558 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 



experience will remove the inferiority to any great extent. In another case an 

 experiment in teaching riveting to women was being made, but the work was 

 found a little hard physically, though not impossible. 



It seems clear that the extension of women's work has been in those processes 

 which were women's before, i.e., machining and hand stitching, and here— in the 

 case of women entering the trade since the War — it is found that in the 

 average woman or girl the efficiency becomes moderately good in from four to 

 five weeks' training. (See note on training.) 



Extent of E.Tctm Employment. 



The ' substitution ' numbers are exceedingly small — in one large firm 

 employed on Government work the percentage of women employed on men's 

 work is about 2^ per cent., but there are five times as many women employed 

 in women's ' normal ' processes as last year, and about 4'5 per cent, as many 

 men. Total number of employees in this firm is now 2,800. In another firm 

 (total number of employees now 620), also engaged on military work, the number 

 of employees is nearly double what it was last year. The increase was made up 

 in about the following rates : 92 per cent, of increase are women and the rest 

 men. Here, however, there is a serious shortage of male labour, and an 

 attempt is being made to train women in riveting. In yet another firm the 

 increase in labour since last year (owing to military work) is 30 per cent, more 

 men, 200 per cent, more women. 



On the whole, numbers are misleading in this branch, as in hardly any case 

 have firms been able to keep their civil and military work separate, i.e., in some 

 large firms all the private work has ceased, and therefore not only are the new 

 ' entries ' into the trade engaged on military work, but those who were already 

 in the firm before have been turned on to it as well. On the other hand, some 

 are doing contracts for the Government intermittently, e.g., one firm (not one 

 of those quoted above) reckons that on its normal work (trunks) 15 per cent, of 

 the staff consists of women, mainly lining. When the War contracts come in, 

 these women are not disturbed or displaced, but a large extra staff of women 

 stitchers and machinists is engaged for the period of the contract and then leave 

 again. What happens to the women between the contracts the firm cannot 

 say ; they probably drift into other temporary work. 



Previous Emploijment. 



A large proportion of the girls who have entered the trade are from other 

 factories, e.g., jam and biscuit, having no previous experience of leather work, 

 but some firms have selected the girls they choose to teach with reference to 

 their previous employment — i.e., showing preference to those who could machine 

 well before. Very good results, however, have resulted in the case of those who 

 had no previous experience of a similar trade. 



Training. 



Where women are being introduced into stitching and machining, it is, as 

 a rule, necessary to teach them in a separate department in order that they may 

 practise on cheap bits of material. This is done in some of the large firms both 

 for stitching and (to a small extent) for riveting. The women become proficient 

 in stitching in about five weeks. One firm has trained nearly 1,000 women in 

 stitching since the War, paying them 2d. an hour while they learn. 



There is very little unskilled work to be done, though the training schemes 

 are quite a temporary measure during the War. 



Question of Permanence. 



Here again the substitution question is on so small a scale as not to be a 

 practical point with reference to the men returning, but the work is, for the 

 present, regarded as of a more or less temporary nature, perhaps because {e.g., in 

 riveting) women have not yet had much experience, or it is too early for 



