The Nineteenth Century , No 182, Apr 1892 [‎28v] (61/244)

546
THE NINETEENTH
April
Of the three million and a half women and girls who were returned
as occupied in industry in 1881 in England and Wales, over one-third
were domestic indoor servants, 358,000 were dressmakers, milliners,
or stay makers; midwifery and subordinate medical service, charing,
washing and bathing service, hospitals and institutions, shirt-making
and sewing employed another 400,000. The textile trades employed
altogether only 590,624 women and girls, and of these over 300,000
were in the cotton trade. Their aggregation in large factories and
in special localities has attracted to them an undue amount of
attention, and the history of industry in Lancashire is often given,
as the history of industry in England, whereas no other county is
less typical.
In London in 1881 the number of women and girls occupied in
industry was 593,226. Of these, more than 40 per cent, were indooi
domestic servants, more than 12 per cent, were engaged in charing,
washing and bathing service and hospital and institution service, 16
per cent, in dressmaking, millinery, stay-making, shirt-making and
needlework ; and of the remaining miscellaneous trades, a large pro
portion are purely women's trades 5 even in those where men are
employed women and girls are rarely to be found doing the same
work as men. Of domestic servants and charwomen there is no need
to speak here. Of the laundresses a considerable proportion belong
to the first group already discussed, but the ironers generally belong
to the second group. An inquiry into their position with regard to
wages, hours and sanitary conditions of work is about to be made,
and the proposal to bring them under the Factory An East India Company trading post. Acts cannot be
considered until the results have been given us. Of the wages and
hours of work of dressmakers and shop-assistants surprisingly little
information is at present available. But one fact is too common to
be denied: these girls accept wages which would not be enough to
support them if they had not friends to help them; and they endure
hard work, long hours, and close rooms because they believe that they
are only filling up a brief interval before marriage. The better off their
parents may be, the less heed do they give to securing anything but
pocket-money wages. These girls are constantly coming in contact with
the rich, and have ever before their eyes the luxury and comfort of those
who have money without working for it. They are taught to think
much about dress and personal appearance, and are exposed to tempta
tions never offered to the less attractive factory An East India Company trading post. girls. They have
naturally a higher standard of living, their parents cannot be relied
upon to help them after the first few years, and, failing marriage, the
future looks intensely dreary to them. There would be little harm
in the high standard of comfort of single men in the middle and
upper classes which makes them regard marriage as involving self-
denial, if working women all along the line were also earning enough
to make them regard it in the same light. In a class more than any