Eight-Hour Day for Housewives

Cromwell Argus, Volume LXVIII, Issue 3481, 9 August 1937, Page 7

Eight-Hour Day for Housewives

MOST FATIGUING WORK IN THE WORLD. An eight-hour day for housewives was advocated by Lard Provost Gumley, Edinburgh, when he made an appeal, to husbands. "I am informed," said the Lord Provost, "that the frequency of rheumatoid arthritis among housewives might be mitigated if husbands—who are generally firm believers in an eight-hour day—would endeavor to apply the same principle to their wives and to secure for them the same amount, if not the same kind, of recreation as they secure for themselves. "The suggestion of the experts is that British housewives suffer from rheumatoid arthritis because houseswork is the most exacting and fatiguing work in the world. The man who labors all day in the factory or office has not expended a tenth of the physical and mental energy which his wife has devoted to running his home. "I have heard it said that women suffer from rheumatism because they do not wear enough clothing. We used to hear of the 'pneumonia blouse.' Today there is a tendency to speak of the "rheumatic blouse,' but if there is any one cause for the high rheumatism rate among women it is not their sensible and hygienic clothing." Lord Provost Gumley made these comments when speaking at a civic reception to the delegates attending the Royal Institute of Public Health and the Institute of Hygiene Congress in Edinburgh. A specialist in rheumatic diseases, who is attending the congress, said in an interview "Appalling is the only description to apply to the prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis among the women of this country. Had the disease been rampant among industrial workers as it is among housewives there would have been a public outcry and a commission of inquiry years ago.

"As it is, the disease continues to take a heavy toll of women whose job is in the house. The environment in which she works induces the disease. The maxim, 'Women's work is never done,' applies to the vast majority of married women.

"There is no doubt that if the equivalent of an eight-hour day for housewives became general, a valuable contribution towards counteracting the prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis would be made." A woman doctor declared that a surprisingly large percentage of her women patients, especially in middle and working class homes, suffered from rheumatism in some form or other.

The housewife's hands, she said, were seldom out of water, and she worked in rooms of contrasting temperatures. If husbands responded to the appeal for something like an eighthour day for their wives there would be a decline in the number of rheumatoid arthritis cases.