V
The sheer and causeless misery this girl endured was, of course, attributable, not only to the long hours and to the standing demanded by her occupation, but to the fact that this occupation was continued at a period when the normal health of great numbers of women demands reasonable quiet and rest.
With a few honorable exceptions[[5]] it may be said to be the immemorial custom of department stores in this country to treat women employees, in so far as ability to stand and to stand at all seasons goes, exactly as if they were men.
The expert testimony collected by the publication secretary of the National Consumers' League, Miss Josephine Goldmark, for the brief which obtained the Illinois Ten-Hour Law, gives the clearest possible record of the outlay of communal strength involved in these long hours of standing for women.
Report of "Lancet" Sanitary Commission on Sanitation in the Shop. 1892
Without entering upon the vexed question of women's rights, we may nevertheless urge it as an indisputable physiological fact that, when compelled to stand for long hours, women, especially young women, are exposed to greater injury and greater suffering than men.
British Sessional Papers. Vol. XII. 1886. Report from Select Committee on Shop Hours Regulation Bill
Witness, W. Abbott, M.D.
"Does their employment injuriously affect them, as child-bearing women in after years?"
"According to all scientific facts, it would do so."