| OCR Text |
Show 4 : THE WOMAN AND-HER AND-HER JOB SHE MUST BE SAFEGUARDED By Frederic J. H&skin WASHINGTON, D. C, March 8. While the efficiency with which fwomen are filling men's places in the industrial world compels admiration, the indiscriminate employment of women in many different classes of work is dangerous. Everywhere, health experts and sociologists sociolo-gists are lifting' up their voices against such a practice. It must be recognized, say the health experts, that women are physically incapable of heavy manual labor, and they should be prevented from j attempting it. And the social dangers incurred in many of the new jobs accepted ac-cepted by women, sociologists assert, demand de-mand serious public consideration. There is the elevator service, for ex-ample ex-ample an occupation that has recently been opened to women throughout the country. In hotels, department stores, apartment houses and public buildings, women may now be found operating elevators ele-vators that formerly were run by men. The work itself appears easy and harmless harm-less enough, but Miss Josephine Goldmark of the National Consumers' league points out that the hours of duty are often excessive. ex-cessive. In New York City, 'she says, girls may he found operating elevators in apartment houses fifteen hours at a stretch, and occasionally oc-casionally eighteen hours. Day and night work is alternated each week between two girls, and when the shifts change it is necessary for one girl to remain at her post from 6 p. m. to 12 o'clock the next noon eighteen hours of continuous duty. "One of the most serious abuses of this employment is the exposure of young girls to insult or danger on the all-night shift," Miss Goldmark asserts. "In some instances no provision whatever is made for getting rest at night; in other cases an armv'cot is provided in a hall alcove. In another instance, one young elevator attendant sought safety by running the elevator between the first and second landing to obtain sleep between summons." sum-mons." Another field to which women are tinning and one that presents undeniable danger, according to social authorities is t;;e messenger service. In all the large cities now women may be found carrying messages, both day and night. The hazards haz-ards involved in this occupation have already al-ready been admitted to be so great that most states have enacted laws raising the age limit of messenger boys to twenty-one twenty-one years and prohibiting their emplov-n-.ent at night. That similar legislation is needed in regard to giris is evident, hut so far it has not come. Girls onlv fourteen and sixteen years old are employed em-ployed as meseneers in large numbers. The National Consumer?' league is now attempting to get a bill through the New York legislature prohibiting the emplov-ment emplov-ment of women under twenty-five years old as messengers, and requiring night work for women in this occupation to cease at 10 o'clock. Other leagues and committees are taking the question up in other states. Another form of night work that women have recently undertaken in the cities is automobile cleaning. In New York City women are said to be working twelve and a half hours a night ia local garages, where they each clean from thirty to thirty-five cars a night. These are some of the women for whom protection is being sought. There are many others. Women street car con-- con-- ductors, railroad employees, bootblacks, barbers, chauffeurs and factorv workers are all to be taken under the protecting i wing of many women's committees inves-1 inves-1 tigating their welfare. Legislation will , be urged to limit the number of hours iu ' a woman's working day. Night work for " women is already prohibited by six states; an eight-hour day is specified by four and ; thirty-four states put a limit of ten hours ' on a woman's working day. i ; Since the war efforts have been made I to set aside even these legal limitations. 1 Within the past year the state of Massa-chusetts Massa-chusetts a pioneer in generous labor legislation has made the emergency of war an excuse to abrogate its former standards and issue permits to certain establishments for the employment of women in night work, and overtime. Women's organizations are now mobilizing mobiliz-ing their members in Massachusetts to fight this new issue of licenses., The women of Massachusetts, indeed are coming nobly to the rescue of tnelr sex. In addition to forcing the issue of a minimum working day, a committee of tiie Women's Educational and Industrial union in co-operatfon, with a committee from the Association of Collegiate Alumnae Alum-nae is conducting an investigation into the opportunities now afforded working women. A canvass of firms in Boston is being made to ascertain just how manv women have taken the places of drafted i men; what salaries these women are getting, get-ting, and what sort of technical training is ofiered women with- good general educations edu-cations but no special technical knowledge. knowl-edge. In Illinois the women have also succeeded suc-ceeded in making Themselves heard. By order of the -state legislature an industrial indus-trial survey commission has been formed to study the condition of working women including their state of health and hours' of work. But, according to health authorities, there is still much investigation and legislation leg-islation to be desired. Some legal restriction re-striction should be placed upon the lifting lift-ing of heavy weights by women, for example. ex-ample. This has long been recognized as a cause of serious injurv to women but while many warnings have ben issued is-sued they have made little impression In factories and laundries womn may still be f6und lifting loads weighing a hundred pounds or more, not in an occasional oc-casional instance, but as the chief part of their work. In one railroad yard one woman investigator found small women weighing not more than 115 pounds them-I them-I selves, wheeling metal castings in wheel-I wheel-I barrows up and down inclined planks and loading them into cars. No woman should be permitted to engage en-gage in any occupation requiring the lifting lift-ing of heavy weights unless she has been found physically able hv a medical examination. ex-amination. Occasionally a woman mi-ht he tuscoyered so strnn-'ly built that the biting of heavy weichts wo. Id not hurt A -uch spears in the records of a British lactory manager. One of the men in his factory was alwavs complaining complain-ing about the weights of the loads he was compelled to lift, until one day his wife a tall, robust woman, brought his lunch in and stood watching him. As usual he was groaning under a heavy load With a swift movement, his wife stooped down, lifted the load and threw it on to the waiting car Few women have the strength of this particular British woman, however For some women even twenty-five pounds is too great a load. Hence, the factorv or corporauon that wishes to avoid a 'long invalid list is advised hv medical a thor ties to take this factor into consldl womn. reJjlacin its me workers wUh This country is now going through the fioth10' exPeriment and investigation investiga-tion that Knrope went through a couple of years ago. The European wSmen worker came through that earlv periS? of study and research a happier and health er woman. For her government can to know her as she really wa4 3n- ten hours than she could i twelve be cause the rest supplier! her with tht much more enorery to draw from anrt 1-went 1-went hack to its pre-war a "hj, hours and little night work cr ov ernment also discovered that she , deliberately shirk and waste the me of her employer hut that he? ompu wa arsely dependent on her health and w And upon these discoveries her ,,. ment acted, instituting medic tion, sanitary precaution" and tl e"T"" torv canteen. All these thin"" -ameT: v.ay of recommendation, of course factories tried them and fount that .T increased their output, an'so' tl'. When the United States comes out r the present experimental state he a f ican woman worked will dm n L7 healthier and happier, too. pro e 'ted an army of committee of her 1 bv vglantly clearing the patnjrj," sex' |
