On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    322 WORK AND WAGES OF WOMEN IN FRANCE.

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    »— The World Seems Now Astir. Many Are L...

    li 3 s g . ht a and month firing , or during £ 1 1 * 6 s a . great per ye part ar . of Tlien the she year cannot ; ( nor can do without she be

    • very economical in light , or her eyesight will suffer ; ) these items , for too , rent we will £ 5 set 15 s down . for at clothing £ 1 16 s £ . 1 yearl 16 s y . . for Giving washing then 1 and , £ 5 £ a 1 year 16 s .

    for fire , and candle , you will get , a total of £ 13 12 s . , She has then an overplus of £ 11 8 s ., on which to support herself during the

    year , i . e ., somewhat less than 8 d . a day . What is to become of the poor needlewoman if her slender

    income should happen at any time to be lessened by illness or by her being out of work ? She must unavoidably get into debt .

    But how are her debts to be paid ? What is she to do without , in what way is she to retrench ?

    But let us not forget that we have been considering the case of a woman who is earning" her 2 s . a day . And who are the

    women who are lucky enough to get that sum ? Not the poor shirtmaker , for to earn 2 s . she must be able to make eight shirts

    a day ; not the glover , for to gain Is . 8 d _sl day , she must sew six pairs of gloves a day ; not the woman who works for the "

    readymade " shops , for to earn even Is . 6 cl . a day she would have to be able to make six waistcoats or six pairs of trousers ; not the

    hrodiste , the lacemaker , the fringemaker , or the boot-binder . Here stand the facts which nothing can contravene : —a

    needlewoman , who earns wages of 2 s . a day , lodges in a garret , is half cladand . has _1 \ d . a day left for food , always supposing that she

    , , has the blessing of health during the whole year . When we reflect on what are the actual wages of the large

    . majority of the women thus employed , the question must force itself upon us : how do they exist ? No one can picture to himself

    what their life really is , unless he has actually seen it for himself . To get at their garret-home you must go into some obscure ,

    fetid court , and mount a steep , narrow staircase . You find a wretched little room , with a window opening out on to the leads .

    The broken slates of the roof let in the rain of winter and the heat of summer . You look roundyou see no _firejDlaceno stove

    , , , no furniture ; nothing but a bed , or rather a pallet , and one or two rush-bottomed chairs . The landlord , who is never sure of getting

    Ms rent from tenants who often lack bread , cannot afford to lay out money in repairs ; at bestthe poor girl is scarcely separated from

    , her neighbours by a rotten partition . The commission of inquiry of 1851 , tells of a woman who was

    found " huddled into a room or rather a hole , 5 feet by 3 feet "—of another " obliged to break the panes of her skylightin order

    , without to get air a chair enoug , or h a to bedstead breathe . , _" without They _^ a found vessel garrets of any utterl kind , y without empty ,

    the bundle of straw which used to be given even to the prisoner in his dungeon . But most of these abominations have been swept

    away . Daylight has been let in to these dens of misery and filth .

    322 Work And Wages Of Women In France.

    322 WORK AND WAGES OF WOMEN IN FRANCE .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1863, page 322, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011863/page/34/