TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION P. 533 



any change of policy and, for the present at any rate, would generally prefer 

 men ticket collectors to women. 



The chief objections to the employment of women ticket collectors are : 



1. The limitations to their sphere of activity. 



2. Their comparative inability to deal with extra or sudden pressure or 



with the rougher classes of passenger traffic. 



These two disabilities, in combination, constitute a serious obstacle ; thus at 

 main stations and junctions, while specialisation and subdivison of functions 

 render the first objection inoperative, the second objection is strongly accen- 

 tuated. At provincial stations the position reverses itself and it is the first 

 objection which is operative, while the latter is absent. The provincial ticket 

 collector often discharges a variety of duties involving considerable training, 

 endurance and initiative, so that the introduction of women is regarded as 

 undesirable except where the sphere of activity is limited to the issuing and 

 collecting of tickets, and such other light duties as checking, invoicing, and the 

 telegraph. 



There are further obstacles in the isolation of outlying offices, which could 

 not be put in the sole charge of women, as they are in the case of men, and 

 in the mobile character of the work, which frequently involves the transferring 

 of workers in the lower grades from one district to another. It is generally 

 admitted that even if it were desirable on other grounds, women show them- 

 selves less adaptable than men to such change of surroundings and of routine. 



Finally the shorter hours, and the exemption of women from early and late 

 turns, which the subdivision of work makes possible in the case of main stations, 

 are obviously impossible in the case of small provincial stations where a single 

 booking clerk is employed. 



Within limits, therefore, the employment of women as ticket collectors both 

 in main and provincial stations appears to be practicable, but it is not capable 

 of indefinite extension and is further complicated by the question of early 

 training, which would have to be much more seriously considered if the 

 employment of women were regarded in the light of a permanent change instead 

 of, as now, a purely emergency measure. Because it is an emergency measure 

 and because of the abnoi'mal condition of traffic, the unusual procedure of 

 introducing women without training can be justified. Normally, the ticket 

 collectors are recruited from the porters, and the direct introduction of men 

 or youths from outside the railway service for such duties is a quite exceptional 

 occurrence, though one Kailway Company apparently follows this method and 

 recruits only a very small percentage of its ticket collectors from among its 

 porters. In consequence a newly appointed collector has, as a general rule, 

 three or four years' varied experience behind him, which has a considerable 

 practical application to his new routine. But in view of the strong expression 

 of opinion against the permanent employment of women as porters, it is difficult 

 to see how women can receive any such practical training for the duties of 

 ticket collecting. In any case the balance of advantage must always rest 

 with the men, because it would be unsuitable for women to enter the railway 

 ■service on the operative side (as contrasted with the clerical) at as early an age 

 as men. 



Of the men's attitude towards the question different accounts are given. 

 The position of the ticket collector is a popular one, being regarded on the one 

 hand as a ' soft ' job and on the other as the stepping stone to the 

 position of guard, inspector, and other responsible posts. Therefore in the 

 case of the more unambitious and conservative men, their attitude is not 

 unlikely to be, and in some instances is reported to have been unfavourable. 

 The entry of women, as one railwayman expressed it, is ' forcing ' the men to 

 accept promotion. It is natural to find this opinion reversed in the case of 

 the more ambitious men, because the employment of women in the less respon- 

 sible posts and without any expectation or desire of promotion, must tend to 

 accelerate the promotion of the men. The Railwaymen's Union has opposed 

 this division of the work into skilled and unskilled labour, but as far as the 

 employment of women is concerned it is difficult to see how this can be other- 

 wise, in view of the special disabil:ties of women, the difficulty of training them 



