The Girl in Industry

Part 1

THE GIRL IN INDUSTRY

"The adolescent stage of life has long seemed to me one of the most fascinating of all themes, more worthy, perhaps, than anything in the world of reverence, most inviting study, and in most crying need of a service we do not yet understand how to render aright."

G. Stanley Hall, Adolescence, I. xix.

THE GIRL IN INDUSTRY

D. J. COLLIER

WITH A FOREWORD AND INTRODUCTION BY

B. L. HUTCHINS

AUTHOR OF "WOMEN IN MODERN INDUSTRY"

LONDON

G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.

1918

CONTENTS

PAGE

Foreword. B. L. Hutchins v

Introduction. B. L. Hutchins ix

Part I. Investigation. D. J. Collier 1

Part II. Recommendations. D. J. Collier 49

Table I. 55

Table II. 56

FOREWORD

The problem of the adolescent at work is a very complex one; not only the economic, but also the educational, physiological, and biological reactions of industrial work have to be considered. The present work does not attempt anything like a comprehensive discussion of the subject; it is merely a small contribution to existing knowledge of the facts in regard to one section only: the physiological effects of industrial work on growing girls.

The young, it is often said, are the nation's capital. If by this we merely mean that they are the force by which the material goods of the future will be produced, our view of life is inadequate and rather brutal, but if the words are given a higher and more spiritual sense they become full of significance. Youth is the future: from among the young of to-day the parents, citizens, leaders, prophets, artists of the next generation will arise. Work at this age should be considered not only for the shillings it will immediately produce, but partly for its effects on the worker's productive power later on, partly for its effects on character, physique, mind. Dr. Stanley Hall says of modern industry: "Not only have the forms of labour been radically changed within a generation or two, but the basal activities that shaped the body of primitive man have been suddenly swept away by the new methods of modern industry.... Work is rigidly bound to fixed hours, uniform standards, stints and piece-products, and instead of a finished article, each individual now achieves a part of a single process, and knows little of those that precede or follow. Machinery has relieved the large basal muscles and laid more stress upon fine and exact movements that involve nerve strain.... Personal interest in, and the old native sense of responsibility for results, ownership and use of the finished products, which have been the inspiration and soul of work in the past, are in more and more fields gone." The conditions of much work undoubtedly tend to become mechanical, deadening, and soul-destroying.

A strong impression seems to haunt the minds of some who are intimately in touch with working-class conditions that adolescent labour is excessive in amount, and that the resulting fatigue may be cumulative in its effects and injurious to the continuance of the race. Thus in 1904 Miss Anderson and her colleagues of the Factory Department, being invited to report on the subject of married women's work, found themselves impelled to the consideration of the previous life-conditions of the women, and stated: "It is the employment of women from girlhood, all through married life and through child-bearing that impresses itself on the mind. It is useless for any not familiar with the conditions of mill life to pronounce any opinion ... they have no conception of the stress and strain."

More recently Mr. Arthur Greenwood in a pamphlet (The Schoolchild in Industry, published by the Workers' Educational Association, Manchester, 1914) states that the fatigue and prolonged standing characteristic of some factory industries produce serious disease in girls and young women, "and, in the opinion of many doctors, sterility." The same impression may be found occasionally among Sick Visitors and the like, who work among these women. Whether there is a scientific basis for the belief it is impossible to say; there is not at present sufficient information.

The investigation embodied in the present volume was undertaken in the hope that it would yield some information as to the vitally important subject of the biological effects of early employment, or, in other words, the reaction on the woman and her offspring of industrial employment in the adolescent years. No statistical data have, however, been obtained on this point; probably none such could be obtained within the limits of a small inquiry directed and financed by private persons. Even in regard to the effects of industrial work on the health of girls, without special regard to ulterior effects, there is at present very little scientific information.

I welcome Miss Collier's report, therefore, as a pioneer effort; it is limited in scope and matter by the nature of the undertaking, but I know that she has spared no pains in collecting her facts, and has set them out without prejudice or bias. Her experience has suggested to us the desirability of a form of inquiry which is probably beyond the resources of most private inquirers, but might well be undertaken either by a Government department or by some public fund for sociological research. Some years ago, statistics of the anthropometrical measurements of school children in certain districts were published. These figures were obtained from elementary school records in rural and industrial districts, and the results were valuable and instructive. Such a survey of young people, aged 14 to 18, might usefully include not only those in industry, but also those attending secondary schools, who in certain districts belong to much the same social grade, and often come from the same families. Thus the material for a valid comparison would be available, and the results, under scientific medical guidance, might be of first-rate social importance. Possibly also some light might be thrown upon the subject by investigating the previous occupational histories, from the onset of puberty onwards, of patients in maternity hospitals, and tabulating the results with the nature of the confinement, whether normal, difficult, or complicated.

In conclusion, Miss Collier and I wish here to offer our best thanks to the many friends who kindly allowed themselves to be interviewed, and gave the help and information necessary for carrying out the inquiry.

INTRODUCTION

Part 2

Numbers Employed.--The whole number of girls employed from 10 to 21 years of age amounted in 1911 to over a million and a half, or about 40 per cent of the total female population of that age. If, however, we restrict ourselves to the adolescent girls at the ages 14 and under 18, we find that the total number employed amounted to nearly 794,800, or 58·6 per cent of the whole. The 41·4 per cent unoccupied include girls of the class in which women do not work for money, girls studying who intend to follow a profession or occupation, and some girls of the higher industrial classes who attend school one, two, or three years beyond the elementary school age. There must also be in this group some proportion of working-class girls who are kept at home to help their mothers, and a small number of invalids and imbeciles who are incapable of work.

Of the 794,800 girls occupied, it is interesting to note that 30·5 per cent had entered service (including hotel service, but not including laundry and washing service). If we take the whole domestic group which includes laundry and charing as well as service, we find it takes up 34·8 of the total girls employed. Considering how much complaint is frequently made of the unwillingness of girls to enter these ancient and traditional paths, it is worth noting that one girl in every three actually does so, and the girls who stay at home to help their mothers, if we knew their numbers, would bring this proportion up a good deal higher.

The textile trades employ 16·8 of our occupied girls, and the various dress trades 19·2. We thus find nearly 71 per cent of occupied girls are engaged in the occupations constantly associated with their sex and regarded as "womanly," although in modern times nearly all textile and a considerable proportion of the dress and laundry trades are organised on factory lines. The other 29 per cent are dispersed over the clerical, artistic, and other professions, and in miscellaneous factory industries.

The proportion of girls employed varies from one place to another; it is highest in districts where there is a well-marked industry, especially where textile factories absorb a large proportion of female labour. Table II. shows the proportion of girls in a few selected districts. In industrial districts the proportion of domestic servants is very low, and the figures bring home to us the fact that in certain districts a large proportion of the female population spends the transition from childhood to adult life in the mill.

It is, however, useless to spend much time over these figures, which have become completely out of date through the war. No details for young workers are obtainable in official statistics, but the increase in numbers of females employed in industry since the outbreak of war was estimated in July 1917 at 23·7, while the increase in professional and other occupations, including transport, was 82 per cent. The total increase in industry, commerce, and government service of various kinds amounted to over 1,420,000, or 42·5 per cent. It is probable that the increase among girls of 14 to 18 was at least no less than among female workers generally. The net increase in numbers must also be only an imperfect indication of the enormous changes within the employed group. The Munitions group, the metal trades, all the textile and other trades that produce the clothing and other accoutrement of soldiers, the supply of food and comforts for the army, all these industries have expanded considerably and have drawn recruits not only from the unoccupied but from the domestic workers, and from many other less indispensable occupations. Women and girls have also taken the places of men and boys in many civilian occupations.

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