36 

 SECOND SESSION. 



WOMEN IN INDUSTRY. 



By MARION PHILLIPS, D.Sc. (Econ.), 



(General Secretary of the Women's Labour League). 



There are two ways in which the war has deeply affected the whole 

 outlook of women in industry. From those two there flow a number 

 of immensely significant alterations, not only in the point of view 

 of women themselves, but also in the estimation of and indeed in their 

 actual value to the whole community. But the roots of the many 

 changes which we see around us in the position of women, changes 

 that are psychological as well as economic, are due to two fundamental 

 changes of the social balance. The one is the absence of many millions 

 of men from their homes for service in the forces of army or navy, or as 

 munition workers, and the other is the fact that, for the first time, 

 the demand of the employer for the woman worker has been greater 

 than the demand of the woman worker for employment. 



The change brought about by the first is not so much a change 

 in economic relations as a change in outlook, a psychological alteration 

 in the* mind and spirit and bearing of women. For the absence of 

 many millions of husbands has thrown upon the wives the full control 

 and responsibility for the family life. I do not want to undervalue 

 the responsible share which women have always necessarily had in 

 these tasks, but the taking away of the husband and father has altered 

 entirely, for the time being, the basis of the partnership which every 

 married life, happy or unhappy, successful or unsuccessful, is bound 

 to observe. For the first time, women of all sorts and kinds, of all 

 phases of weak and strong characters, with experience of the world 

 and without it, have had to face the conditions of a country at war, 

 and to deal with the problems it has created as independent individuals 

 without anyone at hand to take responsibility or to decide their action 

 for them. More than that, they have had to act without consultation 

 with their nearest and most intimate counsellor ; and again I say, 

 whether or no most husbands give good or bad counsel, the position 

 of women, deprived of all possibility of that counsel, is an entirely 

 new one. The effect of it can be seen all around us, and I think there 

 is little doubt that it is bringing about changes in the character and 

 strength of mind of women which are yet incalculable. But they 

 will have to be reckoned with in the future, and the effect of this freedom 

 from any sort of control or advice from the ordinary partner and 

 commonly leader of their joint life, has certainly given to the everyday 

 woman a new grasp of experience, widened her outlook, and increased 

 her confidence in her own judgment, until she faces the world to-day 

 from a totally new angle. 



