Women Workers in Seven Professions: A Survey of Their Economic Conditions and Prospects
General
Women Workers in Seven Professions: A Survey of Their Economic Conditions and Prospects
Vocational guidance; Women -- Employment -- Great Britain
These examples have been given because it is necessary that a woman
intending to adopt the profession of medicine should know the sort
of work, quite apart from the treatment of her cases, which a medical
woman, worth her salt, has to do. It may be asked how it is, if these
difficulties are still constantly arising, that our pioneers were so
successful? For several reasons: first, because they were in the best
sense women of the world: they understood when to be firm and when
to give way. They understood mankind. Secondly, they had an assured
position. This is probably the most essential condition of all for
success. Before decent terms and conditions of work can be demanded,
the worker must be in such a position financially that she can, if
necessary, refuse the work in question, and if possible the employer
must be aware of this fact. So often women enter the labour market
only when driven by stark necessity, that it is unfortunately the
easiest thing in the world to exploit them. People of either sex faced
by starvation for themselves or those dependent on them must take the
first thing that offers if the conditions be in any way bearable. In
my opinion, next to the parliamentary vote, the most powerful lever
in raising the condition of women will be the entrance into the labour
market of a considerable number of women so trained in Economics that
they will always "play the game," and at the same time sufficiently
remote from want to be able to resist the sweating employer.
Some people discourage women of independent means from entering the
labour market through the mistaken idea that if such women work they
are taking away the chance of some other women who are in need. In
case any reader may be in doubt on this question, I should like
to point out that it is the groups of workers among whom no such
economically independent individuals are to be found, that are always
exploited by the unscrupulous employer; they are such easy prey.
What really makes women workers afraid of their independent sisters is
that extremely pernicious system of payment euphemistically known as
"pocket-money." This should be swept off the face of the earth. Even
the richer woman has some rights, notably the right to work, and
I would suggest that she has this particular, and certainly not
unimportant function of raising the rate of remuneration. From my
knowledge of her, I consider that she is most anxious to do nothing
but good to her fellows. The only thing she needs in order to become
a help instead of a menace to her poorer sisters is knowledge of the
rules that govern the economic labour market.
Owing to the necessary expense and prolonged training for the medical
profession it has probably attracted a larger proportion of working
women who were not subject to immediate economic stress than most
other branches of work, and it is, in my opinion, due to the
presence of such women, that the conditions in it as a whole are so
satisfactory.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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