Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-08-19
WOMEN AND WORK.
SHALL OUR WOMEN HAVE AN
EQUAL RIGHT TO Llve2

EQUAL RIGHT TO LlVe7
n View Taken of This Subject
Across the Watcr-PropOrtiOn
of Labor Which Rests on the
Shoulders of WOmen-Condi-
tions Same There as Here.
ARTICLE I.
Written for the STANDARD by Lady Cooke. nee
Tennessee c. Clanlin.
Whenever the advocates of the
"Women's Rights" movement urge
upon the British public the desirable
lty and justice of admitting women to
legal and social equality with men,
they are met 10y the retort: Men are
the worlds workers, AND should there
fore hold the reins of power; or, wo-
mons function is marriage and moth
crhood, and woman's place the home.
Very pretty sentiments, if they were
true. But unfortunately, the majority
OF women are denied marriage, and
the large proportion of those who do
marry have to work for q livelihood.
Marriage, therefore, Though desirable
for all who are suitable, is impossible
to most, and motherhood can only be
accepted under many degrading Cir
cumstances and social sacrifices. For
the majority, also, there is no home
besides that shifty one provided by
their own exertions. And to crown
all, it is the easiest thing in the world
to prove that women do large pro-
portion OF the bulk of the worlds
work, Notwithstanding almost all is
claimed by the men. On this occa-
sion, however, and not to be too dis
cursive, we shall cOnfine our argument
to the British Islands, and shall rely
rely for our proofs mainly upon gov
ernment statistics.
If We take associated labor in textile
and clothing manufactures, compris-
ing upwards of one hundred kinds of
occupation up to 1871, we find that in
England and Wales the female work
ers numbered 1,136,435 against $780,
449 males. In Scotland there were
16S, ,479 against 129,067 males. In Ire
land the number of women factory
hands nearly doubled that of the men,
having been 22l ,656 against 1858.
So that out of a total of 2,634,764 of
both sexes engaged in various factory
work, the women exceeded the men
by nearly four hundred and twenty
thousand. The Factory returns for
1874 showed an immense increase in
the number of textile workers, chiefly
consisting of women and children.
And from 1850 to 1875, the number of
female workers above 13 years of age
had nearly doubled, while the males
had only slightly increased.
In the food industries, the Census of
1871 gave total for the British ISL
ands of 3,61S, ,764, of whom the women
only numbered 597, ,439. The disparity
here is more seeming than real, and is
no doubt caused by the imperfect re-
turns-especially for Ireland, where
women are by far more numerous
workers in the fields than the men,
but, as their labor is less regular, they
do not appear to have been entered.
1t is singular fact, that while the
British Islands contained 2,546 fe-
male farmers and graziers, $50 female
nurserymen," and 2,4SS female gar
deners, the census did not give single
shepherdess. Thus it attests that the
pastoral age of the poets is here abso-
lutely dead, and not a single British
Amaryllis or Phyllis remains to be
wooed by the amorous shepherds as of
old.
Those who catered for the public in
inns and hotels numbered 152, ,22O;
and of these 57,941 were women.
The total number returned in 1871
for all regular occupations in the
United Kingdom was nine millions
nine hundred and sixty-four thousand
males, and four millions seven hundred
and twenty thousand females. But
no account is taken of the great num-
Der of single women who assist at
home in domestic work, nor of the
married women who either conduct
their households, or, as in the lower
ranks of life, do the whole OF most of
the drudgery connected with them. 1t
cannot be said that the control of a
family is less onerous than that of an
office, or the duties of a working wife
less laborious than that of her hus-
band. Taking only the wives and
widows into account, we shall add
them to the former Numbers after hav-
ing first subtracted the number of wo-
men already given as engaged in paid
occupations. This would afford an in
crease of about three millions more to
the women workers, bringing them up
to 100000. But if we also add those
over Is unmarried, the number would
rise to nine millions, and the men do
not much exceed this. So that by the