“The constant supervision of the shop walker, the patience and politeness to be shown to the most trying customers, the difficulty of telling the truth about the goods without incurring the displeasure of the managers, the long standing, the close atmosphere even in well-ventilated shops when crowded with customers, the short time for meals, the care required to keep things in their right places and to make out accounts correctly, the long evenings with gaslight, and the liability to dismissal without warning or explained reason, all tend to render the occupation of the shop assistants most trying to the nerves and injurious to health.” And she adds: “It is a significant fact that whereas large numbers of factory girls cannot be prevailed upon to give up their factory work after marriage, the majority of shop assistants look upon marriage as their one hope of relief, and would, as one girl expressed it, ‘marry anybody to get out of the drapery business.’”
CHAPTER III.
WOMEN AND TRADE UNIONS.
No existing combination outside Manual Labour—Beginning of Unionism among women—Emma Paterson—Sketch of her life—She advocates combination—Conference—Women’s Protective and Provident League, formed 1874—First Women’s Union, Bookbinders, 1874—Approval of Trades Congress, 1874—Women Delegates to Congress, 1875—Other Unions formed up to 1879—Army Clothing Factory—Liverpool Tailoresses—Nailmakers—Women’s Union Journal—Death of Mrs. Paterson, 1886—The Match Girls’ Strike, 1889—Public Sympathy—New Organisations—Unionism in the Provinces—Mixed Unions—Tours undertaken by League Officials—Method of Proceeding—Difficulties of Unionism—Fines and deductions—Attitude of Men’s Unions—Increased Support—Established results and Future Prospects—Factory and Home-work—Working for Pocket-money—Foreign Competition—“Consumers’ League”—Self Help—Directory of Women’s Unions.
The history of combination among women lies within a narrow compass. Its action has been confined entirely to the working classes, and even among them the period of its existence is as yet but short. No organization fulfilling the purposes of a Trade Union is to be found among women of the cultured classes, and the corporations by which professional and commercial men secure the maintenance of a definite system of employment and a fixed standard of payment have no parallel among workers of the other sex. So far as women join the ranks of a profession already thus guarded—as, for instance, the medical profession—they share its privileges, and we are thus spared the spectacle of women doctors underselling their male colleagues, and earning their maledictions thereby. There are various associations of women engaged in teaching, but these as a rule are formed purely for educational purposes, and are powerless to defend or protect their members in any way. Indirectly, however, they may serve some of the purposes of a Trade Union. Thus the Association of Assistant Mistresses in secondary schools, though carefully disclaiming all title to be called a Trade Union, is able, by means of friendly conferences with headmistresses as well as by the information it disseminates among its members, and the publicity which it is able to give to matters in which their interests are concerned, to confer upon its members some of the minor benefits of combination. The National Union of Teachers in elementary schools (men and women) comes much nearer to the Trade Union type; but though affording its members valuable aid, and able through its Parliamentary Committee seriously to influence legislation, it is not constituted upon a Trade Union basis, and does not profess to fulfil its functions. The associations recently formed among men and women employed in shops are, however, Trade Unions, both in intention and in fact; but with this solitary, though important, exception, the progress of unionism among women has been entirely confined to the classes engaged in strictly manual labour.
Emma Paterson.—There is no difficulty in fixing the date of the first beginnings of Trades Unionism among women, or in assigning the credit of its foundation to the right quarter. The date was 1874, and the founder was Emma Paterson, née Smith. I am here speaking of purely women’s unions, for it must not be forgotten that large unions of men and women had existed for many years in the textile trades of the North of England. Emma Smith was the daughter of a schoolmaster, and was carefully educated by her father. She gained early practice in organisation in connection with the Working Men’s Club and Institute Union, and gave such evidence of talent in this direction that when only nineteen she was appointed assistant secretary. After five years’ service Emma Smith became Secretary of the Women’s Suffrage Association, and her early practical experience, combined with the theoretical discussions upon the position of women to which she was now introduced, led her to think seriously about their industrial position also. In 1873 Miss Smith became Mrs. Paterson, and with her husband, a former hon. secretary of the Institute previously mentioned, and hardly less interested than herself in labour questions, she started for a tour in America, undertaken partly with a view to studying the operations of Friendly Societies in that country. She had been deeply struck with some remarks that had fallen from an American lady lecturer upon this subject, and the idea of a similar organisation at home for women took root and germinated in her thoughtful mind. In America she learnt with interest that experiments in women’s unions had already been made, and showed some prospect of success. On her return to England Mrs. Paterson wrote a paper, which was published in the Labour News, advocating the formation of a national union for improving the position of working women. The article contained a careful resumé of the question, and showed that the writer possessed a thorough insight into her subject. It was pointed out that women are almost always worse paid than men, even when equally skilled; that their isolation as workers exposes them to reductions of wages from unscrupulous employers, which their more honourable rivals are compelled to imitate. In support of the “benefit” side of Unionism Mrs. Paterson cites a curious case. “At a time of great slackness of trade among the bookbinders, in 1871, caused by a delay in passing through the House of Commons the revised Prayer Book, it was stated that during sixteen months two of the men’s unions had paid £2,500 in relieving their unemployed members, but that the women in the trade, having no union to fall back upon, had suffered the greatest distress.” Mrs. Paterson then deals with the popular scepticism as to women’s powers of combination. “At three successive annual congresses of leaders and delegates of Trades Unions the need of women’s unions has been brought before them, and each time someone present has asserted that women cannot form unions. The only ground for this assertion,” adds Mrs. Paterson courageously, “appears to be that women have not yet formed unions. Probably they have not done so because they have not quite seen how to set about it.”
Women’s Protective and Provident League.—The first result of Mrs. Paterson’s paper was that a conference was convened to consider her proposal. Many friends outside the ranks of labour attended the meeting held in the Quebec Institute on July 8th, 1874, at which Mr. Hodgson Pratt presided. Resolutions were passed to the effect—
1. That a Committee be appointed, to be entitled the Women’s Protective and Provident Committee.