TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 525 



Detailed Reports on Trades. 



In the following Reports on separate trades no attempt is made to be exhaus- 

 tive since in any case that is not possible under present conditions, and the 

 amount of information that we have been able to obtain differs considerably as 

 between different trades. Some details are, however, given in each case of the 

 position of each trade owing to the War, and the nature of the increased 

 employment of women, especially with reference to those processes in which 

 they have replaced or are likely to replace men. 



The Report on the Metals and Engineering group was mainly drawn up 

 from information received from the Birmingham district. The Leather and 

 Tailoring Reports will be found interesting from the fact that they are trades 

 into which women have been drawn in large numbers, but in which there does 

 not appear to have been any considerable displacement of men by women. 

 A Report on the Cotton trade is included mainly to show the effect of this 

 trade upon the general figures for women's employment. 



Reports on the possibilities of replacing men by women would not be com- 

 plete without some mention of trades which, though depressed since the War, 

 offer scope for the further employment of women. Accounts of the Printing 

 and Pottery trades are therefore given. Reports on non-industrial occupations 

 - — distributive trades, clerical work in banks and other offices, railway work and 

 transport, and Government employment, are also included. Owing to the com- 

 plicated nature of the question it has been thought inadvisable in the few 

 weeks at our disposal to attempt any inquiry into Agriculture, although this 

 occupation offers a number of interesting examples of replacement. 



Distributive Trades. 



The retail distributive trades offer peculiar scope for the further employment 

 of women, and since the War the increase of women's employment has been 

 more general in these than in most other trades and occupations. In the 

 majority of firms this increase would have been larger but for the fact that 

 there has been a diminution of trade, especially in those shops dealing in better- 

 class goods ; shops catering for a lower grade of goods have been comparatively 

 busy. The replacement of male by female labour in these trades is no new 

 phenomenon, as is shown by the following table, but the shortage of male 

 labour owing to the War has accelerated the process to a considerable degree. 



At present the majority of employers consider their data and experience too 

 inadequate to express final opinions as to the effects of the introduction or 

 increase of women's labour. 



Nature of Increase of Women's Work. 



Since the War women have replaced men and youths as saleswomen in all those 

 lines where it has been customary for women as well as men to be employed, 

 e.g., stationery, toilet requisites, and prepared drugs. They have also entered, 

 both as saleswomen and as shopwalkers, and in isolated cases as buyers, into 

 those branches which have in the past been regarded for the most part, and 

 especially in larger shops, as men's monopoly, such as grocery, provisions, 

 fruit and greengrocery, chintz, &c., heavy fabrics, men's hosiery, and hard- 

 ware (light articles only). Women are now employed in practically every type 

 of shop and warehouse except where the work is too heavy, e.g., ironmongery 

 and Manchester departments of drapery stores; or highly technical, e.g., 

 scientific instrument shops. Women have made their first appearance as com- 

 missionaires and timekeepers, as lift-girls, and in the packing departments in 

 sorting, checking, packing, and putting up orders, as well as in the despatch 

 departments. Some firms have appointed women on their administrative staffs, 

 but rarely are women given positions of responsibility over men. Women are 

 appearing for the first time on delivery vans, both horse and motor, as cvcle- 



