334 



REPORT — 1903. 



this fact depend entirely, not upon the proportions, but upon the numbers. 

 To come down to an imaginary example on a small scale. Suppose that 

 in a mantle factory there were twenty women workers and one man cutter, 

 and that, business increasing, eleven more women were taken on and an 

 assistant cutter. This new state of affairs would be exactly represented 

 by the above (Miss Boucherett's) statement, but yet, if you multiplied it 

 by a thousand it would still mean that eleven thousand fresh women had 

 come into the trade and only one thousand men.' 



The additional engineers, stoker, foremen, cutters, assistant cutters 

 and porters account for the added thousand : as the trade becomes more 

 specialised, the subdivision of labour greater, and the use of power-driven 

 machinery more common, the need for skilled cutters, foremen, and 

 engineers becomes greater. In the workshops where no machinery is 

 found, although the sub-division of labour is continually more marked, 

 the increase in the percentage of men is less than in the factories. The 

 Factory Act regulations as to limitations of hours are identical in non- 

 textile factories and workshops. 



The attached tables, which give all the relevant figures published by 

 the Factory Department, show that in spite of legislative limitation of 

 hours, which applies to all the subdivisions of the clothing trade alike, 

 there has been a marked decrease in the proportion of males since 1890. 



But the difference in the percentage of males and females, whether in 

 the trade as a whole or in the different subdivisions of it, has nothing 

 whatever to do with legislative enactment, but is dependent on modifica- 

 tions and fluctuations in the conditions of the industry : viz. the ex- 

 tended use of machinery, the nature of the machinery, the subdivision of 

 work into different branches each with its skilled foreman, the influx 

 of alien workers, as in the ' bespoke ' (workshop) tailoring trade, the in- 

 fluence of fashion, which decrees that women's garments shall be more 

 often cut and fitted by men tailors than formerly, and a number of other 

 causes. 



Clothing: Nianbers in Woi-kshops under hispection. — The Percentaf/es are of 

 Females relatioe to Nianber of Males and Number of Females. 



(Children excluded except in hats and habeidashery.) 



