Changes in the work done by children were considerably different for girls and for boys. For girls the choice of occupations widened much as for adult women. But for boys, though a few received earlier promotion to skilled men’s work than would ordinarily have been the case, on the whole training for skilled trades declined. With the men drawn into the war and with the increasing cost of living, it was natural that an increase should take place in the number of child street traders, and in the number of children working outside school hours.
Wages
Under war conditions the wages of both women and children were raised, probably the largest gains being made by boy and girl munition makers. The smallest rise seems to have occurred in the unregulated, so-called “women’s trades,” like laundry work. The trade boards made a number of increases in the industries within their jurisdiction, but the changes were seldom proportionate to the increase in the cost of living. Instead, what it was believed the industry would be able to support after the war was usually the determining factor. The economic position of the women who took men’s places was undoubtedly improved, though, even taking into account differences in experience and efficiency and the numerous changes in industrial method, the plane of economic equality between the two sexes was rarely attained. The government had the power to fix women’s wages on munitions work and in so doing it seemed at first to go on record in favor of the equal pay principle. But, in practice, the principle was not applied to unskilled and semi-skilled time work and the women failed to receive the same cost of living bonuses as the men, though unquestionably the wages of women substitutes in munitions work was much higher than the prewar level of women’s wages. Where other industries were covered by trade union agreements, women in most instances received “equal pay,” but in the remaining cases of substitution, for instance in agriculture, though considerable increases were gained, the men’s rates were by no means reached.
Recruiting New Workers
It is of interest to learn how England secured women workers to meet the demands of war. For the most part they came from three different groups. First, workers changed from the low paid “women’s trades” and various slack lines of work to munitions and different kinds of “men’s work.” Second, the additional women workers were mainly the wives and other members of working men’s families, most of the married women having worked before marriage. Soldiers’ wives often found their separation allowances insufficient. In general both patriotic motives and the rising cost of living undoubtedly played a part in sending these women and many young boys and girls into industry. Finally, a comparatively small number of women of a higher social class entered clerical work, agriculture and the munitions factories, in many instances in response to patriotic appeals.
Many of the women and children were recruited through the activities of local representative “Women’s War Employment Committees” and “County Agricultural Committees,” formed by the government, and working in close cooperation with the national employment exchanges. A large number of women, about 5,000 a month in the winter of 1917, and even a good many young boys and girls were sent through the exchanges from their homes to work at a distance. According to representatives of the Ministry of Munitions, the securing of their well being outside the factory under such circumstances was the most serious problem connected with their increased employment. Efforts to provide housing, recreation and improved transit facilities were at first in the hands of the voluntary committees, but later it proved necessary for the Ministry to appoint “outside welfare officers” to supplement and coordinate this work. The “hostels” with their large dormitories and common sitting rooms which were frequently open in munition centers for the women proved unsatisfactory because of the rules required and the difficulties of maintaining necessary discipline. In many cases, also, they were unpopular with the women themselves. In an attempt to solve the housing problem, the government, in the summer of 1917, was forced to enact a measure making compulsory the “billeting” of munition makers with families living in the district, but this does not seem to have been put into actual practice.
Removal of Trade Union Restrictions
Trade union restrictions on the kinds of work women were allowed to perform were set aside for the war period and “dilution” was made widely possible by the munitions acts, in the case of munitions of war, and by agreements between employers and employes in many staple industries. In all cases the agreements included clauses intended to safeguard the standard wage rate and to restore the men’s places and the trade union rules after the war. Even where the munitions acts gave the government power to force “dilution” it proceeded mainly through conferences and agreements.
Officials of the Ministry of Munitions claimed to believe that the substitution of women or any other important change intended to increase production could only proceed peacefully if labor’s consent and cooperation were secured. They believed also that provisions to safeguard labor standards are essential to gain such cooperation, and that anything in the nature of coercion or a “labor dictatorship” would necessarily fail to reach the desired aim of enlarged output.