OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 June 1938, Page 4

OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN

INTERESTING FIGURES “BOOKIES” AND UNDERTAKERS The woman organiser of the Union of Post Office Workers has reported that Britain has 164 postwomen. What other jobs usually looked on as a male prerogative are now done by women in England? There are several thousand women mine-workers in Britain. True, none of them work underground, but in the coal-mining areas alone there are about 2400 women employed in above-ground workings. Some 70 women work in chalk, gravel and sand quarries, and there are 10,000 women potters and hundreds of women glass blowers. About 80 women are classified as “fishermen” and one of them, Miss Margery Ragless, hold a master’s licence. There are also several women harbour officials, and, until three years ago, there was a woman harbour master —at Porthdinllaen, in Wales. In the transport industry there are more than 900 women shunters, pointswomen, and level-crossing keepers, 16 ticket collectors; 170 porters, 254 lorry and waggon drivers; 1408 bus and tram conductors; a number of bus and taxi drivers; and even one tram driver. There are 27 women dock labourers in- England and Wales; 200 stationary engine and crane drivers; and five boiler “firewomen” and stokers. More than 300 married women earn their living as smiths and forge workers. In the building trade there are 122 women slaters and tilers, 30 stonemasons, and many master builders, as well as more than 2000 painters and decorators.

In England and Wales there are 17,000 women farmers, and 18,000 female farm workers and servants. There are women doctors, dentists and lawyers, of course, and there are more than 200 women ministers in the Baptist, Congregational, and Unitarian Churches.

There are women sweeps and barbers, more than 400 women “bookies,” and about 200 women undertakers.