TKANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 201 



in a room sometimes without a fireplace, with door and window closed, and no 

 current of air throngh it ? 



Tiio author described some of the habits of the cottagers, and noted Ihe im- 

 provements which are to be observed in the tidiness of theii- dress, and in other 

 respects. He advocated the promotion of the taste for music, and instruction in the 

 principles of hygiene in village schools. 



On some Maxims of PoJitieal Economy as applied to the Emphyment of 

 Women, and the Education of Girls. By Lydia E. Becker. 



In regard to employments common to both sexes by which persons gain a liveli- 

 hood, one rule is of almost universal application, that when men and women are 

 eunaTed in the same occupation, the remuneration of women is fixed at a lower 

 rate than that of men. In some cases this arises from actual superiority in men 

 as men for the work, in others from the superior advantages in training which are 

 arbitrarily given to men. In the Staflbrdshire potteries the higher and more ele- 

 gant branches of the trade, the modelling and painting, are given to men, while 

 women do the rough heavy work. In teaching, where the requirements from men 

 and women are equal, and the capacity of either sex for the work the same, wo- 

 men are paid only about two thirds the salarj' of men. It is said that, as a mat- 

 ter of fact, a schoolmistress can be had for less money than a schoolmaster, and 

 therefore the law of supply and demand, and the rules of political economy require 

 that she should receive less. But while this rule of political economy is alleged 

 as a reason for keeping down tlieir remuneration, women find that some other rule 

 than that of economic science is brought in to prevent them from having the benefit 

 of the law of supply and demand when that rule would tell in their favour. In 

 order to make it just that women should receive only the market price for their 

 services, there ought, on the other liaud, to be an open market for their labour ; 

 but women are not allowed to compete for the best paid educational posts. It is 

 arbitrarily assumed that they cannot teach boys, therefore in this country they are 

 shut out from the most profitable part of the teaching profession, although expe- 

 rience proves that women make excellent teachers of boys. 



Sometimes it is alleged as a reason for the inequality between men and women's 

 salaries, that it must be assumed that a man has a wife and family to maintain out 

 of his income, and this is usually not the case with a woman. But this reasoning 

 goes beyond the law of supply and demand. In calculating wages, the emploj'er 

 has no right to go bej'ond the consideration of the quality of the work demanded, 

 and the number of competitors for the post, in the question of what the recipient 

 of the wages means to do witli the money, nor to assume that he or she cannot 

 need such and such a sum. Women are arbitrarily shut out from many employ- 

 ments in which they are fully competent to engage. There has been an interposi- 

 tion on,the part of University authorities to hinder the supply of women doctors 

 to the demand of women patients. The rule of giving less to women than to men 

 is applied where it cannot be excused imder the plea of supply and demand. In 

 the table of conditions under whicli the Government grant assurance policies and 

 annuities, we find that a man and a woman of like age have to pay a like premium 

 for a life assurance policy, but that if a man and a woman of like age pay a like 

 sum for an immediate life annuity, the woman's annuity will be 7h per cent, less 

 than that of the man. The introduction of needlework as a compulsory subject in 

 o-irl's schools acts injuriously on the quality of education to be obtained in them. 

 Bovs are allowed to devote their whole school time to intellectual work, while girls 

 are" only allowed to exercise their intellectual faculties on the condition that they 

 shall devote a considerable portion of school time to manual labour. The gulf be- 

 tween the intellectual attainments of the sexes is already too wide, and the impulse 

 that is being given on all hand to the education of boys is making it wider every 

 dav. In order to accomplish the object of getting the whole people thoroughly 

 educated, the wisest and speediest method would be to bestow the principal sliare 

 of attention on that part which is confessedly behind, that of the feminine lialf of 

 the nation. When the standard oi education for women shall be brought up to the 



