Women Workers in Seven Professions A Survey of Their Economic Conditions and Prospects — A Reader’s Guide

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Authors: Morley, Edith J. (Edith Julia), 1875-1964 [Editor] Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2004 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Vocational guidance; Women -- Employment -- Great Britain Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

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Words 81,411

Reading time 354 min

Text sections 10

This digital edition of Women Workers in Seven Professions A Survey of Their Economic Conditions and Prospects — A Reader’s Guide is described by source-level measurements including 81,411 words, 5 hr 54 min estimated reading time, and 10 detected text sections.

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Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Vocational guidance,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #12171

A 1914 Fabian Women's Group survey of women's economic conditions across seven professions, using firsthand accounts and case studies to expose gender-based pay disparities, exclusion from professional societies, and unequal promotion prospects.

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Trust was kindly placed at the author's disposal. Similarly, some of the details mentioned in the section on "Acting," were kindly supplied by Mrs St John Ervine. Lastly--for it is impossible to mention all who have assisted--I wish to thank Miss Ellen Smith for her unsparing secretarial labours, and Miss M.G. Spencer and Miss Craig, of the Central Bureau for the Employment of Women, for the Table which appears at the end of Section I. This is unique as an exhaustive summary of a mass of information, hitherto not easily accessible to the general public.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, READING, _December_ 1913.

PREFATORY NOTE. By the Editor

FOREWORDS. ON BEHALF OF THE STUDIES COMMITTEE OF THE FABIAN WOMEN'S GROUP

I. THE TEACHING PROFESSION

I. INTRODUCTION. By EDITH J. MORLEY, Oxford Honour School of English Language and Literature. Professor of English Language, University College, Reading. Fellow and Lecturer of University of London King's College for Women

II. WOMEN AT THE UNIVERSITIES AND UNIVERSITY TEACHING AS A PROFESSION. By EDITH J. MORLEY

III. SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHING. By (Mrs) M. O'BRIEN HARRIS, D.Sc., London, Hon. Member of Somerville College, Oxford. Headmistress of the County Secondary School, South Hackney

IV. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHING. By (Mrs) KATE DICE, C.T., Class Teacher in the service of the London County Council, Hon. Sec. of the Fabian Education Group

V. TEACHING IN SCHOOLS FOR THE MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY DEFECTIVE. By (Mrs) JESSIE E. THOMAS, C.T., Class Teacher at the London County Council School for Physically Defective Children, Turney Road, Dulwich

VI. THE TEACHING OF GYMNASTICS. By MARY HANKINSON, Hon. Sec. of the Ling Association. Diploma of the Dartford Physical Training College

VII. THE TEACHING OF DOMESTIC SUBJECTS. By (Mrs) MARGARET M'KILLOP, M.A. (Dublin). Oxford Honour Schools of Natural Science and of Mathematics Fellow and Tutor of University of London King's College for Women; and E. BEATRICE HOGG, first-class Diploma, National Training School of Cookery. Instructress, London County Council Probationary and Training Centres, Examiner in Domestic Subjects to the City and Guilds of London Institute, the Nautical School of Cookery, etc. Some time Hon. Sec. London Branch, Assistant Teachers of Domestic Subjects

TABLE I. SHOWING THE COST AND DURATION OF EDUCATION IN ARTS AND SCIENCE, AND THE SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE FOR WOMEN STUDENTS AT THE VARIOUS BRITISH UNIVERSITIES. Reprinted (with additions), by special permission, from the pamphlet, "Openings for University Women," published by the Central Bureau for the Employment of Women for the Students' Careers Association

TABLE II. SHOWING SOME ADDITIONAL POST-GRADUATE RESEARCH SCHOLARSHIPS IN ARTS AND SCIENCE AVAILABLE FOR WOMEN STUDENTS, AWARDED BY BODIES OTHER THAN UNIVERSITIES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. Compiled (with additions) by special permission, from the "Report on the Opportunities for Post-Graduate Work open to Women" published by the Federation of University Women

II. THE MEDICAL PROFESSION INCLUDING DENTISTRY. Sub-Editor: CHRISTINE M. MURRELL, M.D., B.S., London, Assistant Medical Officer of Health (Special Schools) London County Council; Lecturer and Examiner on Adolescence, Health, First Aid, Infant Care, etc., London County Council and Battersea Polytechnic, Honorary Medical Officer, Paddington Creche, and for Infant Consultations, North Marylebone; late Medical Registrar and Electrician and late Resident House Physician, Royal Free Hospital

I. MEDICINE AND SURGERY. By the Sub-Editor

II. DENTAL SURGERY. By (Mrs) Eva M. HANDLEY READ, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., L.S.A., L.D.S. Dental Surgeon to the Royal Free Hospital, the Margaret M'Donald Baby Clinic, and the Cripple Hostel Camberwell

III. THE NURSING PROFESSION TOGETHER WITH MIDWIFERY AND MASSAGE. Sub-Editor: CHRISTINE M. MURRELL

PREFACE. By the Sub-Editor I. GENERAL SURVEY AND INTRODUCTION. By E.M. Musson. Matron of the General Hospital, Birmingham

II. NURSING IN GENERAL HOSPITALS. By E.M. MUSSON

III. NURSING IN PRIVATE HOMES AND Co--OPERATIONS. By GERTRUDE TOWNEND, Sister in her own Nursing Home; late Deputy-Sister, St. Bartholomew's Hospital; late Matron, Royal Ear Hospital, Dean Street

IV. NURSING IN POOR LAW INFIRMARIES. By ELEANOR C. BARTON, President of the Poor Law Infirmary Matrons' Association

V. NURSING IN FEVER HOSPITALS. By S.G. VILLIERS, Matron of the South-West Fever Hospital

VI. DISTRICT NURSING. By AMY HUGHES, General Superintendent of the Queen Victoria Jubilee Institute for Nurses

VII. NURSING IN SCHOOLS AND NURSES AS INSPECTORS. By H.L. PEARSE

VIII. NURSING IN HOSPITALS FOR THE INSANE. By a Matron of one of them

IX. NURSING IN THE COLONIES. By A. FRICKER, Matron of the Colonial Hospital, Trinidad, under the Colonial Nursing Association

X. NURSING IN THE ARMY AND NAVY. By the Sub-Editor

XI. PRISON NURSING. By the Sub-Editor

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Edith J. Morley's 1914 collection assembles firsthand testimony from women working in seven professions, each section written by a practitioner. The editor acknowledges in her prefatory note that the book's 'literary defects and absence of unity' are offset by the value of 'first-hand evidence from those in a position to speak authoritatively.' The excerpts reveal a recurring pattern: women are offered lower salaries explicitly because of their sex, as when a doctor's 'chief' offered £85 a year 'plenty for a woman' while admitting a man would command more. The book's structure—short, numbered examples within each section—turns individual grievances into a cumulative case against systemic inequity.

The Weight of Example

The excerpts rely heavily on numbered case studies, a method that gives the argument a forensic quality. Example 2, for instance, describes a medical woman refused admission to a local society until her male colleagues feared she might undercut them. The narrative voice is restrained, letting the facts speak: the woman 'was, of course, accepted' by the society only when her appointment threatened their finances. This pattern—exclusion followed by tactical inclusion—appears in multiple examples, suggesting a deliberate strategy to control women's professional advancement. The editor's prefatory note credits contributors for their 'promptitude, patience, and courtesy,' framing the work as a collaborative effort rather than a polemic.

Unequal Terms, Unequal Prospects

Several examples highlight how ostensibly equal appointments conceal structural disadvantages. Example 4 notes that men and women are sometimes hired on 'apparently equal terms' but with promotion opportunities reserved for men. Example 5 details a petition for better pay where male colleagues secretly submitted a separate request for higher salaries for men only, citing 'greater liabilities'—a claim undercut by evidence that two of the three men had no dependents, while two women were supporting others. The book's language is precise: 'they begged the authority to neglect their public appeal, but to grant instead increased remuneration to the men.' This specificity, drawn from real events, gives the survey its authority.

Voice and Editorial Restraint

Morley's editorial voice is self-effacing; she admits others were 'better suited to the editorial task' and emphasizes her reliance on contributors. The excerpts themselves are written in a plain, reportorial style, avoiding overt indignation. When a doctor's offer of £85 is described as 'unsatisfactory,' the judgment is implicit. The book's pace alternates between dense factual paragraphs and brief, punchy examples, creating a rhythm that mirrors the accumulation of evidence. The prefatory note's list of acknowledgments—including Charlotte Wilson, Mrs. Pember Reeves, and Mrs. Bernard Shaw—situates the work within the Fabian Women's Group's broader social investigation project.

Readers should attend to the interplay between the editor's framing and the contributors' raw data. The book's value lies not in sweeping conclusions but in the granular detail of each case: the exact salary offered, the precise wording of a petition, the sequence of exclusion and reversal. These particulars, drawn from lived experience, document how institutional sexism operated in early twentieth-century Britain. The survey invites comparison with contemporary accounts of workplace inequality, though its evidence is firmly rooted in its own historical moment.

Leafing through the 1914 survey of women’s professions, I felt the weight of quiet, accumulated detail—each case study a small voice asking to be heard properly. It reminded me of an old favorite, On reading in relation to literature — Text and Context, which lingers on how we attend to what lies between the lines. Both books seem to trust unhurried attention over summary.