The Senior Investigator, with the help of her Assistant, undertakes special enquiries into the conditions in women's industries. Perhaps her most important function is to originate investigations concerning women, which will yield information likely to be useful to the Department in the future, when some particular question comes up for discussion or decision. For instance, when the question of bringing laundries within the scope of the Trade Boards Act was under discussion, the investigations previously made by the Women Investigators into wages and conditions proved invaluable.

There are also three Women Investigators appointed in connection with the Trade Boards. Their duty is to assist in the collection of information relating to the scheduled trades, in all of which a large number of women is employed. They may be called upon to help in the preliminary work involved in setting up new Trade Boards. They explain as far as necessary the provisions of the Act to the working women concerned get nominations of workers to sit on those Boards and otherwise assist the Boards in carrying out their functions. They also conduct inspections to see that the law is carried out.

All these appointments are made by the President of the Board of Trade on the recommendation of the Civil Service Commissioners.

Labour Exchanges

The establishment of Labour Exchanges under the Board of Trade some years ago gave occasion for the appointment of a considerable number of women to responsible posts. On the organising staff at the Central Office there is a Principal Woman Officer at L400-15-L450, who is responsible for the organisation of the women's work in all the Labour Exchanges. She has an Assistant at L150-L7, 10s.—L200. A woman also acts as Secretary to the large London Juvenile Advisory Committee. She has the acting rank of an Assistant Divisional Officer, although her salary (L300-15-L400) is less than that received by men Assistant Divisional Officers.

There are nine Senior Organising Officers with salaries of L250-10-L350, six of whom are women. The three men holding these appointments deal with Juvenile work only, whereas some of the women are in charge of both Women's and Juvenile work. Of the five Junior Organising Officers at L200—L7, 10s.—L250, three are women. The nine Assistant Organising Officers at L150—L7, 10s.—L200 are all women. All these officers are engaged in organising the work of the Juvenile and Women's Departments all over the country, and inspecting local offices. There are also twenty secretaries to Juvenile Advisory Committees, who may be either men or women. The salary for these posts is L150-5—L200.

In the Divisional Offices there are some staff posts open to women at a salary of L200 to L300. Their work is purely clerical, and is concerned with Unemployment Insurance.

The original appointments in this branch of the Board of Trade were made by a Selection Committee on which the Civil Service Commissioners were represented. Applications were invited by advertisement, and a large number of candidates was interviewed. The more recent appointments have been filled by candidates who have first appeared before a Board, and have then passed a qualifying examination, conducted by the Civil Service Commission.

Board of Education

The Board of Education (or the Education Department, as it was then called) was established in consequence of the passing of the Elementary Education Act of 1870. Its jurisdiction was and still is limited to England and Wales.

Notwithstanding that it was responsible to Parliament for regulating the conduct of public elementary education all over the country, and that in those schools there were hundreds of women teachers and thousands of little girl pupils, it seems not to have occurred to the Department to call in the aid of women either as inspectors or administrators until the appointment in 1884 of a Directress of Needlework. A Directress of Cookery was added in 1891, and laundry work was brought under her supervision in 1893. It was only when the passing of the Education Act of 1893 had brought other forms of education—secondary, technical, and scientific—more completely under the supervision of the Department that the need for Women Inspectors began to be felt. In justice to the Department it must be said that having once realised the need, they did not meet it grudgingly. The first Women Inspectors were appointed in 1904, and by the spring of 1905 there were no less than twelve, one of whom was appointed as Chief. Since then the number has been steadily increasing, and there are now 45—a much more satisfactory rate of progress than that of the Women Factory Inspectors.

Educational Inspectors.—There are now 1 Chief Woman Inspector, at a salary of L650; 45 Inspectors, 8 at L400-10-L500, and 35 at L200-15-L400.

The method of appointment of Women Inspectors' is similar to that of men—i.e., by nomination of the President of the Board of Education. The Chief Woman Inspector first interviews candidates, weighs their qualifications, and reports upon them to the Secretary. There is no examination on appointment. Besides academic qualifications, which are the same as those of men, many of the Inspectors have special qualifications, as well as having had practical experience in teaching.

A special class of work is allotted to each Inspector: about 17 of them are occupied in inspecting Girls' and Infants' Public Elementary Schools: 15 are responsible for Domestic Subject Centres in Elementary Schools: 4 for Girls' and Mixed Secondary Schools: 3 for Training Colleges (women's and mixed): and 3 again for Domestic and Trade Courses and Girls' Clubs.

In the case of secondary schools, the Women Inspectors pay special attention to women's subjects, but they also take part in full inspections. They are not in charge of districts, and therefore do not carry on the miscellaneous correspondence with the Local Education Authorities which falls to the lot of a District Inspector. In relation to domestic subjects, however, the Women Inspectors are practically in charge of districts, and deal directly with Local Education Authorities. They inspect the work done by girls, and look into the organisation of the schools with regard to health, suitability of curricula, etc.

In the case of elementary schools, the Women Inspectors are attached to the various districts and are directed by the District Inspectors (men) as occasion requires, to deal with infants' and mixed schools, and to carry out routine inspections of public elementary schools.

Medical Inspectors.—There are one Senior Medical Officer at L600-L800; one Junior Medical Officer at L400-20-L500; and also three Inspectors of Physical Exercises at L200-15-L400.

The Women Medical Inspectors take part in the work of the medical branch in the same way as men; Physical Exercises come under their jurisdiction.

The Board of Education also employs three women on the permanent staff of the Department of Special Enquiries and Reports. The salaries are L100-L7, 10s-L180, and the posts are pensionable. The duties consist partly of library work and partly of giving assistance in the general intelligence work of the office.

The Right Hon. A.H. Dyke Acland said in his evidence before the Royal Commission on the Civil Service that he did not see why at the Board of Education the same sort of women who become good inspectors and headmistresses should not take part in the administrative work of the office.

Scotch Education Department

The first Woman Inspector was appointed by the Scotch Education Department in 1902, and two others were appointed in 1910. Their scale of salary is L200-15-L400. They are strictly specialist inspectors for domestic economy subjects, cookery, laundry, etc., for which they have qualifications including experience in teaching and inspecting such subjects.

Specially qualified women are occasionally employed by the Department to inspect girls' schools, and are paid a fee according to the time occupied.

National Education Board, Ireland

Two Women Inspectors are employed by the Irish National Education Board. Their salary is L150-10-L300, the same as that of Men Junior Inspectors; Men Senior Inspectors receive L300-20-L700.

There are two Women Organisers, whose duty it is to organise weak schools.

There are also 14 Organisers of Domestic Economy; their work is similar to that of Inspectors; they travel about and have authority in the schools; they do not inspect general subjects, but confine themselves to cookery, laundry and domestic science.

There are also six Women Organisers of Kindergarten.

The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries.

This Department has recently employed a few women upon various kinds of scientific work. Three women are appointed as Assistant Naturalists in the Fishery Branch, at a salary of L150 per annum, and two as Junior Assistant Naturalists at L2 per week. They are appointed on the nomination of the President, without examination, but they must possess the necessary scientific qualifications and have taken a recognised course of study. These posts are non-pensionable. The Fishery Branch deals with questions relating to the natural history and diseases of fish, fish-hatcheries and laboratories, the protection of undersized fish, the effect of methods of capture, international investigations, and grants in aid of fishery research. The women are engaged upon the same work as men, except that they do not write technical reports and are not liable to be called upon for sea duty.

In the Herbarium and Library of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew there are two Women Assistants at L150-10-L300 (the Men Assistants' scale is L150-15-L300). Scientific qualifications are required for these posts, and there is an examination by the Civil Service Commission. The Library is maintained for official consultative work, to supply the basis of an accurate nomenclature throughout the establishment and as an aid to research. The Herbarium aims at representing the entire vegetation of the earth with especial regard to that of British possessions. A scheme for preparing a complete series of floras of India and the Colonies was sanctioned by the Government in 1856, and has been steadily prosecuted ever since. The principle work of the staff is the correct identification of the specimens which reach Kew from every part of the world, and their incorporation in the Herbarium. It is visited for the purposes of study and research by botanists from every country.

The scientific work in the various branches of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries would seem to afford some scope for women of scientific attainment. Sir T. Elliott, formerly Permanent Secretary to the Board, in his evidence before the Royal Commission on the Civil Service, said he considered that women could do good work in many directions, and that their help might be especially valuable in entomology.

The Public Trustee's Office.

The Public Trustee's office was established in 1908, under the Act of 1906. Two Women Inspectors—or more correctly speaking, Visitors—are now employed, one of whom receives a salary of L200 and the other L180.

These Visitors are attached to the special Department set up to take charge of children (1) left by will to the guardianship of the Public Trustee, or (2) who have been awarded damages in the High Court either for injury or for the loss of parents or guardians.

As regards the first-named, the Public Trustee has express powers under his rules to act either as sole guardian or co-trustee. In these cases the Women Visitors assist the Public Trustee in discharging his trust. They visit the children, go thoroughly into the circumstances of each case, consulting with relatives and family solicitors. Schools are chosen, holidays arranged, careers decided upon, apprenticeship or training provided for; medical attendance is secured and even clothing attended to.

In all cases concerning children in which an action for damages has been brought under the Common Law or under Lord Campbell's Act, the money awarded as compensation is paid over to the Public Trustee, unless the judge otherwise directs. A large part of the Women Visitors' work consists of supervising these compensation cases. It is important to see that the money is spent upon the children, and in the manner most likely to promote their future welfare—e.g., in providing education or special training. In the case of injured children, proper medical attention is secured and any instruments or artificial limbs which may be necessary.

It is becoming increasingly the practice, when funds are raised locally to help special cases, to place the money collected in the hands of the Public Trustee, instead of appointing local trustees. Where the beneficiaries of such funds are women or children—very often they are widows—it becomes the duty of the Women Visitors to find out on the spot how the money can best be applied, and to advise the Public Trustee accordingly.

In all cases the supervision is continued as long as it is required, but where relatives are found to be competent and willing to take charge of children the responsibility is left to them.

Such work, concerned as it is with the young and the helpless, seems peculiarly suited to women. The Public Trustee in his evidence before the Royal Commission on the Civil Service, stated that the women already appointed had proved themselves "most efficient."

The National Health Insurance Commissions.

The Inspectors appointed by the National Health Insurance Commissions are so recent an institution that it is not yet possible to say whether the work to be performed by this Department will afford scope for the employment of a large number of educated women.

It is satisfactory to note, however, that the salaries of men and women more nearly approximate to equality than in any previous appointments. The salaries of the Women Commissioners in all four countries are the same as those of the men, viz., L1,000 per annum.

The English Commission has 10, the Scotch 1, and the Irish 1 Woman Inspector at L300-10-L400. Men Inspectors begin at the same salary but rise to L500.

The English Commission has 25, the Welsh 3, the Scotch 5, and the Irish 4 Assistant Women Inspectors at L100-10-L300. Men Assistant Inspectors begin at the same salary, but after two years they rise by L15 to L350.

The English Commission has 19, the Welsh 1, the Scotch 5, and the Irish 5 Women Health Insurance Officers, on a scale of salary L80-5-L110, after two years rising by L7, 10s. to L150. This scale is precisely the same as that of Men Health Insurance Officers.

The duties of Men and Women Inspectors and Officers under the National Health Insurance Commission are identical in character and scope.

The primary function of these officers is to impose upon the whole adult population the new conditions created by the Act—i.e., they have to ensure the proper payment of contributions in respect of all persons liable to be insured.

Trades are assigned to Men or Women Inspectors according as a trade employs men or women in greater numbers.

The Insurance Commissioners work through the Inspectors in all matters that are more susceptible to local treatment than to treatment by correspondence. The Inspectors obtain information and make local enquiries as to the facts in cases submitted to the Commissioners for determination under various sections of the Act.

An interesting account of the very varied duties which fall to the lot of these Officers will be found in the first "Report on the Administration of the National Insurance Act," Part I., which has recently been published. The following extract from that Report will give some idea of the work done by the Women Inspectors, and the estimate which has been formed of it.

"Inasmuch as the Insurance Commission is the first Government Department in which a woman staff has been appointed from the outset, special mention may be made of one portion of the work carried out by the women inspectors during the past year. The enquiry held in the autumn by Mr Pope on the objections raised to the inclusion of married women outworkers within the provisions of Part I. of the Act necessitated much careful investigation among employers and outworkers in a large number of trades all over the country, such as tailoring, glove-making, lace manufacture, carding of hooks and eyes, pins and needles, buttons and fish-hooks at Birmingham, net-making at Bridport, chain-making at Cradley Heath, straw hat-making at Luton, chair-making, box-making, and boot, shoe, and hosiery manufacture. This investigation was undertaken by the women staff. The enquiry entailed hundreds of visits, both in the poorest parts of industrial towns and in remote country districts, and in interviews with employers and workers great tact and patience were required. Of the evidence given by the women inspectors, Mr Pope reports that they 'one and all gave evidence with extreme moderation, impartiality and discretion. The conspicuous fairness and the success with which they had collected information were frequently a matter of commendation from employers, who informed me that the enquiry had afforded them information about their own trades which years of work in it had not made known to them.'"

The General Post Office

This paper would not be complete without some reference to the large number—now nearly 3,000—of women clerks employed by the General Post Office, all of whom enter the service by open competition, either as girl clerks between sixteen and eighteen years of age or as women clerks between eighteen and twenty. Their duties are necessarily of a clerical nature, and in their earlier years at least they can hardly, perhaps, be included in the "higher grades." Yet the supervisory posts which become necessary wherever large numbers of workers are employed call for considerable administrative ability and are proportionately better remunerated. All women clerks are eligible for these posts, and indeed they are never filled in any other way.

The highest post open to a woman clerk in the General Post Office is that of Superintendent at the Savings Bank, the present holder of which is on a scale of L350-20-L600. There are 4 Deputy Superintendents at L270-15-L330; 13 Assistant Superintendents at L210-10-L260; and 53 Principal Clerks at L150-10-L200. The Savings Bank has the largest group of women clerks—numbering 1,210—of any department, and of these 150 are in the first class.

The next largest group of Women Clerks is in the Money Order Department; in this office the women outnumber the men in the proportion of 5 to 1. They number 592, of whom 67 are in the first class. There is one Superintendent at L350-20-L500; 1 Deputy Superintendent at L270-15-L330; 5 Assistant Superintendents at L210-10-L260; and 24 Principal Clerks at L150-10-L200.

The Accountant General's Department has 1 Superintendent at L280-15-L400; 3 Assistant Superintendents at L210-10-L260; and 3 Principal Clerks at L150-10-L200. The staff of clerks numbers 416, of whom 57 are in the first class.

The London Telephone Service has 1 Assistant Superintendent at L210-10-L260 and 5 Principal Clerks at L150-10-L200, with a staff of 278 clerks, of whom 21 are in the first class.

The Accountants Offices are the only ones in Edinburgh and Dublin which employ women as Clerks. In Dublin there is 1 Superintendent at L210-10-L250 and 2 Assistant Superintendents at L150-10-L170. Of the staff of 61 clerks, 7 are first class. In Edinburgh there is 1 Superintendent at L200-10-L250, and 1 Assistant Superintendent at L150-10-L190. Of the staff of 69, 8 are in the first class.

In consequence of the employment of so large a number of women, the General Post Office found it necessary many years ago to employ a Woman Medical Officer. The present holder of this office receives a salary of L350-20-L500. She has the help of two Assistants, whose salary is L180-15-L300.

A few posts which may properly be deemed "higher" are also open to Women Counter Clerks and Telegraphists. In the London Postal District there are 3 Supervisors at L180-10-L250, 50 Assistant Supervisors (first class) at L140-6-L170 and 61 Assistant Supervisors (second class) at L115-5-L130.

In the Central Telegraph Office the Chief Supervisor of Women Telegraphists receives a salary of L180-10-L300 (not a large salary for supervising a staff numbering nearly 1,000), the 13 Supervisors receive L180-10-L250, and the 35 Assistant Supervisors L140-6-L170.

The Postal District and Telegraph Offices in Dublin and Edinburgh have each one Woman Supervisor of Counter and Telegraph Clerks at L140-6-L875. In Dublin there are 12 and in Edinburgh 6 Assistants at L110-5-L135. There are also a number of Supervisors in the provinces whose rates of pay vary from L149-6-L175 to L115-5-L135, according to the size of the district.

The Telephone Service also offers a few important posts to women. In the London Telephone Service a Woman Superintendent is appointed at L200-10-L300, 9 Supervisors at L159-6-L190, and 40 Assistant Supervisors at L110-5-L145. There are about 3,600 Women Telephonists employed within the London postal area. The salaries of Supervisors in the provinces vary from L125-5-L150 to L105-5-L120, according to the size of the district.

The variety of work, which is now efficiently performed by women in the various departments above enumerated, seems to prove conclusively that when other branches are opened to them they will be equally successful.

In the statements recently submitted to the Royal Commission of the Civil Service on behalf of various women's organisations, the reasons for throwing open to women the more highly paid and responsible posts were admirably set forth.

On behalf of the Association of Headmistresses it was stated by Miss R. Oldham:—

"In asking that in future some of the more highly paid and responsible posts in the Civil Service should be thrown open to women, the Headmistresses are conscious of the fact that modern economic conditions have evolved the woman who must of necessity, as well as by choice, become self-supporting. The professions of teaching, medicine, art, and literature offer openings with adequate remuneration for the highly educated young woman of to-day. Those lower branches of the Civil Service which, with a few exceptions, alone are open to women do not supply posts of enough responsibility and administrative power to prove attractive to able women of secondary school and university education, many of whom, in the opinion of the Headmistresses are fitted, both by their education and by their natural ability, to fill positions of equal responsibility with their brothers.

"They desire to submit the following reasons why women should be considered eligible for positions of administrative responsibility in the service of the State :—

"(1) Women have shown by their success in positions of great responsibility that they are capable of undertaking high administrative work.

"(2) Women have special gifts for social investigation and inquiry, and special knowledge in many important subjects, which ought to be used in the service of the State.

"(3) Under present conditions of women's employment in the Service, the ablest and most highly qualified women do not enter it.

"(4) The presence of a large number of women in the lower branches of the Civil Service makes it desirable that there should be women employed in higher and more responsible posts. This would have the effect of ensuring good discipline and judicious promotion.

"(5) The present almost total exclusion of women from high and responsible posts has the effect of discrediting them as applicants for such posts outside the Service. Private employers when asked to give women opportunities for rising to posts of responsibility, are able to point to the failure of the Government to do so."

In the statement submitted by Mrs W.L. Courtney on behalf of the Council on Women's Employment in the Civil Service the claim was made:—

"That women should be eligible for first division appointments, or equivalent appointments, in suitable offices, such as the Education Office, the Local Government Board, the Home Office, the Insurance Commission, and the Board of Trade. It has already been found necessary to appoint women to responsible posts in the Inspectorate of each of these offices, and the same reasons which justify those appointments point also to the desirability of appointing women to positions in the corresponding internal administrative service."

There is another point to be remembered in this connection; it is important that the recommendations made by Women Inspectors should have the chance of being considered and acted upon by women in an administrative capacity, as well as by men. Otherwise there is danger that the women's point of view put forward by an Inspector may be overlooked or her recommendations brushed aside.

Miss Penrose, Principal of Somerville College, Oxford, in her statement for the Royal Commission, said:

"In branches of the Service, such as the Home Office, the Local Government Board, and the Board of Trade, in which a good deal of work is done, or should be done, by women because it is concerned with women, I think it would be an advantage to have one or more women on the general administrative staff, which deals with the work of the departments as a whole.

"If a board which deals with human beings, does not employ women except to carry out the policy of the Board, after that policy has been initiated, shaped and embodied in regulations, it may not infrequently be found that regulations unsuitable in some respects to be applied to women have been drafted, or that unnecessary differences of treatment have been created. Just as in so far as women look at things from a different angle it is important that their point of view should be at the service of a department at as early a stage as possible."

An illustration of this may be found in the draft Order for the regulation of Poor Law Institutions which is now before the public. This draft has been drawn up by a departmental committee of the Local Government Board, composed entirely of men, notwithstanding that it will regulate the administration of institutions staffed by women and having large numbers of women and children as inmates. It is not surprising to find that the draft Order meets with the disapproval of many women engaged in poor law work.

The Council on Women's Employment also claimed:—

"That women should be made eligible or considered for appointment—

"As scientific specialists, especially museum assistants and keepers. The area of choice would thus be enlarged in cases where there is sometimes a very small number of suitable candidates. Women have been notably successful in original work in various departments of botany, and have done valuable original work in bacteriology and archaeology. They are already employed as scientific specialists in certain departments and in temporary work for the British Museum, though hitherto excluded from its permanent service.

"As librarians, keepers of records and papers, and assistants to the holders of these offices, and to positions requiring qualifications for statistical work and historical knowledge, such as those in the Public Record Office.

"That appointments in suitable offices should be opened to women between the ages of 19 and 24, who have either passed or can pass an examination equivalent to that of male second division clerks, or clerks of the intermediate class, according to the practice of the department in filling its appointments. It seems desirable that the abilities of women who would otherwise be occupied in business, teaching, secretarial and clerical, and other work, much of which is closely comparable with that of second division and intermediate clerks, should be available for the work of the Civil Service, especially in the offices already mentioned in connection with the first division appointments."

These claims, pertinent as they are, and strongly as they should be urged, need to be extended still further.

Women claim to be admitted to share in the administrative work, not only of those departments directly concerned with women, but also in those in which the work concerns equally men and women as citizens—e.g., the Treasury, the Foreign Office, the Colonial Office, the Inland Revenue. No one could argue that the work of these departments is unsuitable for women, any more than is the work of the General Post Office, in which they have so conspicuously succeeded. Even the War Office, with the charge of so many soldiers' wives and children living in barracks, removed from the jurisdiction of all civic services, and the control of so large a number of Army Nurses, needs women amongst its administrators.

The claim must also be made quite clearly, that in throwing open these posts to women, the same method of recruiting must be employed as for men, and the remuneration must be at the same rate. In asking for these opportunities women are simply asking that the sex disability which at present bars them from the majority of posts in the service, may be removed. They do not seek admission in some special way, nor do they wish to undercut men by accepting lower salaries. They ask that the sex barrier may be removed in the case of both Class I. and Class II. appointments—in other words, that these appointments may be open to them on the same conditions as they are or may be open to men.

In the case of the majority of the appointments hitherto held by women, some care has been taken to put them on a different footing from those of men; in these instances it is not easy to compare the work of women with that of men, or to urge the claim of women to be paid at the same rate as men for work of equal value. There are, however, some conspicuous instances—e.g., of the Factory Inspectors and Inspectors of Schools—in which no such differentiation is possible and in which the only reason for paying the women less than the men seems to be that given by the ex-Permanent Secretary of the Treasury in his evidence before the Royal Commission on the Civil Service, "that women ought to be got as cheaply as possible, and that if they can be got for less, they ought not to be paid the same as men."

There seems some ground for believing that official opinion in this matter is undergoing modification, since in the case of later appointments—e.g., in the Labour Exchanges and in the National Health Insurance Commission—the tendency has been to approximate the salaries of women much more closely to those of men and even in some instances to make them identical. It is therefore reasonable to hope that the principle of equal pay for equal work will, before long, be extended to appointments of longer standing, in which its application would be no less just than in the case of new appointments.



II

THE LOWER GRADES AND THE PRESENT POSITION

So far as the position of its women workers is concerned, the State is very far from being the model employer it sometimes professes to be. When one considers the very wide disparity existing between the salaries for similar work of women and of men, one realises to what an enormous extent the Exchequer, and, consequently, the taxpayer, has benefited by the economies practised at the expense of the women Civil Servants ever since their introduction in the early seventies. There is not a shadow of doubt that economy was the motive for their employment, but even economy would not have justified the continued increase in their numbers, had they not exhibited what has been called by a high official, "remarkable efficiency," and also the very desirable qualities of docility, patience, and conscientiousness.

When the Government first took over the telegraphs from the private companies, it found women in their employ, and decided to retain them in the service. Women Telegraphists and Counter Clerks are now a very large body numbering in London about 2,000, and in the Provinces about 5,000,—a total of 7,000 women as compared with 16,000 men. The duties of men and women telegraphists are more closely comparable than their respective work in any other class in the Civil Service, practically the only differentiation being that women are debarred from night duty. They are also generally exempt from Sunday duty, excessive late duty, and special duties in connection with race meetings, although the Hobhouse Committee in 1907 recommended that women should do the Sunday work if required. (As, however, payment for this is made at a higher rate, there is usually no lack of volunteers.) Their scale of salary in the Central Telegraph Office is 18s. a week at eighteen years of age, rising to a maximum of 40s. The men's scale is 20s. rising to 65s. When the necessary technical qualifications are acquired, an allowance of 3s. a week carried beyond the maximum and pensionable, is now given to both sexes alike. Formerly the technical allowance for women was 1s. 6d. per week only, and this would appear to account for the lower proportion of women who have qualified for the technical increment.

There appears to be a tendency to stereotype certain kinds of work for men only, in order to justify the differentiation in pay, but in point of fact, most of the work now exclusively allotted to male telegraphists was at one time done by women. The work done by men and women Counter Clerks is identical. The women in the Telegraph Service have no separate organisation, but combine with the men in the Postal Telegraph Clerks' Association, which has a large number of branches, and carries on a very active campaign for improvement in pay and conditions of service. Equal pay for equal work is one of the planks in its platform, and formed part of the case put forward before the Select Committee on Post Office Servants last year.

Women Clerks are employed in the great financial Services of the General Post Office, the Savings Bank Department, Money Order Department (including the Postal Order Branch), Accountant-General's Department, and the Controller's Office of the London Telephone Service, as well as in the Accountant's Departments of the General Post Offices in Edinburgh and Dublin. In all, they number nearly 3,000. It may, perhaps, be of interest to go into the history of this class.

Women Clerks were first introduced into the General Post Office in 1871 by Mr Scudamore, who considered that as women were more "fault-finding" than men, they might well be used as "a check on the somewhat illiterate postmasters of the United Kingdom in the interests of a somewhat long-suffering public." Entry was at first by nomination, but in 1881 the appointment of Women Clerks was thrown open to the public by competitive examination by Mr Fawcett, who was then Postmaster General. This step met with some opposition, and Queen Victoria even caused a letter to be written to Mr Fawcett expressing her strong disapproval of the change. The Postmaster-General, however, carried his point, and fixed the scale of salary at L65, rising by L3 per annum to L80. When the working day was increased from six to seven hours, the maximum was raised to L100. The revisions of the Tweedmouth Inter-Departmental Committee came into force in 1897, involving many concessions to the male staff, and simultaneously the minimum salary of the Women Clerks was, without any warning, reduced for new entrants to L55 per annum, and the increment for the first six years was reduced to L2, 10s.

Realising the defencelessness of their position, the Women Clerks formed an Association in 1901, and so strong was the case for improvement which they were able to bring before the Hobhouse Parliamentary Committee of 1906, that in spite of considerable misrepresentation of their work in the evidence given by Heads of Departments, they were able not only to get back the 1881 minimum of L65, but were awarded further an increased increment of L5 throughout the scale and a rise of L10 in the maximum. This was the position until December 1911, when a tentative scheme was introduced in the Money Order Department to hand over all the simpler duties to a new class of Assistant Women Clerks with an eight-hour day and a wage of 18s. rising to 34s. a week. The Association of Post Office Women Clerks, the basis of which is "equal pay and opportunities for women with men in the Civil Service," and which therefore necessarily stands for simplification of the classes of employment, regarded the restriction of a fresh grade of women to yet another water-tight compartment at a low wage as in itself an evil. But apart from this, they looked upon the scheme as a deliberate evasion of the Hobhouse Committee's recommendations. So strong was the criticism levelled at the new scheme, both by Members of Parliament and the Press, that the Postmaster-General, Mr Herbert Samuel, consented to refer the matter to the Select Committee on the Post Office (known as the Holt Committee)[1], which was appointed in the early part of 1912, and he gave an undertaking that no more appointments to the new grade should be made in the Money Order Department until the Committee had reported, The value of this concession was considerably lessened by its limited application, and the fact that many Assistant Women Clerks were subsequently appointed to the London Telephone Service, clearly indicated the intention of the authorities to proceed with the development of the scheme in a Department which provided an easier field of operation in the shape of new work and a new staff taken over from the National Telephone Company.

In 1897 the class of Girl Clerks was created, to undertake some of the simpler duties in the Savings Bank Department, hitherto performed by Women Clerks. They were subsequently introduced into the Money Order Department and the Controller's Office of the London Telephone Service, and there are approximately 250 now employed. They take the same examination as Women Clerks, but at a lower age—sixteen to eighteen—and are grouped apart for the purpose of marking. Their hours of duty are seven daily, and their salary L42, raising by L3 per annum, to L48. They are in reality a probationary class, and become Women Clerks automatically after two years' service. The introduction of this class was not considered by the Department to be an administrative success, as the obligation to make them Women Clerks in two years prevented their being employed in sufficiently large numbers to effect any appreciable economy. The scheme for the introduction of the grade of Assistant Woman Clerk involved the abolition of the Girl Clerk.

The Women Clerks are an analogous grade to the Male Clerks of the Second Division who are common to the whole Civil Service, and they do practically the same class of work. The examinations for the two classes are somewhat severe in character and are roughly comparable.[2] There is, however, a wide disparity in the salaries paid, as will be seen from the following comparison:—

SECOND DIVISION CLERKS.

L70 by L7, 10s. per an. to L130 thence by L10 per an. to L200 thence by L10 per an. to L300 (Efficiency Bar at L130 and L200)

Above the salary of L300 advancement to higher posts by promotion.

WOMEN CLERKS.

Second Class— L65 by L5 per an. to L100 (No Efficiency Bar)

First Class (by promotion)— L115 by L5 to L140

Above the rank of First Class Clerk there are certain higher posts which constitute a percentage of 4.6 of the total number of First and Second Class Clerks.

The existence of this double standard of payment for the same kind of work is not only an injustice to the women concerned, but is a standing menace to the men, who rightly consider that the presence of women as a blackleg class keeps down their wages and reduces their prospect of promotion. A sense of irritation and dissatisfaction is thus engendered between the two sexes. The maintenance of separate staffs of similar status but with different rates of remuneration, enables the department to play off one against the other, for the existence of a lower paid class makes it increasingly difficult for the Men Clerks to substantiate a claim for better pay themselves. The standard of their work is raised by the "moving-down" or "degrading" of duties, without any improvement in pay such as they would probably be able to obtain if women were not involuntarily undercutting them. Women fully sympathise with their male colleagues, whose prospects are injured in this way, but they insist that the only solution of the difficulty is equal treatment and fair and open competition. The Association of Clerks of the Second Division supported the Women Clerks' claim for equal pay for equal work in their evidence before the Royal Commission on the Civil Service, and it is gratifying that, in spite of the determined policy of the department to adhere as far as possible to the absurd segregation of the sexes, the two organised bodies of Men and Women Clerks are on excellent terms.

In 1883 the class of Women Sorters was instituted, its original scale of pay ranging from 12s. per week, increasing by annual increments of 1s. to 20s. per week. In 1885 a first class was created with a maximum of 30s. per week. The Tweedmouth Committee of 1897 abolished the classification, and substituted therefor an efficiency bar at 21s., so that, unless incompetent, all the Women Sorters have a right to proceed to the maximum of 30s. Since the salary was fixed at that figure, the work of the Sorters has greatly improved in character. Originally introduced for the purpose of sorting, arranging, and filing the multitudinous kinds of official documents and papers, they have by degrees taken over more and more of the simpler duties formerly performed by the Women Clerks, until, at the present day, it is no exaggeration to say that nearly one-half of their duties consists of elementary clerical work. The Women Sorters are recruited from an examination of the same standard as that hitherto applied to Telegraphists, and the Women Sorters' Association claims that the principle of equality between Sorters and Telegraphists, which was recommended to the department by the Tweedmouth Committee in 1897, should be applied to the Women Sorters. Prior to 1900, vacancies occurring in the female staff at the Returned Letter Office were filled by transferred Women Telegraphists, but since that date, vacancies have been filled by successful candidates at the Women Sorters' examinations, who are awarded the Women Telegraphists' scale of pay. There is, therefore, the anomaly of two different scales of pay being given to successful candidates in the Women Sorters' examinations. The Women Sorters also claim some outlet, or prospect of advancement, other than that provided by the "Senior Sorterships," of which there are a few in each department, carrying a supervising allowance of 3s. a week; this claim has been partly met by the apportionment of the new posts of Assistant Women Clerks previously mentioned.

Women Telephone Operators are a large and rapidly growing class, recruited entirely by nomination followed by a qualifying examination. They number at the present time about 4,000, including Supervisors. The growing use of the telephone is replacing the telegraph, and is likely to make of this class a serious rival to the grade of Telegraphist. In this connection, it is important to recognise that the change is likely to entail an enormous increase in the use of cheap labour. The maximum salary of the Telephonist in London is only 28s. per week. The work is extremely exacting and exhausting to the nervous system, so much so, that it is an absolute necessity for the maintenance of health that proper and adequate rest-room accommodation should be provided, and that the operators should be equipped with apparatus of the proper type.

The classes already mentioned have, until the present year (1913), been recruited solely for the Post Office, but the class of Women Typists, numbering about 600, are a Treasury Class, and are common to the whole Civil Service, the conditions of entry varying according to the Department. In the Post Office alone, are Typists recruited by open competitive examination. The scale of salary is 20s. a week, rising in three years to 26s.: they then have the option of qualifying in shorthand, after which they can rise to 31s. per week. In the Post Office, however, the number allowed to qualify in this way is limited to 50 per cent. of the staff. The supervising posts are: Superintendent, 35s. a week, and Chief Superintendent, 40s. a week. No higher positions are open to Typists anywhere, no matter how good their qualifications and educational equipment. The Association of Civil Service Typists claim some avenue of promotion to clerical work in the Departments in which they serve.

There are also about 650 women employed by the Board of Trade in the Labour Exchange Service. With the exception of about 180, who were transferred from the Post Office for Unemployment Insurance Work under Part II. of the National Insurance Act, these women were admitted by the new method of recruitment adopted by the Civil Service Commissioner under Clause VII. of the Order in Council of January 1910. Under this system, applications are invited, and a certain number of apparently suitable candidates are interviewed by a committee of selection, and those chosen for appointment are subsequently required to pass a qualifying examination. The educational standard of this examination, for both men and women, is so low that it appears to be designed, not for the purpose of selecting candidates of good general education, but merely to eliminate the illiterate.

The scale of salary for these posts is the same for women as for men, and is as follows:—

Lower Grade L60, rising by increments of L5 per annum to L105. Higher Grade L110, rising by increments of L5 per annum to L150.

There are also a few higher appointments. Women are, however, under a particular disability in that they must wait for a vacancy in the Higher Grade before passing on beyond L105, whilst in the case of the Men Clerks there is no such stoppage, officers being allowed to proceed straight on, if certified efficient.

It will, no doubt, have been observed that the post of Women Clerk is the highest in the Service open to women by competitive examination, and with the exception of some sixteen or eighteen appointments in the Board of Education, Women Clerks have hitherto been recruited for the Post Office alone. They are now being recruited from this examination for the National Health Insurance Commissions. The exclusion of Women Clerks from the numerous State Departments such as the Home Office, Local Government Board, Inland Revenue, etc., is mainly traditional, as they are not excluded by the wording of the Order in Council of 10th January 1910 (paragraph 5, Part I.) which states that

"all appointments ... shall be made by means of competitive examinations according to regulations framed, or to be from time to time framed by the Commissioners, and approved by the Treasury, open to all persons(of the requisite age, health, character, and other qualifications prescribed in the said regulations) who may be desirous of attending the same...."

In this passage the word "persons" is interpreted to mean men only, but as other professions are yielding to the pressure of modern economic conditions and are opening their doors to women, it is time that the State considered the advisability of profiting by the services of women eminently fitted to perform clerical, organising, and administrative duties, many of whom may possess the special qualifications needed for the work in various Government Departments.

The present limitation of the employment of women, and their lack of prospects of advancement constitutes a serious grievance. Whilst many avenues are open to men to improve their condition in the early years of service, if they possess the necessary ability and enterprise, women have no such opportunities, and have practically no chance of advancement except by way of supervision in their own grade. Moreover, if we look at this question from the point of view of advantage to the community, we find that the present mode of staffing the higher posts of the service from the male sex narrows the field of selection. It is in the interests of the public that the best type of officer should be secured, and not merely the best male available, and the unrestricted admission of women to the higher classes in the Civil Service, and their payment on the same terms as men would make for the greater efficiency of the Department, by securing the services of highly qualified women, who at present are not attracted by the small salaries and the meagre prospects offered. It must also be realised by heads of families that they have a right to expect that the service of the State—a dignified, secure, and independent profession—should be open to their daughters as well as to their sons. Furthermore, as the revenue, out of which the salaries of Civil Servants are paid, is collected from women as well as from men, women should have an equal right to earn those salaries.

Economy in working and simplification of administration would be attained by abolishing the separate examinations, and allowing men and women to enter for the same examinations on equal terms.

There are certain advantages attached to service under the State, which are taken into account when salaries are fixed, but the value of these privileges to the staff is frequently over-estimated by the outsider. For instance, security of tenure and the prospect of a pension at retirement, often act as a deterrent to clever and enterprising officers who, but for the sacrifice involved, would throw up their appointment and seek more remunerative and promising employment outside. Again, the medical attendance provided by the Post Office is, in the case of the women employed in the Headquarters Departments, only available in practice when they are well enough to attend at the office to wait on the Medical Officer there. In theory, every employee is entitled to the services of a Medical Officer at her own home in case of serious illness, but, in fact, the Women Medical Officers are too few to be able to give the necessary individual attention. As an instance of this, it may be stated that to one Department, numbering 1,800 women, the part time of one doctor only, is allotted.

Other advantages are a steadily progressing scale of salary, provided that efficient service is rendered; annual leave with pay; a reasonable working day—seven hours for the clerical force and the typists, and eight hours for the other classes; in most Departments payment is made for overtime; a pension on compulsory retirement after ten years' service, except in the case of women retired on marriage, when a gratuity is given after six years' service, amounting to one month's salary for every year of service up to twelve years. A compassionate allowance is also given on the same basis for both sexes, in cases where an officer is compelled to retire through ill-health before completing ten years' service. Sick pay is granted up to a maximum of six months on full pay and six months on half pay. The full period of leave is not, however, always allowed before retirement. It is given only at the discretion of the Department, if there is a chance of complete recovery; officers have no definite claim to it. Although these are distinct advantages to the staff, it must not be overlooked that it is essential for the State to offer some inducements of this kind, in order to obtain a staff more or less permanent who will regard their employment as a career. It is most important for the proper conduct of a Government office that the officials should have a lasting interest in their work, and a share in the successful administration of the Department.

Women Civil Servants are under the Superannuation Act of 1859 as regards their pensions, and receive an amount equal to one-sixtieth of their annual salary at retirement, for every year of service. Under the Courtney Scheme of 1909, the basis of calculation is one-eightieth instead of one-sixtieth, and the reduction in the pension is compensated by a cash payment at retirement, or, in the event of death occurring whilst in harness, a cash payment is made to the next-of-kin. Women secured their exclusion from the provisions of the latter scheme at their own request, as it was felt that the larger pension was of more value to them than the cash payment at death or retirement; moreover their pensions were already too small to admit of further diminution.

It is a general rule throughout the Service that a woman must retire on marriage; as already mentioned, a compensating-bonus is granted in respect of the loss of pension thereby sustained. A married woman has no definite claim to return to her employment, should she again desire to earn her own living, and only if widowed is she allowed, in certain circumstances, to return to the Service. Should any other misfortune overtake her, or should she for any other reason wish to become economically independent, she is not allowed to earn her living by means of her own profession of Civil Servant. This rule of the Service undoubtedly acts as a deterrent to marriage for, according to the statistics published, only about 3 per cent. of the whole female staff annually leave to be married. It need hardly be pointed out that in the present state of the law of the land, when no portion of a husband's income is secured to his wife as a right, a woman will not lightly throw up her means of livelihood with no prospect of returning to it should she so desire, in order to take her chance of happiness with a man whom the law permits to hold her in subjection body and soul. There is another aspect of the question: Women Civil Servants have to pass a strict medical examination before entering the Service; they have to furnish satisfactory evidence of respectability, of the health of their antecedents, and of a certain standard of education. They are therefore what is known as "selected lives": if these women are forced to remain celibate as a condition of their employment, it is a distinct loss to the nation of a specially selected class of potential mothers. In these days, when the declining birthrate is causing some concern to our statesmen, it would surely be worth their while to consider how far they are themselves contributing to the condition of affairs which they deplore, by maintaining this rigid regulation for the sake of a worn-out sentiment. The compulsory resignation on marriage is a definite wrong both to the women concerned and to the community at large, for women of selected health and intellect are discouraged from marriage by this regulation. Pending the final settlement of this question which is likely to be a very controversial one, the difficulty might be met by a modification of the existing rule allowing married women who have been Civil Servants to return to their employment should they again desire to earn their own living by means of the only profession for which they have qualified.

Women in the Civil Service are in a peculiar position with regard to their rights as citizens. They are handicapped by all the rules governing the political action of men, while they are without the means of maintaining their status as wage-earners. Although they are prohibited by reason of their sex, from taking part in any Parliamentary election as voters, they are nevertheless bound by the rules of the Civil Service which were drawn up when Civil Servants were first enfranchised. These rules state that "now officers have been relieved of the electoral disabilities to which they were formerly subject, they are eligible to be placed on the Parliamentary Register and to vote at a parliamentary election. Nevertheless, it is expected of them as Public Servants that they should maintain a certain reserve in political matters and not put themselves forward on one side or the other." This rule has been interpreted by the Department to mean that no Woman Civil Servant may take an active part in any Suffrage Society which interferes in party politics. Thus women are forced to accept a subservient position, and are also prevented from taking direct steps to raise their status. The principle of equal pay for equal work, if conceded without equal opportunities, is liable to be evaded, and must be safeguarded by statute, and there is no guarantee that any improvement gained will be permanent until women have political power to enforce their demands, for the masculine point of view dominates every Government Department and colours all administration.

Moreover, it should be borne in mind that women are handicapped by being, to a large degree, dependent on reports of their work emanating from male Heads of Departments who are in many cases prejudiced, sometimes unconsciously, against their employment. Heads of Departments do not as a rule take the same amount of personal interest as a private employer in the women under their control, and so these are frequently the victims of caprice. If the person in authority at a particular office happens to object to employing women, he actually opposes their appointment in that office, and deprives them of the chance of displaying their ability. Whilst they have more than their fair share of routine work, and are excluded from practically all the higher posts, they are on that account actually accused of possessing less initiative, less administrative ability, and less power of acting in sudden emergencies than men. It is indeed a vicious circle. They are prevented by their sex from acquiring these qualities in the ordinary course of their duties and excluded from the examinations for admission to those posts in which such qualities would be of use. It is then seriously urged by responsible officials of the Civil Service as an argument against their admittance to superior appointments, that they are lacking in the necessary qualifications.

Such unreasonable and unfair criticism creates bitterness in the minds of the women, who find themselves, in a large number of cases, saddled with domestic responsibilities as great or greater than those of the officials who would seek to drive them back into the home, and who endeavour to prevent them from rising to any decent positions in their profession. An encouraging sign, however, is the enlightened attitude shown by some of the members of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service; the pertinent enquiries made of the Heads of Departments regarding the position of women tend to show that the question will, at least, receive consideration, and that the evidence placed before the Commission by the women's organisations will not be without its effect on the administration of the Civil Service in the future.

The recognition by the male staff in the Civil Service of the importance of the principle of equal pay for equal work is a sign of advance which should be welcomed by all who have the cause of women at heart. This increased enlightenment was evidenced at the Annual Conference of the Civil Service Federation held at the Guildhall on the 11th October last. Delegates were present, representing approximately 100,000 Civil Servants, and the following resolution, which is important enough to be quoted in full, was passed by a majority of 31 votes to 10.

"That this Council expresses its conviction that equal pay for equal work is the only solution of the problem of male and female labour in the Civil Service, and considers that the establishment of this principle is the only alternative to the competition of cheapness which is the result of the existing double standard of payment, and is affecting so injuriously the conditions of service of both men and women. It therefore pledges itself to endeavour to obtain the abolition of the sex disability."

Women in the Service are realising more and more that their strength lies in effective combination. A new organisation has recently sprung into being as a result of the introduction of Women Clerks into the Board of Trade and the National Health Insurance Service, the Federation of Civil Service Women Clerks having been formed for the purpose of working for the larger interests of the women in the various clerical departments of the Civil Service. The general policy of the Federation will be to afford a ready means of communication between various sections of the Service for the purpose of taking joint action when necessary in the interests of the whole body of Women Clerks, and to enable them to concentrate more effectively on the larger issues connected with the claim for equality of opportunity for women with men in the Civil Service.

* * * * *

This article will not be complete without some reference to the Report of the Holt Committee which is engaging the attention of the Postmaster General at the present time.

When the Report was published in August last, it was generally agreed that the women had been badly treated. The demand for equality of remuneration with the male staff which was put forward by the Women Telegraphists and the Women Clerks has been completely ignored. The Women Sorters are awarded an increase of 2s. a week in the maximum salary, and, as a set off, it is proposed that they shall undertake a larger portion of the minor clerical duties now performed by Women Clerks. The immediate supervision of the Women Sorters is to be met by the establishment of the Senior Sorters (who at present receive a supervising allowance of 3s. a week) as a regular supervising class with a fixed scale of salary, viz., 32s. per week rising by 1s. 6d. to 38s. The ultimate supervision remains in the hands of the Women Clerks. The Committee recommended the abandonment of the tentative new grade of Female Assistant Clerks on the ground that there is no need for a class intermediate between the Women Sorters and the Girl and Women Clerks. A further recommendation, causing widespread dissatisfaction, is that the hours of duty shall be increased by three and a half hours per week. The eight-hour day for manipulative work and the seven-hour day for clerical work has hitherto been the standard working day in the Post Office, and the suggested increase with no compensating rise in salary apart from an immediate increment, not to be carried above the maximum of the scale, has been rejected by all classes with indignation.[3] The Women Telegraphists get nothing, the Women Telephonists nothing, the Women Clerks of the First and Second classes, L10 and L5 increase in the maximum salary respectively. The Women Counter Clerks and Telegraphists in the provinces get nothing, although the men of the same class get 2s. a week increase in the maximum.

It is understood from a reliable source that the higher officials of the Post Office admit that the women on the whole have been scurvily treated, and it is confidently expected that the Postmaster General will modify and improve some of the proposals when the final revision of the Report is undertaken. Apart from the various class interests, the only recommendation that can be regarded as in any way satisfactory to women is the abolition of the grade of Assistant Women Clerks as at present constituted. The only form in which the new grade could be at all acceptable would be in substitution for the grades of Girl Clerk and Women Sorter with a scale of salary comparable to the Male Assistant Clerk, in accordance with the claim placed before the Holt Commission and before the Royal Commission on the Civil Service. The insertion of a new water-tight compartment such as the Department proposed, between the Women Sorters and Women Clerks would be dangerous to the interests, and detrimental to the expansion of both, while the present restriction of women to rank and file work continues. It would press the Sorters still further down in the scale by depriving them of all opportunity of succeeding to clerical work, as the recruitment of the Assistant Clerks from their ranks would inevitably be very small; and it would also injure the prospects of promotion of the Women Clerks by decreasing their numbers and by depriving them of higher posts due to growth of work and increase of staff. This latter result was clearly foreseen by the Department when the scheme was first promulgated. Moreover, it would be a blow to the general status of women in the Post Office by depreciating the value of their work and lowering the standard of their employment. It is a matter for congratulation, therefore, that the Select Committee have advised the abolition of the new grade, and the Postmaster General, having agreed in the House of Commons to refer the matter to the arbitrament of the Parliamentary Committee, can hardly repudiate their decision.

[Footnote 1: See the end of the article for the Report of the Holt Committee.]

[Footnote 2: The women are pressing for identical examinations. [EDITOR.]]

[Footnote 3: The Postmaster General has recently (December 1913), conceded the point, and has promised that there shall be no increase in the hours of duty in the Post Office Service; concessions about pay have been refused. [EDITOR.]]



SECTION VI

WOMEN CLERKS AND SECRETARIES

The salary of the woman secretary of the best class, whether working privately or for a firm, seems to be L100 to L150 a year. Generally speaking, this is exactly what it was twenty years ago. It would seem that the highest salaries are those given by City men to confidential clerks (sometimes relatives), who are either good accountants or good linguists. The head of an influential typing office and registry in London informed me that the highly paid posts of translators to City firms are usually filled by German girls. The woman receiving L200 to L250 is a very rare person. I know only of one who receives L5 a week, and that is from an American firm in London. She does private secretarial work, but has no book-keeping and no foreign correspondence. Some years ago I knew of another woman, private secretary to the head of a large publishing firm, who had L200 a year. She was an efficient French correspondent, an able, all-round woman, and had been with the firm for twenty years. There are now two clerks in her place at much lower salaries. There seems to be a tendency to employ two cheap clerks in place of one expensive one.

People unacquainted with the facts, seldom realise how small is the remuneration of capable secretaries. I am acquainted with the work of a woman who has the following qualifications: verbatim shorthand, neat typing and sound knowledge of secretarial and business work, including book-keeping; she is methodical and conscientious in her work, has had some years' City Experience, three years in the shorthand and typing offices in the Houses of Parliament and with peers and members. She is asking 45s. a week, and would take 40s. "with prospects."

Well-paid posts seem to be exceptional. A woman with an intimate knowledge of City conditions, who was chief accountant to an important firm for sixteen years, informs me that L175 is the highest salary she has ever known a woman clerk to receive. The lowest on record seems to be 5s. a week. There is a woman running a typing office in the City who hires out shorthand typists at this figure to business firms. She employs a staff of from fifteen to twenty girls. Similarly, an industrial insurance company, nine months ago, opened a new department to deal with the work of the new Act. They engaged fifty girl clerks at 10s. with a superintendent, also a woman, at 30s. a week.

There is sometimes difficulty in getting accurate information with regard to payments. The heads of typing schools and colleges are apt to give too rosy a picture, and the individual clerk has usually a somewhat narrow experience and is inclined to be pessimistic. A man whom I interviewed (in place of the manager, who was engaged), at one of the biggest schools for training clerks, informed me that everything depended on the clerk. He said the girls who were getting 10s. a week were not worth more, and that there were "many" women clerks getting from L300 to L350. I said I was delighted to hear this as I had had difficulty in running to earth the woman clerk with L200, and had not before heard of the higher salaries. I took out my notebook and begged for particulars. He then said he knew of "one" of their diplomees working for a firm of florists, who had a salary of L300: she was able to correspond in English, French, German, and Spanish. I asked if he would kindly give me her name and address that I might interview her, but he said he could not possibly do that, as any woman clerk who allowed herself to be interviewed would be certain to lose her post.

The manager of a business in Manchester, who employs five shorthand typists, pays them from 15s. to 30s. He admits that it is impossible for the girls to live on their salaries unless they are at home with their parents, as is the case with all of them. But he says that it is unreasonable to expect him to give more than the market rates, and that for 30s. he gets excellent service. He suggests that the only way to raise wages is for the clerks to organise.

The principal of a high class typing office in the City, a woman of experience, who trains only a select number of educated girls, never allows a pupil from her school to begin at less than 25s. a week with a prospect of speedy increase. She pays her own translator L3, 5s. a week, and four members of her staff are paid at the rate of L160 a year.

Mr Elvin, Secretary of the Union of Clerks, tries to enforce a minimum wage of 35s. a week as the beginning salary for an expert shorthand typist, and this may be regarded as the present Trade Union rate. Mr Elvin's difficulty is chiefly with the girls themselves. They are so accustomed to the idea of women being paid less than men that it is not easy to get them to insist on equal pay. In one case he was asked to supply a woman secretary for a certain post. He agreed to find a suitable person if the firm would guarantee a commencing salary of 35s. a week. After some demur this was conceded, and he sent to a well-known school for three competent clerks that he might examine them and recommend the best of the three. After the test he asked them, in turn, what salary they expected. They were all over twenty-one years of age and all competent. One mentioned 25s., the second 23s., and the third L1 a week. On being asked, they said they knew they were worth more, but they thought that, as they were women, they would not get it.

Where there is no one to safeguard the interests of the clerk, an employer, on the look-out for cheap labour, finds it easily enough. The head of a big firm offered a French girl, an expert shorthand writer in three languages, 15s. a week, with a possible rise after three months. She finally accepted a post at 30s. a week as she could get nothing better through registries or by advertisement.

Unless a girl has a claim on a school where she has trained, or has influential friends, it is very difficult for her to get a post suited to her needs in London. The whole profession seems to be in a chaotic condition, and the chances through advertisement are haphazard and unsatisfactory. Employment bureaux maintain that there are more good posts than there are qualified women to fill them, but individual secretaries are timid about giving up unsatisfactory posts as they do not know how to get better.

Take the case of a private secretary to a Member of Parliament. He loses his seat, retires to the country, and gives up his London secretary. He gives her a number of introductions. These lead to nothing, and she is forced into the competition of the City. Her particular training is of no use in a commercial office, and her value falls to 30s. a week.

A woman with an intimate knowledge of women clerks and secretaries in the City for the past twenty years, says that it is difficult to overestimate the poverty of a vast number of girls. Many of them are the chief breadwinners of the family. She knows of half a dozen cases of men of forty and a little older who are living on the earnings of their daughters; there may be two girls in the family, one getting 12s. and the other 25s. a week.

The private secretary who lives in, has usually excellent food and pleasant surroundings, but in some cases the life is a solitary one. Unless there is a governess or other educated employee in the household, she has no companionship. The salary varies from L30 to L120 and sometimes more. There is apparently no fixed rate. One lady writes:

"For two years I lived in the house of Sir——, the most hopelessly isolated and uninteresting existence, within the four walls of his study. A secretary should certainly stick out for a free week-end once a month when living in. Isolation is horribly bad for one."

The secretary living in with congenial literary or medical people, where she is made one of the family circle, has a happier time, but the payment is not high.

Apart from salary, the conditions in which the woman clerk works are by no means ideal.

Twenty years ago, in a far northern city, there was a flourishing new school where over thirty girls of from fifteen to twenty were being taught shorthand, typewriting, book-keeping, and all that goes to the making of a fully-equipped clerk. This school was the first experiment of the kind in an enterprising community. As the pupils qualified, with Pitman certificates of varying degrees of speed, at the end of six months or longer, the way in which old-fashioned lawyers accepted the innovation of attractive young women on their clerical staff, seemed almost magical. Decorum relegated the young women to separate rooms from the rest of the employees, and the formality in the bearing of heads of departments towards these pioneer females must have been gratifying to Mrs Grundy. So superior to human exigencies seemed these dignified men, that the subject of lavatory accommodation for young women, mewed up from 9 to 1 and from 2 to 5.30, was not mentioned. Woman's modesty, if it were to reach the high standard made for her by man, had to come before her health or comfort. Although typists of all grades have multiplied by thousands[1] during the past twenty years—in London alone there are over 25,000 women clerks and secretaries—there is still need for adequate inspection of sanitary accommodation for women workers of this class. Apart altogether from sanitary accommodation, common sense would seem to suggest that, in the case of any one who has to turn out decent typing, a regular supply of hot water is a necessity for washing hands that may have to change a ribbon or do the many little messy jobs that typing involves.

In a lecture before the Fabian Women's Group in February 1912, Miss Florence, of the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries, said:

"With regard to the sanitary conditions—these as a rule are bad, especially where there is only one woman. The difficulty has been shirked by the women themselves in a great many cases.... I do not see how these can be altered except by improving the status and position of women, so that they may become strong enough to say they will not have it if it is too bad."

Who is to dictate what is "too bad"? Surely the only remedy is to have a proper standard of decency enforced by law. Women as a rule are fools on this subject, and will endure almost any discomfort, rather than complain.

In giving evidence before the Royal Commission, in May last year, concerning the conditions of employment and their effect on the health of Civil Service female typists and shorthand writers, Miss Charlesworth, Honorary Secretary of the Civil Service Typists' Association, said:

"The statistics as regards sickness relating to our class are almost too small to be of very much use.... I may say from experience that they are greatly influenced by the conditions under which the work is done. In my own department (Local Government Board) our average absence from sickness in the old office, where we were much overcrowded, varied between ten and fourteen days a year, while in our new office the average has steadily gone down from twelve to a fraction over six last year.... It is very striking that there has been that reduction in the average number of days' absence per year from sickness, from twelve to six in four years while we have been working under better conditions ... that means a less number of typing machines in one room, more light to work by and more air—better rooms to work in."

This evidence is interesting, as the worst conditions that could possibly exist in the lofty rooms of a Government office, where everything is on a big scale and there is a certain standard of comfort, must be superior to the majority of commercial offices, especially in London, where space is so expensive. Think of four girls taking shorthand notes by telephone in a room with thirty typewriting machines working at once!

There are no figures available with regard to the health of women clerks generally. The common ailments are neuritis, anaemia, and nervous breakdown. Typing is also a strain on the eyesight and hearing. Miss Charlesworth says that in her experience it is the girls who are not suited for the work who suffer most from ill-health.

One typing office and school, of high repute for excellence of work, had rooms so dark that electric light was always used in one or other of them during part of the day. No sun ever entered the work-rooms. The salaries were good, but overtime was paid at only 6d. an hour. There was a sort of compulsion, too, to work overtime; some of the best typists, occasionally even stayed all night during excessive rushes of work. No holidays were paid for, and it was regarded as disloyalty on the part of a clerk to stay away for sickness. There was an instance of a girl being dismissed because she stayed away a fortnight owing to influenza. This particular firm recently moved into bigger, brighter rooms, not out of humanity to its staff, but because the lease had run out.

Where competition is as keen as in the typing business, it is often the case that the comfort of employees is considered as little as is compatible with running the place at a profit. There seems to be no inspection, and there is no law to say how many typists may be worked together, or what limit of noise shall be endured by them. Everything is ruled by the individual standard of decency of the employer. Many well-educated girls enter typing offices for the excellent practical training to be had, and for the short time they remain they are willing to put up with severe discipline and some personal discomfort. There are, of course, typing offices with as high a level of comfort and decency as the most exacting law would prescribe. Many of the big engineering firms and City houses have most comfortable and even luxurious quarters for their women clerks.

In old days in the above-mentioned northern school, it was possible to get complete teaching as a clerk—excellent teaching, too—for a guinea a term. There were some shorthand typists whose training cost them only that initial guinea and the fees of the supplementary course of evening classes, 5s. and 10s. according to the number of subjects. In London at that time a year's course in the same subjects cost as much as 60 guineas at some of the chief typing schools. The fee nowadays, at one of the foremost London schools for a secretarial course for six months only, is 60 guineas; a year's course is L100.[2] This includes book-keeping and shorthand correspondence in one foreign language, besides shorthand and typing, etc.

The best testimony shows that a year is altogether too long for an intelligent well-educated girl of eighteen or more to spend on technical training.[3] Mr James Oliphant, writing in The School World for July 1913 on the subject of secretarial training for girls, says:

".... It is to be noted that the curriculum in girls' schools is of a much more reasonable character than that which is commonly provided for boys, and that the more completely it is fitted to supply a good general education, the better it would be adapted to the special needs of those who wish to become clerks or secretaries. It would seem eminently desirable that such aspirants should continue at the secondary school between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, being provided with a specialised course of study ... but whenever it is possible it would be well to insist that no subject should be included which is not generally educative in the widest sense. The acquisition of such mechanical arts as stenography and typewriting should be relegated to technical colleges where, according to general testimony, proficiency can be gained by well-educated girls in a period varying from six to nine months. 'Commercial correspondence' is an abomination; a sufficient knowledge of the ordinary forms of letter-writing should be imparted in every course of English composition ... while the special jargon of each business or office can be readily acquired by any intelligent girl when it becomes necessary."

There is every variety of price at the various technical training schools all over the country, from a guinea to L100. With regard to the training given in non-technical schools, the capable head of a well-equipped West End typing office writes:

"It is a pity the ordinary schools are taking it up. I know of at least one so-called secondary school which makes a speciality of 'Commercial Training.' The girls who take up the subject are quite the wrong kind, with absolutely no real education,... and are ready to accept anything in the way of salary. The really good schools where the girls remain till they are 18 or 19 give a better training, of course.... But I do not think the schools have any right to undertake a specialised vocational training; it must lower the standard. Every other profession has its special training after a good general education has been acquired."

The best-known societies for protecting the interests of women clerks and secretaries are, the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries at 12 Buckingham Street, Strand, and the National Union of Clerks at 186-188 Bishopsgate Street. These are the only approved societies under the National Insurance Act.

The Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries has been in existence for eight years, and during the last year has more than trebled its members, the clerks' attitude towards combination having recently changed somewhat, in London at any rate. The Association has a devoted secretary and does excellent work. Its aims are:

(1) To raise the status of women clerks and secretaries, and to encourage a higher standard of practical training.

(2) To secure a just remuneration for all grades.

(3) To render legal aid and give advice to members, and to benefit generally the clerical and secretarial profession for women.

(4) To maintain a registry for women clerks and secretaries, and to watch for openings for members of the Association.

(5) To establish and maintain an Approved Society under the National Insurance Act, 1911, for the benefit of Women Clerks and Secretaries.

The Association is not yet, however, strong enough to form a recognised union able to fix a minimum education qualification for membership. An important conference was held by this Association in May last at the University of London. Every speaker emphasised the need for better and wider education before taking up the profession, and there was unanimity of opinion that no girl should be allowed to start the technical part until she was at least sixteen. A remark of Mrs W.L. Courtney, who was one of the speakers, is well worth quoting: "One of the cleverest women I ever knew, who was an amateur indexer, said to me one day, 'It does not matter in doing this work about being clever; what matters is to have lived.'" There is not much chance then for the school-girl of sixteen.[4]

The National Union of Clerks is conducted with energy and enlightenment. It has increased its membership by nearly 8,000 in the last twelve months, and one of the best reasons it offers women clerks for joining, is that it is the only National Society for Clerks that has always accepted women as members on equal terms as men. There are 1,000 women in a membership of 10,000. Notwithstanding the hard work these two societies are doing, there is nothing like the response there should be from women clerks. It is only the exceptional woman clerk who has yet developed anything like a corporate conscience. The reason is partly that she is often an isolated being. Where there is a large number of clerks together, as in the Civil Service, there is no lack of the right spirit.

Here are a few of the causes of the overstocking of the clerical market by women. Almost any one can be a clerk of a kind. The training is cheap and easily obtainable. Many parents want their children to bring in money early, and this seems an easy way. A large percentage of young girls (in 1907-1909, 87 per cent.) who fail to pass Civil Service examinations, try to become clerks. Some time ago there was an article in a daily newspaper entitled "The Passing of the 15s.-a-week-Girl." She is with us in larger numbers than ever, however, and she has added to her numbers a 10s.-a-week-girl and even a cheaper girl, as we have seen. We meet her daily in Tube and 'bus, looking remarkably attractive, in spite of foolish shoes and a bad habit of eating four-penny lunches. The chief charge some of her fellow clerks have against her, apart from her inferior work, is that she only makes use of typing as a road to marriage. The other class of offender is the daughter of well-to-do parents. Typing is regarded as a ladylike employment, and parents, who would never expect their daughters to be self-supporting, are glad for them to earn pocket money or just enough for dress.

According to Mr Elvin of the National Union of Clerks, even in prosperous times there are always 3 per cent. of unemployed clerks. In bad times the percentage must be greater. Whether the times are good or bad, young girls with the most elementary education are being turned out by hundreds from typing schools.

The only remedy is that the output of clerks should be restricted; no one should be allowed to become a clerk who has not reached a certain standard of efficiency. The parents are the chief offenders. Many of them do not seem to have the necessary energy or intelligence to find out for what their daughters are best fitted. Advisory Committees are wanted in connection with all elementary and secondary schools. Of the girl typists and shorthand writers who resigned from the Civil Service from 1894 to 1906 for various causes, 17 per cent. left to take up other work. The lady superintendent in one of the Civil Service typing rooms pointed out a girl and said: "That girl would have made an excellent milliner or a kindergarten teacher, but she is not at all suited for this work."

The chief grievance of the really efficient woman clerk and secretary is that she has not enough scope. One woman writes:

"If the various firms and professions who employ girls as typists were to give them an insight into the business, whatever it might be, it would add enormously to the enthusiasm of the worker. In America they do this very often. The wonderful Miss Alice Duckin, the lady skyscraper builder, was once a typist. When she entered the firm they allowed her full scope to develop, and she mastered the building trade and is now the chief partner of Messrs Duckin and Lass. There is one firm of lawyers in London who allow their typists to attend the Law Courts, and give them work to do which is usually reserved for men. Only under such conditions can the profession expand."

There is often a chance for a secretary in a newspaper office to develop into a journalist. But there are instances when the private secretary, who begins writing for the paper on which she is employed, is told that she was engaged not as a contributor but as an efficient secretary.

One girl who had been for ten years private secretary to a literary man in London, horrified her relatives, and gave her employer a shock, by suddenly throwing up her much-envied post and entering herself at a hospital for a particularly strenuous kind of nursing. Her salary as secretary was 35s. a week; she had a comfortable room of her own to work in, a good annual holiday, and other blessings. Her chief said "good morning" and "good evening" to her, but she saw no one else, and frequently she had technical German translations in the evenings, for which she got nothing extra. Her chief did not know German, and thought she did the translations as easily as she wrote shorthand. Her whole work was moderately interesting, but the dullness of her life became insupportable. Another private secretary at the end of fifteen years in an excellent post, opened a tea-shop.

An Edinburgh woman sends the following interesting statement:—

"Secretarial work seems to me one of the most congenial for educated women. In Edinburgh the prospects are excellent. The headmasters and mistresses of all the large schools, medical men, dentists, university professors, managing editors of our great printing and publishing houses, several of whom are editing encylopaedias, need a fair number of women secretaries. And there is not a sufficient supply for the law offices of which Edinburgh has such a large number.

"The conditions are in need of some kind of organised supervision, particularly where everything depends on an individual employer. In my first post with a medical specialist, for instance, my time was never my own; my work began at 9 and often did not end at midnight. Sunday work was quite common; there were no Saturday afternoons off, but I had free hours here and there which it was impossible to utilise.

"Another post I had was ideal. I worked for two men, for one of whom I spent the morning in a pathological laboratory. Here I did nothing but research work and writing. In the afternoon I did general correspondence and assistant editing of one of the medical journals. I had free evenings and Saturday afternoons. It is an excellent plan to work for two men, as it gives variety and may often be more remunerative, although for myself I never had more than L100 a year. There is lack of organisation in this profession, and posts are difficult to get by registry or advertisement. I have never found a Women's Employment Bureau of any use whatever. I have got everything by personal recommendation."

A common grievance seems to be the amount of overtime imposed on many clerks, sometimes paid for, but often obligatory whether paid for or not. There is a naive arrangement in the Civil Service Typing Department. It seems that the typists are allowed 9d. or 10d. an hour for overtime up to a limit of fifteen hours a month, but any overtime beyond that is not paid for. In the Minutes of Evidence before the Royal Commission we read:—

"Commissioner. Is any other time beyond that (15 hours a month) ever exacted?

"Superintendent. Yes.

"Commissioner. Are they ever required to work longer than that?

"Superintendent. Yes.

"Commissioner. And are they not paid for it?

"Superintendent. No.

"Commissioner. What is the reason for that?

"Superintendent. The Treasury laid it down in their minute.

"Commissioner. Have you questioned it?

"Superintendent. Yes, we have many times asked the Treasury to allow the department to pay for more, but so far as I know, in no case has it been allowed, and at this present time (May 1912), in the London Telephone Service all shorthand-typists and typists and superintendents are doing a great deal of overtime, but only 15 hours in a month of 4 weeks is paid for. Superintendents are not paid at all for overtime. The only reason, apparently, for the limitation is that the salaries are so close that if shorthand-typists were paid for more overtime than 15 hours they would be earning more than the superintendents."

It seems impossible to tell as yet how the working of the National Insurance Act will affect women clerks. The secretary of the Information Bureau of the Woman's Institute says that, as far as she knows, good offices continue to pay their clerks their salaries in cases of illness, only making a deduction of the 7s. 6d. paid as insurance money.

To sum up, there is urgent need for better organisation among clerks and secretaries. They should be graded in some way, so that the efficient who are out of work may easily be brought in touch with employers. The societies reach only a small proportion of the workers, many of whom do not even know of their existence. It must be remembered that a difficulty in the way of men and women clerks combining, is that women of good education, sometimes in possession of degrees, find themselves in competition with men of an inferior social class. A large proportion of the best secretaries are the daughters of professional men. The average woman clerk is invariably a person of better education and manners than the male clerk at the same salary.

In the next place, better sanitation and better working conditions must be secured. Only last year, a firm employing hundreds of men and a dozen women, had no separate lavatory for the women. It is to the interest of the employer of women clerks to look after their health and to provide rest rooms. Anti-feminists are positive as to women's "inferior physique," but their practice as employers is too often inconsistent with their opinions.