One of the most important questions relating to women as workers is the exact relationship between their work and that of men, i.e., how far they are rivals in competition and how far they are helpers in co-operation. In some of these trades, such as that of the lithographic artists, this question has never arisen, because women have rarely entered the trade. Only five instances of women working as lithographic artists are known to the head of St. Bride's Institute. But that men and women have been rivals from time to time is placed beyond doubt, although it must always be remembered that the same work nominally is not always the same work actually.[33]
[33] Men feeders, for instance, carry formes and do little things about the machine which women do not do. In one instance it was reported that a firm with a London and a country house, employed women in the latter to do binding done by men in the former. On enquiry it was found that the heavy work was done in London and the light work in the country. An interesting case in point is reported by a Scottish investigator. "Stated that in another workshop a man had been displaced at a paper-ruling machine and two girls taken on instead. I took special note of this case when visiting the workshop in question later. There were two girls employed at the machine, but they appeared to be working along with the manager of that department, who was supervising it." But there is work, such as the minding of platen machines which men do in London but which women do in Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
Gold laying for cloth binding has, within the last quarter of a century, become the work of women who have taken the place of old "finishers" in some bookbinding firms,[34] and at Dunstable women are reported as doing binding throughout. Women are employed as compositors much more frequently in the provinces than in London. In Edinburgh and Aberdeen, for instance, women are reported as being engaged in every process, except making-up and the heavy work of carrying type, in which men alone are employed. Type-setting and distribution of type are often done by women in Scotland. In some of the Edinburgh printing establishments women do practically the same work as men. The extensive employment of women during the compositors' strike in Edinburgh in 1872 to secure a fifty-one hours' working week[35] was the result of the determination of the employers to defeat the Typographical Association, and at least one firm in London tried the same policy during the bookbinders' strike for an eight-hours' day in 1902 though apparently with no success. The enthusiasts for the introduction of women into the printing trades had for some time been trying to get a hold upon Edinburgh printing offices, but had failed until the strike of 1872. An enterprising employer then trained some girls from the Merchant Company's Schools—a better class of girls whom we find described sometimes as "stickit teachers"—to compose. The results were satisfactory, and the example was speedily followed. The strike failed and the displacement of men continued.
[34] Reporting to their members in May, 1903, the Wages Committee of the London Society of Journeymen Bookbinders (Third Report) state regarding the award just given on certain points of dispute between the Unions and the Employers: "The right of employment of women in laying-on of gold has also been awarded against us, notwithstanding that no part of the proceedings evoked more strenuous opposition from your representatives. The hands of your delegates were weakened by the fact that the practice already existed: in some cases had crept in, and in others been extended unawares; yet they strove to preserve the right of the workman, whilst willing and anxious that the supercession of the workwoman, where she had been introduced, should be gradual and considerate.—The argument for the employers is that the employment of women on the class of gold laying-on indicated, will enable them fairly to compete in other fields, and will tend to increase men's work instead of to reduce it. This view, the arbitrator adopted."
[35] So also in Aberdeen. "About a dozen years ago during a dispute about apprentices, seventeen men and three or five boys went out, and girls were then taken on."
The Perth dispute.
Something similar happened in Perth, where twenty-five years ago four girls were taken into the newspaper department of the offices of the Perthshire Advertiser. About seven years ago they were introduced into a commercial printing office, and a year later the Perthshire Constitutional began to employ them on general bookwork and setting-up newspaper copy, the proprietor claiming that he had the same right as the other offices to have cheap female labour. Thus the practice threatened to spread throughout the other commercial printing offices, and the men's Union thought it was time to bestir itself. It decided that the women must either be paid the same rates as the men or be got rid of altogether. This ultimatum was sent to the employers. The Constitutional complied with the demands of the Union and dismissed its women workers. The Advertiser at first proposed gradually to replace the girls by men in the commercial department, but to continue to run the newspaper department by female labour. The proprietor contended that this would not give him an unfair advantage over the other firms, as they employed linotype machines. The Union then decided to strike, and took thirty men out of the Advertiser office. Four remained in, and some other non-Union men were also engaged. The office continues to work under this system.
Value of women's work.
There has also been trouble in Grimsby (1899), owing to the employment of women on a bi-weekly newspaper, at Redhill (1898-1900), and at Reading (1902). Other places where the Typographical Association report women to be employed are, Louth (Lincolnshire), Aylesbury, Beccles, Fakenham, Warrington,[36] etc.; whilst in Birmingham the experiment was tried about 1890, but has been abandoned. They are also employed at Bungay, but in decreasing numbers, because their proofs require so much more correcting than the men's that the valuable time thus lost is not compensated for by the cheapness of their labour. The same is true of Edinburgh, where their wages have fallen from a rate of 1s. 6d. to 1s. per average page. In Leicester a firm tried to employ women in distributing type at low rates of pay, but a protest from the local executive of the Typographical Association led immediately to the experiment being discontinued. There is an almost unanimous chorus of opinion that women's work as compositors is so inferior to men's that it does not pay in the long run. From the days of Miss Faithfull's experiments, the men have been able to boast that women could not touch them at the case. In Aberdeen the unwillingness of boys to submit to a long apprenticeship and the fear of parents that the linotype has spoiled the typographical trade, are said to be the main reasons necessitating the employment of women compositors.
[36] Women were introduced into Warrington newspaper offices early in the decade beginning with 1880. They have been found to be quicker than men in plain setting-up and simple straightforward work. They do not stay very long—the eldest girl compositor employed, when our investigator called, being only twenty-five. They are not employed in locking the formes; nor curiously enough are they employed in the machine-room to feed the printing presses, though they are so engaged in Manchester. The women compositors are paid one-third of the men's rate. Here it was definitely stated that the cheapness of women's labour made it unnecessary to introduce linotypes.