Numbers more are motor car and transport drivers working with A.S.C.
An intensely interesting piece of work at the front in which the Waacs now are, and in which French women have worked for a very long time, and are still working in large numbers, is the great "Salvage" work of the Army. In the Salvage centre at one ordnance base 30,000 boots are repaired in a week. They are divided into three classes—those that can be used again by the men at the front—those for men on the lines of communication—those for prisoners and coloured labour, and uppers that are quite useless are cut up into laces. They salve old helmets, old web and leather equipments, haversacks, rifles, horse shoes, spurs, and every conceivable kind of battlefield debris.
The work of repair and of renewal of clothing, which goes over to England to be dealt with, is a wonder of economy.
The women are helping in postal work and we handle about three million letters and packets a day in France for our Army there.
One other piece of work that falls to trained women gardeners in the Corps, is the care of the graves in France. There are so many graves in little clusters, lonely by the roadside, and in great cemeteries. They mark them clearly and they make them more beautiful with flowers. No work they have come to do, is done more faithfully than this act of reverence to our heroic and honoured dead.
The Y.W.C.A.'s Blue Triangle is going to be the same symbol for the Waacs as the Red Triangle for the Soldiers. They are building huts everywhere in France and in England, and the girls like them as much as the men do.
In these recreation huts the girls enjoy themselves and there are evenings when the soldier friends come in, too, and have a good time with them, for Waacs and the soldiers know each other and meet at all the Bases and Camps.
They dance and play games, and act, or sing, or come and talk, and one visitor tells us of seeing a girl doing machining at the end of a hut with one soldier turning the handle for her and another helping.
One evening at a dance some gallant Australian N.C.O.'s arrived carrying two enormous pans of a famous salad, that was their specialty, as their contribution to the provisions. So life in the Waacs is not all work—there is play, too, wisely. Every camp has a trained V.A.D. worker to look after the girls in case of sickness. If the case is bad they are sent over to Endell Street Hospital in London.
The Navy is going to follow the Army—so our women will be "Soldier and Sailor too," and we shall have to sing, "Till the girls come home," as well.
The Admiralty has decided to employ women on various duties on shore hitherto done by naval ratings, and to establish a Women's Royal Naval Service. The women will have a distinctive uniform and the service will be confined to women employed on definite duties directly connected with the Royal Navy. It is not intended at present to include those serving in the Admiralty departments or the Royal Dockyards or other civil establishments under the Admiralty. There are thousands of women in these already, as there were in Army pay offices, etc., before the Waacs were formed.
Dame Katherine Furse, G.B.E., will be Director of the Women's Royal Naval Service, and will be responsible under the Second Sea Lord, for its administration and organization.
Already we hear they are likely to be known as the "Wrens." And so our women are inside the organized forces of defence of our Country—the last line of usefulness and service.
CHAPTER XII
THE WAR AND MORALS
"Evils which have been allowed to flourish for centuries cannot be destroyed in a day. If the nation really wishes to be freed from the consequences of prostitution it must deal with the sources of prostitution by a long series of social, educational, and economic reforms. The ultimate remedy is the acceptance of a single standard of morality for men and women, and the recognition that man is meant to be the master and not the slave of his body. There are thousands of men both in the army and out of it who know this, and for whom the streets of London have no dangers."
The unprecedented state of things produced by the war brought in its train serious anxiety as to moral conditions, not only in regard to the relation between the sexes but in other ways. The gathering of every kind of man together in camps creates great problems. Young boys, who had never been away from home before, who know very little of the world or of temptations, were often flung in with very undesirable companions. There were many risks and many hard tests and the parents who see their young boys go to camp without preparing them, or warning them, do their boys a great disservice and I have known of sons who bore in their hearts a feeling of having been badly treated by their parents, that would never die, for being sent without a word of counsel into these things.
It is not only actions—corrupt thoughts are the most evil of all—and to help to give our boys the greatest possession, moral courage, founded on knowledge, is our finest gift.
There were temptations to think less cleanly, to hear things said without protest and to say them later. There were drinking temptations and one used to wonder with a sick heart, what mothers would feel if they could see these young boys of theirs sometimes, so pathetically young and so foolish. There was also in these great camps of men—let us realize that quite clearly—great good for the boys and the men—good that far outweighs the evil. All the good of discipline, all they gained by their coming together for a great cause, all they gained in that great comradeship and service for each other, and in their self-sacrifice for their country and the world. The wonder and beauty of what it is, and means some of our own men have told us—among them one who died, Donald Hankey, and has left us a rich treasure in his works. And we all know it in our own men—that abiding spirit that is the vision without which the people perish.
But there are and were evils to fight and men and women to help. The huts and canteens and guesthouses are great agencies for good—as well as for comfort. Loneliness, and nowhere to go, and no one to talk to, are conditions that make for mischief.
Then there were the girls at the outbreak of the war, excited by all that was happening, not yet busy as they nearly all are now, feeling that the greatest thing was to know the soldiers and talk and walk with them, and flocking around camps and barracks, being foolish and risking worse.
The National Union of Women Workers decided to take action about this and drew up a scheme which they submitted to the Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Edward Henry, K.C.V.O. This scheme was for women of experience and knowledge of girls to patrol in the camps and barrack areas, and talk to girls who were behaving foolishly, and try to influence them for good. It was felt and it turned out to be quite accurate that the mere presence of these women would make girls and men behave better. Sir Edward Henry approved of the idea and arranged that each Patrol should have a card signed by him to be carried while on duty, authorizing the Patrols to seek and get the assistance of the Police, if necessary, and the Patrols wore an armlet with badge and number.
Their work in London proved so successful that the Home Office recommended the adoption of the scheme in provincial centres, where the Chief Constables authorized them and later the War Office asked for more Patrols in some of the camp areas and spoke very highly of their work.
A woman Patrol is generally a woman who is busy in her own home or profession all day, but who gives some hours one or two evenings a week to this work.
They have done the work faithfully and well, and have exceeded in their success all anticipations. There are about 3,000 Patrols in the Kingdom; of these eighty-five are engaged in special work in London and paid by the Commissioner of Police. Two are engaged in work at Woolwich Arsenal. Two are Park Keepers appointed by the Board of Works and are working in Kensington Gardens, and their names were submitted to the King before appointment. They have the power of arrest.
A subsidy has been granted to the Women's Patrol Committee for the training of Women Patrols of £400 a year. In many big towns admirable work has been done.
In Edinburgh the Patrol Committee was asked by H.M. Office of Works to help the men park keepers in keeping order in the King's Park.
This they have done with great success. Dublin has just taken over two women Patrols as paid workers.
The Military, Admiralty, Police, and Civil Authorities have all united in praising their work and any one can realize how much patience and tact and knowledge it calls for, and what it means to have had it done for over three years. The patrols have not been content only to talk to the girls, though it is wonderful what that alone can do. They have succeeded in getting them to come to clubs and they have worked in connection with the mixed clubs of which we have several very successful ones. A mixed club is very useful and helpful, but it must be well run by a good committee of men and women, and you need people of judgment and knowledge and tactful firmness in charge of it, if it is to be the best kind of club.
We have found an admirable thing is to have evenings for men friends in the Girls' Clubs when the girls can invite their men friends in, and have music and games and entertainment.
When Patrols were started, there was a very strong feeling that there ought to be women police, a much needed change in our country. We had none when war broke out, but in September, 1914, Miss Darner Dawson founded the Women Police Service. When members joined they were trained in drill, first aid, practical instructions in Police Duties, gained by actual work in streets, parks, etc. They studied special acts relating to women and children and civil and criminal law and the procedure and rules of evidence in Police Courts.
Their first work was done in Grantham where, in November, 1914, the Women's Central Committee of Grantham elected a Women Police Subcommittee to provide a fund for the payment of two Police Women to work with the Chief Constable. In February the following letter was written about their work:
"To the Chief Officer, Women Police,—I understand that there is some idea of removing the two members of the Women Police now stationed here. I trust that this is not the case. The services of the two ladies in question have proved of great value. They have removed sources of trouble to the troops in a manner that the Military Police could not attempt. Moreover, I have no doubt whatever that the work of these two ladies in an official capacity is a great safeguard to the moral welfare of young girls in the town.
and in November, 1915, they were made official Police by the City Council. In July, 1916, the Police Miscellaneous Provisions Act was passed, which encouraged the employment of Policewomen by stating that pay of the police "shall be deemed to include the pay of any women who may be employed by a Police Authority," etc.
Now there are thirty-four Policewomen in our Boroughs, but their position is still anomalous and unsatisfactory, as they do not come under the Police Act for purposes of discipline, pay, pensions, and compensation, but this will come. Meantime the Women Police Service goes on doing its admirable work of training and providing Volunteer and Semi-official police (supported by women's funds), in addition to those appointed by local authorities in Boroughs.
These semi-official police women are able to do a great deal, if the Chief Constable is friendly, and, naturally, they are appointed where he is so. They are often made Probation Officers and are used for children's and girl's and women's cases. Their work leads more and more to the official appointments and in this work as in so many of our successes, we women have achieved the results by having the voluntary organizations and training ourselves first and proving our fitness.
From my own experience, it is impossible to speak too highly of the kindness and willingness of many Chief Constables to do everything to teach and help the women.
The Women Police Service naturally insists on a high standard of training and this has been of great value.
A big development of women police work has been in the Munition factories where now about 700 women are employed in this capacity in England, Scotland and Wales.
The report of the Women's Police Service gives the following interesting account.
"In 1916 the Department Explosives Supply of the Ministry of Munitions applied to Sir Edward Henry for a force of Women Police to act as guards for certain of H.M. Factories. Sir Edward Henry sent for the two chief officers of the Women Police Service, and informed them that it was his intention to recommend them to the Ministry of Munitions for the supplying of the Women Police required. They thanked the Commissioner for his expression of trust in their capabilities, and in July an agreement was drawn up between the Minister of Munitions and the Chief Officer and Chief Superintendent of the Women Police Service, who were appointed to act as the Minister's representatives for the 'training, supplying and controlling' of the Force required. The duties of the Policewomen were to include checking the entry of women into the factory, examining passports, searching for contraband, namely, matches, cigarettes and alcohol; dealing with complaints of petty offences; patrolling the neighbourhood for the protection of women going home from work; accompanying the women to and fro in the workmen's trains to the neighbouring towns where they lodge; appearing in necessary cases at the Police Court, and assisting the magistrates in dealing with such cases, if required to. The Force for each factory was to consist of an inspector, sergeants and constables. Women to be trained for this work were at once enrolled by the Women Police Service and trained under a Staff of Officers.
"Since the inauguration of factory-police work for women in July, 1916, a marked success has attended the organisation, which has resulted in almost daily applications for Policewomen for factories situated in every part of the United Kingdom. We are not able to give a list of these factories nor to mention their names in our report of the work carried on by them, but we may say that at the present time we are supplying H.M. Factories, National Filling Factories and Private Controlled Factories. We are sure that our patrons and subscribers will feel as proud as we are of the intrepid Policewomen who for the past fourteen months have been carrying out these duties, which, we believe, no women have hitherto dreamt of undertaking, and which have called forth qualities of tact, discretion, cool courage and endurance that would compare well with any of those whom we call heroes in the fight at the front. We would call attention to one factory from which both the military and male Police Guard has been withdrawn. The factory employs several thousand women in the manufacture and disposal of some of the most dangerous explosives demanded by the war. When an air raid is in progress the operatives are cleared from the factory and the sheds and magazines are left to the sole charge of the Firemen and Policewomen, who take up the respective posts allotted to them. The Policewomen who guard the various magazines know that they hold their lives in their hands. We are proud to report that not one woman has failed at her post or shirked her duty in the hour of danger. The duties assigned to the Policewomen and their officers in these factories have increased considerably in scope during the past year. In one factory the force of Policewomen numbers 160 under one Chief Inspector, two Inspectors and twelve Sergeants, all of whom have been sworn in and take entire charge of all police cases dealing with women. They arrest, convey the prisoners to the Women Police Charge Station, keep their own charge sheets and other official documents, lock the prisoner in the cells, keep guard over her, convey her to the Court House for trial, and if convicted convey her to the prison. A short time ago the Inspector of Policewomen in one of H.M. Factories was instructed by the authorities to send a Policewoman to a distant town to fetch a woman prisoner, an old offender. The Policewoman was armed with a warrant, railway vouchers and handcuffs. The prisoner was handed over to the Policewoman by the Policeman, and the Policewoman and her charge returned without trouble. The prisoner expressed her relief and gratitude at being escorted by a Policewoman, and behaved well throughout the journey. The Policewoman reported that she was given every courtesy and assistance by both police and railway officials.
"We believe this constitutes the first time in history that women guards have been entrusted with the care and custody of their fellow-women when charged with breaking the law."
Other pieces of important and difficult work have been undertaken by women.
There have been, unfortunately, cases in which the soldier's wife, left at home, has behaved badly and been unfaithful. Men often write from the trenches to the Chief Constable to ask if charges made to them in letters about their wives are true. Naturally the Chief Constable asks the women to investigate these charges. Sometimes the charges are quite unfounded, simply spiteful and malicious and the woman and Chief Constable write and say so.
In other cases the husband knows of unfaithfulness and writes to the Army Pay Office asking to have the allowance stopped to his wife. The Army Pay Office never acts on any such letter without securing a report from the Chief Constable, and again the woman is needed, and there is frequently the question of the children as well. Their allowance, of course, never ceases but they may go to some relative or be disposed of in some way.
These cases are infinitesimal in number.
After the outbreak of the war there were many scares. Every one in our country knows now how a myth is established. We have left the stage behind where people told you they knew, from a friend, who knew a friend who knew some one else who saw it, who was in the War Office, etc., etc., etc.—that England was invaded—that the Navy was all down—or the German Navy was all down—that we were going to do this, that, or the other impossible thing.
Dame Rumour had a joyous time in the early days of the war and we suffered from the people who were not only quite certain that everything was wrong morally, but told us that the illegitimate birth rate was going to be enormous. Their accusations against our ordinary girls were monstrous. There was some excitement and foolishness, but anybody who was really working and dealing with it as the Patrol were, knew the accusations were ridiculous. The illegitimate birth rate of our country is lower than before, which is the best reply to, and the vindication of the men of our armies and our girls against, these absurd attacks.
Another scare was about the drinking of women. Soldiers' wives were attacked in this connection and the same kind of wild accusation made, so much so that a committee was appointed to go into the whole question (1915), presided over by Mrs. Creighton, President of the National Union of Women Workers.
In my experience a great deal of this talk was caused by the fact that many women, who had never done social work, and who knew nothing of real conditions, started to go among the people and were shocked and overwhelmed by what were unfortunately normal wrong conditions, and lost all sense of perspective. Some women did drink—true—but I found they were generally the women who always had done it, and who perhaps in some cases, having more money of their own and no husbands to deal with, drank a little more.
The findings of the Committee showed this clearly and they made some recommendations, especially recommending that the Central Board for the Control of the Liquor Traffic proceeded to do on its creation, restriction of hours of sale. Our restrictions make the sale of liquor legal only from 12 noon to 2.30 and from 6.30 to 8.30 or 9 P.M. Our convictions for drunkenness for women have fallen very low and for men, too. There is very much less drinking in our country and things are very much improved.
These attacks on soldiers' wives were naturally much resented as their work in the homes and industries, with their men away, and all their difficulties, has not always been easy. We find there is a little more difficulty with the boys. They miss the fathers' discipline and there has been some trouble through that, but such magnificent agencies as the Boy Scouts, who have helped us everywhere in the war, do great good.
The problem of dealing with the prevention of immorality has been a big one. The Women Patrols and the Women Police have been used in London in Waterloo Road (which had a bad reputation) and in parks, etc. The G.R. Volunteer Corps of men who meet the soldier arriving in London at the stations do a very good work.
In the Army and Navy excellent leaflets and booklets were issued dealing with the question in a very straightforward and admirable way.
The Council for Moral and Social Hygiene and the National Council for Combating Venereal Diseases has been doing a great work. The latter, which is a body set up as a result of the Government Commission on Venereal Diseases, had done a great deal of educational work and has set up an organization over the country. The Commission recommended much fuller facilities for free treatment for those suffering from these diseases in every town and district.
A Criminal Law Amendment Bill has been brought in and it improves our existing law in many ways and strengthens it. There has been much controversy about certain of its provisions, some dealing with power to send young girls to homes. There is a very strong feeling among many of our social workers that Rescue Work in our country altogether needs overhauling and change, and new experiments are being tried.
Wars have almost invariably in the past meant an enormous increase in venereal diseases on the return of the army in the civil population. Armies lose large numbers of men by them, and every person must feel it is their plain duty to leave no means untried and no measures unused that could help.
The woman who lives by her immoral earnings is, like the man who is immoral and uncontrolled, a serious danger and menace to her country and to generations yet unborn.
The problems that arise from the existence of these two groups are the business of all men and women. The problems are those of providing decent and wholesome recreation and surroundings, of helping men and women to meet under right conditions, of giving the right kind of information and guidance to the soldier and the girl, of realizing what drink does in this traffic, and the fundamental task of working to create better social, economic and moral conditions.
There is no need nor is it desirable to have masses of people suffer unnecessary misery by a knowledge of the exact nature of this disease—which leads sometimes to morbidity and often to a frenzied desire to do something at once, before they really know anything about the question and what has been done.
There are three questions that ought to be answered in the affirmative before any legislation or preventive treatment is decided on.
Will the proposed action apply equally to men and to women, to rich and to poor?
Will it tend to increase and not undermine the powers of self-control?
Will it improve morals in the nation and elevate them?
Repressive measures by themselves achieve nothing. Preventive measures of every practical and sound kind we want, but most of all we need to inculcate the truth that "Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, These three alone lead man to sovereign power."
It is not enough to prevent and teach. We should be willing to help up, to save, to love, and we should never be self-righteous in our help.
Who among us has the right to cast the first stone?
CHAPTER XIII
WHAT THE WAR HAS DONE FOR WOMEN
"Give her of the fruits of her lands and let her own words praise her in the gates."
The war has done already, with us, such great things for women, so many of them so naturally accepted now, that it is almost difficult to get back in thought, and realize where we stood when it broke out.
General Smuts, in one of his speeches, said, "Under stress of great difficulty practically everything breaks down ultimately, and the only things that survive are really the simple human feelings of loyalty and comradeship to your fellows, and patriotism, which can stand any strain and bear you through all difficulty and privation. We soldiers know the extraordinary value of these simple feelings, how far they go and what strain they can bear, and how, ultimately, they support the whole weight of civilization."
In this war our men, in their dealings with us, have got down more and more to simple fundamental truths and facts—loyalty and comradeship, founded on our common patriotism. We have got nearer and nearer to the ideal so many of us long for, equal right to serve and help. The great fundamental establishment of political rights for women has come with us. When war broke out, women's suffrage was winning all the time a greater and greater mass of adherents, a majority of the House was pledged to vote for it and had been for years, the Trade Unions and Labour Party stood solid for it, but the motive to act seemed lacking.
War came, and every political party in our country laid aside political agitation. No party meetings have been held since August, 1914. Suffragists and anti-suffragists did the same. The great body of constitutional suffragists kept their organization intact but used it for "sustaining the vital energies of the nation." Relief Work, Hospital Work and Supplies, Child Welfare, Comforts, Workrooms, help for professional women, work for Belgian refugees, work in canteens and huts, work for the Soldiers and Sailors Families' Association, Schools for Mothers, Girls' Clubs—into everything the Suffrage societies fling themselves with ardour, zeal and ability. No women knew better how to organize, no women better how to educate and win help. They formed an admirable Women's Interests Committee, and looked after all women's interests excellently.
When the Government issued its first appeal for women volunteers for munitions and land, etc., it asked the Suffrage societies to circulate them and to help them to secure the needed labour from women.
As the war went on it became clearer and clearer that the men of the country saw more and more vividly why suffragists had asked for votes—and more and more were impressed with the value of their work. At meetings to do propaganda for Government appeals, when women spoke on the needs of the country, men everywhere, although it had nothing to do with the appeal, and had never been mentioned, declared their conversion to Women's Suffrage in the War.
Women pointed out that they did not want Women's Suffrage as a reward—but as a simple right. They had not worked for a reward, but for their country, as any citizen would, but, in our country, the great converting power is practical proof of value and they had that overwhelmingly in our work. The Press came out practically solidly for Women's Suffrage. The work of women was praised in every paper and one declared, "It cannot be tolerable that we should return to the old struggle about admitting them to the franchise." Eminent Anti-Suffragists, inside and outside of the House of Commons, frankly admitted their conversion. Mr. Asquith, the old enemy of Women's Suffrage, said in a memorable speech: "They presented to me not only a reasonable, but, I think, from their point of view, an unanswerable case.... They say that when the war comes to an end, and when the process of industrial reconstruction has to be set on foot, have not the women a special claim to be heard on the many questions which will arise directly affecting their interests, and possibly meaning for them large displacement of labour? I cannot think that the House will deny that, and, I say quite frankly, that I cannot deny that claim." It was clear the whole question of franchise would need to be gone into—the soldiers' vote was lost to him under our system when he was away, and the sailors' redistribution was long overdue, an election, as things were, would be absolutely unrepresentative. So after several attempts to deal with the problem in sections, a Committee was set up under the Speaker of the House of Commons to go into the whole question of Franchise reform and registration.
The Committee was composed of five Peers and twenty-seven members of the House of Commons, and started its work in October, 1916, and in its report, April, 1917, it recommended, by a majority, that a measure of enfranchisement should be given to women.
The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and the Consultative Committee, which had been formed in 1916 by the N.U.W.S.S., of representatives of all constitutional societies, presented various memorials, notably an admirable memorandum of women's work and opinion in favour, prepared by the National Union for the Speakers' Conference during its sittings. After its recommendations while the bill was being drafted, Mrs. Henry Fawcett, LL.D., the President of the N.U.W.S.S., headed a deputation received by the Premier, Mr. Lloyd George, who has always been a supporter of Women's Suffrage. This was certainly one of the most representative and interesting deputations that ever went to Downing Street. It numbered over fifty and every woman in it represented a great section of industrial and war workers—Miss Mary MacArthur, the Trade Union Leader was there, and Miss Margaret Bondfield, Mrs. Flora Annie Steele, the authoress; Lady Forbes Robertson, for actresses; Miss Adelaide Anderson, our Chief Women Factory Inspector; Mrs. Oliver Strachey, Parliamentary Honourable Secretary of the National Union, whose work has been tireless and invaluable in the House; a woman munition worker, a woman conductor, a railway woman worker, a woman chemist, a woman from a bank, a clerk, a shipyard worker, a nurse, a V.A.D., an eminent woman Doctor, a peeress in Lady Cowdray, who has done so much for the British Women's Hospitals and so many other war objects, and women representatives of every calling in the nation at peace and war. Mrs. Pankhurst, who has been very active in war work, was also present on the Premier's invitation, and Mrs. Fawcett brought a Welshwoman who made her plea in her own language, the Premier's own, too, and the one he loves to hear. In his reply, he assured them the bill would contain a measure of enfranchisement for women as drafted, and he was quite sure the House would carry it.
The recommendations of the Speakers' Conference were an agreed compromise, and the Representation of the People Bill, as it was called on its introduction, has gone through very much on the lines of the recommendations. It arranges for postal or proxy votes for the soldier, the sailor and the merchant seaman, it simplifies the qualifications for men, it retains the University vote for men and extends it to women, and it enfranchises women of thirty years of age on a residence qualification, and all wives of voters of the same age. It disfranchises, for the time, the conscientious objector who will do no national service. The age at which our men vote is twenty-one. The higher age of the women was a compromise, which was accepted by all women's societies and by labour women, though it was not the terms they stood for—equality.
If we had it on the same terms as men, we should very greatly outnumber the men. There were over a million more women than men before the war and a new electorate greater than all the men's numbers brought in at once was not considered wise. To press for it would have wrecked our chances.
This measure enfranchises six million women, and about ten million men are now voters, so we have a very fair proportion.
The women's clause was carried, with only thirty-five dissentients and later only seventeen voted against it.
In this same bill, with practically no discussion, an amendment was carried enfranchising the wives of local government electors.
It is difficult to adequately express the confidence, the desire, and the willingness to co-operate, that there is now between our men and women.
We know, too, that the great woman's movement of our country, which has worked to this end for fifty years and numbered our greatest women among its adherents, has had much to do with the ability of our women to take the great part they have in this crisis. If women had not toiled and opened education and opportunities to women, and preached the necessity of full service, we could not have done it.
One great thing the war has done for our women is to draw us all closely together—in common sorrows, hopes and fears, we find how much we are one and in so much of our work women of every rank of life are together. We had that union before in many ways, but never so completely as now. Punch has a delightful picture that summed up how we are mixed in soldier's canteens, and huts and buffets, and Hospitals, which show a little Londoner saying to a meek member of the aristocracy "washing up," "Nar, then, Lady Halexandra, 'urry up with them plaites," and we have an amusing little play of the same kind. The society girl who washes down the Hospital steps, and washes up for hours, and carries meals up and down stairs in her work, week after week, and month after month, and year after year, in our Hospitals, knows what work is now, and the soldier who is served, and the soldier's sister and wife, learns something, too, about her that is worth learning.
We have also learned a great deal in our welfare work, and the welfare supervisors and the workers both have benefited, and the heads of the innumerable hostels, which we have built everywhere for our girls—dozens in our new Government-built munition cities, have been of very real help and service to the girls. A tactful, sensible, educated woman has a great deal to give that helps the younger girl, and can look after and advise her as to health, work, leisure and amusements in a way that leaves real lasting benefit.
In the munition works, well educated women, women with plenty of money, women who never worked before, work year after year beside the working girl. Just at first some of the working girls were not quite sure of her, but it is all right long, long ago, and they mutually admire each other. The well-off woman works her hours and takes her pay, and takes it very proudly. I have been told many times by these women who, for the first time know the joy of earning money, "I never felt so proud in my life as when I got my first week's money." And the men in the factories learn a lot, too. "Women have been too much kept back," was the comment of a foreman in a shell factory to the Chief Woman Factory Inspector on a visit she was paying to it. The skilled men, teaching the women, have learned a great deal about them, too, and have helped the women in so many ways. Men have been amazed at the ability and power and capacity for work of the women and are, on the whole, very willing to say so and express their admiration.
One munition girl writes: "The timekeeper, quite a gorgeous gentleman in uniform, gave us quite a welcome.... The charge-hand of the Welder's shop helped us to start, and stayed with us most of Friday. He was most kind, and showed us the best way to tackle each job, did one for us, and then watched us doing it."
Another says, "Our foreman is a dear old man, so kind and full of fun. The men welders are awfully good to us."
In considering the practical facts of new opportunities for women, one thing is clear. Masses of our women took their new work as "temporary war workers," but as the war has gone on, it has become clearer and clearer that, in many cases, these tasks are going to be permanently open to women. One reason is that many of the men will never return to take up their work again—another, that many of them will never return to what they did before.
They have been living in the open-air, doing such different things, such big vistas have opened out that they will never be content to go back to some of their tasks. There is the other fact that we, like every other country, will need to repair and renovate so much, will need to create new and more industries, will need to add to our productiveness to pay off our burdens of debt, and to carry out our schemes of reconstruction, so women will still be needed. Our women, in still greater numbers, will not be able to marry, and the best thing for any nation and any set of women is to do work, and there will be plenty of room for all the work our women can do. Many will go back to home work, of course; there are large numbers who are working in our country, only while their husbands are away, and when they return will find their work in their homes again.
We are offering special training opportunities to the young widow of the soldier or officer.
In special branches of work our opportunities are very much greater and better. Medicine is one of the professions in which women have very specially made good. Better training opportunities have opened, more funds have been raised to enable women of small means to get medical education, and the Queen herself gave a portion of a gift of money she received, for this purpose. Most medical appointments are open to them now and they have been urged by the great medical bodies to enter for training in still greater numbers in the different Universities, and have done so.
More research is being done by them in every department. In professions such as accountancy, architecture, analytical chemistry, more and more women are entering. In the banking world women have done very satisfactory work, and one London bank manager, asked to say what he thought of prospects after the war, says he is very strongly of opinion it will continue to be a profession for women after the war. This manager thinks the question of higher administrative posts being open to women will depend entirely on themselves and their work, and what they prove capable of achieving and holding, they will certainly have.
In the war, one profession, in particular, has come nearer to finding its rightful place than ever before—the teaching profession. Their salaries which, in too many cases, were disgracefully low, have been raised. The woman teacher has shown her capacity in new fields of work in the boys' schools, but it is in another sense that their profession, both men and women, but very specially the women, have achieved a very real gain in the war.
The teachers of the country have done a very great deal of war work of every kind. The National Register of 1915 was largely done by their labour. The War Savings Associations and Committees owe a great debt to teachers and inspectors, who are the backbone of the movement, headmistresses are asked constantly to help in securing trained women, taught to work in Hospitals on their holidays, on land, in organizing supplies and comforts in canteens and clubs, and more and more are put on official Committees in their towns and districts.
It means the teacher is finding the status and position the teachers in their profession ought to have in their communities, and the war has done a great deal towards achieving that desirable end, though there is still a good deal to be done.
In the Government Service there has undoubtedly been great opportunities for women, especially those of organizing, executive and secretarial ability—and in many cases the payment in higher posts is identical for men and women, and higher posts, if they have the ability, are freely given to women and the whole position of women in our Civil Service is improved. In the very highest posts, such as those of Insurance and Feeble-minded Commissioners, etc., women before the war received the same salaries as men.