The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1891-09-18
ISrERIoRrrY on womAs.s WORK.
why Women Receive Less Pay for Work
Than Men.
tSew York SUM-


A paper read before the British associ-
alton at Cardiff recited well-known facts
aa to The inferiority of women's earnings
as compared With mems. Except in a
few cases of piece work, their pay in
manufacturing industries averages from
one-third to two-thirds less. 1t is small
err also when they compete with men as
teachers, compositors, telegraphers and
clerks but in art and literature, wherever
they have extraordinary special skill or
genius, there is no such discrimination
against them.
This lower rate Of pay for the run OF
women is not due to any disposition OF
employers to take advantage of their
weakness The prices of thelabor market
are not governed by such considerations
They are regulated by quality and supply,
and if womcn's work was worth as much
as mems, it would command as high a
price This fact that the pay for it is less
is convincing evidence that it is inferior
in quality. Hence the only general con-
clusion that the author of the paper at
Cardiff could reach is that men beat women
in the competition by producing more, and
also by producing what is more valuable
in the market.
AS a remedy lie advised that the train
ing of women be improved, and he sug-
gested that they might profit by combin
ing for their own protection. But the dis
parity between the capacity of men and
women as workers does not come from any
artificial cause. 1t is fixed by nature. AS
a rule, women can not he relied upon as
steady workers to the same extent as men.
A sober and healthy man can keep at his
employment day in and day out and from
years end to years end. 1t is not so
with woman The statistics of factories.
shops and Offices show that the necessary
loss of work is more with women than
with men; and Of course it must be so.
Nor can women be driven like men. They
must be treated with greater considcra-
ton, for which indulgence they have to
pay in less wages.
1t is obvious, therefore, that women
can compete with men in the labor mar
ket only by taking smaller pay, no matter
what their training may be. They also
suffer in the manufacturing employments,
which they follow most generally, by the
competition Of feminine workers in vast
numbers, who can afford to give their
labor for small price, because it is per-
formed at home as q method of making
trihing addition to the incomes of fam-
lies, or Of employing hours which are other
wise spent in idleness. Every woman
who does her own family sewing in whole
or in part is q competitor of the women
who sew for a living, and she helps to
lower their pay. SO also every one Of
the many thousands Of married women who
take work home from the factories to exc
out the resources of straitened households
contributes TO lessen the wages of the
regular workers in that particular indus
try.
There is, however, field in which wo-
man do not suffer from ANYTHING like over
connections 1t is domestic service.
The demand for skilful women servants is
greater than the supply. No good and
trustworthy woman servant need ever be
without a place and without good wages.
In the household, also, women have the
protection which they require for their
welfare, and they find in it IL variety of
occupation which subjects them to no
competition with men, except to very
small extent comparatively. They can
get employment as servants far more cast
~ than mon, and their average pay is
higher than in any of the employmcnts
in which women engage. for it includes
board and lodging.