WOMEN WORKERS IN BRITAIN

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2468, 22 May 1915, Page 11

WOMEN WORKERS IN BRITAIN

GOVERNMENT'S PROPOSAL. The Government's proposal for registering the available women, workers las met with a varying response, but tho one thing clear in tho minds of all women one meets (writes a London representative of tho "Manchester Guardian") is that if women are to do men's work they must be paid men's wages. Another impression one gets i 3 that the suggestion is not taken very seriously, but is regarded as tentative rather than as immediately practical, and in one quarter at least it was suggested that it was merely put forward to spur the men to greater diligence. One of the societies most deeply interested is the Women's Emergency Corps. "The Government is eight months behind us," said Mrs. Falk, the secretary. "Within the first fortnight after war was declared we had registered the names of ten thousand women anxious for voluntary or paid work, and had classified their qualifications. They were ready then to step into employments, and so set men free to serve, and they would have helped in any other way. There was nothing they would not have attempted, It is very clear what the Government wants now. The nuniber of factory workers unemployed is fairly stable, and the Government knows it. What the Government does not know and we ,do is the extent of the reserve—the former workers who have married and the women who have never worked for money but are willing to do so. Wo would like to see all the women of the country employed in all 6orts of work, but always at men's wages. We can supply women for any post, but ,we will not supply any voluntary worker for what should be paid posts, or any women for under-paid work. There is an enormous number of women who would take the pfoco of taxi-drivers or drivers of other vehicles. They aro ready for rough work, too, and if the need arose would go into faotories; but I think there would then be class trouble with tho ordinary factory hands, and probably our women would bo mora successful with _ the lighter forms of farm work. My opinion is that these women would do their best work as independent units. They have initiative and intelligence, and could do good work without supervision. There aro battalions of such women ready to come forward. We hear of them from all parts of the kingdom." A Comparison With Franco. Mrs. Fawcett made a very interesting comparison between the work of women in England and France, where, according to some observers, the slaughter of men in the Napoleonic wars made large openings for women that had before been exclusively men's work. "In France," she said, "there are a great number of women employed both in ■agriculture and business. I have been told that dates from the Napoleonic wars._ After those wars France was Bp drained of men that had no choice but to encourage the employment of women. Many of the largest French businesses aro now in the hands of women. _ "The points we axe particularly insisting upon in this matter," continued Mrs. Fawcett, "are good pay; education, training, and, in tho case of agricultural employment, very great care as to housing. "I feel personally that there aro many departments of army work, what one may call tho domestic departments of the army administration, which could be much bettor managed by women, or at all events with the assistance of women. There is the waste of food and clothing in the camps, and the often faulty arrangements for billeting. Such work could be better done not perhaps entirely by women, but with the advico and assistance or women." Reverting to the criticisms of the trade unions on tho Board of Trade's scheme, Mrs. Fawcett said: "This is such an exceptionally important crisis in the history of the nation that we are bound to utilise every kind of national strength that we have. And, after all, men have the self-protection which.the franchise gives, and wo have not. I think it will bring it home to tho nation that if women are capable of rendering this national service they ought also to have the protection which comes from the Parliamentary vote."