108 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



proportional to the utility of its sei-vice. In short we must understand 

 with the temi ' equal work ' some clause inipoi-ting equal freedom in the 

 choice of work. This condition should include equal freedom to prepare 

 for work by acquiring skill. There are thus presented two attributes : 

 equality of utility to the employer as tested by the pecuniary value of 

 the result, and equality of disutility to the employee as tested by his 

 freedom to choose his employment. These two attributes will concur 

 in a rdgime of perfect competition. For then, theoi-etically, each 

 employer will apply labour in each branch of his business up to the 

 point at which the return to the unit of labour last applied is equal 

 to the cost of that unit, and the same (ceteris paribus) as in all branches 

 of each business. Likewise, in the state of equilibrium which charac- 

 terises perfect competition t?ie employee cannot better himself by taking 

 the place of another. The question thus conceived may be restated : 

 Should tliere be perfect competition betv/een the sexes? The question 

 thus put requiring a categorical answer, Yes or No, may be labelled 

 A, to distinguish it from the question of degree, B, which may be asked, 

 if a categorical ansvv'er is not forthcoming, namely. What sort or amount 

 of competition between the sexes is advisable ? 



In the question thus stated equal work is defined objectively by the 

 fact that as between two tasks the worker is indifferent. This fact, 

 like the action or inaction of Buridan's ass, is ascertainable by the 

 senses. But something more than what is given by physical observa- 

 tions seems to be implied in ordinary parlance with reference to our 

 question. Some comparison between the feelings of the workers seems 

 to be implied in statements such as the following : ' The remuneration 

 of the peculiar employments of women is always, I believe, greatly below 

 that of employments of equal skill and equal disagreeableness carried 

 on by men ' (J. R. Mill, ' Pol. Econ.' ii., xiv., 5). ' Men and women 

 often work side by side in the same schools ; . . . and we are satisfied 

 that the work of women, taking the schools as a whole, is as arduous 

 as that of men and is not less zealously and efficiently done ' (Report 

 on Teachers in Elementary Schools, Lond., Cmd. 8939). 'An un- 

 fortunate female does not receive for thirteen or fourteen hours' close 

 daily application during six days as much as a man for one day of 

 ten hours' (referring to Philadelphia early last century; cp. Carey, 

 ' Social Sciencei,' vol. iii., p. 385). If equal work is interpreted as equal 

 disutility, in the sense of fatigue or privation of amenity, then equal 

 pay may be interpreted as equal satisfaction obtained from earnings. 

 Equality in this sense is not always predicable of equal external per- 

 quisites. It is conceivable, for instance, that a quantity of solid food, 

 or a gaudy livery, might in general have more attraction for one sex 

 than for the other. This second question, which is presented by the 

 subjective interpretation of the terms, like the first, may be subdivided 

 according as (a) a categorical answer is demanded, or (b) the question 

 is one of degree. 



In the first of tlie two inquiries which have been distinguished we 

 may, if we can, maintain the position assumed by Jevons when he 

 disclaimed any attempt to ' compare the amount of feeling in one mind 

 with that in another, ' when he affirmed that ' every mind is inscrutable 



