Women and Girl Workers over Ten Years old.
| Number. | Per cent of Total. | |
| 10-15 | 182,493 | 3·8 |
| 15-20 | 1,156,851 | 23·9 |
| 20-25 | 1,037,321 | 21·5 |
| 25-35 | 1,057,275 | 21·9 |
| 35-45 | 604,769 | 12·5 |
| 45-55 | 422,464 | 8·7 |
| 55- | 369,561 | 7·7 |
| 4,830,734 | 100·0 |
Over 49 per cent of the total are under 25, and are therefore in ordinary speech more commonly termed girl than women workers. The rise in the proportion married compared with the drop in the proportion occupied as age advances, indicates how strong the hold and attraction of the family is upon women. Conditions in factories are undoubtedly improved; many a girl of 20 or 22, perhaps earning 18s. a week, with her club, her classes, her friends, and an occasional outing, has by no means a “bad time.” On the other hand, the life of the married woman in the working class is often extremely hard, taking into account the large amount of work done by them at home, cooking, cleaning, washing, mending and making of clothes, in the North also baking of bread, tendance of children and of the sick, over and above and all but simultaneously with the bringing of babies into the world. Moreover, the working girl is not under illusions as to the facts of life, as her better-off contemporary still is to some extent. Taking all this into consideration, the Census results shown above form an illuminating testimony to the strength of the fundamental human instincts.
The distribution of women in occupations illustrates both the deeply rooted conservatism of women and, at the same time, the modifying tendency of modern industry. The largest groups of women’s trades are still their traditional activities of household work, the manufacture of stuffs, and the making of stuffs into clothes. Two-thirds of the women occupied are thus employed.
| Number. | Per cent of Total occupied. | |
| Domestic offices and service (including laundry) | 1,734,040 | 35·9 |
| Textiles | 746,154 | 15·5 |
| Dress | 755,964 | 15·6 |
It is convenient to picture to oneself the female working population as three great groups: the domestic group, the textile and clothing group, and the other miscellaneous occupations, which also form about one-third of the total. Now, while it is true that the two former groups, the traditional or conservative occupations of women, are still the largest, they are not, with the exception of textiles, increasing as fast as population, whereas some of the newer occupations, the non-textile industrial processes that have been transformed by machinery and brought within the capacity of women, are, though much smaller in numbers, increasing at a rapid rate. The following table shows the change from 1901 to 1911 in the most important industrial groups including women. It should be read bearing in mind that the increase of the female population over 10 in the same period is 12·6 per cent.
England and Wales, 1901-1911.
| Occupations of Women and Girls. | Numbers. | Percentage Change. | |
| 1901. | 1911. | ||
| Domestic offices and service | 1,690,722 | 1,734,040 | +2·6 |
| Textiles | 663,222 | 746,154 | +12·5 |
| Dress | 710,961 | 755,964 | +6·3 |
| Dressmakers | 340,582 | 339,240 | -0·4 |
| Tailoresses | 117,640 | 127,115 | +8·1 |
| Food, drink, and lodging | 299,518 | 474,683 | +58·5 |
| Paper, books, and stationery | 90,900 | 121,309 | +33·5 |
| Metals, machines, etc. | 63,016 | 101,050 | +60·4 |
| Increase of female population over 10 | .. | .. | +12·6 |
But even with the occupations I have dubbed “conservative,” or traditional, modern methods are transforming the nature of the work done by women. The statistical changes in the so-called domestic group are an interesting illustration of the changes we can see going on in the world around us. Note especially the tendency towards a more developed social life outside the home indicated by the large percentage increase in club service, hotel and eating-house service; the tendency to supersede amateur by expert nursing, shown in the large increase in hospital and institutional service; and the slight but perceptible tendency for household work to lose its domestic character. Not only do the charwomen show an increase much larger than that of the group total, while the domestic indoor servant has decreased, but a new sub-heading, “day servants,” has had to be introduced. The laundry is fast becoming a regular factory industry, and shows a decrease in numbers, no doubt due to the introduction of machinery and labour-saving appliances.
Changes in Employment of Women in Certain Domestic Occupations.