Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1917 — 886,000 WOMEN DO MEN’S WORK [ARTICLE]

886,000 WOMEN DO MEN’S WORK

British Government Appreciates Efforts Put Forth by Gentler Sex. ARE NO LONGER DOMESTICS Scarcely a Trade But What Has Its Female Employees They Are .Even Replacing Men in Building, Mining and Quarrying. London.—The far-reaching effect on the industrial and eoratnereißl situation caused by the formation of an srTny of almost five jnlUlon men cannot be underestimated, and 'the government was not long in realizing the vital importance of maintaining the output of articles required for the war and export trade. The wonderful efforts accomplished by the women of Great Britain in taking the places of men Who have joined tbd colors are known in a general way to the American public, but It Is impossible, without living in England, to form an accurate Impression of the extent to which the women have answered the call. Special efforts are now being made by the British government to give to the world a more adequate knowledge of the success attained by women in nparty all branches of men’s work. According to official statistics which have Just been issued by the war office 866,000 Women and girls have stepped forward to take the places of men In various occupations. This figure does not include domestic service or employment in the millinery or dressmaking trade, nor does it comprise the women who have taken so active a part in Red Gross work since the beginning of the war. The latter alone Include more than 27,000. Women Munition Workers. A very large proportion of the total mentioned is, of coarse, due to the advent of the woman munition worker, and while it is quite true that many of these women are not, strictly speaking, taking the places of men. It is nevertheless an undeniable fact that they are doing what before the war was regarded as strictly men’s work. Munition worli, however, is only a part of women’s industrial activity. A high authority of the British government, to whom the Sun Is indebted for these facts, is authority for the statement that there are very few industries or occupations in which the number of women has not increased. There are few in which some direct substitution of female for male labor has not taken place. The chief Instances of decline In numbers of women employed are domestic service and .employment In small dressmaking workrooms.

Other Important: "industries which show a numerical decline aye laundry work, dressmaking, confectionery, printing and bookbinding, linen, lace and slm, but In all these groups some # women are directly replacing men, and in many individual firms in these and other groups a decline In the number* of women simply means that some of the women have left to go to men’s work and have not been replaced. In Every Trade. ;.~ T ' Women are directly replacing men (only In comparatively small numbers) even In building, mining and quarrying. They are replacing them In considerable number in most of the metal Industries, though not on the main processes In Iron and steel works. In the cotjon trade no less than 26,000 females are returned as directly replacing males, though In other textile Industries (except hosiery) progress has been less marked. In the food trades there have been very interesting cases of substitution. In grain milling the number of women and girls employed has risen since July, 1914, from 2,000 to 6,000; in sugar refining, from 1,000 to 2,000, and in brewing, from 8,000 to 18,000; the increase In these trades is almost entirely doe to the direct replacement of men by women. Women are also doing men’s work to an appreciable degree in tanning and leather working, sawmilling and woodworking, glass, china, earthenware and rubber. One of the most striking new developments is the introduction of wo clerks into banks and financial houses. In flgrtcnltttre the process of substltutlon made slow progress during the first 18 morrths of the war, bat an acceleration is now noticeable. Besides the regular women workers there is a large increase In the number of frnit pickers, harvesters and other casuals. Railway employment famishes —a particularly interesting series of experiments in woman labor. Before the war the British railway companies only employed about 11,000 women — clerks, cleaners, attendants, etc. Approximately 33,000 are now employed. The kind and amount of substitution carried out varies from one, railway company to another. One has Increased the number of Its women clerks from TO to 1.526, and employs also 18 women ticket collectors, 186 carriage cleaners, 55 engine cleaners and 454 porters. Another, with neither women ticket collectors nor porters, has 480 women carriage cleaners, 475 engine cleaners, 236 laborers in the workshops and 37 other women laborers. Yet another, with no women engine, cleaners or laborers, has 142 ticket collectors.