506 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION P. 



men, and Major Tuclor-Craigt undertook to give the Section the benefit of his 

 experience on the employment of disbanded soldiers and sailors, i 



This Report is, therefore, confined to the replacement of men by women in 

 industries as a result of the War. and the possible permanent eflFects of this 

 replacement. It was finally drafted by the Officers of the Section, who are 

 greatly indebted to the above Sub-Committee and more especially to Miss 

 Ashley and Mr. Hitchcock. The other members of the Conference are not 

 responsible for the details given nor for the views expressed. 



II. — Women's Employment during year August 1914 to 



August 1915. 



After a year of war we are able to regard with some knowledge the course 

 which women's employment has taken during that period, and the nature if not 

 the extent of the entry of women into trades and occupations hitherto reserved 

 wholly or partially to men. Broadly speaking, that movement has only just 

 begun (August 1915) to assume any appreciable magnitude. In few industries 

 has the position yet shaped itself. We are therefore at present able to do little 

 else than to indicate the course which industry has taken and roughly to 

 sketch the events which have led during the past year to the present position. 



Eiwployment in Early Months of War. 



It was clear to the least observant that during the first two or three months 

 of the War a considerable depression had been caused throughout industry, 

 especially among the following trades — dressmaking, millinery, women's fancy 

 and children's boot and shoe making, silk and linen, cigar and cigarette making, 

 the umbrella trade, confectionery and preserve making, cycle and carriage 

 making, jewellery, furniture making and French polishing, the china and glass 

 trades, stationery and printing. In some trades a shortage of raw material or 

 the loss of enemy markets caused a more or less lengthy period of depression. 

 Thus the shortage of sugar caused very considerable unemployment in what was 

 almost entirely a woman's trade — ^jam-.preserving and confectionery. The 

 chemical trade was al^o affected by th^ complete cessation of the imnortation of 

 certain commodities from Germany. The practical closing of the North Sea to 

 fishers brought to a standstill the occupation of those wnrnpn whn are to be 

 found every season in thousands on the English coasts following the herring 

 round. ^ The closing of the Baltic cut off the sunnlies of fl^x from Bnosia upon 

 which our I'nen trade lararely depends, and women's employment in a whole trade 

 was again considerably decreased owing to the lack of raw material. In almost 

 every trade unemployment figures rose to a point onlv equalled in times of very 

 severe trade depression. The cotton trade was esneciallv hit. Before the War 

 a period of decline had set in, and Lancashire suffered in add'tion from all the 

 disadvantaeps incidental to a time of naval warfare. Casual houseworkers such 

 as charwomen and office cleaners, and even skilled domestic servants such as 

 cooks, found themselves out of employment owing to the economies which the 

 public were making. The unemployment of good cooks, however, did not last 

 many weeks. 



Distress amongst Women. 



The distress caused by unemployment is generally felt more bv men than by 

 women, but in the early days of the War the effect of trade dislocation upon 

 women was out of all proportion to its effects unon men. For the women there 

 were few counterbalancing forces such as recruiting. Indeed the full economic 

 effe^'t of the immediate trade depression fell upon them, and the ''rrcrular pav- 

 ment of separation allowances at the beginning of the War considerably added 

 to the prevailing distress. 



1 Mr. Tumor is publishing a book which will contain the substance of his 

 address at Manchester. Major Tudor Craig was unfortunately, owing to illness, 

 unable to atf^end the meefinar ns had been arrans'ivl. 



* See Englishwoman, December 1914, article by J. Haslam. 



