that of the machinery. The women both gained and lost by the new state of affairs. They suffered frequently in being subjected to unsuitable employment and unhealthy conditions, with serious effects on their physique. On the other hand, the transition from the home to the factory was sometimes advantageous. Working in a factory, free from interruption and with regular hours and intervals, was usually found preferable to working in the living-room at home. The separation of the home and the place of work was, on the whole, a good thing, especially when factory legislation regulated working hours and insisted on minimum conditions. Women gained also in that they secured a greater measure of economic independence than was possible when they worked at home. Where in the older system the women had joined in the general industrial activities of the household, there had probably been no direct remuneration at all; where they were employed in the home by an outside employer, only part-time wages could usually be earned. Under the factory system, fulltime remuneration-though still pitifully inadequate provided an independence hitherto denied to the working

woman.

The nineteenth century witnessed a large addition to the number of women working for wages, while the scope of their employment also increased. Though industry and domestic service absorbed the greater part of women workers, new opportunities offered themselves in the growing commercial and distributive trades. In July 1914, out of a female population (excluding children under 10) of about nineteen millions, nearly a third were in employment. The proportion increased considerably during the war, as is shown in the following table.*

* Report of the War Cabinet Committee on Women in Industry, 1919 (Cmd. 135), p. 80.

Women are still, in the main, employed in those occupations with which they have long been associated. The above table shows the large proportion engaged in domestic service. Of the women in industry proper the textile trades employed about two-fifths, while the clothing trade employed about three-tenths. Women are specially adapted to some of the processes in these trades; but this is not the sole reason for the large proportions found there. Women have been, and still are, excluded from certain occupations, and they tend therefore to concentrate in those industries and callings to which there is free access.

Relation to Men's Trades.

Employments may be roughly classified according to whether they are (a) men's, (b) women's, and (c) composite. Those trades which involve strenuous muscular work are usually confined to men, though exceptions unfortunately are not as few as one would like. Similarly, men are predominant where a long period of training is necessary to secure the necessary skill, women as a rule not being provided with such training. Those occupations in which the work is of a comparatively light character tend to employ a large number of women. Where delicacy of touch is an important requisite, women are often more efficient than men. The third class of occupation is that which has processes, more or less similar, carried out by both men and women. The actual competition between men and women on identical tasks tends, however, to be over-estimated, for where they are in the same trade they are usually engaged on somewhat different, though allied, processes. In the cotton spinning trade, for instance, the men are employed on the "mules," while the women tend the "ring spinning" machines. The real competition is encountered where a woman, usually assisted by a labour-saving device, carries out in a new and cheaper manner the task hitherto performed by a man.

Apart from natural inclinations and abilities, the line between men's and women's occupations is very arbitrary. It may be fixed by legislation which prohibits, for example, employment of women in mines, or night employment of women in factories. Custom and prejudice also restrict the sphere of women's employment, though these barriers seem gradually to be weakening. In addition, there is the obstacle imposed by many men's trade unions, the members of which are actuated more by a desire to maintain their standard of life than by prejudice alone. It is significant

that women are commonly employed in relatively new occupations in which men have been unable to secure vested rights. Certain kinds of clerical work on the railways are confined to men, though somewhat similar duties are performed by women in commercial and distributive concerns which have sprung up since the railways. Such restrictions tend to swell the number of women in the "free" occupations, often with ill effects on their wages and conditions.

The table* on p. 127 shows the distribution of men and women in the different trades in July 1914, and July 1918. It will be observed that before the war the textile and clothing trades employed more women than men, whereas in the metal trades the proportion of women was little over one-tenth.

During the war these proportions changed; the actual number of women declined in the textile and clothing trades (though the percentage increased), but more than trebled in the metal trades.

In ordinary times, it is found that the proportion of men to women remains fairly constant where the rates of pay are not differentiated according to sex. In the cotton industry, the trade unions have realised the wisdom of pressing for and securing equal rates—in the interests not only of the women, but also of the men, whose standard of life is thus protected from undercutting. On the other hand, where women receive lower rates than men, the proportion of the former tends to increase.

Men's and

Women's

Apart from the cotton and a few other trades, the average rate of women's remuneration is considerably lower than men's. The Board of Trade inquiry into wages in 1906 showed that the weekly earnings of full time workers in the four principal divisions of industry proper were as follows: *War Cabinet Report, p. 81.

Wages.