Year: 1875

The chief establishment in which we


find ladies working as clerks is in the


Prudential Life Assurance Company,


Ludgate Hill. Here there are between


sixty and seventy female clerks employed


upon work of purely clerical nature.


The staff is attached to what is known as


the industrial branch of the Office, and is


engaged to great extent in copying out


letters and other documents, and in writing


dockets connected with the life policies is


sued to the poorer classes, at the rate of


penny a week and upward, with which


the industrial department has chiefly to


deal. These dockets average 10000 a


week, We are told, 80 that there is no


small amount Of work to be performed by


the lady clerks in the Prudential Assu-


rance Office. Besides this, some of the


most experienced of the female clerks are


engaged in correspondence, the gist of the


letter being given on a slip Of paper, or


noted in the corner of the letter to which


it may be reply, and those clerks have


to enlarge upon it in proper terms, and


write the fair copy for signature. There is


but one uniform scale Of salaries, which
commences with 9a2 year and rises to
962. This is very low, but it is Of course,
the object of a company of this kind to
keep the salaries as low as possible, an OBJ
ject which, in a Government department,
is not fully recognized. There may be an
idea with some that female clerks en-
ployed in an office of this kind are
not very select, but in the
present instance the very re-
verse in the case. The very mode by
which an appointment Of this kind is OBJ
tanned secures this end, for, besides fair
education, it is required that all candidates
fathers are or have been professional men,
or men holding good positions in life
There is hard or fast barrier made at
tradesmens' daughters, for they are in no
case admitted to situations in the Pruden-
tial Life Office; by this means the class of
female clerks working there is the most Sc
lect, and that it is so may be gathered
from the fact that at the present time
there are employed among the other
clerks the daughter ola Judge, and seve-
raj clergymen's daughters. As regards
The results of the experiment in this Office,
hey have been most fruitful. Mr.. Lancas-
Ter, the Secretary, to whom we are much
indebted for the information on the subject
Is regards his office he very kindly placed
at our disposal, states that female clerks
have proved eminently successful in the
capacity in which they are made use of by
he Prudential, which is principally to
supply the place Of junior clerks, of whom,
It appears, there is at present a great
learth, at least of those whose services are
of any value. Femele clerks are being
pretty extensively employed in law copy
ns and law stationers' offices; at Miss
Lemins, No. u Portugal street, Lincoln's
Inn, good number are engaged, chiefly,
We believe in copying work, and they have
he opportunity of earning from el.10s to
e2 week. Lawyers themselves are be-
running to make use of their services in
copying, and renumerate them with sala-
les ranging from ESQ to ESQ year. We
.lso learn that in some country rlilway Of
ices ladies are being employed as clerks,
md are paid on an average from EGO to s
ESQ a year.-Frasers' Magazine.