Show 0 WOMEN 00 MENS WORK british tish government appreciates efforts put forth by gentler sex ARE NO LONGER DOMESTICS scarcely a trade but what has its female employees they are even replacing men in building mining and quarrying london the far reaching effect on the industrial and commercial situation caused by the formation of tin an army of almost five million men cannot be underestimated and the government was not long in realizing the vital importance of maintaining the output of 0 articles required tor for the war and export trade the wonderful efforts accomplished by the women of great britain in taking the places of men who have joined the colors are known in a general way to the american public but it Is impossible without living in england to form an ac curate impression of the extent to which the women have answered the call special efforts are now being made by the british government to give to the world a more adequate knowledge of the success attained by women in nearly ail Ir branches auches of mens work according to official statistics which have just been issued by the war office ai garfs have stepped forward iid to take the places of 0 i various occupations s this figure doeg doea not ot include domestic service or employment in the millinery or dressmaking trade nor does it comprise the women who have taken so BO active a P part art tn in red cross work since the beginning of the war the latter alone include more than na women workers Wor kera A very large proportion of the total mentioned is of course due to the advent of the woman worker and while it Is quite true that many of these women are not strictly speaking taking the places of men it Is nevertheless an undeniable ble fact that they are doing what before the war was regarded as strictly mews mens work work however Is only a part 0 of f industrial activity A high authority of the british government ern ment to whom the sun Is indebted for these facts Is authority for the statement that there are very few industries dus tries or occupations in which the number ot of women has not mot increased there are few in which some direct substitution of female for male labor lias has not taken place the chief instances of decline in numbers of women employed are domestic service and employment in small email dressmaking I 1 workrooms wor krooms other important industries which show a numerical decline are laundry work dressmaking confectionery printing and bookbinding linen lace and silk but 1 in all these groups some women are directly replacing men find and in many individual firms in these and other groups a decline in the number of women simply means that some of the women have left to go to mens work and have not been replaced in every trade women are directly replacing men only in comparatively small numbers even in building binl mining and quarrying they are replacing them in considerable sid erable number in most of the metal industries though not on the main processes in iron and steel works in the cotton trade no less than females are returned as directly replacing males though in other textile industries except hosiery progress has been less marked in the food trades there have been very interesting cases of substitution in grain milling the number of women and girls employed has risen since july 1914 from 2000 to in sugar refining from 1000 to 2 and in brewing from to the increase in these trades Is almost entirely due to the direct replacement of men by women women are also doing mens work to an appreciable degree in tanning and leather working and woodworking glass china earthenware and rubber one of the most striking new developments Is the introduction of ow omen women clerks into banks and financial houses to agriculture the process of substitution l made slow progress drill darlng the te first IS months of the war but an acceleration cele ce ration Is now noticeable besides the regular women workers there Is a large increase in the number of fruit pickers harvesters and other casuals railway hallway employment furnishes a pa particularly interesting i alj se adries aeries ries i of experiments peri ments i hiis in woman labor before the war the british railway co companies in pa a les only eibi employed aloyed abo abot qt women clerks cl cleaners nig attendants a ni s etc tc A approximately I 1 are now employed the kind and amount of substitution carried out varies from one railway company to another one has increased the number of its women clerks from 70 to 1520 1526 and employs also 18 women ticket collectors carriage cleaners 55 engine cleaners and porters another with neither women ticket collectors nor porters lias has women carriage cleaners engine cleaners laborers la in the workshops and 37 other women laborers yet another with no women engine cleaners or laborers has ticket collectors |