TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 725 
subjects cognate to various trades, and for the special trades subjects the teacher 
must be a person who has had actual trade experience of workshop and factory 
conditions, 
4. Day Trade Schools for Girls. By Mrs. J. Ramsay MacDonatp. 
The experiment of day trade schools for girls is still in its infancy in this 
country, but the promising infant has a great future before it. The standard of 
wages and conditions of work of women in industry is even lower than that of 
men. This is due to the fact of woman’s double work—wage-earning in factory 
or workshop and the responsibilities of home. The former is apt to be looked 
on as temporary and comparatively unimportant, whereas men look upon their 
trade as their life work. This tendency is disastrous to the four million women 
wage-earners of the country. eo eee 
To raise the conditions the training for industry must be taken more 
seriously. At present there are few opportunities for such training. Evening 
classes are comparatively valueless after girls have worked at trade all day. The 
Women’s Industrial Council has pressed upon the London County Council the 
need for day trade schools for girls. In October 1904 the London County 
Council started the first of these—that for waistcoat-making—at the Borough 
Polytechnic. Now there are, in addition, schools for dressmaking and upholstery 
at this polytechnic. Also there are classes for ready-made clothing and 
upholstery at Shoreditch Technical Institute; for dressmaking at Paddington 
and Woolwich; and for dressmaking, corset-making, and ladies’ tailoring at 
Morley Coliege—to be moved in the autumn to special premises in Westminster, 
where classes for laundry work are also planned. The broad lines of instruction 
are the same in each. 
Altogether 280 girls are now receiving instruction, and this number will 
be increased in the autumn. The pupils attend after leaving elementary schools, 
most of them having scholarships with maintenance grants, and the course is 
about two yeurs in length; six half-days a week are devoted to trade teaching ; 
four half-days to general instruction, including art work, bookkeeping, writing 
of business letters, and so forth, in close connection with the trade work. The 
trade teachers are in each case women who have come straight from good 
positions in the workroom, and are closely in touch with trade methods, Hach 
class also has an advisory committee of trade experts, employers, foremen, and 
others, who visit regularly and give most helpful criticisms and suggestions 
important to gain the confidence of the trade. Mrs, Oakeshott, the L.C.C. 
organiser, gains knowledge of conditions in workshops and factories, and helps 
schools to keep up to date. 
The girls begin with easy exercises, and soon proceed to more and more varied 
and elaborate work, instead of beginning, as in the workroom, with running 
errands and being kept at drudgery tasks to suit the convenience of older 
workers. The fundamental difference is that in the school the pupils’ develop- 
ment is the first consideration; in the workroom, the customers’ convenience. 
The youngest or slowest pupil has the special attention of the trade teacher and 
the expert advisers, and the use of good materials to practise on, even at the 
risk of spoiling them. They are also taken to see the best shops, museums of 
art work, and so on. Another especial advantage is that the hours are short, 
and the pupils do not get the backache, anemia, and general weariness which 
fall to the lot of the girl of fourteen who goes straight from school to work 
ten and a half hours, or even more, daily in the season. 
It is remarkable to see how the girls respond to this teaching. Girls of 
thirteen and fourteen manipulate blouses and evening dresses in best West-end 
style; make waistcoats which evoke the enthusiasm of their teacher, who 
herself ‘sees something fresh to admire in her trade every day’; and at their 
art lessons design ornamentations and traceries for embroidery which are tasteful 
and graceful. The girls are at first made to do the work thoroughly and 
