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137
Chapter 6
COGNITIVE GROWTH:
INFORMATION
PROCESSING
APPROACHES
CONTENTS
Chapter-at-a-Glance 138
Learning Objectives 139
Chapter Outline 140
Lecture Launchers 145
Student Activities 146
Supplemental Reading 147
Multimedia Ideas 148
Handouts 149

138
CHAPTER-AT-A-GLANCE
Chapter Outline Instructor’s Resources Professor Notes
Module 6.1: The Basics of
Information Processing
Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval:
The Foundations of Information
Processing
Cognitive Architecture: The
Three-System Approach
Comparing Information
Processing Approaches to
Alternative Theories of Cognitive
Development
Learning Objectives 6.1, 6.2, 6.3
Lecture Launchers 6.1, 6.2
Module 6.2: Attention and
Memory
Attention
Memory and Its Duration
Memory Development and
Control
Lecture Launcher 6.3
Student Activity 6.1
MyDevelopmentalLab Video:
School and Education in Middle
Childhood Across Cultures
Module 6.3: Applying
Approaches
Children’s Eyewitness
Testimony: Memory on Trial
Contributions to the Classroom
Reconsidering the Information
Processing Perspective
< Return to Contents

139
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
LO 6.1: Describe how information is taken in, held, and used, according to information processing
theorists.
LO 6.2: Explain how the architecture of the human information processing system functions.
LO 6.3: Compare the information processing approaches to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.
LO 6.4: Explain why attention is important for children’s cognitive development.
LO 6.5: Describe memory improvements during childhood and analyze how childhood memories change
over time.
LO 6.6: Analyze how memory changes as people age and describe strategies for developing and
improving memory.
LO 6.7: Describe applications of information processing approaches to the recall of events for legal
purposes.
LO 6.8: Apply insights from information processing theory to classroom instruction.
LO 6.9: Compare the strengths and weaknesses of the information processing approach and other
approaches to cognitive development.

140
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Module 6.1: The Basics of Information Processing
Lecture Launchers 6.1, 6.2
A. Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval: The Foundations of Information Processing
1. INFORMATION PROCESSING is the process by which information is encoded,
stored, and retrieved.
a. Encoding is the process by which information is initially recorded in a form
usable to memory.
b. Storage refers to the maintenance of material saved in memory.
c. Retrieval is the process by which material in memory storage is located,
brought into awareness, and used.
2. Automatization is the degree to which an activity requires attention.
a. Processes that require little attention are automatic.
b. Processes that require large amounts of attention are controlled.
c. Automatization processes help children in their initial encounters with the
world by “automatically” priming them to process information in particular
ways.
d. Children learn how different stimuli are found together simultaneously. This
permits the development of concepts, categorizations of objects, events, or
people that share common properties.
e. Automatization permits more efficient processing to enable concentration.
f. Sometimes automatization prevents more focused, intentional, nonautomatic
responses.
B. Cognitive Architecture: The Three-System Approach
1. Information moves through the cognitive architecture: the basic, enduring structures
and features of information processing that are constant over the course of
development.
a. Atkinson and Shiffrin posit processes for encoding, storage, and retention
that are not located in physical locations in the brain but are more abstract
functions performed by the brain.
2. The SENSORY STORE is the initial, momentary storage of information, lasting
only an instant.
a. If information is not attended to and sent on for further processing, it is lost
forever.
b. highly accurate and detailed information
3. SHORT-TERM MEMORY is the short-duration, limited-capacity memory
component in which selected input from the memory store is worked on.
a. thoughtful, deliberate processing of meaning
b. lasts for 15 to 20 seconds
c. limited capacity, increases with age
d. Adults can hold up to 7 items or “chunks” of items at a time.
e. Children aged 2 or 3 can hold 2 items.
f. At age 7, children can recall up to 5 items.
g. Capacity or memory span increases due to better rehearsal strategies and
increased speed.
4. WORKING MEMORY is a set of active, temporary memory stores that actively
manipulate and rehearse information.

141
a. Memory is determined by a central executive that coordinates processing,
directs attention, and selects strategies.
5. LONG-TERM MEMORY is the memory component in which information is stored
on a relatively permanent basis.
a. Processing includes filing and cataloguing information for retrieval.
b. nearly limitless in capacity
c. Retrieval problems and availability of retrieval cues—stimuli that permit
recall by guiding attention to a specific memory—restrict what is recalled.
d. Different types of long-term memory modules comprise this system.
(1) declarative memory
(2) procedural memories
C. Comparing Information Processing Approaches to Alternative Theories of Cognitive
Development
1. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development posits stages of development.
2. In contrast, information-processing theorists posit gradual, continuous improvements
in how children perceive, understand, and remember.
a. As children process information more efficiently, they become more
sophisticated in complex forms of thinking and problem-solving.
b. Quantitative changes constitute development, rather than the qualitative
changes posited by Piaget.
II. Module 6.2: Attention and Memory
Lecture Launcher 6.3
MyDevelopmentalLab Video: School and Education in Middle Childhood Across Cultures
A. ATTENTION is information processing involving the ability to strategically choose
between and sort out different stimuli in the environment.
1. Without attention, information is not noticed.
2. Children and adults do not differ in the way they initially encode information into the
sensory store.
3. Failure to remember is likely due to not being able to retrieve information from
memory.
4. Variation in attentional factors determines how effectively information is processed.
5. Control of Attention
a. Ability to tune into certain stimuli while tuning out others is an indication of
cognitive control of attention.
b. Ability to concentrate, as well as to ignore irrelevant stimuli, increases with
age.
6. PLANNING is the ability to allocate attentional resources on the basis of goals that
one wishes to achieve.
a. Young children exhibit some level of “planfulness.”
b. Gradual development from childhood leads adolescents to become highly
proficient.
c. Children have difficulty in effective planning due to:
(1) difficulty choosing what to do and what not to do to achieve their
goals
(2) Over-optimism about their ability to reach their goals leaves them
unmotivated to plan.
(3) lacking skills to coordinate and cooperate with others
(4) limits in dividing attention

142
d. Combined with increases in brain maturation and educational demands,
planning and attention greatly improve over time.
B. Memory and Its Duration
1. The ability to recognize previously encountered objects and events implies some
memory.
2. Infants’ memories improve with age.
3. Research suggests that memory during infancy is processed in ways similar to
processing during adulthood, but that recall may depend upon different structures of
the brain.
4. Duration of Memories
a. Research supports the notion of INFANTILE AMNESIA, the lack of
memory for experiences that occurred prior to 3 years of age.
(1) Although memories are stored from early infancy, they cannot be
easily retrieved.
(2) Early memories are susceptible to interference from later events.
(3) Memories are sensitive to environmental context.
b. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY, memory of particular events from
one’s own life, is not very accurate until after age 3.
(1) Preschoolers’ autobiographical memories fade, they may not be
accurate (depending on when they are assessed), and they are
susceptible to suggestions.
(2) Adults, too, show errors in autobiographical memories.
C. Memory Development and Control
1. Memory Control Strategies
a. With age, people use more control strategies: conscious, intentionally used
tactics to improve cognitive processing.
b. Children also learn ways to organize information into coherent patterns.
c. They also begin to use strategies that are explicitly taught by others, such as
the keyword strategy.
d. As they get older, children increasingly organize their memories of familiar
events in terms of SCRIPTS, general representations in memory of a
sequence or series of events and the order in which they occur.
e. With age, scripts become more elaborate.
2. The Growth of Metamemory and Content Knowledge
a. METAMEMORY: an understanding and knowledge about the processes
that underlie memory; emerges and improves during middle childhood.
b. With metamemory, children realize their memory limitations and how to
overcome them by spending more time examining and studying material.
c. Teaching metamemory skills to children helps them understand material
better.
d. Increasing knowledge in all domains leads to increases in how much they can
recall as well as what they remember.
e. As more knowledge in a given topic is stored in memory, it is easier to learn
new, related material. Older children therefore are better able to recall
information than younger children.
3. Perspectives on Memory Development
a. Memory improves through childhood and adolescence.
b. This is due to:
(1) increased amount of information remembered in working memory
as information processing becomes more efficient
(2) Control strategies improve as people get older.

143
(3) metamemory understanding and knowledge about how memory
works
(4) Increased knowledge permits older children to learn new, related
material more efficiently.
(5) The more children know about a topic, the better they remember it,
and the faster they learn new material that relates to it.
(6) These changes take on different levels of importance across
different periods of childhood.
4. Memory in Adulthood: You Must Remember This
a. For most people, memory peaks in early adulthood.
b. Long-term memory declines with age as people register and store
information less efficiently.
c. People are also less efficient in retrieving stored information as they age.
d. These declines typically present as minimal memory loss.
e. Most people are absentminded throughout life, but with cultural stereotypes,
adults attribute this absentmindedness to aging.
f. Adults can compensate for declines in memory.
III. Module 6.3: Applying Information-Processing Approaches
A. Children’s Eyewitness Testimony: Memory on Trial
1. Preschoolers have difficulty describing certain information and oversimplify
recollections that may have implications for eyewitness testimony.
2. Young children are susceptible to suggestions from adults, and sometimes what they
appear to recall is not accurate.
3. Repeated and leading questioning by adults may lead to inaccurate memory reports
by children.
4. Questioning children right after the event and outside the courtroom may produce
more accurate recollections.
5. Adults’ memories are also prone to significant error, even when they are confident in
their accuracy.
B. Information Processing: Contributions to the Classroom
1. Proponents of code-based approaches to reading believe that reading should be taught
by presenting the basic skills that underlie reading.
a. They emphasize processing the individual parts of reading (sounds, letters)
and combining them into words and meanings.
2. In contrast, whole-language approaches value the construction of meaning of words
as they are placed in context through trial and error.
3. Data suggests that code-based approaches are superior to whole-language
approaches.
4. Teaching Critical Thinking
a. Critical thinking is thinking that makes use of cognitive skills and strategies
that increase the likelihood of solving problems, forming inferences, and
making decisions appropriately and successfully.
b. The critical thinker considers information, weighs alternatives, comes to a
reasoned decision.
c. U.S. children typically do not demonstrate high levels of critical thinking
skills in comparison to age-mates from other cultures.
d. Four components of critical thinking are:

144
(1) Identify and challenge assumptions underlying a statement or
contention.
(2) Check for factual accuracy and logical consistency among
statements.
(3) Take the context of a situation into account.
(4) Imagine and explore alternatives.
C. Reconsidering the Information-Processing Perspective
1. With age and practice, preschoolers can process information more efficiently and
with more sophistication.
2. According to information-processing approaches, cognitive development consists of
gradual improvements in the ways people perceive, understand, and remember.
a. These changes are quantitative, not qualitative as Piaget argued.
(1) Preschoolers begin to process information with greater
sophistication.
(2) They have longer attention spans, attend to more than one
dimension of an object, and can better monitor that to which they
are attending.
3. Information processing provides a clear, logical, and full account of cognitive
development.
4. It is also testable and empirical in nature, and provides logical sets of concepts
focusing on processes that underlie children’s thinking.
5. Information-processing theorists also focus on aspects of development typically not
attended to by alternative theories.
a. role of memory, attention
b. more comprehensive accounting of cognitive skills
6. Criticisms focus upon several aspects of the approach to development.
a. lack of attention to motivations and goals that inform much of people’s
thinking (aspects of humans that set them apart from animals and cold
processing machines)
b. Information-processing developmentalists contend that their models are
precisely stated and testable, and that more research supports their theories
than any others.
c. Reliance on well-defined processes that can be tested is one of this
perspective’s most important features.
d. Information-processing theorists pay little attention to social and cultural
factors.
e. Information-processing theorists pay so much attention to the detailed,
individual sequence of processes that they never paint a comprehensive
picture of cognitive development.

145
LECTURE LAUNCHERS
Lecture Launcher 6.1: How Kids Learn
Some of your students may be parents of preschoolers or entering the field of education. Recent
arguments suggest that children between the ages of 5 and 8 learn differently than older children. Young
children learn best through active, hands-on teaching methods like games or dramatic play, not from
hours of workbooks and homework. Raise this issue with your students and ask for their opinions, as well
as their own experiences when they were young.
Lecture Launcher 6.2: Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Students are fascinated by the concept of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder because they all seem to
be aware of someone who has been diagnosed with it. Your lecture should concentrate on three areas: (a)
the current DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for ADHD (see Handout 9-1); (b) the effects on school
performance and social interactions; and (c) the treatment of the disorder, which often includes stimulants
such as Ritalin and Dexadrin and cognitive behavior training.
Lecture Launcher 6.3: A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
Young children sometimes have difficulty recalling information. One study suggests that drawing can
enhance children’s memories for events.
Sarnia Butler, of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, led a study involving 5- and 6-year-
olds who took a field trip to a fire station. While there, the children clambered on the fire engines,
watched drills performed by the firefighters, tried on the firefighting gear, and even watched as one of
their chaperones slid down the firepole, much to the displeasure of the tour leader, who reprimanded her.
(This event, and several others, were prearranged ahead of time.) Both one day and one month later, the
children were asked about their outing. Those children who were asked to draw and describe the events of
that day—how they got there, what they saw, the events that transpired—accurately reported much more
information than those children who were simply asked to tell what happened. This effect was not
observed among 3- to 4-year-olds, although among both groups drawing did not appear to increase errors
in recall.
This research indicates that memory for pleasant events may be increased by coupling words and pictures.
It remains to be seen whether the same effect would hold for negative events. If so, this technique may
hold promise for boosting children’s recall of abuse, incest, or other traumatic events.
Butler, S., Gross, J., & Hayne, H. (1995). The effect of drawing on memory performance in young children. Developmental
Psychology, 31(4), 597–608.
Staff (1995). Kids draw on their memories. Science News, 148, 111.

146
STUDENT ACTIVITIES
Student Activity 6.1: Let’s Share, Show, or Recall
Select a class meeting when you’ll be discussing memory, and ask students to bring a photo of themselves
as a preschooler, preferably engaged in some activity or attending some event. If students are unable to
locate an early photo, ask them to make a note about their very earliest memory. At the beginning of class
you might divide the students into groups and have them share as much as they can remember about what
was going on when their photo was taken. Can they remember the place, who took the photo, how old
they were, the time of year, anything special about the clothes they were wearing or any props in the
photo? Similarly, have students describe their earliest memory. Encourage students to interpret their
memories in light of knowledge about young children’s cognitive development.
Invite the class into a discussion about memory capabilities of preschoolers, especially autobiographical
memory. Note that memories are not very accurate until after age 3, and that they are susceptible to
suggestion. Also discuss the fact that preschoolers have difficulty describing certain information and tend
to oversimplify recollections. You might also discuss whether preschoolers can learn to remember. What
strategies might parents or preschool teachers employ to facilitate children’s memory? Ask the students to
share whether they felt their memories of those earlier times had been influenced in some way. Ask them
if they have learned to improve their ability to remember information. You might engage in a more in-
depth discussion of information processing theory (e.g., sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term
memory) as well as metacognitive strategies (e.g., rehearsal, mnemonic devices).
Student Activity 6.2: Reflective Journal
Use Handout 5-3 to help your students reflect on their own intellectual growth during infancy.

147
SUPPLEMENTAL READING
Baillargeon, R. (October, 1994). How do infants learn about the physical world? Current Directions
in Psychological Science. pp. 133–140.
Emmons, H., & Alter, D. (2015). Staying sharp: 9 keys for a youthful brain through modern science
and ageless wisdom. New York: Touchstone Books.
Schaie, K. W. (1994). The course of adult intellectual development. American Psychologist, 49(4),
304–313.
Schaie followed 5,000 adults for over 35 years in the Seattle Longitudinal Study to assess whether
intelligence changes over adulthood. He and his wife also tested various intervention strategies that
worked to offset the loss of fluid intelligence.
Siegler, R. S. (2004). Children’s thinking (4th
ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Zigler, E., & Styfco, S. (2010). The hidden history of Head Start. New York: Oxford University
Press.

148
MULTIMEDIA IDEAS
MyDevelopmentLab Video Series
The MyDevelopmentLab Video Series engages students and brings to life a wide range of topics
spanning prenatal development through the end of the lifespan. New international videos shot on location
allow students to observe similarities and differences in human development across various cultures.
Video: School and Education in Middle Childhood Across Cultures
Discussion Questions
1. What common educational threads do you see among the individuals in this video?
2. If you did not know the teacher in this video was from Africa, would you think (based on her
responses) that she could have been discussing teaching in the U.S.?

149
Handout 6-1
Diagnostic Criteria for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Inattention: Six or more symptoms of inattention for children up to age 16, or five or more for
adolescents 17 and older and adults; symptoms of inattention have been present for at least 6
months, and they are inappropriate for developmental level:
• Often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork, at work, or
with other activities.
• Often has trouble holding attention on tasks or play activities.
• Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly.
• Often does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the
workplace (e.g., loses focus, side-tracked).
• Often has trouble organizing tasks and activities.
• Often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to do tasks that require mental effort over a long period of time
(such as schoolwork or homework).
• Often loses things necessary for tasks and activities (e.g. school materials, pencils, books, tools,
wallets, keys, paperwork, eyeglasses, mobile telephones).
• Is often easily distracted.
• Is often forgetful in daily activities.
Hyperactivity and Impulsivity: Six or more symptoms of hyperactivity-impulsivity for children up
to age 16, or five or more for adolescents 17 and older and adults; symptoms of hyperactivity-
impulsivity have been present for at least 6 months to an extent that is disruptive and inappropriate
for the person’s developmental level:
• Often fidgets with or taps hands or feet, or squirms in seat.
• Often leaves seat in situations when remaining seated is expected.
• Often runs about or climbs in situations where it is not appropriate (adolescents or adults may be
limited to feeling restless).
• Often unable to play or take part in leisure activities quietly.
• Is often “on the go,” acting as if “driven by a motor.”
• Often talks excessively.
• Often blurts out an answer before a question has been completed.
• Often has trouble waiting his or her turn.
• Often interrupts or intrudes on others (e.g., butts into conversations or games).
In addition, the following conditions must be met:
• Several inattentive or hyperactive-impulsive symptoms were present before age 12 years.
• Several symptoms are present in two or more settings (e.g., at home, school or work; with friends
or relatives; in other activities).
• There is clear evidence that the symptoms interfere with, or reduce the quality of, social, school,
or work functioning.
• The symptoms do not happen only during the course of schizophrenia or another psychotic
disorder. The symptoms are not better explained by another mental disorder (e.g. Mood
Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, Dissociative Disorder, or a Personality Disorder).

150
Handout 6-2
Reflective Journal Exercise
If possible, ask your parents to help you write about your cognitive development during the first two
years of life. (If your parents are not available, you can write about your own children or interview a
parent of an infant.) You can use the following questions to help you reflect.
What were your first words?
What is your earliest memory? How old were you?
Was there a game you particularly liked to play, such as peek-a-boo or patty cake?
What were your favorite books?
How did your parents try to stimulate your intellectual growth?
Was your intelligence ever tested?
Was more than one language spoken at home? If so, which did you prefer to use?

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no great increase of output on the present machines seems possible
or thinkable. On the other hand, there might quite possibly be a very
much smaller deficit on shorter hours than the uninitiated would
expect. One result would probably be a greater regularity of output
through the day. Girls will own that they literally cannot keep going
all the time, that they are forced to relax at intervals, and they add;
“if we had shorter hours we should be able to work right through.”
There are masters who think the early morning hours’ work is hardly
worth the trouble. The Trade Union secretaries with many years’
knowledge and experience of the working of the Factory Acts behind
them, do not fear any permanent reduction of wages. A forty-eight
hours’ week, or an eight hours’ day would quite likely result in
diminished earnings for the first few weeks or months. But given
time to work itself out, it would regularise production and tend to
smooth out alternatives of “glut” and slack time. A second probable
result would be some increase in piece rates, and the workers would
in no wise be worse off. No doubt this change will meet with
considerable resistance, but judging by past history, it will probably
not cause any permanent injury to the interests of either labour or
capital.
Winders.—Winding is the process of running the yarn off the
spinner’s cop on to a “winder’s bobbin.” There are two processes,
“cop-winding” and “ring-winding,” the latter being a comparatively
new process. The winders, though included usually in the same
unions with weavers, are far less strongly organised. Neither process
has as yet a uniform list, but the cop-winders have lists which cover
large areas. The ring-winders are still less protected, and as a result
they are underpaid.
Increasing discontent among the winders at Blackburn lately caused
a demand for direct representation on the Committee. The position
is curious, there being a woman winder and a warper now serving
on the Committee while the weavers, a larger and better paid body
of women, are represented only by men. Winding is said to be
harder and worse paid than weaving, and “driving” has been

introduced in recent years. “If there is one operative who earns the
money she receives it is the winder.”[27] Nevertheless, there are
some women who cannot stand the strain of weaving, and take to
winding. Further enquiry into this apparent inconsistency elicited the
fact that winding, although hard and monotonous work with its
continual removing cops and joining threads, is in some ways a less
continuous, unremitting strain than weaving.[28] Winders do not
often work on Saturday morning, and they may occasionally have
short intervals of rest. They also have the chance of promotion to be
a warper, a post which admits of much more sitting down than either
of the other two, and is consequently coveted.
The defective organisation of the winders appears to be due to the
absence of men among the ranks. The close community of interests
which produced the exceptional success of the Weavers’ Union has
been lacking, and the winders appear to have been overlooked.
Faults in quality or mistakes made in the spinning-room are often
credited to the winder, beamer or reeler. It is, however, constantly
pointed out in the reports of the Amalgamation that they have the
remedy in their own hands, and should organise more strongly to
get the advantages enjoyed by the weavers. The recent awakening
at Blackburn, indicated above, is a most hopeful sign. At Stockport
also, the secretary is making a special effort to organise the winders,
and at Padiham it has recently been proposed to give them special
representation on the Committee as at Blackburn.
Card-room Operatives.—Unions of card- and blowing-room
operatives began to accept women members about 1870, or a little
later. Women are now organised in the same Union with men, and
form about 90 per cent of the workers. The work forms part of the
process of preparing cotton for spinning, and is heavy and
dangerous in character. The conditions under which, and the
purposes for which, benefit is granted resemble those of the
weavers’ Unions. The organisation of card-room operatives was
greatly improved from 1885 to 1890 or 1894, and may be now
considered to have reached a condition of comparative permanence

and stability. The usual complaint is, however, made that women are
apathetic and take little interest in Union affairs. This state of things
is keenly regretted by the secretary, who would gladly see women
members on the Committee. The difficulties in effective organisation
of industries with so large a proportion of young and irresponsible
workers are seen in a recent report of a card-room operatives’
society. “Ring-room doffers are about the most difficult class we
have to deal with in the matter of keeping them organised, and we
can only assume, as most of them are young persons, that it is
mostly their parents who are to blame for this apparent
carelessness. So we appeal to the parents of this class of operative
to take a keener interest in the welfare of those for whom they are
responsible, and would remind them that the writer of this article
well remembers the time when this class of operative was looked
upon as well paid at 5s. 2d. per week, while at the present time the
lowest wage paid to our knowledge is 9s. 3d., an advance of 4s. 1d.
per week. Surely the few coppers required could easily be spared
from this advance, and the benefits returnable are as good an
investment as it is possible to find.”
Card-room operatives have usually been regarded as socially
somewhat inferior to the weavers, the work being more arduous and
done in more dangerous conditions and the women usually of a
rougher class. It seems, however, probable that this condition is
changing. Card-room work is becoming more popular as
comparatively good wages come at an earlier age than in weaving.
It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of effective
organisation to this class of workers. In its absence the large
proportion of women can be taken advantage of to lower conditions
of work all round. Closer co-operation with Unions of other classes of
workers might be very useful, especially on the question of speeding
up. The card-room operatives are speeded and “rushed,” working
under high pressure, and at the same time the winder, beamer and
warper complain of bad cotton, and the weaver strikes on account of
the same grievance. Surely the remedy is obvious.

Ring-spinners are often included in the same Union with card-room
operatives, and quite recently a special effort has been made to
improve the organisation of ring-room workers. A “universal list” was
obtained in 1912.[29]
Other Workers.—Outside the cotton operatives there are a
comparatively small number of women organised with men in Unions
of varying strength and effectiveness. As regards linen and jute
there is a Union at Dundee which includes over 5000 women, but
appears to have made little progress in numbers in quite recent
years. The secretary states that the majority of women in the jute
trade have very little conception of what Trade Unionism really
means, but that the same applies also to many of the men. He
considers that the women’s outlook has become broadened within
recent years. There are some women now serving on the
Committee, and the women generally are reported to take a “fair
amount of interest” in the work of the society. The other Unions
belonging to this industry are scattered over Ireland and Scotland.
Wool and worsted is backward in organisation, both for men and
women. The Union at Huddersfield includes 4000 women, but a
correspondent writes that the General Union, which has branches in
all the important textile centres of the West Riding, in actual
strength is scarcely one in ten of its possible membership. The
apathy of the women, in the Huddersfield district at all events,
cannot be due to poverty, for the subscriptions are low while the
women’s average wage is high. Nor is it due to the temporary nature
of women’s work, for in this district many continue work after
marriage. The Yorkshire women are said by one correspondent to
take little interest in public affairs in any way; by another, “not as
much as they should, but more than they used to do. It’s a big work
organising and keeping women in. Marriage, flightiness, lack of
vision, lack of help and encouragement from fathers and brothers all
tend to make it hard. The lower the wages, the harder the task of
making them into Unionists.” The difficulty of organising them is
great, and outside Huddersfield they are extremely badly paid—so

badly, indeed, that in our correspondent’s opinion the trade needs to
be scheduled under the Trade Boards Act. At Bradford considerable
efforts have been made from time to time to get the women into the
Union, but these have failed; and even during the last boom, due to
the flourishing state of trade and to the Insurance Act, very little
progress has been made.
The Clothing Unions are making rapid progress, including nearly
10,000 women in 1912, and the Trade Boards will assist the
movement. In Leeds there has been some natural indignation at the
low minimum fixed, which has impelled to organisation. The Unions
follow the Lancashire pattern in organising women along with men.
The standard rate for women in the Amalgamated Society of
Clothiers operatives at Leeds is 4d. an hour, which is held to be
achieved if the piece rates yield as much to 70 per cent of any
section or grade of work. In the Boot and Shoe Unions a
considerable percentage increase was registered for 1910 to 1912,
and the numbers reached 8720 in the latter year.
Printing offers some of the most difficult problems connected with
the organisation of women.[30] Men in these trades have undeniably
offered serious obstacles to the inclusion of women. In 1886 a
Conference of Typographical Societies of the United Kingdom and of
the Continent, held in London, being “of the opinion that women are
not physically capable of performing the duties of a compositor,”
resolved to recommend their admission to societies upon the same
conditions as journeymen, to be paid strictly the same rate. This
resolution was adopted by the London Society of Compositors, and it
became practically impossible for a woman to join the society, as
women could not keep up to the standard and efficiency of men.
One woman joined in 1892, but subsequently left. The women were
practically excluded from the Compositors’ Union by the fixing of
equal rates of pay. This was not so much discrimination against
women because they were women, as a demonstration against the
black-leg competition of the unskilled against the skilled. It is stated
that women compositors are regarded as so inferior to men that only

among employers in a small way of business, working with small
capital, where low wages constitute an advantage sufficient to
counter-poise the lack of technical skill, can they find employment.
In 1894 a militant Union of women was organised, and struck for
increased wages and improved conditions, the women going out to
show their sympathy with the men, who had been locked out. In
recognition of the women’s sympathy the men gave some help and
support to this Union, which, however, after increasing to 350 began
to decline. It was subsequently recognised as a branch of the
Printers, Stationers, and Warehousemen.
In the cigar trade, as in printing, it has to be owned that women
came in “not for doing more, but for asking less.” Their labour was
at first employed chiefly for the less skilled branches, a small number
only being employed in skilled work; but in both divisions they
worked for a lower rate than men. It was not until 1887 that a Union
for women was established. They still, unfortunately, continued to
undersell men, until at last the men, who at first were hostile to their
female competitors, saw that it was hopeless to try and keep them
out, and that for their own sakes amalgamation was the wiser
course. The adjustment of the wage-scale was a problem of some
delicacy. To raise the scale of women’s wages to the same as men’s
would probably have meant driving the women from the trade; to
leave them on the lower scale would mean that women would
contrive to undersell men. It was finally decided to take the highest
existing rates of pay for women as the basis of the women’s Union
rates. After the Amalgamation had been achieved, women’s wages
rose 25 per cent, and the recognised policy of the Union was to
make advantageous terms with each employer opening a new
factory. Women are not, on the whole, such valuable workers as are
men; they are slower, and often do not remain very long in the
trade.[31] Lower rates of pay, as long as they are not permitted to fall
indefinitely, are a distinct advantage to women in getting and
keeping employment. The numbers in Unions in food and tobacco
were only 2000 in 1910, and have since fallen slightly.

There are also a good many small Unions of women only, some of
which are affiliated to the Women’s Trade Union League. The
numbers of women organised in the trades especially their own,
such as dressmaking, the needle trades, and domestic work, are
disappointingly small. It has to be remembered, however, that such
occupations as these are still for the most part carried on either in
the employers’ or the workers’ homes. The factory system has
begun to make some way in dressmaking, but not to a considerable
extent. It is not surprising that the workers in these industries are
behind the factory workers in learning the lesson of combination for
mutual help and protection.
Unions in the lower grade industries, which till lately have been
unorganised, will be treated in a later section.
The Women’s Trade Union League.—The Society now known as the
Women’s Trade Union League was founded mainly by the efforts of a
remarkable woman named Emma Smith, afterwards Mrs. Paterson
(1848-1886). She was the daughter of a schoolmaster and became
the wife of a cabinet-maker. Her life from the age of eighteen was
devoted to endeavours on behalf of the working class and especially
of women. Being a woman of natural ability and remarkable
concentration of purpose, she succeeded in starting pioneer work of
a difficult and unusual kind. She was secretary for five years to the
Workmen’s Club and Institute Union, and afterwards secretary to the
Women’s Suffrage Association. She was the first woman admitted to
the Trade Union Congress, and attended its meetings from 1875
until 1886, with the exception only of one year, in which her
husband’s last illness prevented her attendance. Although the name
of the League has been altered, and its policy considerably widened
and in some measure modified, it is pleasant to note that it still
keeps up a continuity of tradition with Mrs. Paterson’s Protective and
Provident League. Her portrait, as foundress, hangs upon the office
wall, and the annual Reports are numbered continuously from the
start in 1875.

Sick benefit was the main feature of the propaganda initiated by the
League in its early years. The first society formed was for women
employed in the printing trade. The need of a provident fund had
been badly felt by these women during a trade depression three
years previously, and there was no provision for the admission of
women as members of the men’s societies, even if women’s wages
had been (as they were not) sufficient to pay the necessary
subscription to the men’s society. Mr. King, Secretary of the London
Consolidated Society of Bookbinders, however, promised to support
and assist the efforts to organise women in this trade. The appeal
for a separate organisation of women met with a ready response.
Some hundreds of women employed in folding, sewing, and other
branches of the bookbinding trade, attended the first meeting, held
in August 1875; a provisional committee was formed, and in October
the society was formally established with a subscription of 2d. per
week, and an entrance fee of 1s. Its history, however, was
uneventful. It refused to join with men in making demands upon the
employers, and its representatives at Trade Union Congresses and
elsewhere were imbued with Mrs. Paterson’s prejudice against the
Factory Act, and resisted legal restrictions upon labour. Employers
have been known to urge the formation of “a good women’s Union,”
on the ground that the fair-minded employer was detrimentally
affected by the “gross inequalities of price” that existed. The
backwardness and narrow views of the Women’s Union were
resented by the men, and in the time of the eight hours agitation,
1891-1894, would not take part, and there was considerable ill-
feeling between the two sections. This society was mainly a benefit
club, and the same remark holds good of other early societies
established by the Women’s Protective and Provident League, which
included societies for dressmakers, hat-makers, upholsterers, and
shirt- and collar-makers. The foundress, although a woman of
unusual energy and initiative, whose efforts for the uplifting of
women-workers should not be forgotten, was in some degree
hampered by the narrow individualism characteristic of what may be
designated as the Right Wing of the Women’s Rights Movement. She
was an opponent of factory legislation for grown women, and did

not lead the Unions under her control to attempt any concerted
measures for improving the conditions of their work. The first Report
of the League indicates her attitude in the remarks which she
reports (evidently with sympathy) from a Conference held in April
1875: “It was agreed” (viz. at this Conference) “that any further
reduction of hours, if accompanied by a reduction of wages, as it
probably would be if brought about by legislation, would be
objectionable.” (Italics added.) In the same Report (pp. 14-15) the
writer, doubtless Mrs. Paterson herself, sums up the advantages to
be obtained for women through union. The League is to be a “centre
of combined efforts” to “improve the industrial and social position of
... women”; it is “to acquire information which will enable friends of
the working classes to give a more precise direction than at present
to their offers of sympathy and help. Without interfering with the
natural course of trade, the Societies will furnish machinery for
regulating the supply of labour....” (Italics added.) “The object of the
League is to promote an entente cordiale between the labourer, the
employer, and the consumer; and revision of the contract between
the labourer and employer is only recommended in those cases in
which its terms appear unreasonable and unjust to the dispassionate
third party, who pays the final price for the manufactured goods and
is certainly not interested in adding artificially to their cost.” No direct
action for raising wages is suggested.
Delegates from three Women’s Societies—shirt-makers, bookbinders,
and upholsterers—were admitted to the 8th Annual Trade Union
Congress, held at Glasgow, October 1875.[32] At the meeting of the
T.U. Council in 1879, five women representing Unions were not only
present but took an active part in the proceedings, successfully
moving a resolution for additional factory inspectors, and for the
appointment as such of women as well as men.
In 1877, the Amalgamated Society of Tailors having been asked by
one of its branches to resist the increasing employment of women in
that trade, resolved instead that the work of women should be
recognised, and the women organised and properly paid. The

League was asked to co-operate in forming a Union, and a
Tailoresses’ Union was subsequently formed. At Brighton a Union of
Laundresses was formed. Various other societies were formed in
these early years, many of which are now defunct.
Mrs. Paterson died in 1886, at the sadly early age of thirty-eight.
During the years following, the policy of the League was enlarged
and developed in a very considerable degree. Miss Clementina Black
was secretary for a few years, and her second Report (1888)
contains interesting remarks on the position of women: “All inquiry
tends to show more and more that disorganised labour is absolutely
helpless; good wages, lessened hours, better general conditions,
and, on the whole, better workmanship prevail in the trades that are
most completely organised. It also tends to show the injury done to
men and women alike by the payment to women of unfairly low
wages.... Even in employments in which the work can be done by
women at least as well as by men, the wages of women are greatly
inferior to those of men. And in those branches in which superior
efficiency is shown by the male workers, the inferiority of the wages
of the female employees is altogether out of proportion to the
difference in the character of the work done by the two sexes. From
this cause—the payment of unfairly low wages to women simply
because they are women—arises a desire on the part of grasping
employers to reduce the wage-standard by engaging women in
preference to men, while in many cases the conditions of female
employment are onerous and oppressive to an extent which involves
the greatest danger to health.”
In 1889 the representation of the Society of Women Bookbinders at
the Trade Union Congress, held at Dundee, moved a resolution in
favour of the appointment of women factory inspectors, which was
adopted. In the same year, at the International Workers’ Congress,
held in Paris, the representative of the London Women’s Trade
Council, Miss Edith Simcox, moved the following resolution, which
was unanimously adopted by the representatives of all nationalities:
“That the Workmen’s Party in all countries should pledge itself to

promote the formation of trade organisations among the workers of
both sexes.”
The policy of the League in regard to legislation was broadened. The
protection of women through the instrumentality of the Factory Act
was no longer resisted, but was recognised as a powerful force for
good, to be aided in its administration and developed whenever
possible. The League also indicated by the adoption of the title
“Trade Union League,” and by gradually dropping the former style,
“Protective and Provident,” that it was inaugurating a more active
policy. As a matter of tactics the League officials when appealed to
for help in labour difficulties among women-workers, always
endeavour first to get the matter settled by negotiation; but direct
action is now by no means excluded from their programme, and
strikes have been called in recent years, sometimes with
considerable success.
The W.T.U.L. is not a Union: it has no strike fund and pays no
benefits. It is an organisation to promote, foster, and develop the
formation of Unions among women. Any Union of women, or Union
in which women members are enrolled, can be affiliated to the
W.T.U.L. All secretaries of affiliated London Unions are ex-officio
members of the League Committee, on which also are a certain
number of members elected at the Annual Meeting. The W.T.U.L.
also enjoys the services of an Advisory Committee of leading Trade
Unionists, who are present at the Annual Meeting.
The officials of the League are a Chairman, a Secretary, two Official
Organisers, and an Honorary Treasurer. The League acts as the
agent of women Trade Unionists in making representations to
Government authorities or Parliamentary Committees in regard to
the legislation required. Abuses or grievances in particular industries
are brought forward in the House of Commons by members who are
in touch with the League. Complaints of breaches of the Factory and
Workshop Acts can be sent to the League, and are investigated by
its officials and forwarded to the proper department. A legal advice
department also forms part of the League’s functions, and deals with

such matters as the assessment of compensation, disputes with
Insurance Companies, deductions from wages, non-payment of
wages, wrongful dismissal, claims for wages in lieu of notice, and
such cases. A few instances, culled from recent Reports, will give an
idea of the range and complexity of these cases.
A worker in a sweet-factory was injured by the strap of the motor
falling on her head, and suffered from shock and chorea. The
employers were foreign, and it was with special difficulty that they
were got to admit that the accident had even happened. Being
threatened with proceedings, the matter was referred to their
Insurance Company, who eventually paid the full wages during
incapacity.
In the slack season seven dressmakers’ hands, some of whom had
been three years in employment, were dismissed without notice. The
League’s adviser applied for a week’s wage in lieu of notice for each
worker. After some correspondence the money owing was handed
over. This last case is a sample of many similar ones, and points to
the urgent need of organisation in the dressmaking trade.
A syrup boiler in a jam-factory slipped on the boards which, owing to
imperfect drainage, were slippery with syrup, and fractured her left
arm. Compensation was paid at the rate of 5s. 6d. a week.
The League has always been singularly successful in attracting the
sympathy, interest, and service of able and gifted helpers, both men
and women. It has been also happy in securing active co-operation
with many Trade Unions, and also with societies such as the British
Section of the International Association for Labour Legislation, and
the Anti-Sweating League, with both of which it is closely connected
in work and sympathy. No less than 170 societies—societies, that is
to say, constituted wholly or partly of women members—are now
affiliated to the League. The most recent activities of the League
have been a campaign of instruction and organisation to explain the
provisions of the Insurance Act, and a special effort of propaganda

and organisation among the workers in some of the low-grade and
ill-paid industries now coming under the Trade Boards Act.
A comparison of the list of affiliated societies now appended to the
League’s Report with the societies first enrolled shows not only, as
would be expected, a considerable widening of the field, but also a
change in character. Whereas the societies first formed were of
women only, and in London, nearly all the societies at present
enrolled are mixed, and most of them are not London societies at all.
The great textile societies, the weavers, winders, beamers, twisters,
and drawers, card-room operatives, and so forth, form the great
majority of organised women; and in these, women are organised
either together with, or in close connection with, men. Some of the
largest are many years older than the League, but have affiliated in
comparatively recent years. There are also a vast number of Unions
of miscellaneous trades—tobacco, food, tailoring, etc.; and even
societies mainly masculine are affiliated, such as the London Dock
and General Workers’ Union (including sixty women in 1910). Many
Trade Unions consisting wholly of men make donations to the
League as a recognition of the importance of its work in organising
women.
In Manchester there are two societies to promote the organisation of
women-workers, which are doing excellent educational work in
fostering the habit or tradition of association among workers in
miscellaneous trades, many of which are totally unorganised and
grievously underpaid. If we compare these Manchester societies with
the policy of the Women’s Trade Union League in London, a certain
difference of outlook is perceptible. The Manchester societies prefer
organising women by and for themselves; the Women’s Trade Union
League is in touch with the larger Labour Movement and favours
joint organisation wherever possible.
The Movement among Unorganised Workers.—The “New Unionism
for Women,” if we may so term it, first attracted public attention in
July 1888, when a few scattered paragraphs found their way even
into the dignified columns of the Times. There was a strike among

the match-girls in the East End. Meetings were held, and next came
the inevitable letters from the employers, representing the admirable
condition of their factory, the desire of terrorised workers to return
to work, the responsibility of “agitators” for the strike. Then a small
Committee of Inquiry was started, its headquarters being at Toynbee
Hall, and this Committee reported that it found the girls’ complaints
to be largely justified. The piece rates had been cut down on the
introduction of machinery more than in proportion to the saving of
labour per unit produced. Vexatious charges for brushes and
excessive fines were imposed without reckoning or explanation. The
wages ranged upwards from 4s.—4s. to 6s. predominantly—and
never exceeded 13s.
Such were the charges, among others which were considered to be
substantiated by the investigations of the four social workers, who
showed their impartiality by the careful letter in which they
reproduced the explanations and defence of the employers. The
Toynbee Hall Committee in its third letter characterised the relation
of employer and employed in this factory to be deplorable, and the
wages paid as so small as to be insufficient to maintain a decent
existence.
On the 16th, the Times had a small paragraph describing the strike
as being “the result of the class-war which the body of Socialists
have brought into action.” Subsequently the London Trades Council
took up the match-girls’ cause, distributed strike pay to the amount
of £150 among 650 boys, girls, and women, and formed a
Committee of the girls to co-operate with the London Trades Council.
The employers agreed to receive a deputation.
On Wednesday 18th July, the strike was declared to be at an end,
after the meeting of the first deputation from the L.T.C. and the
match-girls’ representatives with the directors. The directors agreed
to abolish fines and the deductions complained of, to recognise an
organised Trade Union among the employees in order that
grievances might be represented straight to the heads instead of
through the foreman, and to reinstate the workers concerned in the

strike. The extraordinary success of this strike appears to have been
due to the unusual steadiness and unity of the girls themselves, to
the able and tactful generalship of Mrs. Besant, and largely also, of
course, to the support of the London Trades Council.
As a result of this strike a Match-makers’ Union was formed, and
seems to have lasted until 1903; but it subsequently disappears from
the Women’s Trade Union League Reports, and is known no more.
About the time of the great Dock Strike, 1889, a concerted effort to
organise East End women-workers was made by Miss Clementina
Black, Mrs. Amie Hicks, and Miss Clara James. Mrs. Hicks had been
in the habit of meeting some of the women rope-makers in
connexion with the parochial work of St. Augustine’s Church, and
had observed that many of them had bandaged hands and were
suffering from injuries resulting from machinery accidents. Inquiries
made by her brought to light the fact that the women’s wages were
only about 8s. to 10s. Disputes were frequent in the trade. Mrs.
Hicks determined to open her campaign of organisation with the
rope-makers, although she was warned that she would find them a
rough, wild and even desperate class of women. Nothing daunted,
she called on several, and invited them to a meeting. The supposed
viragos said they were afraid, and Mrs. Hicks advised them to come
all together. A room was hired, and about 90 to 100 women walked
there in a body, a proceeding which greatly alarmed the inhabitants,
some of whom fled into their houses and barred the doors. The
meeting, however was successful. Nearly all the women signed their
names as members of a Union, and Mrs. Hicks became their
secretary, a post which she retained for ten years. It is recorded that
not one of the original members was lost to the Union otherwise
than by death, and that not one of them ever “said a rough word” to
their secretary.
Mrs. Hicks and Miss James, after making urgent representations,
were admitted to give evidence before the Labour Commission,
which apparently had not originally contemplated hearing women
witnesses at all. Mrs. Hicks was able to show that the conditions of

the work were most unhealthy, the air being full of dust, and no
appliance provided to lay it. In some works even elementary sanitary
requirements were not provided. Cases were known of the women
being locked in the factory, and in at least one instance a fire
occurred which was fatal to the unfortunate women locked in. In
spite of these shocking conditions, however, many women refused to
join the Union for fear of victimisation and dismissal. As Mrs. Hicks
put it, the condition of the women was so bad in East London that
an employer had only to say he wanted some work done, fix his own
rate of pay, and he would always find women glad to take it.
Miss Clara James also gave evidence in regard to the Confectioners’
Trade Union. The Union was very weak in numbers, the women
being afraid to join, several, including the witness, having been
dismissed for joining a Union. In one factory six girls who had acted
as collectors for the Union were dismissed one after another,
although the Union had never acted offensively or used threats to
the employer. In this trade the workers were subjected to very bad
sanitary conditions, rotting fruit, syrup, etc., being left a week or
more in proximity to the workrooms. Wages were stated at from 7s.
to 9s., 12s. being the highest and very unusual, but even these low
rates were subject to deductions and fines, and workers might be
dismissed without notice. In both these trades it will be evident at
once that the great need for women workers was to combine and
stand together, but owing to their poverty and dread of dismissal this
was precisely what it was most difficult for them to do. The frequent
disputes mentioned by both witnesses are, however, a sign that the
traditional docility of the woman-worker was even then beginning to
give place to a more militant spirit.
In other industries there have been many signs of activity in more
recent years. In October 1906 the ammunition workers at Edmonton
struck against a reduction of wages, and the matter being referred
to arbitration, was compromised in a manner fairly favourable to the
workers, and other concessions were subsequently secured. A Union
was formed as a branch of the National Federation of Women

Workers, and this Union is still in active existence. Members are
entitled to strike pay and also have a sick benefit fund in addition to
the Insurance Act benefit, and a thrift section. The secretary is a
convinced believer in the value of organisation to women, and thinks
that women are beginning to appreciate it themselves far more than
formerly.
In 1907 Miss Macarthur succeeded in reorganising the Cradley Heath
chain-makers, whose Union, always feeble, had all but flickered out.
The making of small chains is an industry largely carried on by
women in homes or tiny workshops, and although the district does
an enormous trade in the world market, this had not prevented the
local industry becoming almost a proverb for sweating. The
reorganisation of the Union, however, was effected in the nick of
time. The society was affiliated to the National Federation of Women
Workers, an association which has been formed in co-operation with
the W.T.U.L., to bring together the women in those industries where
no organisation already exists for them to join.
In 1909 the Trade Boards Act was passed, and the making of small
chains was one of the group of sweated trades first included under
the Act. The organisation which had already been started was now
of great service in facilitating the administration of the Act, the
Women’s Union being able to choose the persons who should
represent it on the Board. Subsequently when the Board of Trade
called a meeting to elect workers’ representatives, the candidates
chosen by the Union were voted for by the women with practical
unanimity, and as the work of the Board progressed it was possible
at each stage to consult the workers and obtain their approval for
the action taken by their representatives in their name. In the
absence of effective organisation this would have been much more
difficult.
The history of the first determination of the chain-makers’ Board
forms one of the most singular passages in industrial history. The
Board, constituted half of employers and half of employed, having
got to work, found itself compelled to fix a minimum wage which

amounted to an increase in many cases of 100 per cent, or even
more. The previous wages had been about 5s. or 6s., and the
minimum wages per week, after allowing for necessary outlay on
forge and fuel, was fixed at 11s. 3d. Poor enough, we may say. But
so great an improvement was this to the workers themselves that
their comment is said to have been: “It is too good to be true.” The
change did not take effect without considerable difficulties. The
Trade Boards Act provides that three months’ notice of the prices
fixed by the Board shall be given, during which period complaints
and objections may be made either by workers or employers. At
Cradley this waiting period was abused by some of the employers to
a considerable extent. Many of them began to make chains for
stock, and trade being dull at the time they were able to accumulate
heavy reserves. Thus the workers were faced with the probability of
a period of unemployment and starvation, in addition to which a
number of employers issued agreements which they asked the
women to sign, contracting out of the minimum wage for a further
period of six months. This was not contrary to the letter of the law,
but was terribly bitter to the poor workers, whose hopes, so near
fulfilment, seemed likely again to be long postponed. They came out
on strike, and were supported by the National Federation of Women
Workers, in conjunction with the Trade Union League and the Anti-
Sweating League. A meeting was arranged between the workers’
representatives and the Manufacturers’ Association, at which the
latter body undertook to recommend its members to pay the
minimum rate so long as the workers continued financial support to
those women who refused to work for less than the rates. This
practically of course amounted to a request from the employers that
the workers’ Trade Union should protect them against non-
associated employees. It has been remarked that this agreement is
probably unique in the annals of Trade Unionism.
After long consideration the workers agreed. An appeal for support
was made to the public, and met with so good a response that the
women were able to fight to a finish and returned to work victorious.
Every employer in the district finally signed the white list, and more

recently the Board has been able to improve upon its first award.
The organisation has so far been maintained. Thus a real
improvement has been achieved in the conditions of one of the most
interesting, even picturesque of our industries, though unfortunately
also one of the most downtrodden and oppressed.
No one who has ever visited Cradley can forget it. The impression
produced is ineffaceable. So much grime and dirt set in the midst of
beautiful moors and hills—so much human skill and industry left
neglected, despised and underpaid. The small chains are made by
women who work in tiny sheds, sometimes alone, sometimes with
two or three others. Each is equipped with a bellows on the left of
the forge, worked by the left hand, a forge, anvil, hammer, pincers,
and one or two other tools. The chains are forged link by link by
sheer manual skill; there is no mechanical aid whatever, and we
understand that machines for chain-making have been tried, but
have never yet been successful. The operation is extremely
ingenious and dextrous, and where the women keep to the lighter
kind of chains there would be little objection to the work, if done for
reasonable hours and good pay. It is carried on under shelter, almost
in the open air, and is by no means as drearily monotonous as many
kinds of factory work. On the other hand, in practice the women are
often liable to do work too heavy for them, and the children are said
to run serious risks of injury by fire.
At the time of the present writer’s visit, now about ten years ago,
these poor women were paid on an average about 5s. 6d. a week,
and were working long hours to get their necessary food. Most have
achieved considerable increases under the combined influence of
organisation and the Trade Board, and probably 11s. or 12s. is now
about the average, while some are getting half as much again. When
the strike was over there was a substantial remainder left over from
the money subscribed to help the strikers. The chain-makers did not
divide the money among themselves, but built a workers’ Institute.
Surely the dawn of such a spirit as this in the minds of these hard-
pressed people is something for England to be proud of.

In August 1911 came a great uprising of underpaid workers, and
among them the women. The events of that month are still fresh in
our memories; perhaps their full significance will only be seen when
the history of these crowded years comes to be written. The tropical
heat and sunshine of that summer seemed to evoke new hopes and
new desires in a class of workers usually only too well described as
“cheap and docile.” The strike of transport workers set going a
movement which caught even the women. In Bermondsey almost
every factory employing women was emptied. Fifteen thousand
women came out spontaneously, and the National Federation of
Women Workers had the busiest fortnight known in its whole history
of seven years.
Among the industries thus unwontedly disturbed were the jam-
making, confectionery, capsule-making, tin box-making, cocoa-
making, and some others. In some of the factories the lives led by
these girls are almost indescribable. Many of them work ten and a
half hours a day, pushed and urged to utmost speed, carrying
caldrons of boiling jam on slippery floors, standing five hours at a
time, and all this often for about 8s. a week, out of which at least
6s. would be necessary for board and lodging and fares. Most of
them regarded the conditions of their lives as in the main perfectly
inevitable, came out on strike to ask only 6d. or 1s. more wages and
a quarter of an hour for tea, and could not formulate any more
ambitious demands. An appeal for public support was issued, and
met with a satisfactory response. The strike in several instances had
an even surprisingly good result. In one factory wages were raised
from 11s. to 13s.; in others there was 1s. rise all round; in others of
2s. or 2s. 6d., even in some cases of 4s. In one case a graduated
scale with a fixed minimum of 4s. 7d. for beginners at fourteen years
old, increasing up to 12s. 4d. at eighteen, was arranged. One may
hope that the moral effect of such an uprising is not wholly lost,
even if the resulting organisations are not stable; the employer has
had his reminder, as a satirical observer said in August 1911, “of the
importance of labour as a factor in production.”

Many women were enrolled in new branches of the National
Federation of Women Workers. Not all of these branches survive, but
there was some revival of Unionism in the winter, 1913-14, and
many of the workers who struck in 1911 will be included under the
new Trade Boards.
Perhaps even more remarkable was the prolonged strike of the
hollow-ware workers in 1912. Hollow-ware, it may not be
superfluous to remark, is the making and enamelling of tin vessels of
various kinds. This was once a trade in which British makers held the
continental markets almost without rivalry; it was then chiefly
confined to Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Bilston. But small
masters moved out into the country in search of cheaper labour, and
settled themselves at Lye and Cradley, outside the area protected by
the men’s Unions. In 1906 the Unions endeavoured to improve
conditions for the underpaid workers, and drew up a piece-work list
of minimum rates applicable to all the centres of the trade. But they
had not strength to fight for the list, and wages went down and
down. As one consequence, the quality of the work had
deteriorated, shoddy goods were sent abroad, and foreign
competitors improved upon them.[33] This in turn was used as an
excuse for further driving down wages. The hollow-ware trade, like
chain manufacture, employs women as well as men. In 1912 many
of these women were working for a penny an hour, tinkering and
soldering buckets, kettles, pots and pans from early morning until
night; at the week-end taking home 6s. for their living.
It should also be remembered that some processes, especially the
making of bright frying-pans, entail serious risk of lead-poisoning.
Galvanised buckets are dipped in baths of acid, and the fumes are
almost blinding, and stop the breath of an unaccustomed visitor. The
work done by women is hard enough. But they did not take much
notice of the hardness or of the risk of industrial disease. Their
preoccupation was a more serious one: how to get their bread.

Wages were rarely more than 7s. a week, and in 1912 a considerate
and attentive visitor found their minds concentrated on the great
possibility of raising this to—12s.? 14s.? 15s.? What the hollow-ware
workers of Lye and Cradley had set their minds on was merely 10s. a
week, and to attain this comparative affluence they were ready to
come out weeks and weeks on end. As a result of conferences
between representatives of the National Federation of Women
Workers and twenty of the principal employers, during the summer
1912, it was decided to demand a minimum wage of 10s. for a fifty-
four-hour week. Not, of course, that the officials considered this a
fair or adequate wage, but because they hoped it would give the
women a starting-point from which they could advance in the future,
and because, wretched as it seemed, it did in fact represent a
considerable increase for some of the women.
The best employers yielded at once, but several refused to adopt the
terms proposed. In October 840 men handed in their notices for a
10 per cent increase of wages and a fifty-four-hour week. Twelve
firms conceded these terms at once, leaving 600 men still on strike
against thirty-three firms. As a result many women-workers were
asked to do men’s work, and it seemed not unlikely that the men
might be thus defeated. The National Federation of Women Workers
decided to call out the women to demand a 10s. minimum, and at
the same time support the men in their demands. All the women
called out received strike benefit. There was, however, another body
of women and girls, whose work stopped automatically because of
the strike, and these were not entitled to any strike pay. A public
appeal was therefore issued by the Daily Citizen and also by the
Women’s Trade Union League, and the response evoked was
sufficient to tide the workers over the crisis. The struggle ended with
complete victory for the workers, and as an indirect but most
important result, the trade was scheduled for inclusion in the
Revisional Order under the Trade Boards Act.
In the North also the last two or three years have witnessed
increased activity in the organisation of underpaid trades. In the flax

industry the strike of a few general labourers employed in a certain
mill resulted in the locking out of 650 women flax-workers. Although
the preparing and spinning of flax is a skilled industry, the highest
wage paid in the mill to spinners was 11s. including bonus, reelers
occasionally rising to 13s., and the common earnings of the other
workers were from 7s. 6d. to 9s. Several small strikes had taken
place, but the women being unorganised and without funds were
repeatedly compelled to return to work on the old terms. By the
efforts of the Women’s Trade Union Council of Manchester a Union
was now formed, and a demand made for an increase of 2s. all
round. With the help of public sympathy and financial support the
women were able to stand out, and after a lock-out of nearly three
weeks a settlement was arrived at under which the women got an
increase of 1s. all round and the bonus was rearranged more
favourably for the workers. The whole of the women involved in this
dispute joined the Union.
A dispute in another flax mill was much more prolonged, and lasted
for over sixteen weeks. It was eventually arranged by the
intervention of the Board of Trade, and some concessions were
obtained by the workers. In both these disputes the men and
women stood together. There is perhaps no feature so hopeful in
this “new unionism” of women, as the fact that women are
beginning to refuse to be used as the instruments for undercutting
rates and injuring the position of men.
Many other such efforts might be recorded did space permit. Many
of them do not unfortunately lead to stable forms of association. The
difficulties are enormous, the danger of victimisation by the
employers is great, and in the case of unskilled workers their places,
as they know so well, are easily filled from outside. A correspondent
writes to me that “fear is the root cause of lack of organisation.” The
odds against them are so great, the hindrances to organisation and
solidarity so tremendous, that the instances recorded in which these
low-grade workers do find heart to stand together, putting sex
jealousy and sex rivalry behind them, disregarding their immediate

needs for the larger hope, are all the more significant. Several of the
labourers’ Unions now admit women, notably the Gas-Workers’ and
General Labourers’ Union and the Workers’ Union.
The National Federation of Women Workers.—The most important
Union for women among the ill-defined, less skilled classes of
workers is the National Federation of Women Workers, which owes
its existence mainly to the initiative and fostering care of the
Women’s Trade Union League. The form of organisation preferred by
the Women’s Trade Union League in the twentieth century is that
men and women should wherever possible organise together. This is
the case with the firmly-established Lancashire weavers and card-
room operatives and with the progressive Shop Assistants’ Union. In
the numerous trades, however, in which no Union for women exists,
a new effort and a new rallying centre have been found necessary.
The National Federation of Women Workers was formed in 1906 for
the purpose of organising women in miscellaneous trades not
already organised. It has made considerable progress in its few
years of existence, and has a number of branches in provincial and
suburban places. The National Federation is affiliated to the Trades
Union Congress and to the General Federation of Trade Unions, and
insured in this last for strike pay at the rate of 5s. per week per
member. The branches are organised in different trades, have local
committees and local autonomy to a certain extent. Each branch
retains control of one-sixth of the member’s entrance fee and
contribution, together with any voluntary contributions that may be
raised for its own purposes. The remainder of the funds go to a
Central Management Fund from which all strike and lock-out money
is provided, and a Central Provident Fund. Branches may not strike
without the permission of the Executive Council.
The National Federation of Women Workers has an Insurance
Section in which about 22,000 women were enrolled in 1913. At the
time of writing a special effort is being made for the organisation of
women in those industries to which the Trade Boards Act has
recently been extended.

Women’s Unions in America.—In America women are fewer in
numbers in the Trade Union movement, but they have occupied a
more prominent place in it there than in our own country. The
American labour movement may roughly be dated from the year
1825. In that year the tailoresses of New York formed a Union and
went on strike, and from that time to the present women wage-
earners have constantly formed Unions and agitated for better pay
and conditions of work.
The first women to enter factory employment were native
Americans, largely New England girls, the daughters of farmers, girls
who would naturally be more independent and have a higher
standard of comfort than the factory hand in old countries. Several
important strikes occurred among the cotton-mill girls at Dover, New
Hampshire, in 1828 and again in 1834, and also at Lowell in 1834
and 1836. It does not appear that these strikes resulted in any
stable combinations.
Subsequently, between 1840 and 1860, a number of labour reform
associations were organised, chiefly among textile mill girls, but
including also representatives of various clothing trades. These
societies organised a number of successful strikes, increased wages,
shortened the working day, and also carried on a successful agitation
for protective legislation. The leader of the Lowell Union, Sarah
Bagley, had worked for ten years in New England cotton mills. She
was the most prominent woman labour leader of the period, and in
1845 became president of the Lowell Female Labour Reform
Association, which succeeded in obtaining thousands of operatives’
signatures to a petition for the ten hours’ day.
The Female Industrial Association was organised in New York, 1845,
a Union not confined to any one trade but including representatives
from tailoresses, sempstresses, crimpers, book-folders and stitchers,
etc. Between 1860 and 1880 local branches were formed and
temporary advantages gained here and there by women cigar-
makers, tailoresses and sempstresses, umbrella sewers, cap-makers,
textile workers, laundresses and others. Women cigar-makers

especially, who were at first brought into the trade in large numbers
as strike breakers, after a struggle were organised either as
members of men’s Unions or in societies of their own, and once
organised “were as faithful to the principles of unionism as men.”
The Umbrella Sewers’ Union of New York gave Mrs. Paterson, then
visiting America, the idea of starting the movement for women’s
Unions in London. The women shoemakers formed a national Union
of their own, called the Daughters of St. Crispin.
In this period there was little organisation among the women of the
textile mills, and the native American girls were to some extent
ousted by immigrants having a lower standard of life. There were,
however, a number of ill-organised strikes which for the most part
failed.
In the war time the tailoresses and sempstresses, already suffering
the double pressure of long hours and low wages, had their
condition aggravated by the competition of the wives and widows of
soldiers, who, left alone and thrown into distress, were obliged to
swell the market for sewing work as the nearest field for unskilled
workers. Efforts, however, were made to form Trade Unions among
the sewing women; many of these were short-lived and
unsuccessful. The growing tendency among men to realise the
importance of organising women is seen in a resolution passed by a
meeting of tailors in June 1865:

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