THE RURAL PROBLEM. 27 



EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 



For forty years or more the number of women employed in 

 agriculture has been diminishing, and in most districts this has 

 been regarded by the labourers as a sign of social advance. In 

 general women on farms have been casual workers, and, as rates of 

 wages have been low, the existence of self-supporting female field- 

 workers has been a precarious one. In England and Wales the 

 work of most of the women who are fully employed on the farm 

 is partly of a domestic character. They work in the house or 

 dairy for the main part of the day, except during the haymaking 

 and harvest seasons, and milk or assist with cattle mornings and 

 evenings. But in districts like Cheshire and Lincoln, where this was 

 general a few years ago it is now less common. To obtain domestics 

 for farm-houses it was necessary to relinquish the demand that they 

 should milk or work in the stalls or fields. It has been suggested 

 that the unwillingness of girls to engage m the dual aspects of 

 farm work was due to the prevalence of false standards of life ; but 

 in the main it has been due to a demand that the standard of con- 

 ditions of farm service should be raised in accordance with a rising 

 standard in other occupations open to the girls. Domestic service 

 in urban and suburban areas, which was the chief alternative, has 

 not been an ideal occupation, but the rough work of the fields 

 and the stalls was not added to the endless work of the house, and 

 there was more variety to be obtained on the " evenings off." 

 Ordmary field work for women in England has been more or less 

 confined to the garden and fruit farms, and to such districts as 

 parts of Lincoln and Cambridgeshire, Northumberland, and Durham. 



Wages of women servants varied considerably with the age 

 and ability of the girl, and with the district ; and little general 

 uiformation is available. The best indication of the conditions 

 is that it has been increasingly difficult to obtain the best girls 

 either for domestic work of farm-houses or for the dual work of 

 the house and the yards. Wages of women field-workers before 

 the war varied between Is. and 25. per da}^, but were generally 

 about Is. 6d. The rates now paid vary from 3d per hour for odd 

 work to 125. and up to £1 per week of 48 to 54 hours for weekly 

 work. In no district would the average rate amount to more than 

 £1 per week for the time worked, and nowhere, except in Scotland, 

 would the average for the year amount to £1 per Aveek. In many 

 districts the average earnings for the year would vary between £30 

 and £40 for women who are whoUy or mainly self-supporting 

 For women who do odd work, Sd. per hour is the rate in most 

 counties. 



There are now between 50,000 and 60,000 extra women working 

 on farms. Some of these are patriotic workers from the towns, 

 others have been domestic servants or industrial workers who are 

 self-dependent, and still others are village women who have another 

 source ^of maintenance. Most of the patriotic workers may be 



