t these sums represent a full week's work.
The importance of this qualification will appear presently.

It is obvious at a glance that these wages are for the most part
considerably lower than those paid for any regular form of male labour.
But there is another fact which adds to the significance of this.
Skilled labour among men is much more highly paid than unskilled labour.
Among women's industries this is not the case to any great extent.
Skilled work like that of book-folding is paid no higher than the almost
unskilled work of the jam or match girl. This is said to be due partly
to the fact that the lower kinds of work are done by girls and women who
are compelled to support themselves, while the higher class is done by
women partly kept by husband or father, partly to the pride taken in the
performance of more skilled work, and the reluctance to mingle with
women belonging to a lower stratum of society, which prevents the wages
of the various kinds of work from being determined by free economic
competition. A bookbinding girl would sooner take lower wages than
engage in an inferior class of work which happened to rise in the market
price of its labour. But whatever the causes may be, the fact cannot be
disputed that the lower rates of wages extend over a larger proportion
of women workers.

Again, the wages quoted above refer to workers in factories. But only
three women's trades of any importance are managed entirely in
factories, the cigar, confectionery, and match-making[34] trades. In
many of the other trades part of the work is done in factories, part is
let out to sweaters, or to women who work at their own homes. Many of
the clothing trades come under this class, as for example, the tie-
making, trimmings, corset-making trades. The employers in these trades
are able to play the out-doors workers against the indoors workers, so
as to keep down the wages of both to a minimum. The "corset" manufacture
is fairly representative of these trades. The following list gives the
per-centage of workers receiving various sums for "indoors" i.e.
"factory" work.

s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s.
Under 4 3--6 8--10 10--12 12--15 Over 15
2.94 p.c. 50 p.c. 2.94 p.c. 5.9 p.c. 14.7 p.c. 22.52 p.c.

Outdoor workers earn from 6s. to 12s., but where more than 10s. is
earned, the woman is generally assisted by one or more of her children.
Generally speaking, the most mise