ON WOMEN*S Laboui^. 855 



of married women is now probably less than it was twenty years ago, 

 owing to the growth of employment of young women and girls in ironing 

 (machine ironing) procesaes, but the census returns 1901 show still a very 

 large number : — 



Total employed in Working at 

 laundry work home 



■i!'«™in„^io„,i Woi„ ( Females, unmarriecl . . S(j,474 22,404 



England and Wale. ^ Femalesi married or widowed KW.tie? 50;G42 



r^..„t,r^f T„„--i„„ f Females, unmarried . . 20,158 2,804 



County of London | Females! married or widowed 27;204 7;604 



(b) Wa[/es and Hours of Labour. 



The witness before the Commission of 1875 quoted above enables us 

 to compare past and present as regards hours and wages for laundry 

 workers in London. First it may be noted that he considered legal limi- 

 tation of hours in London itself to be impracticable, on account of the 

 enormous^ season pressure, although he considered it practicable possibly 

 in factory districts such as Nottingham. The hours, he said, were much 

 longer for ironers than for washers, as in the latter case the labour was 

 being aided and superseded by machinery tended by men. Ten hours a 

 day is about what a washerwoman works, S A.M. to 8 p.m., with intervals 

 for meals : in their case it would be possible to limit the hours with the 

 help of machinery. Ironers' work extends over 14 or 15 hours during the 

 season, but actually, with nieal-timcs, which are closely adhered to, the 

 work goes on during 12 to 13 hours. Ironers will not work after 11 p.m. 

 as a rule, nor after 10 p.m. on Saturday. 'It is the London season, and 

 the pressure on them is so great that they are worked out by Satur- 

 day night. Occasionally they are asked as a great favour to go in on 

 Sunday morning for one or two hours, but the next week they suffer 

 from the want of rest undoubtedly.' In private and small laundries the 

 •hours, he says, are much longer, sometimes all night. As the workers 

 ■describe it, ' they are worked out, and no doubt they are.' Ironers, he 

 says, in the London season, earn 17s. to 19*-. a week, and out of the 

 season (if they are not ' out of work') earn from 9s. to lis. He gives no 

 information about washers' wages. 



Miss Collet's report to the Labour Commission in 1892, and the 

 special Report of the Inspectors of Factories on Laundries presented in 

 1893, show very similar conditions as to hours. As Miss Collet says of 

 steam laundries, ' by the employers' own admission very long hours are 

 Avorked ' ; she gives instances of weekly hours, exclusive of meal-times, 

 ranging from 63 to 72^ hours, and of daily periods ending at 9 p.m., 

 10 P.M., and 12 midnight repeatedly. In 20 out of 22 hand laundries 

 the laundresses habitually worked longer than the day limit imposed by 

 the Factory Act. In the special Report of the Inspectors longer and more 

 irregular hours are cited : ' Hours are irregular and excessive, two and 

 three nights at a stretch ' (Mr. Bowling). ' In a shipping case work 

 continued all Friday night and to noon on Saturday ' (Mr. Cameron). 

 ' Ironers work from Friday morning until Saturday at midnight (con- 

 tinuously . . . working 42 hours at a stretch ' (Miss Patei'son). 'Several 

 persons express the opinion that the pressui'e which occurs frequently on 

 Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, arises from mismanagement' (Miss 

 Abraham, Miss Patersoil, Mr. Vaughan, Mr. Shaw, and Mr. Dawson). 

 _ ' The fact that many laundries, including two belonging to shipping 



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