Women's Work

by A. A. Brooke; Margaret Whitley

Nursing.—The profession of nursing continues to attract numbers of educated women into its ranks, and facilities for training are said to be insufficient for the demand. (For details see Englishwoman’s Year Book.) Considering the hardships involved in the profession its continued popularity is surprising. The work of a trained nurse, whether employed in a hospital or in private or district work, is necessarily severe, and it is to be regretted that more careful provision is not made for the comfort of so useful a class of workers. Hours are long and holidays short, and work of the most trying description is expected to be done year after year, with a mere fraction of the rest and recreation which is considered necessary in other and not more arduous professions. In Nursing Institutes and Homes the dietary is often very poor, and in hospitals the state of things is not much better. It is unfortunately impossible to repeat in any detail the complaints made by nurses without indicating the institutions to which they refer; but most persons with acquaintances among hospital nurses know that abundant dissatisfaction exists in the profession. Examples could of course be given of institutions that are well managed in this respect, but they are, it is to be feared, the exception rather than the rule. Boards of Management are under constant pressure to increase their accommodation, and, funds being seldom abundant, they are tempted to work with an insufficient staff. The consequences are felt most severely by the more educated nurses. It seems to be forgotten that the superior tact and skill which make the cultured woman a better nurse than her uneducated colleague are gained to some extent at the expense of toughness of fibre, and that hours and dietary need modification accordingly. I am afraid that a good deal of the mischief arises from mistaken notions as to what the profession of nursing ought to be. Nurses are supposed to take it up in a missionary spirit for the good of the community, without regard to their own comfort or health. Now unfortunately the more “noble” a profession is considered, the greater is the tendency to neglect the material well-being of those concerned in it; and nurses have reason to feel the full force of this misplaced sentiment. The policy followed in their regard is as foolish as it is unjust. The inevitable fatigues of a nurse’s life require to be counteracted by the most careful provisions for her comfort, if full efficiency is to be kept up; and Hospital Boards would do well to remember that more professions are now open to women than there were when nursing first became popular. The supply of capable nurses is already insufficient, as the recent influenza epidemic showed, and may easily become still more inadequate, if neither facilities for training nor conditions of employment undergo any improvement.

Nurses’ Salaries.—Except in institutions to which pensions are attached, the profession of nursing cannot be regarded as a money-making career. At one large London hospital probationers receive £12 with uniform the first year, £20 the second, and the “sisters,” or heads of wards, receive £40 per annum. The Workhouse Training Association (for replacing pauper attendants by trained nurses in workhouse infirmaries) gives no salary the first year, £20 the second, rising to £25. A district nursing association in the provinces gives trained nurses £24 the first year, and salaries rise to £30—board, lodging, and washing being also found. From £25 to £30 therefore generally represents the money payment of a trained nurse. The matron of a hospital may receive anything from £50 to £100 per annum. In the large London hospitals the latter sum is often exceeded, with the addition of house, servant, and handsome fees from probationers. For heads of hospitals therefore the profession is by no means unremunerative; but these posts are few and far between. With the multiplication of cottage hospitals which is certain to take place minor posts with fair salaries and a not too arduous life will become available. Private nursing under a medical man is often well paid, but uncertainty of employment has to be taken into account. Co-operative associations of nurses are also being formed, and it is possible that by their means a larger proportion of the fees paid by patients may find their way into the pockets of those who earn them.

Art. Painting and Music.—And now what must be said of the domain of the arts and of women’s place therein? If women have entered but timidly into this fair kingdom, it has not been for want of fitness, as the rapid success of a few among them clearly shows; the hindrance has lain rather in the prejudices of society and the lack of proper training. Though rapidly disappearing, the former are not yet extinct; means of training are not the same for both sexes, nor have women ceased to suffer from the blasting influence of Puritanism upon art. Anything that damages the social reputation of a profession bars it more or less to women; and anything that makes training difficult or expensive is a more serious hindrance to women than to men, since parents are not so willing to make sacrifices for a girl as for a boy. Astonishment is often expressed at the absence of women composers of merit; but the reason is not really far to seek. Until the foundation of the London schools of music (to which that of Manchester must now be added) musical education has been difficult to obtain by either sex. But the practical part, which involves an acquaintance with orchestral instruments, the methods of opera, the arrangement of church music, the management of chorus parts and a hundred other details, has hitherto been almost unattainable by women. There seems little à priori reason for supposing that music is an affair of sex. Fanny Mendelssohn was scarcely, if at all, less gifted than the brother who so calmly placed her in the background, and was not ashamed to appropriate the credit of her work. Some of the “Lieder ohne Worte,” and “O rest in the Lord”—the latter perhaps the most popular of all Mendelssohn’s melodies—were, as is now generally known, composed by Fanny.

Remuneration.—It is impossible to give any estimate of the value of either music or painting as a means of livelihood. A music teacher, if well qualified, may earn a fair living; and a teacher of an instrument less commonly learnt than the piano—say the violin—may sometimes earn £150 or £200 a year while quite young. Singers, unless of the first rank, generally find it profitable to combine private teaching with public performances. For a concert engagement a beginner may receive £5 with travelling expenses, rising soon, if successful, to £10 or £20. Great performers are of course at a “monopoly value,” as the economists say, and their annual earnings often run into four figures. As for composing, its pecuniary reward is very uncertain. “It does not pay to write symphonies,” a popular composer naively remarked, and the same thing may be said of most of the higher kinds of composition. Incidental music for stage plays is often well paid, and a popular song may yield a small income in itself. The budding composer, however, like the artist or author, must be content to let his first works be sold for almost nothing for the sake of making a reputation, but this once made he can command his own terms. A deadening effect is exercised on musical art in this country by the mischievous system of royalties. Many singers high in the ranks will not look at a modern song unless they are paid a handsome royalty for singing it, and thus a valuable means of advancing the reputation of a young composer is rendered useless.

Painting and sculpture are so purely an affair of the individual that it is more difficult to make general statements with regard to them than with any other artistic profession. Each artist works on his own lines; there is no general or usual rate of remuneration, and no one can predict with any certainty the prospects of the profession even to a painter of talent. Indeed the less the talent, often, the greater the success. All that can be said is that the woman who means to live by her brush or her chisel must be prepared for a hard struggle before she can earn a competence; and very few attain to wealth. The development of illustration in periodicals has however opened a large and fairly-well paid outlet for women’s work, and many a rising painter would be hard put to it but for the aid that comes—only in guineas and half-guineas it may be, but steadily—from black-and-white drawings for the press. Many men, though at present few women, earn a fairly good living entirely by black-and-white work.

The Stage.—The stage is, socially speaking, becoming easier of entry for girls. Those who wish to succeed must begin young, a proviso which forms a serious disadvantage in a profession involving obstacles to be surmounted, or awkward corners to be rounded. It is difficult to obtain entrance to a good London theatre, and novices generally have to go through a course of probation with a touring company, with the prospect of hard work, ill quarters, and uncertain pay. The profession is thus encountered on its roughest side at first, and it is not surprising that the prospect should daunt intending candidates. Yet the stage has a fascination of its own, and those who once tread the boards can seldom find it in their heart to forsake them. If a girl can by luck or perseverance gain a footing in one of the good London companies, the life need present no terrors to herself or her friends, and payment will be fair and regular while it lasts; but outside a comparatively small circle the stage, though perfectly reputable, is at best precarious as a means of livelihood. Engagement is almost always for the run of a single piece only, and there is usually no payment for rehearsals. Thus, after weeks of rehearsal, if the piece is unsuccessful, a girl may only earn a fortnight’s salary. In these matters actors and actresses are not well used, and when they have learnt the value of united effort they will certainly combine for securing juster terms. There is less cause for complaint in the rate of payment, which is generally fair, and often very good; while a successful actress can of course make a very large income. In good theatres a guinea a week is a common wage for a girl who merely “walks on,” but with touring companies she is generally expected to serve an apprenticeship before earning anything. If she obtains a speaking part she may earn £2 or £3 a week; but an actress would do well to reckon her salary at half its nominal amount, as she is likely to be frequently out of work. The institution of regular rates of payment is hindered by stage-struck amateurs, who are willing to pay, in some cases large sums, to appear on the boards, even in the smallest capacity.

There are all ranks and grades in the dramatic profession, and a vast number of actresses never rise above the position of “extra” ladies in pageant plays, or the rank and file of performers in pantomimes. The latter earn from 15s. to 20s. a week, and their employment is intermittent. In the case of impecunious or unscrupulous managers payment also is uncertain. Girls in the humbler ranks of the profession are subject to all sorts of ill-treatment and swindling. For example, a number of girls were recently engaged for an “open-air fête” in the country during some weeks of the summer. The weather turned out wet, and a friend who visited them found their dressing-tent only partly covered in, and swimming in water. They had attended thirteen rehearsals and a few performances without payment, and but for the intervention of friendly outsiders it is doubtful whether they would ever have received any payment at all. These girls had left paying employment as dressmakers and milliners for this thankless work, yet they endured their unjust treatment without complaint.

Speaking generally, the difficulty of the dramatic profession is, that while talent is rare, it is overcrowded with candidates of very moderate abilities. On this account it is very difficult for a girl to get an opportunity of showing what she can do, and much patience is necessary to success. If possible, a girl should have some other means of eking out her income during the first months or years of the struggle.

Many girls work at dressmaking in the summer months, taking to the stage regularly when the pantomime season comes on. Then there is the ballet, which in London alone employs thousands of women. An ordinary ballet dancer receives £1 to £1 10s. a week, and has to work hard for her money; the best members of the troupe however may earn as much as 35s. a week. The earnings of “solo” dancers are of course much higher. English principals in pantomimes receive £5 and £9 a week, but the usual custom is to employ foreigners—French or Italians—who are paid as much as £12 a week. Popular performers receive fancy salaries, and a dancer or music-hall singer who has hit the public taste sometimes makes as much as £70 a week. A lady in this branch of the profession was recently invited to visit America at a salary of £250 a week. A “variety artist” sued her manager for £43 6s. 8d. as a week’s salary, and gained all but the odd £3 6s. 8d. Miss Loie Fuller, the “serpentine” dancer, was engaged, as a subsequent lawsuit shewed, by a French manager for three years, at a salary of 102,000 francs, or over £4000 a year. If reward went by talent and artistic culture these figures would be highly satisfactory, but as a rule the reverse is the case. With regard to dancing, however, public taste is improving, and both on the stage and in private houses graceful dancing—dancing worthy of being called an art—is increasingly appreciated. A really good dancer is highly paid, though not upon the extravagant scale quoted above.

Handicrafts.—A word must be said about the position of women in artistic crafts and in designing, though it is to be feared that the account will somewhat resemble the famous chapter on “Reptiles in Ireland.” Pottery is almost the only field in which women are employed as designers, and here, as in isolated examples in other trades, what has happened is rather that an artist has turned trade designer, than that the trade has educated an artist. For example, a lady now carrying on business as a jeweller was educated at an art school, and owing to some accidental circumstance began designing for a jeweller. Eventually she set up in business for herself, and still designs many of the articles manufactured in her workshop. Isolated cases of the same kind might be cited from other trades. Speaking generally, however, women designers have not shaken themselves free from the trammels of the art schools, or gained the practical acquaintance with crafts and manufacture which alone can make their work marketable. It is probably more difficult for women than for men to gain this practical knowledge, and those who mean to succeed must bring both courage and perseverance to the task.