L 



TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 557 



and shoe manufacturing industry consequent upon the serious depletion of male 

 labour through enlistment, it was mutually agreed as follows : 



1. That females may reasonably be employed upon certain operations 



hitherto ordinarily restricted to male labour. 



2. That the employment of females shall be limited to such operations as 



they are physically fit to perform. 



3. That females so employed shall be paid the same rates of wages as are 



now paid to males for an equivalent quantity of work. 



4. That due regard shall be paid to the desirability, where possible, of 



separate working conditions where male and female operatives are 

 employed in the same department. 



5. That no female shall be employed in substitution for male labour without 



previous consultation with the local Trade Union officials, and in the 

 event of disagreement the question shall be referred to the Standing 

 Committee of the National Conference for settlement. 



6. That it is understood female operatives shall only be engaged in substi- 



tution for male labour where and so long as it is not found possible 

 to obtain male operatives. 



7. That this agreement is an emergency provision and shall have effect only 



during the continuance of the present War. 



It has been difficult to obtain adequate information with regard to wages, 

 the Trade Unions themselves furnishing little besides general complaints, which 

 though perhaps capable of substantiation yet lack so far the necessary par- 

 ticular evidence. 



C. Leather Goods Manufacture. 



Trunks, bags, and general leather goods, including (now) military equipment, 

 harness, &c. 



(1) LONDON. 



It is in this branch of the leather trade that the great increase in the 

 employment of women is to be found, mainly in the actual military work, but 

 here again the actual substitution that has taken place is practically nil. The 

 increase is due simply to the enormous increase in the amount of work to be done 

 and consequently in the demand for labour. 



Processes. 



Before the War women were employed on the following processes : 

 machining and stitching (i.e., including welting on bags) ; lining, stiffening (on 

 bags); some strapping [i.e., stitching in buckles and inserting locks); closing 

 (i.e., on attache cases). 



Since the War, women have to a small extent been introduced into riveting, 

 and are doing a few subsidiary processes such as were done by men before the 

 War, e.g., punching holes in haversacks, also riveting bandoliers, but on too 

 small a scale to have any practical effect on the trade. 



The main feature of women's work in the trade is, however, the huge influx 

 of women into it on processes which have for years been largely regarded as 

 ' women's ' branch of the work, i.e., on the present work there is no question 

 of substitution or replacement, though there may be indirect effects afterwards. 



Efficiency. 



As far as substitution is concerned the efficiency of women seems lower, e.g., 

 riveting is probably the lightest of the processes hitherto regarded as men's, 

 but even here, women do not seem to have the same grip over the tools : in one 

 large firm it is reckoned that a man will probably make almost twice as much 

 as a woman on the same piece rate at this work, and it is unlikely that 



