742 EEPOitT— 1891. 



land values imparted by these means. The saving of time on the part of the 

 public which is now spent in purchasing tickets and in booking merchandise would 

 also be very great. 



The author does not claim originality for this idea, as free travel has already 

 been adopted in the few isolated instances which he has quoted. Mr. Cooper, of 

 Norwich, has given some very interesting figures showing the great economv which 

 would ensue to the public from the adoption of free travel. 



SATURDAY, AUGUST 22. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. Tlie Alleged Differences in the Wages paid to Men and to Women for 

 Similar Worlc. By Sidney Webb, LL.B. 



The inferiority of women's earnings as compared with men's is notorious, but it 

 is not so clear that this inferiority is miconnected with a real inferiority of work, 

 either in quantity, quality, or nett advantageousness to the employer. 



(a) Manual labour.— Statistics indicate that the average earnings of women in 

 manufacturing industries are from one-third to two-thirds those of men. But it is 

 diiBcult to find many cases in which men and women are engaged upon precisely 

 similar work in the same place and at the same epoch. Thus, in the tailoring 

 trade it is practically impossible to discover any such instance. A similar difficulty 

 has been experienced in discovering crucial instances in the boot and shoe trade, 

 paper making, cigar making, and all the Birmingham industries. 



The clearest case is that of the Lancashire cotton weavers, where men and 

 women perform the same work, in the same shed, under practically the same legal 

 restrictions. Here the women, who are as strongly organised in Trade Unions as 

 the men, have for at least two generations received the same piecework rates as 

 the men, and skilled hands earn as much per week. Statistics are given showing 

 that this equality prevails in the weaving of other fabrics, both in France and in 

 England, but not in other branches of the textile industries. 



On the other hand, women compositors (who are not trade unionists) habitually 

 receive in Edinburgh and Paris, as well as in London, not only lower time wages 

 than men, but also distinctly lower piecework rates for work of exactly equal 

 quality. Facts given as to other occupations of women, where no organisation of 

 workers exist, show a general inferiority of women's wages. 



"Where custom prevails, as in agricultural hirings by time, women, like boys, 

 get less than men. But in competitive agricultural hirings by the piece, as in 

 turnip-hoeing or harvesting, women and boys receive equal piecework rates with 

 the men. 



(6) Routine meiital zvork. — Here the statistics quoted with regard to type- 

 writers, clerks in the Post Office and a large insurance company, telegraphists, and 

 teachers, both in elementary and in secondary schools, show that women habitually 

 receive less than men for work of equivalent grade. Statistics of sickness in the 

 Post Office show that women are away from their work more days than men. 



The salaries of women teachers in the United States are less than those of men, 

 but the difference is greatest where women have least independence, and it dis- 

 appears altogether in "S^'yoming, wbeie women have the suffrage, and the School 

 Law enacts that no distinction of wages according to sex shall be made. 



(c) and (d) Artistic and intellectual wo7-k.^Few facts of economic significance 

 can be gleaned in these fields, but the cases of women singers and novelists, and 

 those of the Paris correspondent of the ' Daily News ' and the postmistress of 

 Gibraltar, show that women of special skill obtain their full ' rent of ability.' 



The only general conclusion that can be drawn appears to be that the in- 

 feriority of earnings is nearly always connected with inferiority of work. As a 

 rule the competition between men and women is a competition for ki7ids of work ; 



