Note 36 — Chapter IV · MEN AND WOMEN AS WORKERS.

Women were introduced into Warrington newspaper offices early in the decade beginning with 1880. They have been found to be quicker than men in plain setting-up and simple straightforward work. They do not stay very long—the eldest girl compositor employed, when our investigator called, being only twenty-five. They are not employed in locking the formes; nor curiously enough are they employed in the machine-room to feed the printing presses, though they are so engaged in Manchester. The women compositors are paid one-third of the men's rate. Here it was definitely stated that the cheapness of women's labour made it unnecessary to introduce linotypes.