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    56 ASSOCIATION FOR THE EMPLOYMENT OP WOM...

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    _ We Desire To Call Our Readers' Especia...

    may help tlie few to overcome some among the numerous difficulties which beset the working wornanA workinCommittee it already

    liasand funds onlare needed to . enable it to g out the admirable objects , it has in y viewwhich we cannot carry do better than give in

    its own recently printed , statement . " That there exists a great want of loyment for women ,

    emp throughout England , and more especially in London , is no longer a contested point .

    " The extent of the distress thus produced , and the best methods of remedying it , are still matters of doubt , but no one will be found

    bold enough to deny the suffering , or to assert that the means now in action for its reliefhave proved sufficient for the purpose .

    evils " A arising plan from for the it prevention , has been forme of this d b distress y a Society , and of called the many tf The

    Society for Promoting , the Emj > loyment of Women , ' and , to the details of this project the attention of the public is here invited ; but

    before we enter into the particulars of the contemplated remedy , we must first set forth the oriin of the disease .

    g " It appears from , the census , that , there are two millions of unmarried women in Englandwho work for subsistence . It is of no

    use to tell these persons that , domestic life is the best position for themand that a women never appears to such advantage as in her

    , husband ' s home , for they have no husbands belonging to them , and though any individual of the number may marry , yet the proportion

    of two million of single women must remain for ever , gradually increasing with the numbers of the population . These must be

    their own bread winners , and earn money in some way or other , unless they are contented to take up their abode for life in the

    union workhouse . " The three great professions en to receive them—Teaching

    op , Domestic Service , and Needlework—are over-crowded to such a de- gree as to render competition excessiveand to beat down wages to

    a point at which it is difficult to live , so , that we hear of maids of all-work earning from three to six pounds a year , ( a sum barely

    sufficient to furnisji them with the scantiest raiment , and which _, makes any attempt at laying by moneyagainst old age or a time

    of sickness , utterly impossible ;) or , more , cruel still , till we read of women toiling for sixteen hours a day at their needles , and earning

    _fourpence ! One who is an excellent judge , says ' the payment for the labor of females in this country is so small , as to demand for _^

    obtaining an honest living , a greater power of endurance and selfcontrol than can reasonably be expected . *

    " As is natural under tliese circumstances , the workhouses are full of able-bodied women ; tlie parish officersurged on by the

    overtaxed ratepayers , treat tliem with rigor , , affecting to believe that their idleness is voluntary , and so drive them forth into the world

    . * Crime , its Amo / uiit _, Causes , and Remedies , by * F . Hill , _Prison Insi _^ ector .

    56 Association For The Employment Op Wom...

    56 ASSOCIATION FOR THE EMPLOYMENT OP WOMEN .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Sept. 1, 1859, page 56, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01091859/page/56/