HOW WOMEN 'DISPLACE MEN IN INDUSTRY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 103, 24 January 1908, Page 3

HOW WOMEN 'DISPLACE MEN IN INDUSTRY.

Under the heading of Selected British Industries. tho "Times" publishes tlio first iif a' scries of articles by Dr. A. Shadwcll, dealing with tho engineering features, of .;omo of tho large manufacturing industries in this country. In 1901 the nnmbcr of persons to whom ■ the industry (which was originally a purely masculine handicraft) gave employment in England and Wales was '20\,143. That figure includes about 22,000 dealers. Of tho total number employed, in 1901,. women and girls represented • 21' per cent., or a little more than one-fifth. : Tlie proportion of women engaged was 16 per •jeiit. in ISSI, and 18 per cent, in 1891; thus the figures show a continual incrc<ise. It is /lue mainly to machinery, in tho pre-eminently factory districts •if Northamptonshire and Leicestershire •he -number employed increased by more than So per cent, in tho 20 years from 1881 'o 1901. More than three-fourths of.them iire girls ?rnd unmarried women. .Of the total number employed in urban districts, •14 per cent, aro girls under 20 years of ape. This compares favourably as regards' married life with other occupations in which women arc largoly employed, such as weaving, lace and china manufacture. The.number of children under 14 employed in 1901 was 4128, of whom 2507 wero boys; nine-tenths of them were between 13 and 14 years of aee. The number is now probably less.