Women Workers in Seven Professions / A Survey of Their Economic Conditions and Prospects

by Unknown

APPENDIX I

SCHEME OF WORK OF THE FABIAN WOMEN'S GROUP

The Group was formed by some women members of the Fabian Society in 1908, chiefly with the object of studying the problem of women's economic independence in relation to socialism. The work was mapped out on the following lines, to which the Group has adhered:—

Part I.—Differences in Ability for Productive Work Involved in Difference of Sex Function.

Division 1.—Natural disabilities of women when not actively engaged in childbearing.

Division 2.—Natural disabilities of women when actively so engaged.

Part II.—Women's Economic Independence in Relation to Social Conditions.

Division 1.—Women as productive workers and as consumers in the past.

Division 2.—Women as productive workers and as consumers in the present.

Part III.—Practical Steps towards such Modification of Social Conditions as will enable Women:

(a) Freely to use and develop their physical and mental capacities in productive work, while remaining free and fully able to exercise their special function of childbearing.

(b) Each personally to receive her individual share of the social wealth.

Two Summaries of the lectures and discussions arising out of Part I. were issued for private circulation in 1910. Copies, 1d. each, can now be procured through the Fabian Office, 3 Clement's Inn, W.C.

Fifteen papers of the Historical Series, Part II., Division I, have already been given, and the subjects considered in them have nearly covered the field of material at present available for the rough preliminary enquiry, in which the Group has led the way. When the series is finished, it is hoped to shape the material into essay form for publication.

The present volume is the outcome of lectures and discussions arising out of Part II., Division 2. It is hoped that it may prove to be the first of a Series dealing with this part of the investigations undertaken by the Women's Group.