37 



In this new independence of the wife, she has undoubtedly been 

 helped by the effective strength of the industrial army of women. 

 Women of all ages up to thirty-five at any rate, have found themselves 

 wanted in the industrial world in a new way. They have been wanted 

 not merely as cheap labourers, scarcely worthy of their hire, but as 

 responsible and well paid workers with the full dignity that skill, 

 steadiness, and capacity establish. I do not say for a moment that 

 there are no cases to-day of underpaid women workers. Any Trade 

 Union office has but to turn over the pages of its correspondence to 

 find plenty such instances ; but I do say that the opportunities for 

 women to rise above the old level of the industrial drudge have for 

 the first time since the Industrial Revolution been widely opened. 

 There are to-day hundreds of thousands of women who are earning 

 the first living wages paid to women in industry, and there are many 

 thousands who are earning wages equal to those of the men whom they 

 are replacing. More than that, though at any one time there may 

 always be found a handful of unemployed women here or there, there 

 has never before been a time when the work has been waiting for the 

 woman, rather than the woman been begging for the work. High 

 wages can be earned. Regular and indeed often too regular and too 

 long-continued employment can be readily found. Skilled trades are 

 opened. The highest posts in the factory world are open too, and women 

 have for the moment a fair field and favour for their industrial skill 

 to wax great and their wages to grow larger. 



Even in the case of those women and girls whose wages are still 

 low, the influence of women's improved industrial outlook is having 

 its effect, and not only is this shown in the growing number of Trade 

 Unionists amongst women, but also in the improved bearing and 

 independence of the workers even in sweated trades. 



The increased wages, the increased demand, the increased opportunity 

 for skill to find itself welcomed and rewarded, all these have both 

 an economic and psychological effect on women. I may seem to 

 labour too much this change in outlook. If I do, it is because I want 

 men to realise that in dealing with the problems of women's work 

 in the future they have to think of the women under this new aspect, 

 as women who have learnt their own value as workers, learnt the 

 independence that a real living wage can confer, and learnt that men 

 do not hold a monopoly of industrial skill and capacity. If some 

 women knew that already, their numbers were few, and their con- 

 victions lacked widely gathered proofs. To-day there are proofs all 

 around us, and women know their strength. It will be well for both 

 employers and fellow workers to understand that in future the woman 

 in industry is a far stronger competitor, both mentally and economically, 

 than in the past. But I believe that if they see these things, and 

 if the male worker realises them and what they imply, the term 

 competitor may be relegated to the dark ages of the past and the term 

 colleague be substituted. 



