TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 515 



however, be remembered th<at the lower wages of women and the double 

 strain imposed by their home duties often react upon their health and 

 increase the natural sex disparity. 



2. Certain forms of work are believed to be bad for a woman's character or 



debasing to her taste, making her less fit to care for and train the next 

 generation. Here the problem is more difficult, and where these difficulties 

 are real n improvements could probably be made in conditions and hours of 

 ■work. It may be suspected that, m many cases, conditions which are 

 morally or intellectually bad for women are not altogether beneficial for men ! 



3. The comparative shortness of women's industrial career has led employers 



to regard time given to the acquisition of technical knowledge by women 

 as wasted. The young girls employed make up so large a proportion of 

 the total amount of female labour that it is customary to treat them as 

 if industrially they never grew up. In most trades 'there is a certain 

 amount of work requiring more experience, which absorbs the comparatively 

 small proportion of women who do not marry, or who remain permanently 

 in industry after marriage. 



Since, unfortunately, for some time to come it seems probable that 

 the female population will be more in excess of the male even than in the 

 past, the number of women who remain on the labour market all their 

 lives is likely to be increased. Already it is stated in some works that 

 during the last year promotion has been very slow because of the com- 

 paratively small number of marriages. Industrial ambition among girls is, 

 therefore, becoming very desirable, and experiments in their industrial 

 education are likely to become increasingly necessary. 



4. Women in the main do not regard their occupation as their life's work. 



The industrial value of a woman is minimised by the probability of her 

 marrying, and in the majority of cases her consequent withdrawal from the 

 trade. In any case it is stated that her attitude to marriage causes her 

 attitude to her work to be less stable than that of men. In many trades 

 it is said that women require more supervision than men, ow'ng to what 

 appears to be their lack of initiative and timidity with regard to respon- 

 sible work. They are less ambitious and more content to remain in positions 

 which make comparatively little demand upon them. 



In less skilled work, however, women are often in many respects superior 

 to men. A woman is generally a more cheerful worker and does not feel to the 

 same extent as a man the monotonv of performing some small operation during 

 long hours at a stretch and week after week. Women are also traditionally 

 more sober and patient than men. Both employers and workpeople speak 

 with admiration of the patience of women. This patience is no doubt partly 

 due to the fact that most women do not expect to be employed industrially 

 over a period of many years. 



It is difficult to dogmatise upon the attitude of woman to industry and 

 still more to prophesy as to her attitude in the future, but, generally speaking, 

 it is not incorrect to say that heavy work and work requiring great physical 

 strain are debarred to woman because of her lesser physical strength and 

 stamina. Secondly, her attitude towards marriage is essentially one of the 

 realities to be faced. Whether woman comes into industry on greater terms 

 of equality with man as far as training and continuity of employment are 

 concerned depends largely upon her own inclination in the matter, though 

 changed economic and social circumstances may force a still larger proportion 

 of women into the labour market. How far she will be able to compete with 

 men will be determined by her attitude and the natural disabilities which press 

 all too unfairly upon her in competing with men in industrial life. 



The above conclusions, which are based upon the opinion of employers and 

 others whose past experience enables them to judge of the suitability of women 

 for industrial employment are not intended to be in the nature of any final 

 statement of the limitations to women's employment. They attempt to indicate 

 the difficulties which have beset women's employment in the past, and though 



11 See pp. 510, 511. 



L L S 



