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The present economic position of women bristles with anomalies. It is the outcome of long ages of semi-serfdom, when women toiled continuously to produce wealth, which, if they were married, they could enjoy only at the good pleasure of their lords—ages when the work of most women was conditioned and subordinated by male dominance. Yet in those days the working housewife commanded the consideration always conceded to a bread-winner—even when dependent. In modern times women's economic position has been undermined by the helpless dependence engendered amongst the well-to-do by "parasitism" resulting from nineteenth-century luxury—to quote the striking word of Olive Schreiner. Similarly, dependence has been forced upon large sections of women-folk amongst the manual workers by the loss of their hold upon land and by the decay of home industries. Now a new force is at work: the revolt of the modern woman against parasitism and dependence in all their forms; her demand for freedom to work and to choose her sphere of work, as well as for the right to dispose of what she gains.

Six years ago some women of the Fabian Society, deeply stirred by the tremendous social import of this movement, banded themselves together to unravel the tangled skein of women's economic subjection and to discover how its knots were tied. The first step was to get women to speak out, to analyse their own difficulties and hindrances as matters boldly to be faced. Whatever the truth may turn out to be with regard to natural and inevitable differences of faculty between men and women, it is at least certain that difference of sex, like any other persistent condition of individual existence, implies some difference of outlook. The woman's own standpoint—that is the first essential in understanding her position, economic or other: the trouble is that she has but recently begun to realise that she inevitably has a standpoint, which is not that of her husband, or her brother, or of the men with whom she works, or even that which these persons imagine must naturally be hers. Her point of view is her own, and it is essential to social progress that she shall both recognise this fact and make it understood.

The aim of the Fabian Women's Group was to elicit women's own thoughts and feelings on their economic position, and to this end we invited women of experience and expert knowledge, from various quarters and of many types of thought, to discourse of what they best knew to audiences of women. After the lectures, the questions raised were discussed in all their bearings by women speaking amongst women without diffidence or prejudice. In this manner the physical disabilities of women as workers have been explained clearly by women doctors, and carefully and frankly weighed and considered; the part taken by women in producing the wealth of this country in past times has been set forth by students of economic history, and much scattered material of great value unearthed, and for the first time brought together concerning a subject hitherto deemed negligible by the male historian. Lastly, women employed in or closely connected with each leading occupation or group of occupations to-day—from the professions to the sweated industries—are being asked to describe and to discuss with us the economic conditions they have directly experienced or observed.[1]

It is hoped in time to complete and shape for publication all the material accumulated during these six years. We make a beginning with this book of essays on the economic position of women in seven of the leading professions at present open to them. Some of the papers appear almost in the form in which they were first read to the group and its women visitors: when the original lectures did not fully cover the ground, they have been revised, altered, expanded, or re-written, or essays by new writers have been substituted for those originally presented. Thus the papers on "Teaching in Secondary Schools" by Dr. O'Brien Harris and that on "Teaching in Elementary Schools" by Mrs. Dice, take the place of an address on "The Life of a Teacher," by Miss Drummond, President of the Incorporated Association of Assistant Mistresses. This paper was withdrawn at the writer's request, but many valuable points from her lecture, which she generously placed at the disposal of the Editor, have been embodied. The other papers in the Education Section are all new. Similarly, in the section which deals with the profession of Nursing, Miss Hughes' paper on "District-Nursing" is the only one which is based on a lecture given to the group; the other articles are all supplementary. Together, we believe they form a unique and almost exhaustive description of the profession.

That the volume might be made as useful as possible, the same method has been followed throughout. The paper and discussion at the group meeting have formed the nucleus from which a thorough treatment of the subject has been developed.

We hope and believe that this book may help to arouse deeper interest in the vigour and energy with which professional women are now striving to make good their economic position; that it may serve to enlist active sympathy with their struggle against the special difficulties and hindrances which beset them, and make plain the value to society of the work they can do. We also believe that the information here brought together may be useful in helping young women to choose and prepare for their life-work.

No pains have been spared to make the book as accurate as possible, and to bring it in every case up to date.

It should be clearly emphasised that each contributor to this volume has expressed her own opinions freely and independently, and that the writers have been selected because they are leading members of their respective professions, not because they represent a particular school of thought. We have endeavoured to get our material from the most authoritative quarters, irrespective of the personal views of those who have supplied it. All the writers have given generously of their time and labour in order that they might contribute to an investigation of profound social and national importance—the clear presentation of the economic position of women as it appears to women themselves. Widely different as are the professional interests and divergent the opinions of the writers of these essays, no one can, as we think, read consecutively the various sections of the book without arriving at the conclusion that, on certain fundamental questions, there is substantial agreement among them. Almost all, as a result of their professional experience, definitely express the conviction that women need economic independence and political emancipation: nowhere is there any hint of opposition to either of these ideals. The writers are unanimous in their insistence upon the importance—to men as well as to women—of equal pay for equal work, irrespective of sex. Wherever the subject of the employment of married women is mentioned—and it crops up in most of the papers—there is adverse comment on the economically unsound, unjust, and racially dangerous tendency in many salaried professions to enforce upon women resignation on marriage. It is clear that professional women are beginning to show resentment at the attempt to force celibacy upon them: they feel themselves insulted and wronged as human beings when, being physically and mentally fit, they are not permitted to judge for themselves in this matter. Apart from their righteous indignation, it may be suggested that, even from the ratepayers' point of view, the normal disabilities of motherhood, with the consequent leave of absence, would probably in the long run be less expensive than the dismissal, at the zenith of their powers, of experienced workers, who have to be replaced by younger and less efficient women. It is, moreover, a truism that the best work is produced by the most contented worker. A fundamentally happy woman, continually strengthened and refreshed by affectionate companionship, is obviously better able to endure the strain of professional work than her unmarried sister, who at best, is deprived of the normal joys of fully—developed womanhood. The action of Central and Local Authorities and of other employers who make marriage a disability for their women employèes, is alluded to by our contributors with an indignation, the more striking for the studied calm with which it is expressed.[2]

The future as foreshadowed in these papers seems to us bright with hope. In spite of difficulties, opposition, rebuffs, and prejudice, professional women workers are slowly but surely advancing in status and in recognition. They are gaining courage to train themselves to claim positions of responsibility and command, and to refuse, if occasion arises, to be subordinated, on the ground of their womanhood, to men less able than themselves. They are learning by experience—many have already learned—the need for co-operation and loyalty to one another. While they are thus gaining new and valuable qualities, they have never lost, in spite of many hardships, the peculiar joy and lofty idealism in work which are, in part, a reaction from ages of economic and personal dependence.

[Footnote 1: For an analysis of the whole scheme of work of the Fabian

Women's Group, see Appendix I.]

[Footnote 2: In Western Australia the following Amendment, 340A., to the Criminal Code has passed the third reading in the Legislative Assembly, and is expected to pass the Legislative Council before this book appears:—

(1) Any person, who, either as principal or agent—(a) Makes or enters into or enforces or seeks to enforce any rule, order, regulation, contract, agreement or arrangement in restraint of or with intent to restrain, prevent or hinder the marriage of any person (N.B. A woman is a "person" in Western Australia) who is in his employment or in the employment of his principal, and is of the age of twenty-one years or upwards; or

(b) Dismisses or threatens to dismiss any person from his employment or the employment of his principal, or alters or threatens to alter, any such person's position to the prejudice of such person by reason of the fact that such person has married or intends to marry, or with a view to restrain, prevent, or hinder such person from getting married;

is guilty of an offence, and is liable to imprisonment for three months, or to a fine not exceeding five hundred pounds.

(2) The provisions of this section shall apply to corporations so far as they are capable of being applied.]