working people have a right to work in a clean and fairly comfortable and decent place. Of course I spend all my working time doing just that sort of thing, trying to get a series of facts which will convince skeptical employers and legislators that certain things in industry are real dangers to health, perhaps to life. But I look to the day when my job will be no longer needed, when the working people will say, It is not necessary for us to show that this dust is going to eat out our lungs, it is not necessary to show that these poisons are getting into our blood, or that a loud, continuous jarring noise will frazzle our nerves; it is enough for us to say that dirt is disagreeable, that fumes are obnoxious, that noise is wearying, and that these things are not necessary, and if the engineering experts will put their minds to it they can be done away with, and we intend that they shall be done away with." Perhaps that state of things is a long way off. I think I should have said so a year ago, but very strange things have happened in the last two months, and we do not know what the next twelve months will bring forth.

[162]

WOMEN IN INDUSTRY IN FRANCE DURING THE

WAR

MARGUERITE BOURAT

Factory Inspector for the French Government

T would be unfair to French women to think that war

IT

forced them into work. History tells us that they have always had their place among the laboring people. It tells us, too, that they had to fight against the men who pretended to monopolize all the trades, even the most unexpected ones for men to undertake.

As in every European country, the introduction of steam power which dispensed with the physical strength of the workers led to the employment of women as well as of children. Little by little, more by sheer necessity than by reason of ambitious aims, French women during the nineteenth century have invaded nearly every field of human activity. Out of a population of thirty-nine millions in round figures the last census that dates back to 1906 gives us the number of 7,693,000 women gainfully employed.

One reckons that 4,150,000 were wage earners while the remaining three millions and a half were heads of establishments either agricultural, commercial or industrial, or were professional women, lawyers, physicians, teachers, etc. It may be a tribute paid to the enterprising character of the women of France to say that in industry 32 per cent of the employers are women; in commerce, 43 per cent, and in agriculture, 47 per cent.

To appreciate the exact value of these figures one has to bear in mind that the total female population of all ages at that time was 19,745,000 and that the total population, gainfully employed, men and women together, was 20,721,000. Therefore the proportion of women gainfully employed, 7,693,000, amounted to nearly one-third of the total gainfully employed population and over one-third of the total number of French women of all ages.

In the classification of trades, for statistical purposes, the

industries are divided into fifteen groups, the fifteenth being commerce. Even before the war women were found in all fifteen groups in considerable numbers.

Needless to say that textile and clothing ranked higher in the scale and were industries in which women were chiefly employed. When the war broke out industrial life in France suddenly stopped, first, because nearly every man from 18 up to 48 years of age, employer or employee, was called to the colors. Secondly, because orders on hand were at least temporarily suspended. Moreover, commercial traffic was rendered difficult if not impossible owing to the use of the railroads for the transfer of troops. On the very first day of the mobilization thousands of women were out of employment, deprived of their own wages at the same time that they were deprived of the earnings of the husband, father or son taken into the

army.

It was then that ladies belonging to the leisure classes willing to help in the war were urged neither to make shirts for the soldiers nor to knit socks, but to leave the work to the women in need of employment. Not only did they observe this injunction imposed on them, but they organized workrooms where unemployed women could come a few hours a day and earn some money and generally get the noonday meal. Clothes for refugees and also a portion of the soldiers' underclothing were made under these conditions. Relief was given out. After a few weeks, when the first battle of the Marne had been won, we witnessed a slight awakening of business. We have seen women taking the place of their husbands, opening again the shops and making an appeal to workers ready to come back. Also, in many instances, provision was made by the mobilized employer, anxious to retain his best hands, giving power to the forewoman to run the firm. In spite of every effort, however, work in unnecessary industries was scarce. In October 1914, out of 11,000 establishments only 5,000 were open with a reduced staff. Work was scarce and divided up among a few and in most cases at a lower rate of wages than before the war. War wages then meant reduced wages.

Expelled from their main industries women were beginning to enter into new occupations; wives and daughters of mobilized

In

men having precedence. They came in the transportation industries at first, as conductors on street cars, then as drivers. Except for a few men all the employees on subways are women. In railroads any amount of women have been taken into various employments held before the war by men. large stores only old men and mutilated soldiers can be found now beside the women who replace men in all grades of work from the cashiers and shop assistants down to the parcel delivery service.

French government positions in the civil service too, were opened more largely to women. The postoffice not only extended the number of women occupied in clerical work, but offered new employment. Postwomen can be seen walking along or riding on bicycles.

Women able to handle a sewing machine could easily find work on military clothing and in the making of bags, tents, masks, etc.—all accessories to the equipment of soldiers. A great part of the work was made at home and it is to secure those home workers a more decent rate of wage that the long wanted minimum-wage law was passed in July 1915. In the meanwhile plants for war industries were growing all over the country; shell, gun, ball, powder making, aeroplane factories wanted more hands than the army could afford to give out of the ranks of the fighting men.

Women workers were still available on the labor market and owing to a system of employment bureaus hurriedly and cleverly organized, all the unemployed could be directed to factories and find suitable occupations-about 15,000 women in 1915, 300,000 in 1916, and nearly one million in 1918 were so employed in munitions plants. Steadily every group of industry was taking in more and more women. No absolute statistics are available, but inquiries made from time to time by the Service of Factory Inspection of a limited number of firms can supply interesting information on that subject.

The last published results relate to 40,000 establishments belonging to the fifteen groups already mentioned. Taking for granted that before the war, each group occupied 100 women, we find the corresponding figures for 1915-18 as follows:

It is quite noticeable that while employed in smaller number in industries which were theirs before the war, women are far more numerous in groups such as metal industries.

These 40,000 establishments which before the war employed 470,000 women had about 600,000 in January 1918.

Have the women proved themselves efficient in the new occupations open to them? Undoubtedly they have. Engaged chiefly for unskilled work they have shown themselves so quick, so often clever and eager to learn more, that processes of higher standard have soon been entrusted to them.

Employers all agree that they have a special ability for minute work requiring refinement, thought and attention. In the accomplishment of their task they are somewhat more conscientious than men to whom they are obviously inferior only in heavy work because of their less physical strength. Comparing French women to foreign women employed side by side, it has been repeatedly found that the output of the former was about double that of the latter. Moreover, experience has proved many a time that for certain mechanical processes it was possible to trust only French women.

Pre-war protective laws to be observed by employers of female labor were somewhat neglected or abandoned at the beginning of the war. The 10-hour day, the one-day-a-week rest, the prohibition of night work, forbidden processes and so on were tacitly abandoned under the stress of circumstances in the new industries opened to women.