One hundred years ago
ON WEDNESDAY a meeting of the Women's Employment Defence Associ- ation was held at Mrs. Courtney's, to discuss the bearing of the new Factory Act on the condition of working women. The discussion, which was opened by Miss Flora Shaw, was a very useful one, and showed that under the present Bill there would be the most serious risk of excluding women from many trades in which they now find employment. The results, moral and economic, of thus making it harder for women to earn their own living need not be empha- sised. In the course of a very able speech, Mrs. Fawcett told a truly excel- lent story. She once accompanied some female chainworkers on a deputation to Mr. Matthews, then Home Secretary. In the course of the interview, Mr. Matthews had constantly to stop and ask the meaning of the technical terms freely used by the chainworkers. As the deputation was going downstairs, Mrs. Fawcett heard one of the women say to another, not in contempt, but in a tone of the kindliest pity, "Poor gentleman! it be hard for him to have to make the law without knowing nothin' about it."
The Spectator 18 May 1895
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