548 TRANSACTIONS OF .SECTION P. 



Moreover, they have shown themselves capable of successfully carryhig out 

 arduous processes, such as forging, etc., which hitherto have only been performed 

 by men, and of managing machine tools of a very different nature and requiring 

 a very much higher standard of intellect than do automatic and semi-automatic 

 tools. In fact, it can be stated with absolute truth that with the possible 

 exception of the heaviest tools— and their inability to work even these has yet 

 to be established — women have shown themselves perfectly capable of perform- 

 ing operations which hitherto have been exclusively carried out by men.' 



Besides the replacement of men, there has also been a considerable replace- 

 ment of boys by women in some processes. Many comparatively young lads are 

 now engaged upon work of a kind which would certainly, in normal times, be 

 entrusted to adult workmen. Such a process, therefore, as engraving, which 

 would otherwise have been done by boys, is now undertaken by women, who 

 are engraving dials on maxims, numbers on gun parts and shells, etc. Where 

 a very high degree of accuracy is demanded, which can be tested by a purely 

 mechanical operation, girls are often founfl to work better than boys or men, 

 for the very reason which is thought to make them less valuable in processes 

 requiring judgment. Girls, not having yet begun to take their industrial career 

 as seriously as boys, frequently do not attempt to exercise their judgment with 

 regard to their work. Since private judgment is only found to interfere with 

 accuracy in a purely mechanical test, their work is, for this reason, more 

 exact and satisfactory. 



It is clear that an extension of employment of women in munition work is 

 still possible, since in July last the number employed in this country, much as 

 it had increased, was only between a fifth and a tenth of the number employed 

 in France. The number in England was then, according to Mr. Lloyd George, 

 50,000, and, though it has grown very considerably since, there is still room for 

 expansion. There are in France some women of really high skill in the engineer- 

 ing trade capable of looking after as many as three machines at once. At the 

 same time the main obstacles to the further employment of women are stated 

 to be very much the same in France as in England. The number employed as 

 fitters is small, and on lathes and automatic machinery they require the super- 

 vision of a skilled mechanic to set up the work and prepare the tools. Their 

 disabilities are doubtless due mainly to lack of training, but the proper training 

 of a skilled mechanic is a slow process. 



No comprehensive consideration of the question of wages is yet possible in 

 these trades owing to the differences between localities and firms and the rapidly 

 altering situation. It is clear, however, that in many cases the wages of women 

 are decidedly lower than would have been paid to men doing similar work, 

 though usually the work of men and women is not easily comparable. 



Girls under 18 years of age are said in some instances to be receiving as little 

 as 9.?. per week and those over 21 years 15s. per week for work on which men 

 have formerly received a minimum of 26s. In many places the prevailing 

 rates are 10s. to 15s. for a 48-hour week. In almost all these instances, how- 

 ever, the women are learners and the wage they receive is a learner's wage, 

 whilst the men were skilled workers whose output was considerable. Women are 

 often working overtime, sometimes up to 73 hours per week, for which they are 

 generally paid at time and a fifth, compared with the men's time and a half 

 or even double time. In the districts where female labour is becoming scarce, 

 however, a large proportion of the women munition workers are earning 30s. per 

 week and upwards. 



There are some firms in which the time-rates paid to women, though very 

 much less than those paid to men, compare not unfavourably with them when 

 considered in terms of piece-rates. Until women have had a somewhat longer 

 experience, even in comparatively unskilled work, they are not likely to be 

 able to work with the rapidity of practised workmen. Nevertheless, the rates 

 paid to women are certainly inferior in the majority of cases to those paid to 

 men. The poor pay of women in most occupations in normal times has given 

 them a low standard, and makes them consider the wages which they are now 

 receiving in many munitions works as phenomenally large, however unfavourably 

 they may compare with the wages of the men in the same place. 



The attention of Mr. Lloyd George has already been called to what is often 

 a glaring disproportion between the wages of men apd wopien in munitions, and 



