Women’s Work

From the Derbyshire Courier, 2nd October 1915.

WOMEN'S WORK.

Many New Spheres.

....

Trade Training for Girls.

An interesting scheme is being carried out by the London County Council, with the assistance of the Queen's “Work for Women” Fund.  It takes the shape of a trade school at Shepherd's Bush for training girls as shop assistants.  At present there is a great and growing demand for them, two London firms having offered situations to fifty girls when they are prepared to take them.  Those girls who cannot afford to pay for the classes have received grants from the Queen's “Work for Women” Fund of 11s. 6d. a week each.

The scheme is being carried out with the help of a Consultative Committee on which the master grocers and the Shop Assistants’ Union are represented, and before being passed a minimum wage was agreed upon, girls of 18 to be paid 18s. a week; at 19, the wage to be increased to 20s.; 20 years, 22s.; 21 years and over, 24s. to 25s. a week.

Another Sphere for Women.

In England and Wales there are over 600 little farming communities in which the process of smoothing out the inequalities of distribution in the stream of industry is going on.  One of the most interesting is at Swanwick, in Hampshire.  From that region, within the strawberry weeks, upwards of three million punnets of strawberries have been sent to market by train; and in addition many cartloads of the fruit have been taken to jamboilers and greengrocers in the large towns on the South coast.  The year before last the growers were seriously embarrassed by the cost of the baskets, the price of which had crept up gradually from 7s. 6d. to 15s. or 16s. a gross.

Accordingly they made up their minds to manufacture the baskets themselves.  With the help of the Agricultural Organisation Society they built a factory for the purpose; and here, to-day, some 26 girls and about a dozen boys and men are turning logs into baskets.  The logs are peeled into long, fragrant ribbons by machinery, and these are shaped into punnets by hand.  The result of the experiment was, last year, that within a few months of the start, in the February, 500,000 baskets had been made, on which the farmers saved close on £900; and this year it is calculated that the saving will be still greater.

Moreover, it was discovered, when the supply of aspen from Russia and willow from Belgium gave out, that British poplar and osier would serve the purpose just as well; and for the cultivation of these arrangements are now being made.  Hence the managers are creating a village community in which many people will be busy and happy and moderately rich.

[I had completely forgotten, until I read this, that strawberries were once sold in little punnets made of thin strips of wood.  Now completely superseded by plastic boxes.]   

Women’s Part in the History of the War

 From The Times, 9th July 1915. 

Women concerned with or interested in war work should instruct their newsagent to secure Part 46 of The Times History at once, as an exceptionally heavy demand for this Number has arisen since attention was drawn to its contents in the debate of July 6 in the HOUSE OF COMMONS.

The mere enumeration of the subjects treated in Part 46 of

The Times

Illustrated

HISTORY OF THE WAR

affords an indication of the exceptional interest of this Number to women generally, and in particular to those who are taking up any share of war work.  The wide scope of its brightly written and delightfully illustrated pages will be gathered from the following Table of Contents :—

Women's Anxiety to Help on Outbreak of War ;
Mobilization of the Nursing Services ;
Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, Territorial Nursing Service, Naval Nursing Service, and the British Red Cross Society ;
Women Doctors at the Front ;
Women's Military Hospital in London ;
Queen's "Work for Women" Fund ;
Scheme for Central Committee on Women's Employment ;
Queen Mary's Needlework Guild ;
How the Suffragists and Anti-Suffragists Helped ;
Formation of War-Register of Women by the Board of Trade ;
Replacement of Men by Women. 

Part 46

THE WOMEN'S NUMBER

Now on Sale. 7d.

With numerous appropriate portraits and photographs.

Written by one having a wide knowledge of, and a deep sympathy with, all questions affecting women, the Current Number of The Times History constitutes a complete justification of the present-day claim of women to be regarded as co-workers with men in numerous spheres of activity hitherto closed to their sex, whilst it fully recognizes their supremacy in the organization, administration, and actual performance of the Nursing Services and in everything appertaining to the Care and Relief of women and children in distress or out of employment.

[With hindsight, 1915 seems a bit early to be publishing a history of the war.]

The Queen Visits A Hosiery Factory.

From The Times, March 27 1915.

THE QUEEN AND HER WORKROOMS.

VISIT TO A HOSIERY FACTORY.

The Queen yesterday afternoon visited the mayoral workrooms of her “Work for Women” Fund at Willesden and Paddington, and afterwards went over the hosiery factory which has been started since the war by Miss Resdaile, a wholesale dressmaker, at her premises in Rathbone-place, to keep her workgirls in employment.

...The Queen first visited the room where socks for the Army were being made, asking many questions as to the output and price of the yarn. She was much interested in the small flat machines which Miss Resdaile bought when she heard that the Queen had entrusted to the Central Committee an order for 75,000 woollen body belts for the troops to form part of her gift to them.

With 100 of her girls stranded through the cessation of wholesale orders for dresses she determined to try for some part of this contract - and was successful.  The Queen learned that 15,000 belts were made on these machines, and that, finding the young dressmakers' skill increasing so rapidly, their employers tendered to the Contracts Department of the Central Committee for a million pairs of socks.  The War Office accepted the tender, and there will be enough work for the hundred girls until well into the autumn.

The machinery was put in motion, and her Majesty watched the process of making the socks. She was informed that 3,000 dozen pairs a week could be made when the machinery was in full swing. Her Majesty also asked how the amount earned compared with the former pay, and was told that it was about the same, varying from £1 to 35s.

....On the next floor were the machines for making cap comforters, of which 6,000 are dispatched in fulfilment of a War Office order every Friday.  The Queen saw one girl working four power machines, and was told that on each machine one operator could turn out 250 yards of comforter each day.  Her Majesty asked to see the material cut and "over-locked," the final process, and then left amid enthusiastic cheering from a large crowd which had assembled.

The Queen's “Work for Women" Fund yesterday reached a total of £143,379 15s. 1d.

 [Miss Resdaile was clearly a very enterprising woman.  She bought knitting machines, trusting that her dressmakers could be trained to use them successfully, and immediately got the order for thousands of body belts.  She must have been very persuasive.  

The fact that a small workshop was making 1 million pairs of socks in a few months shows the huge demand for socks for the Army.  I doubt if the women busily knitting socks by hand could compete with the machines - I suspect that most of the millions of pairs consumed during the war were machine-made.] 

Work in Armament Factories for Women

From The Times, 24th March 1915.

THE CALL TO WOMEN.

WORK IN ARMAMENT FACTORIES.

ENGINEERING EMPLOYMENT.

Already there has been a gratifying response from Scotland to the appeal of the Board of Trade for women workers to take the place of men released for active service.  Although the figures are not yet available, the officials of the Labour Exchanges in Glasgow report that a large number of women have already registered, and that a considerable number of applications for registration forms has also been received.

When the Parliamentary recruiting circular was distributed in the north, thousands of women householders offered their services to the nation in any capacity, and the present appeal gives them the opportunity they then asked for.  Many of the applicants are working women who are out of employment, but a large proportion belong to the leisured and middle classes.

It is anticipated that work can be found almost immediately for fully a thousand women in the engineering and armament factories in the Clyde district.  Already one or two firms have experimented with female labour, principally in the manufacture of shells and other explosives, and the women have shown remarkable aptitude for picking up the work.

Several other armament and engineering firms have informed Labour Exchanges that they are prepared to engage a considerable number of women, and steps are being taken to ascertain the views of other employers.  The work which the women volunteers will be asked to undertake will be the operating of turning lathes or other light machines which require little or no technical knowledge.

OFFERS OF TRAINING.

Since it has become clear that a new industrial army of women is coming forward to enrol for war service the Central Labour Exchange are beginning to receive offers to train them.  An offer to place a large training farm at their disposal was received yesterday in London, and there were similar proposals from various institutions and organizations, as well as inquiries from individual employers.
Applications for registration continue to pour in steadily.  Returns have not yet been received from the Exchanges throughout the country, although many women residing in the country have written to the central office direct, but it is hoped that this information showing how the movement has spread will be available shortly.  The women's societies generally have shown a disposition to cooperate in the most patriotic spirit.

[As we know, many women worked in munitions factories during the First World War, doing hard and dangerous work.  This is the beginning of it - this report stresses that the women will only be doing light work requiring little technical knowledge, and expresses surprise that women can pick up the work so quickly.]    

War Work For Women

From the South Wales Weekly Post, 20th March 1915.

WORK FOR WOMEN.

IMPORTANT GOVERNMENT SCHEME

TO RELEASE MEN FOR ACTIVE SERVICE.

The Board of Trade, on behalf of the Government, have been at work on the problem of women's help in the war, and have now framed a scheme with a view to dealing with it.  The scope and character of it is set out in the following official statements-

War Service for Women.

The President of the Board of Trade wishes to call attention to the fact that in the present emergency, if the full fighting power of the nation is to be put forth on the field of battle, the full working power of the nation must be made available to carry on its essential trades at home. Already, in certain important occupations there are not enough men and women to do the work.  This shortage will shortly spread to other occupations as more and more men join the fighting forces.

In order to meet both the present and the future needs of national industry during the war, the Government wish to obtain particulars of the women available, with or without previous training, for paid employment.  Accordingly, they invite all women who are prepared, if needed, to

Take paid employment of any kind

—industrial, agricultural, clerical, etc.—to enter themselves upon the Register of Women for War Service which is being prepared by the Board of Trade Labour Exchanges.

Any woman living in a town where there is a Labour Exchange can register by going there in person.  If she is not near a Labour Exchange she can get a form of registration from the local agency of the Unemployment Fund.  Forms will also be sent out through a number of women's societies.

The object of registration is to find out what reserve force of women's labour, trained or untrained, can be made available if required.  As from time to time actual openings for employment present themselves, notice will be given through the Labour Exchanges, with full details as to the nature of work, conditions, and pay, and, so far as special training is necessary, arrangements will, if possible, be made for the purpose.

Any woman who by working

Helps to release a man

or to equip a man for fighting does national war service.  Every woman should register who is willing to take employment.

[This was the beginning of a big effort by the Government to mobilise the entire population.  Perhaps they were beginning to see that the war was going to last a long time.] 

Training Girls to Make Shirts

From the Aberdeen Journal, 20th February 1915.

TRAINING UNDER THE QUEEN'S “WORK FOR WOMEN” FUND.

One of the most practical of the schemes carried on under the Queen's “Work for Women” Fund is the workroom for the training of shirt machinists, which was opened last month at 11 Spoutmouth, Glasgow.  Skilled shirt machinists are always in demand, and never more so than at the present time, when employers are too busy with large contracts to afford the necessary time or machines for the training of workers.  As this line of work, therefore, seemed to offer an exceptionally favourable opportunity for unemployed women and girls, with the prospect of quickly rendering them self-supporting again, a training workroom was organised through the efforts of the Glasgow Sub-Committee on Women's Employment, the scheme being approved by the Scottish Committee on Women's Employment, and financed by a grant from the Queen's “Work for Women” Fund.  Twenty-eight girls are now occupied in shirt machining and also in making shirts, the material used consisting for the most part of bale-ends of shirting presented by local manufacturers.  The girls who are being trained have come from all kinds of previous occupations.  A few girls are receiving training in cooking, marketing, and domestic economy.  The fact that after only a month’s training a number of girls have found good situations with shirtmaking firms shows the practical utility of the machinists’ training scheme in meeting an existing demand.

From Court Gowns to Sock Knitting

From the Aberdeen Weekly Journal, 19th February 1915.

From Court Gowns to Sock Knitting.

Just before the winter social season should have commenced I spoke of the distress amongst Court dressmakers in London.  All sorts of odd work has been given them from time to time.  Now they have begun to knit socks for the army.  It is big jump from sewing delicate trimmings on Court gowns to knitting socks, but the women are learning to handle the machines with considerable alacrity.  The Queen’s Work for Women Fund has secured an order for two million pairs of socks, and the work is being handed over to the workrooms of the West End costumiers.  This will keep 1200 dressmakers in constant employment right up to July.  Those who are not sock knitting are shirt-making.  Here, too, there was some difficulty at first experienced by the women in becoming accustomed to the new class of work.  They have 10,000 army shirts on hand at the moment.

Girls Leave For Australia

From The Labour Voice (Llais Llafur), 15th February 1915. 

GIRLS LEAVE FOR AUSTRALIA

A merry party of about 120 girls who have been thrown out of work by the war left London on Saturday for Australia, where they are to try their fortune as domestic servants.  They represent the first contingent of young women selected by the Queen's Work for Women Fund for emigration.   Each of the girls has received a complete outfit from the Queen's Fund, and, in addition, £1 towards her fare and £1 landing money.  The fare is £3 for every girl, and each emigrant is required to repay £2 from her wages to the State in which settles.

[It seems odd that girls were being shipped to Australia, as the best way of finding employment for them, when the shortage of men (who had volunteered in such large numbers) was beginning to create a demand for women as an alternative source of workers.  And later in the war, if not now, domestic service was increasingly unpopular because there were so many other opportunities, paying more and with better working conditions.] 

A "Work for Women" Workshop in Bethnal Green

From The Times, 12 December 1914.

THE QUEEN'S WORKROOMS REVISITED.

In the poor districts of London the Central Committee on Women's Employment in connexion with the Queen's Fund have started model workrooms, which are relieving local distress where it is most bitter.  These workrooms do not in any way interfere with existing employment, as the work done is in all cases given away to necessitous women and children.

[At the] Bethnal-green workrooms ... in Viaduct-street, where the work of making cradles for the maternity outfits for poor mothers is in progress, a representative of The Times was given some idea of the dire poverty with which the fund is coping, and also of the great courage of the poor women who come to the labour exchanges and the distress committees, not with the plea that they are hungry and want relief, but with an urgent demand for work.

Seeing them in their little groups at tables in the long room that holds about 75, working away in the main silently, one realizes what the sudden stoppage of work means to many of them....  The trades of these women had been trouser-making, boot sewing, paper folding, feather curling, or French polishing.

From one table in that room one may select a few typical cases.  There was Mrs. P--, a clean-looking old woman of 64, painfully thin.  She was the doyenne of the room and the best worker in it, though the work was new to her.  A trouser-maker by trade, she had lost her work on the Saturday before Bank Holiday—that was the black date in the calendar of most in that room—and for eight weeks, until the Queen's workrooms opened, she had been out of work.  At the best of times she had not been well off.  She used to make 5s. 6d. or 6s. a week finishing trousers at 2¾d. a pair, a farthing of which was stopped for sewing on the buttons by machinery.  Her husband was a cabinetmaker, but he was too old for work, so he was told, and her earnings kept the meagre home together.  When they ceased she had been pawning and selling until the home was almost gone.

A PATHETIC CASE.

Next to her was Mrs. D--, a young-old woman looking wretchedly ill, speaking with difficulty because of an abscess in her mouth, but clean and tidy and strangely patient.  She had been a house-worker, and her husband was in the infirmary with a wasting disease.  But she was intensely proud of him, and was most desirous to have it known how anxious he was to go to the front.  He had been a sergeant in the Surrey Regiment, and after serving his time had become a tea-packer.  “His poor legs are getting fatter,” she said, “and he says he'll soon be able to be up and fight for the old flag again. He's that restless to be up.”

On the other side of her, a strange contrast, was a very pretty girl of 17, the eldest of a family of eight, whose father, a comparatively young man of 39, was a permanent invalid in the infirmary.  She had been a French polisher, but explained that, though cabinet-making was not quite stopped, French polishing was, because the furniture was only polished when it was going to be sold, but not if it had to be stored.  She had been out of work since August Bank Holiday.  A young sister had got some work making “patriotic buttons,” but that was now at an end.  There was a young married woman near her, who got married on the Bank Holiday, the great wedding day of the East-end, and she and her husband had both found themselves out of work ever since.  The room was full of such stories.

At 138, Piccadilly, there is a workroom ...[where] the workers are those who have lost their work owing to the closing of West-end workrooms, and most of them belong to the special class of skilled tailoresses and dressmakers who are suffering from the vaunted economy in buying new clothes of their richer sisters.  In all the workrooms arrangements for cheap meals have been made.

.... Many thousands of homes throughout the country are depending on women's energy, and would long since have been broken up but for the work of the fund; hundreds of workshops have been kept open which would otherwise have been closed; and thousands of women have been given employment which has not displaced other women.  In addition, where work cannot be carried on along strictly commercial lines the products of the women's labour— clothes and so on—are distributed to women even poorer than themselves.

.... The amount reached by the [Queen's "Work for Women"] Fund last night was £96,588.

[The Bank Holiday referred to was August 3rd 1914, the day before the start of the War.  Throughout the country, many workers found themselves without a job to go back to after the holiday.]

A 'Work for Women' Workroom

From The Times, December 1st 1914

THE QUEEN AND EMPLOYMENT FOR WOMEN.

The Queen yesterday visited the workroom which has been established at the Royal Institute of Public Health in Russell-square as a branch of Queen Mary's Needlework Guild.....

Her Majesty inspected the workroom, in which 30 girls and women were engaged in making and remodelling clothes, and conversed with many of the workers.  In the library of the institute a number of garments were displayed.  Some of these were new, but others had been remodelled.  There were petticoats made out of tea-gowns, a girl's dress made out of a man's dressing-gown, and, notably, a number of clothes for boys and girls which had been fashioned from golf capes.  Some hundreds of garments have been sent from the workroom to our soldiers and sailors and to the Belgian refugees.

The undertaking has an excellent educational value, as the women to whom employment is given are taught the work of remaking clothes.  The Queen expressed her appreciation and approval of the work that is being done.

Princess Mary’s Gift Book

From the Dewsbury Reporter, 28th November 1914.

PRINCESS MARY’S GIFT BOOK

There has just been published at 2s 6d a very entertaining volume, proceeds on the sale of which will be given to the Queen’s Work for Women Fund.  Its literary contributors include Sir J. M. Barrie, who writes “A Holiday in Bed”, George Birmingham, Sir A. Conan Doyle, Mr A. E. W. Mason, and Mr. Rudyard Kipling (with a poem, “Big Steamers”).  The frontispiece is a capital reproduction of Mr. Shannon’s portrait of Princess Mary, and other illustrations (many in colour) are by such well known men as Messrs. C. E. Brook, C. N. Henry, Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Norman Wilkinson, Joseph Simpson, and Claude Shepperson.  Several charity volumes appear annually in aid of worthy causes, but it may be safely said that in this case the combination of talent will make the book as memorable as the situation that has called it forth.

[The Gift Book was aimed at the Christmas market, I think.  An earlier report on its printing had appeared in The Observer on  November 15th, 1914:]

The demand for “Princess Mary's Gift Book” is so great that the printers are working night and day on the first enormous edition.  As some evidence of the interest taken by the bookselling trade in “Princess Mary's Gift Book” it may be mentioned that Messrs. W. H. Smith and Son have placed a first order for a minimum of 60,000 copies (one of the largest first orders ever given for a book), while Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co.'s first order is for minimum of 25,000 copies.

The Queen's Appeal Now Closed

From The Observer, 15th November 1914.

QUEEN'S FUND FOR BELTS AND SOCKS.

The fund dealing with the Queen's appeal for belts and socks for the troops at the front is now closed.... Her Majesty has intimated her desire to re-open the appeal early in 1915 to send similar or other comforts to our sailors and soldiers.

Half a million belts and socks have already been landed in France and the response to Her Majesty's appeal has been so great that there is a large surplus.  The Queen, at the further request of Lord Kitchener, has decided to place a considerable portion of this surplus at the disposal of the Principal Medical Officer at the War Office.

Eighty thousand knitted belts for the Queen's present to the troops at the front have been procured through the Central Committee on Women’s Employment.  Work has been found by this means for large numbers of women in Kidderminster, Stroud, Belfast, London and other places.


[The Central Committee on Women's Employment was responsible for spending the money raised by the Queen's "Work for Women" Fund.  I assume that the 80,000 knitted belts procured by the Committee were machine-knitted - they are simply a tube of knitting, with no shaping.  They would be easy to make by machine, and very tedious to knit by hand.]  

From Weldon's Practical Needlework No. 346. 

Minimum Wage for Women

From the Huddersfield Examiner, 14th October 1914.

WOMEN’S MINIMUM WAGE

A POUND A WEEK ASKED

A meeting of women called by the East London Federation of Suffragettes passed a resolution at the Canning Town Public Hall last night demanding “in all works subsidised by public funds” a minimum wage of 6d. an hour or £1 a week, and that the same standard should apply to all future Government contracts.

Miss Sylvia Pankhurst said she knew of two cases of Government sub-contractors who were paying their women 2½d. and 3d. an hour, and it was perfectly infamous that they should make money out of the war in such a way.  With regard to the proposed maximum payment of 10s. a week to women in workrooms supported by the Queen’s Fund, she said she would not like to see women sign on and then strike for a living wage.  “Let’s get it altered,” she exclaimed.  “I don’t mind going to gaol again if it is necessary.”

Mrs. Deppard said to give 10s. a week as a living wage and call it charity was perfectly abominable.  She thought it would have been a glorious thing if the Queen’s Work for Women Fund had started by saying “We must and shall give a living wage.”  It was absolutely impossible for a woman in London – considering the increase in the price of food – to live decently on 10s. a week.

[In the same issue of the Examiner, it was reported that the contributions to the Queen’s “Work for Women” Fund to date amounted to £72,498.  This is a remarkable amount, considering that the Fund had only been launched on 4th September, and it does seem that the Fund could well afford to  pay £1 a week.

It seems odd that almost the first step in Sylvia Pankhurst's negotiating plan is to get sent to gaol (presumably doing something illegal to warrant it first).  You would think that that should be a last resort.] 

Concert by Clara Butt

From The Observer, 11th October 1914.

THE WORK FOR WOMEN FUND.

MME. CLARA BUTT'S CONCERT.

The vast audience that was present at the Albert Hall yesterday afternoon was not only a splendid response to a charitable call (the entire proceeds are to be given to the Queen's "Work for Women" Fund) but a wonderful tribute to the popularity of Mme. Clara Butt and her husband, Mr. Kennerley Rumford.  The two favourite artists were the only soloists of the afternoon, but the Royal Choral Society’s forces and the Queen's Hall Orchestra also assisted, and there were no less than half-a-dozen of the most prominent English conductors present—and actively engaged: Sir Frederick Bridge, Sir Henry Wood, Sir Frederic Cowen, Sir C. Villiers Stanford, Mr. Landon Ronald and Sir Edward Elgar, whose present duties towards his country were made clear by the notice that our foremost composer appeared by permission of the Chief Inspector of the Hampstead Special Constables.

The programme was liberally patriotic, and in addition to old favourites such as Stanford's "Drake's Drum" and Elgar's "Land of Hope and Glory," new songs by Teresa del Riego, "My Son" and by Harold Craxton, "The Home Flag," a characteristic and sincere piece of work that should meet with success, were received with enthusiasm. The unfurling of innumerable flags in Mr. Craxton's song provided a very effective moment. The concert was in every respect a brilliant success, and the sum added to the Work for Women Fund should be considerable.

[Wonderfully, you can still hear Clara Butt singing Land of Hope and Glory.]

The Queen’s Appeal for Socks and Belts

From the Cambrian Daily Leader, 24^th September 1914.

APPEAL TO WOMEN

KNITTED BELTS AND SOCKS WANTED FOR THE TROOPS

In view of the special winter requirements, and to supplement the provision made by the War Office, Lord Kitchener has asked the Queen to supply 300,000 belts, knitted or woven, and 300,000 pairs of socks, to be ready, if possible, early in November.  Lord Kitchener has kindly promised that these articles shall be immediately distributed at the front.  The Queen has willingly acceded to the request and asks the women of the Empire assist her.

In making this offering to the troops, her Majesty is anxious to place as much work as possible through the Central Committee for Women's Employment.  It is suggested that in addition to gifts of the above-named articles, orders may be forwarded stating the number of belts and socks which it is desired to contribute.  All such orders and all cheques, as well as contributions of belts or socks, should be sent to the Lady-in-Waiting to her Majesty, addressed to Devonshire House, London... Anyone willing to send these articles is invited to apply to the Lady-in-Waiting ... for written instructions.

[This appeal, based on an official press release, was published in newspapers throughout the country (and presumably throughout the Empire). It was one of the first national appeals for clothing to be made for the troops, and I think the largest.  

I have chosen this version of the appeal, because most other newspapers omitted the reference to employing women - the Central Committee for Women's Employment was spending the money raised by the Queen's "Work for Women" Fund. 

The 'belts' asked for are body belts, also called cholera belts, or sometimes colic belts.  A body belt was a deep band of wool worn around the abdomen (sometimes fastened with tapes or buttons, but usually the knitted ones were knitted in the round and pulled on).  Although medical opinion no longer thought that a body belt would protect against cholera, there was a widespread feeling that it was essential to keep the abdomen protected from chills.  Body belts were not part of the official issue to soldiers, but perhaps Kitchener thought that they should be.]

Workrooms for Unemployed Women

From The Times, 10th September 1914.

WORK FOR WOMEN FUND.

PROPOSED OPENING OF WORKROOMS.

THE PROBLEM IN LONDON.

[The article begins by reporting that the Queen's 'Work for Women' Fund has already reached over £33,000 (in only a week).]

In London the Central Committee on Women's Employment for England and Wales will work in two directions:— Numerous occupiers of factories and workshops whose business is at a standstill have offered the free use of their premises and plant if employment can be found for their workers.  The Central Committee propose to take over a number of workrooms, paying, in special cases, a small amount to the proprietor for supervision, and to employ the workers in making garments to be distributed ... in cases of distress among our own people, and also among the refugees who are flocking to the country.

This policy... will not, however, meet the problem of the 45,000 women and girls already unemployed in London, and it is proposed that workrooms should be opened in different districts in London.... , to include training and instruction in certain skilled trades to semi-skilled or unskilled women.

The first articles to be produced under those schemes should, it is considered, be for the use of expectant mothers, a great number of whom are at present in the direst distress.  The Matron of the East London Lying-in Home states that 500 maternity outfits could be allocated in Stepney alone between now and Christmas, and she is prepared to guarantee that in every such case the child would otherwise be actually without sufficient covering to maintain it in a healthy condition.

[It is worth remembering that in at a time when there was no State support for the unemployed, and many of the poor did not earn enough at the best of times to have any savings, a month with no work would have left many families in a desperate plight.]

The ‘Work for Women’ Fund

From The Times, 4th September 1914.

THE QUEEN AND WORKING WOMEN.

SCHEME FOR THE RELIEF OF UNEMPLOYMENT.

AN APPEAL FOR FUNDS.

Her Majesty the Queen has suggested and authorized the formation, and has graciously consented to become the president, of a committee for raising funds to find employment for women thrown out of work by the war.

In the following letter her Majesty explains her intentions in the matter:—

In the firm belief that prevention of distress is better than its relief, and that employment is better than charity, I have inaugurated “The Queen’s 'Work for Women' Fund.”  Its object is to provide employment for as many as possible of the women of this country who have been thrown out of work by the war.
I appeal to the -women of Great Britain to help their less fortunate sisters through this fund.
MARY R.

...The committee is a collecting and not an administrative body; and the large funds it may confidently count upon raising will be spent solely on schemes devised by the Central Committee on Women's Employment.  The Central Committee... is a strong and businesslike body, well supported by expert boards of commercial and official advisers.  Its hon. Secretary is Miss Mary R. Macarthur... Its treasurer is Mrs. H. J. Tennant.  The officials include Miss Anderson (H.M. Principal Lady Inspector of Factories), Miss Clapham (head, Women's Department Labour Exchanges), Miss Durham (L.C.C. Technical Training Organiser), Miss Mona Wilson (H.M. Insurance Commission)....

The primary function of the Central Committee is to think out and to put into operation schemes that, while avoiding any interference with ordinary trade, will provide work for women and girls whom the war has thrown out of employment....

There can be no more important work than this.  The sufferings of war fall harder on women than on men, but hardest of all on the women who are deprived of their means of livelihood.  They are as a rule but poorly organized, or not organized at all, their resources are of the slenderest, and they have next to nothing to fall back upon.  Moreover, in a great many cases they are compelled to suffer not only in their own persons, but, far more poignantly, in the persons of their children and the care of the home.  Every one of us must have come across pitiable instances of this kind during the past few weeks in his or her own experience—instances of women despairingly seeking the work that would just enable them to struggle along; and every one of us must have wished that some efficient and workable machinery existed to save them from the abyss of destitution.

The machinery does exist, and it is for the public to see that it is not thrown out of gear by lack of funds.  The Central Committee on Women's Employment is performing the most useful service that could possibly be rendered at such a time as this.  It aims not at the relief of distress, but at its prevention.  It offers not charity, but work.  The women who are out of employment do not want and do not ask for doles.  They do want, and they do ask for, work.  They want to keep going as self-supporting units in the industrial army, and not to become a burden on the community.  They want to be preserved from lapsing into the state where unearned financial relief becomes necessary to hold body and soul together.  It is obvious, moreover, that in so preserving them, and in securing employment for many thousands of workless women, the Central Committee on Women's Employment will accumulate a number of articles and garments that may fitly be given away to those who need but are unable to pay for them.  This, of course, would be done in cooperation with the existing local machinery for the relief of distress.

The purpose of “The Queen's 'Work for Women’ Fund” is to raise funds that this admirable work may greatly extend its beneficent scope; and the purpose of this appeal is to urge upon every one the supreme and urgent need of supporting it.

[I like the idea of Queen Mary saying "Why don't we have a committee! Let's do it!  I'll be President."    (That's the 'suggesting/ authorizing/ graciously consenting' bit.)

 It seems odd from our point of view to say "The sufferings of war fall harder on women than on men" about the First World War, when we know how long it went on for, how many men eventually were sucked into the army, and how many of them were killed or wounded on the Western Front and elsewhere, but in 1914, that was all in the future.  At this point, the majority of men were not much affected, and it was not expected that it would go on for such a long time. ]