WOMAN'S INDUSTRY.
THERE are very few things a woman's wit and will
cannot accomplish, if she is so minded -- no assertion she will not make, if
duty, necessity, or inclination call for it. From ruling a mighty empire,
through all gradations of intellect and industry, she has been tried, and not
found wanting. Now and then we are surprised at the situation in which we find the fairer portion of the
creation. There have been several instances of
hardy mariners restored, late and reluctantly, to
the proper position and costume of their own sex.
Within the last few years, too, a clergyman, on
taking possession of a small living in Devonshire,
found that the duties of sexton were performed by
one able-bodied female. In another parish, the
offices of churchwarden and overseer of the poor
had been held, with credit, by a strong-minded
individual of the gentler sex ; if she added that of
constable, we will hope the executive was performed
by deputy.
In France, it is much more common for women to undertake what we consider
masculine employments than with us. The wife quietly puts her
husband aside—he, we presume, consenting and
acts as clerk or cashier, as manager or chief, as
diplomatist or banker, as the case may be. It is
an arrangement that seems particularly to suit our
Gallic neighbours ; the man does the talking and
the frippery, the woman the valuable and the reliable ; though, far be it from us to underrate her
power in the former qualifications as well.
It will be very interesting to examine what are the
occupations of women in this country, and how their industry is connected with
many of the enjoyments and necessaries of life. The vision that generally disturbs the mind when this subject presents
itself is that depicted in Hood's well-known song
"With fingers weary and worn,
With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat, in unwomanly rags,
Plying her needle and thread
-
Stitch ! stitch ! stitch!
In poverty, hunger, and dirt."
Or we see the wan milliner or factory girl, and gladly turn our thoughts to some
more hopeful subject. Happily, Christian benevolence and public feeling are doing much for these classes.
How much the large number of persons who
read, and think, and feel, are indebted to woman,
is in some degree known. The excitement of
admiration and philanthropy produced by the
gifted author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" has not
yet subsided. Many clever authoresses have given
their time and talents to the best purposes and
highest influences amongst ourselves, and are
known and honoured by name. A great proportion of our periodicals - a class of
literature constantly increasing in number and importance -
are supplied with articles by the genius and research of females, who look not for the reward of
fame, but are enabled, by the slender means thus
afforded, to assist a sick relative, or educate a friend-less child. But women not only write books
- they assist also in all the labours necessary to
render them fit for the public eye. The very steel
pen by which the author's mind is revealed was
in a great measure manufactured by her. She cut
it from the sheet of metal, stamped it, ground it,
shaped and polished it, packed it in the box, or
sewed it on the card. At the paper-mill, women
and girls prepare and clean the rags of which the
article is made, count the sheets into quires, divide
and set the reams and half reams for the packers,
arrange cards and note-paper, and reject the damaged sheets. At the printing-office, too, though
not to so great an extent in this country as in
America, they are found capable of the duty of
composites, arranging the type in various languages
with great accuracy. Then another band
of females fold and stitch the sheets in a wonderfully rapid manner, and stitch
them in the sewing- presses ready for the binder. Should the work,
according to the fashion of the day, be illustrated,
the engraving on wood is sometimes designed or
executed by women. Flowers and botanical specimens employ numbers of clever
girls, who exercise their pleasant talent in the retirement and
shelter of their own home.
It is a beautiful sight to go into the higher
departments of a china manufactory, in Worcester
for instance, and see the rows of comfortable
females, of all ages, engaged in painting, with
exquisite taste, flowers and landscapes and armorial
bearings, in strange mineral colours, on the various
services intended for the table; and again they
may be found, amid noise and clatter, burnishing
such as are edged and otherwise adorned with
gold. In the art of designing, whose taste is likely
to be so chaste and elegant as that of women? We accordingly find them, in every
department, exercising their talents -- in paper-hangings, and
ladies' shawls, and dresses of every description ; in
collars and veils, and in the delicate arrangement
of pearls as ornaments. At one of the largest
jewellers in London, the lady who undertook this
part of the business was paid, it is said, a salary of
no less than three hundred pounds a year.
Buttons, too, are not only designed, but made
by women. The covered buttons called Florentine
are entirely her handiwork. She cuts the metal
from the rolled sheet, the lining from one material,
the covering from another, and the stuffing from a
slab of spongy paper. All these materials are
piled one upon another, and a magic stroke on the
little press in which they are laid ushers into the
world the finest finished button. It requires harder
hands to make them ; but hundreds of families,
including women and girls, are to be found by the
side of the forge making nails. In most places, as
might be supposed, the trade is a very poor one
but nail-cutting, another branch of the business, is
more remunerative.
An unlimited supply of pickles is the usual stipulated indulgence of the returning schoolboy.
The greater quantity of the article consumed in
this pickle-loving; country is also prepared by
women. The vegetables are gathered and cleansed
by them in suburban or far-off country gardens ;
by them they are pickled, bottled, and corked. At
the latter occupation, an industrious woman can
earn two shillings a day.
Pill-box making, including all the ornamental
receptacles of things nice and things nasty --things
useful and things that are of no use at all -- whereby
we are tempted, employs an amount of female
labour quite amazing. The designers and makers
of these things are well paid for their work, and
take it very easy. Not so, however, the poor lace-
maker, who gains a bare subsistence by unceasing
industry,
" Shuffling her threads about the live-long day ;"
and who has no chance of earning even a bare subsistence, unless taught her trade almost in
infancy.
But the triumph of her art was seen and acknowledged in the Honiton and other
laces displayed at the Great Exhibition. No machinery has ever produced any lace of equal beauty. It is the slowness
and delicacy of the process of making that renders it so unremunerative. The making of artificial flowers of every kind employs thousands of
females. It is the resource of many who have seen
better days, and who bring to it the taste that has
been formed amid scenes of refinement and elegance. Many young women materially
improve and enrich their wardrobes by the exercise of their skill and industry
in this department of art. It may be seen in the delicate wax bouquet, bought at
a fabulous price, and sheltered by glass, on the nobleman's table, and in the
unknown vegetable production stuck into the cap or bonnet of the dirty,
slip-shod maid-of-all-work. No one can wonder at the love of flowers, natural or artificial, but
they should always be associated with that which
is pure and simple, as well as consistent in place
and purpose. Those girls and women who arrange
flowers for sale in Covent-garden market must have a pleasant trade, for which,
if skilful, they are well paid. A great improvement has taken place in this art,
as well as in most others, during the last few years. The purple and the white,
the lilac and the orange or scarlet, flowers are contrasted, with an attention to colouring and effect
that make them quite artistic. The lover may
make a selection, with reference to the taste or
complexion of his fair one, that will be sure to win
her regard to the nosegay if not to himself.
Almost every article purchased in shops is now
sent home in paper bags ; and often you receive
your change neatly done up in one. The straw
bonnet - that truly English and becoming article
of attire - that has been platted and made up by a
woman's hands, is forwarded to you in a green bag,
also made by a woman. So great is the convenience afforded to shopkeepers and others by these
bags, that the demand for them is enormous. Tons
of paper are daily converted into them, with an
economy that wastes not a visible strip. Envelope-making, and all sorts of fancy stationery, employ
also a vast number of female hands. Basket-making, further, is a truly feminine
occupation. The myriads of pottles used for the sale of all kinds of
fruit, in London especially, are all made by women
and girls. The same sex is also largely employed in
the manufacture of brushes, and particularly in the
delicate process of arranging badger's hair in
shaving-brushes. Umbrella and parasol making
is also largely assisted by female workers.
Woman never seems so much in her element as
when she has a needle and thread in her hands.
We naturally expect to find her assisting the tailor
and the cap-maker, binding shoes and sewing
gloves, retained by the upholsterer, and finishing
off the work of the hatter. Over every article of
female attire it is but right she should reign
supreme ; and a passing thought of its infinite
variety will convince us how much ingenuity and
how many hands must be employed in its details.
The stay-maker, the milliner, and the mantua-maker, are all separate departments, subject in
many instances to subdivisions ; but this is too
well known to need to be dwelt on here.
In many parts of the country, women still work in the fields
during bright harvest weather ; it is pleasant enough to see them so employed,
and perhaps they like it. Shops, as is well known, are much served by females.
We own to a great prejudice in their favour as regards the handling of ribbons
and tapes. The number of domestic servants is quite enormous, including those employed
at eating-houses and inns. Washerwomen and
their helpers, moreover, abound everywhere ; and
a few adventurous females are found bold enough
to dare the terrors of the deep, as stewardesses
and attendants in passenger vessels. The preponderance of women and girls employed in lace, silk,
cotton, and other factories, is well known ; and as
it is a subject constantly before the public, we
would pass it over, only adding that there is no
necessity for their being either unhealthy or immoral.
Enough has been said to show that women have
no excuse for idleness, and that it is not their
usual characteristic. No doubt, in many instances,
hard necessity has driven them into occupations
irksome and uncongenial ; but it is pleasant to see
how they take advantage of every opening, and
prove equal to almost every emergency. Almost
invariably, too, they are found ready to help their
husbands, or their sons and brothers, to attain
what in these days too often involves a hard struggle — the necessaries of life, and that in any honourable way that may be most convenient.
The topics thus cursorily glanced at—for neither time nor
space are at our command for half that might be told on the subject—may,
perchance, help some woman-worker in determining wherein her talent and true
calling lies ; and it may suggest ideas to others, who may strike out some new
sphere of usefulness and industrial activity, or raise some desponding mind to
renewed efforts of industry and self-dependence.
Leisure Hour, 1854
see also Cassells Household Guide on 'Occupations Accessible to Women' - click here