526 



REPORT — 1903. 



of women's hours as trade increased. In their trade he said " the 

 advantages to be gained by working the machines by night had increased 

 the importance of male labour in comparison to female." His opinion 

 was that the trade would be an increasing one in the future, and he 

 considered that if the conditions of trade became so prosperous as to make 

 it important to work night and day, people putting in new plants of 

 machinery would probably put in male labour. It was the custom of the 

 trade to employ women except when night-work necessitated men's labour. 

 The trade is only comparatively a small one at present, and this was the 

 only firm visited who employed men. Trade has fallen off this year (1 903), 

 and the above firm that last year employed ten men and 100 women now 

 employs only four men and sixty-seven women. A woman can earn up 

 to 36s. a week ' [Nottingham). 



A South London biscuit baker states that he would employ a few 

 women in placing biscuits on revolving ovens if it were not that he needed 

 overtime ; other firms employed women at this work. 



The prohibition since 1898 of the employment of women in certain 

 processes involving the use of white lead has led lo a considerable dis- 

 placement, modified by the substitution of innocuous processes in some 

 cases. The figures are so incomplete that we do not analyse them.^ 



(h) Suhstitidion of other Workers in Overtime. 



The instances in which women cease work at the end of their legal 

 hours and their process is carried on by men are fairly numerous, but 

 form a group which is not great in relation to the field of investigation. 

 In the Committee's second report several such instances are given (p. 292). 

 One instance is reported from the Birmingham tinplate industry. In 

 Kidderminster the men on rare occasions work overtime on the women's 

 looms. A vest-maker in Sheffield states that the men work long hours 

 and overtime in the busy season, doing some work which women would do 



' The numbers in the white-lead works for which the Factor}- Inspectors had 

 statistics in 1897 were : 



In the Newcastle-on-Tyne district tlie numbers are given as 



It is clear that these figures are on the one hand incomplete, and on the other 

 include many women engaged in processes still allowed to them ; and there seem to 

 be no statistics available which permit a satisfactory calculation of the number of 

 women displaced. 



One case is reported from Chester where women had been replaced by lads 

 for white-lead processes long before the legal prohibition. 



