TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F, 551 



trades which suffered seriously in the first few months of the War, as the 

 workpeople who left them then can frequently not be persuaded to return. In 

 the trades that are not working on Government orders many of the employees 

 left to enter munitions and similar work, from motives of patriotism, and were 

 in some cases encouraged to do so by patriotic employers. There are several' 

 indu.stries which are at work on necessaries for the Army, which are never- 

 theless shorthanded, partly because the produce is not quite so urgently required, 

 and therefore not quite so highly paid, as munitions, and partly because the 

 patriotic workpeople feel more satisfied when employed upon ' something which 

 explodes.' 



In those areas in which the production of munitions is being actively carried 

 on there is a decided shortage of women in other trades which, though less 

 pronounced than the shortage of men, is nevertheless sufficient to prevent much 

 of the substitution of women for men which might otherwise have taken place. 



Scientific and Optical Instrument Making. 



In scientific and optical instrument making enlistment since February caused 

 a net contraction of employment in the trade, and a demand arose for the 

 labour both of men and women. The percentage increase of women has 

 probably trebled since February. The women have been drawn largely from 

 such trades as jewellery, clock and barometer making, silversmiths, and a 

 variety of less relevant trades such as dressmaking. It is ascertained that in 

 some instances women are actually doing work previously done by men, e.g., 

 the polishing of lenses. The present increase in the employment of women, or 

 more precisely of girls, in the trade, however, is duo mainly to the temporary 

 boom, as for instance in clinical thermometers, test tiibes, &c., and to the 

 shortage of boy labour for these trades, and consequently may have little 

 permanent significance. There are further opportunities in certain operations 

 other than repetitive, as for instance light mounting of microscopes, &c., in the 

 optical trade. Any considerable revival of the optical trade in England would 

 open up a very large field for the employment of women, who do almost the 

 whole work of this trade in the vast American factories. Opinions differ in 

 regard to the employability of women in the various branches, mathematical, 

 scientific, surgical, and optical, of the instrument trade. Much of this work is 

 very highly skilled, and requires a long training, such as women in the past have 

 not usually been prepared to face. 



Jewellery.^" 



During the first six months of the War there was more unemployment 

 in the more highly skilled branches of the jewellery trade than in any other 

 Birmingham industry. The cheaper branches of the trade, however, in which 

 women were most largely employed, were never as seriously depressed. In 

 September the production of patriotic badges was being carried on more 

 actively than most industries of the town. During the winter there was great 

 improvement in the trade as a whole, but more especially in the less costly 

 and less skilled branches. The demand for inexpensive brooches, bracelets, 

 and other ornaments soon became good, and that for badges worn by men 

 employed on Government work very brisk. With the approach of autumn, in 

 which season the trade is normally at its busiest, the demand in most depart- 

 ments has revived considerably. 



There is now a very decided shortage of both male and female labour. 

 The supply of women is less scanty than that of men, since the men have not 

 only been drawn off to the Army, and other trades, but were definitely dis- 

 missed from jewellery firms through shortness of work in the autumn to a i.juch 

 greater extent than the women. The proportion of women and girls employed 

 is probably higher than it has ever been. We find indeed that although the 

 processes which were already performed by women are ihe most active and 

 are employing large numbers, there are also a good many women doing work 

 of a kind done previously almost entirely by men. They are now, in a consider- 

 able number of firms, ' making up ' the jewellery, that "is to say fitting together 



" This and the two following Reports relate mainly to conditions in Bir- 

 mingham and the Midlands. 



