Women Workers in Seven Professions | Page 3

some women of the Fabian Society, deeply stirred by the
tremendous social import of this movement, banded themselves
together to unravel the tangled skein of women's economic subjection
and to discover how its knots were tied. The first step was to get
women to speak out, to analyse their own difficulties and hindrances as
matters boldly to be faced. Whatever the truth may turn out to be with
regard to natural and inevitable differences of faculty between men and
women, it is at least certain that difference of sex, like any other

persistent condition of individual existence, implies some difference of
outlook. The woman's own standpoint--that is the first essential in
understanding her position, economic or other: the trouble is that she
has but recently begun to realise that she inevitably has a standpoint,
which is not that of her husband, or her brother, or of the men with
whom she works, or even that which these persons imagine must
naturally be hers. Her point of view is her own, and it is essential to
social progress that she shall both recognise this fact and make it
understood.
The aim of the Fabian Women's Group was to elicit women's own
thoughts and feelings on their economic position, and to this end we
invited women of experience and expert knowledge, from various
quarters and of many types of thought, to discourse of what they best
knew to audiences of women. After the lectures, the questions raised
were discussed in all their bearings by women speaking amongst
women without diffidence or prejudice. In this manner the physical
disabilities of women as workers have been explained clearly by
women doctors, and carefully and frankly weighed and considered; the
part taken by women in producing the wealth of this country in past
times has been set forth by students of economic history, and much
scattered material of great value unearthed, and for the first time
brought together concerning a subject hitherto deemed negligible by
the male historian. Lastly, women employed in or closely connected
with each leading occupation or group of occupations to-day--from the
professions to the sweated industries--are being asked to describe and
to discuss with us the economic conditions they have directly
experienced or observed.[1]
It is hoped in time to complete and shape for publication all the
material accumulated during these six years. We make a beginning with
this book of essays on the economic position of women in seven of the
leading professions at present open to them. Some of the papers appear
almost in the form in which they were first read to the group and its
women visitors: when the original lectures did not fully cover the
ground, they have been revised, altered, expanded, or re-written, or
essays by new writers have been substituted for those originally
presented. Thus the papers on "Teaching in Secondary Schools" by Dr
O'Brien Harris and that on "Teaching in Elementary Schools" by Mrs

Dice, take the place of an address on "The Life of a Teacher," by Miss
Drummond, President of the Incorporated Association of Assistant
Mistresses. This paper was withdrawn at the writer's request, but many
valuable points from her lecture, which she generously placed at the
disposal of the Editor, have been embodied. The other papers in the
Education Section are all new. Similarly, in the section which deals
with the profession of Nursing, Miss Hughes' paper on
"District-Nursing" is the only one which is based on a lecture given to
the group; the other articles are all supplementary. Together, we believe
they form a unique and almost exhaustive description of the profession.
That the volume might be made as useful as possible, the same method
has been followed throughout. The paper and discussion at the group
meeting have formed the nucleus from which a thorough treatment of
the subject has been developed.
We hope and believe that this book may help to arouse deeper interest
in the vigour and energy with which professional women are now
striving to make good their economic position; that it may serve to
enlist active sympathy with their struggle against the special difficulties
and hindrances which beset them, and make plain the value to society
of the work they can do. We also believe that the information here
brought together may be useful in helping young women to choose and
prepare for their life-work.
No pains have been spared to make the book as accurate as possible,
and to bring it in every case up to date.
It should be clearly emphasised that each contributor to this volume has
expressed her own opinions freely and independently, and that the
writers have been selected because they are leading members of their
respective professions, not because they represent a particular school of
thought. We have endeavoured to get