett, Mabel Potter
Women -- Employment; World War, 1914-1918 -- Women
It was before the war that the great feminist, Olive Shreiner, wrote
her book which has been called the Bible of the woman movement. In it
occurs a memorable statement: “We claim all labour for our field.”
Now it is our field. Women to-day are working as longshoremen, as
navvies barrowing coke, as railway porters and conductors and ticket
takers, as postal employés and elevator operators, as brick-settlers’
labourers, attenders in roller mills, workers in 78 processes of boot
and shoe-making, in breweries filling beer casks and digging and
spreading barley, in 19 processes in grain milling, in 53 processes in
paper making, in 24 processes in furniture making, in boiler making,
laboratory work, optical work, aeroplane building, in dyeing, bleaching
and printing cotton, in woollen and velvet goods, in making brick,
glazed and unglazed wear, stoneware, tiles, glass, leather goods and
linoleum. In France a year before the war, it happened in the baking
trade that a committee appointed to take under advisement the question
of admitting women reported adversely that the trade was not “adapted”
to women. To-day there are 2000 women bakers in France. In all
countries the largest number of women are employed in two occupations,
in agriculture and in munitions. England had last spring 150,000 women
at work in the fields and was in process of enrolling 100,000 more.
In munitions the last returns show England with 400,000, Germany with
500,000 and France with 400,000 women.
In this the engineering trade, women have mastered already 500
processes, three-fourths of which had never known the touch of a
woman’s hand before the war. “I consider myself a first class workman
at my trade. It took me seven years to learn it,” said a foreman to me
through the crashing noise of the machines among which we stood, “but,”
and he waved his hand over his domain in which 1700 women were at work,
“these women, at occupations requiring speed and dexterity, already
excel me.”
He led me to the side of a girl who was drilling holes in brass. “See,”
he said, “she does 1000 holes at 50 centimes an hour. No man we were
ever able to employ, ever did more than 500 holes an hour, and we had
to pay him 75 centimes.”’
We came to the gauging department: “Here,” he said, “women are more
expert than men. See how well adapted to the task are their slender,
supple fingers? And they work for 50 centimes an hour, where we should
have to pay men 80.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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