H—ll

"educational" tours through their premises for school-children, following this later with offers of employment to children nearing the school leaving age. Films of factories, their products, and amenities have been presented to the School Film Library, and intensive press advertising campaigns are becoming increasingly familiar. As a result, wages and working conditions for juveniles show a considerable improvement over pre-war years. (4) Women in Industry (a) General It may be said, broadly, that an increase in the number of women employed in industry has been the tendency for many years. In the annual report of this Department for the year 1942-43 it was shown that the wartime increase in the number of female factory employees was not entirely due to emergency conditions, and it was not, therefore, to be expected that post-war years would show a return to 1939 conditions. In addition to this over-all trend, various disrupting factors due to the war have had a more or less permanent effect. (b) Numbers employed The following table illustrates the changes in the numbers of women employed :

Persons employed in Registered Factories (other than Working Occupiers)

It may be seen that the steady increase in numbers employed during the pre-war years was considerably accelerated by the war. This was due, of course, to the replacement of men, the expansion of war industry, and to the related growth of secondary industry. Diagram I (Statistical Appendix) presents graphically the way in which the numbers of both men and women employed in factories increased during the first two years of the war, the number of women increasing proportionately more than the number of men. From 1941-42, however, the employment of men fell off rapidly, reaching its lowest point in 1943-44. The number of women employed increased at the same time, and the proportion of women to men also increased. With the increase in the number of men employed each year since 1943 the proportion has dropped rapidly, in spite of an increase in the number of women which continued up to 1945.

5

Persons employed (Thousands). 31st March, Females per 100 Males. M. F. Total. 1932 .. 56-0 18-5 74-6 33-1 1933 .. 52-1 19-3 71-4 37-2 1934 .. 52-4 18-6 71-0 35-8 1935 .. 57-2 21-3 78-5 37-5 1936 .. 63-5 23-6 87-1 36-8 1937 .. 69-1 25*5 94-6 37-0 1938 .. 77-6 29-6 107-3 38-0 1939 .. 77-7 28-9 106-6 37-1 1940 .. 81-5 31-3 112-8 38-2 1941 82-3 34-3 116-6 41-8 1942 .. 80-5 37-1 117-6 46-4 1943 .. 76-8 38-1 114-8 49-5 1944 .. 80-4 38-2 118-6 47-8 1945 .. 84-4 39-0 123-5 46-5 1946 .. 88-2 37-7 125-9 42-8 1947 .. 101 -5 35-6 137-1 35-0