Women Workers in Seven Professions
by
Edith J. Morley
Part 1 out of 6
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WOMEN WORKERS IN SEVEN PROFESSIONS
A SURVEY OF THEIR ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AND PROSPECTS
EDITED FOR THE STUDIES COMMITTEE OF THE FABIAN WOMEN'S GROUP
BY
EDITH J. MORLEY
1914
PREFATORY NOTE
The task of collecting and editing the various essays of which this
book is comprised, has not been altogether easy. Some literary defects
and absence of unity are, by the nature of the scheme, inevitable:
we hope these are counterbalanced by the collection of first-hand
evidence from those in a position to speak authoritatively of the
professions which they follow. _Experientia docet_, and those who
desire to investigate the conditions of women's public work in various
directions, as well as those who are hesitating in their choice of a
career, may like carefully to weigh these opinions formed as a result
of personal experience.
For other defects in selection, arrangement, proportion and the like,
I am alone responsible. I have, from the first, been conscious
that many people were better suited to the editorial task than
myself--women with more knowledge of social and economic problems,
and, perhaps, with more leisure. But at the moment no one seemed to
be available, and I was persuaded to do what I could to carry out the
wishes of the Studies Committee of the Fabian Women's Group. If I
have in any measure succeeded, it is owing to the generous help and
unvarying kindness I have received in all directions. In the first
place, I would express my gratitude to the members of the Studies
Committee, and more particularly to Mrs Charlotte Wilson, the fount
and inspiration of the whole scheme, to Mrs Pember Reeves, and to
Mrs Bernard Shaw. My indebtedness to all the contributors for their
promptitude, patience, and courtesy, it is impossible to exaggerate.
I hope it will not be thought invidious if I say that without Dr
Murrell's sub-editorship of the Medical and Nursing Sections, and the
unstinted and continual help of Dr O'Brien Harris, the book could
not have appeared at all. The latter's paper on "Secondary School
Teaching" has had the benefit of criticism and suggestions from one
of the most notable Head-Mistresses of her day--Mrs Woodhouse, whose
experience of work in the schools of the Girls' Public Day School
Trust was kindly placed at the author's disposal. Similarly, some of
the details mentioned in the section on "Acting," were kindly supplied
by Mrs St John Ervine. Lastly--for it is impossible to mention all
who have assisted--I wish to thank Miss Ellen Smith for her unsparing
secretarial labours, and Miss M.G. Spencer and Miss Craig, of the
Central Bureau for the Employment of Women, for the Table which
appears at the end of Section I. This is unique as an exhaustive
summary of a mass of information, hitherto not easily accessible to
the general public.
EDITH J. MORLEY.
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, READING, _December_ 1913.
CONTENTS
PREFATORY NOTE. By the Editor
FOREWORDS. ON BEHALF OF THE STUDIES COMMITTEE OF THE FABIAN WOMEN'S
GROUP
I. THE TEACHING PROFESSION
I. INTRODUCTION. By EDITH J. MORLEY, Oxford Honour
School of English Language and Literature. Professor
of English Language, University College, Reading.
Fellow and Lecturer of University of London
King's College for Women
II. WOMEN AT THE UNIVERSITIES AND UNIVERSITY
TEACHING AS A PROFESSION. By EDITH J. MORLEY
III. SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHING. By (Mrs) M. O'BRIEN
HARRIS, D.Sc., London, Hon. Member of Somerville
College, Oxford. Headmistress of the County
Secondary School, South Hackney
IV. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHING. By (Mrs) KATE
DICE, C.T., Class Teacher in the service of the London
County Council, Hon. Sec. of the Fabian Education
Group
V. TEACHING IN SCHOOLS FOR THE MENTALLY AND
PHYSICALLY DEFECTIVE. By (Mrs) JESSIE E.
THOMAS, C.T., Class Teacher at the London County
Council School for Physically Defective Children,
Turney Road, Dulwich
VI. THE TEACHING OF GYMNASTICS. By MARY HANKINSON,
Hon. Sec. of the Ling Association. Diploma of the
Dartford Physical Training College
VII. THE TEACHING OF DOMESTIC SUBJECTS. By (Mrs)
MARGARET M'KILLOP, M.A. (Dublin). Oxford
Honour Schools of Natural Science and of Mathematics
Fellow and Tutor of University of London King's
College for Women;
and
E. BEATRICE HOGG, first-class Diploma, National
Training School of Cookery. Instructress, London
County Council Probationary and Training Centres,
Examiner in Domestic Subjects to the City and
Guilds of London Institute, the Nautical School
of Cookery, etc. Some time Hon. Sec. London
Branch, Assistant Teachers of Domestic Subjects
TABLE I. SHOWING THE COST AND DURATION OF
EDUCATION IN ARTS AND SCIENCE, AND THE
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE FOR WOMEN STUDENTS
AT THE VARIOUS BRITISH UNIVERSITIES. Reprinted
(with additions), by special permission, from the
pamphlet, "Openings for University Women," published
by the Central Bureau for the Employment of
Women for the Students' Careers Association
TABLE II. SHOWING SOME ADDITIONAL POST-GRADUATE
RESEARCH SCHOLARSHIPS IN ARTS AND SCIENCE
AVAILABLE FOR WOMEN STUDENTS, AWARDED BY
BODIES OTHER THAN UNIVERSITIES OF THE UNITED
KINGDOM. Compiled (with additions) by special permission,
from the "Report on the Opportunities for
Post-Graduate Work open to Women" published by
the Federation of University Women
II. THE MEDICAL PROFESSION INCLUDING DENTISTRY. Sub-Editor: CHRISTINE
M. MURRELL, M.D., B.S., London, Assistant Medical Officer of Health
(Special Schools) London County Council; Lecturer and Examiner on
Adolescence, Health, First Aid, Infant Care, etc., London County
Council and Battersea Polytechnic, Honorary Medical Officer,
Paddington Creche, and for Infant Consultations, North Marylebone;
late Medical Registrar and Electrician and late Resident House
Physician, Royal Free Hospital
I. MEDICINE AND SURGERY. By the Sub-Editor
II. DENTAL SURGERY. By (Mrs) Eva M. HANDLEY
READ, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., L.S.A., L.D.S. Dental
Surgeon to the Royal Free Hospital, the Margaret
M'Donald Baby Clinic, and the Cripple Hostel
Camberwell
III. THE NURSING PROFESSION TOGETHER WITH MIDWIFERY AND MASSAGE.
Sub-Editor: CHRISTINE M. MURRELL
PREFACE. By the Sub-Editor
I. GENERAL SURVEY AND INTRODUCTION. By E.M.
Musson. Matron of the General Hospital, Birmingham
II. NURSING IN GENERAL HOSPITALS. By E.M.
MUSSON
III. NURSING IN PRIVATE HOMES AND Co--OPERATIONS.
By GERTRUDE TOWNEND, Sister in her own Nursing
Home; late Deputy-Sister, St. Bartholomew's
Hospital; late Matron, Royal Ear Hospital, Dean
Street
IV. NURSING IN POOR LAW INFIRMARIES. By ELEANOR
C. BARTON, President of the Poor Law Infirmary
Matrons' Association
V. NURSING IN FEVER HOSPITALS. By S.G. VILLIERS,
Matron of the South-West Fever Hospital
VI. DISTRICT NURSING. By AMY HUGHES, General Superintendent
of the Queen Victoria Jubilee Institute for
Nurses
VII. NURSING IN SCHOOLS AND NURSES AS INSPECTORS.
By H.L. PEARSE
VIII. NURSING IN HOSPITALS FOR THE INSANE. By a
Matron of one of them
IX. NURSING IN THE COLONIES. By A. FRICKER, Matron
of the Colonial Hospital, Trinidad, under the Colonial
Nursing Association
X. NURSING IN THE ARMY AND NAVY. By the Sub-Editor
XI. PRISON NURSING. By the Sub-Editor
XII. MIDWIFERY AS A PROFESSION FOR WOMEN (OTHER
THAN DOCTORS). By ANNIE M'CALL, M.D., Senior
Medical Officer and Lecturer, Clapham Maternity
Hospital and School of Midwifery; late Lecturer in
and Demonstrator of Operative Midwifery, London
School of Medicine for Women; Examiner, Central
Midwives' Board; Vice-Chairman of the Committee of
the London County Council for the Supervision of
Midwives in the County of London
XIII. MASSAGE. By EDITH M. TEMPLETON, Secretary of the
Incorporated Society of Trained Masseuses
IV. WOMEN AS SANITARY INSPECTORS AND HEALTH VISITORS. By (Mrs) F.J.
GREENWOOD, Sanitary Inspector, Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury, late
Chief Woman Inspector, Sheffield; Associate Royal Sanitary Institute;
Certificate, Central Midwives' Board; Diploma, National Health Society
V. WOMEN IN THE CIVIL SERVICE
I. THE HIGHER GRADES: PRESENT POSITION AND
PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE. By a Woman Civil
Servant
II. THE LOWER GRADES AND THE PRESENT POSITION.
By Another Woman Civil Servant
VI. WOMEN CLERKS AND SECRETARIES. By (Mrs) ELSPETH KEITH ROBERTSON
SCOTT
VII. ACTING AS A PROFESSION FOR WOMEN. By LENA ASHWELL
APPENDIX I. SCHEME OF WORK OF THE FABIAN WOMEN'S GROUP
APPENDIX II. LATEST CENSUS RETURNS OF WOMEN WORKERS IN THE SEVEN
PROFESSIONS CONSIDERED IN THIS BOOK
FOREWORDS
ON BEHALF OF THE STUDIES COMMITTEE OF THE FABIAN WOMEN'S GROUP
The present economic position of women bristles with anomalies. It
is the outcome of long ages of semi-serfdom, when women toiled
continuously to produce wealth, which, if they were married, they
could enjoy only at the good pleasure of their lords,--ages when the
work of most women was conditioned and subordinated by male dominance.
Yet in those days the working housewife commanded the consideration
always conceded to a bread-winner--even when dependent. In modern
times women's economic position has been undermined by the helpless
dependence engendered amongst the well-to-do by "parasitism" resulting
from nineteenth-century luxury--to quote the striking word of Olive
Schreiner. Similarly, dependence has been forced upon large sections
of women-folk amongst the manual workers by the loss of their hold
upon land and by the decay of home industries. Now a new force is at
work: the revolt of the modern woman against parasitism and dependence
in all their forms; her demand for freedom to work and to choose her
sphere of work, as well as for the right to dispose of what she gains.
Six years ago 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 our material from the most
authoritative quarters, irrespective of the personal views of those
who have supplied it. All the writers have given generously of
their time and labour in order that they might contribute to an
investigation of profound social and national importance--the clear
presentation of the economic position of women as it appears to women
themselves. Widely different as are the professional interests and
divergent the opinions of the writers of these essays, no one can, as
we think, read consecutively the various sections of the book without
arriving at the conclusion that, on certain fundamental questions,
there is substantial agreement among them. Almost all, as a result of
their professional experience, definitely express the conviction that
women need economic independence and political emancipation: nowhere
is there any hint of opposition to either of these ideals. The writers
are unanimous in their insistence upon the importance--to men as
well as to women--of equal pay for equal work, irrespective of
sex. Wherever the subject of the employment of married women is
mentioned--and it crops up in most of the papers--there is adverse
comment on the economically unsound, unjust, and racially dangerous
tendency in many salaried professions to enforce upon women
resignation on marriage. It is clear that professional women are
beginning to show resentment at the attempt to force celibacy upon
them: they feel themselves insulted and wronged as human beings when,
being physically and mentally fit, they are not permitted to judge for
themselves in this matter. Apart from their righteous indignation, it
may be suggested that, even from the ratepayers' point of view,
the normal disabilities of motherhood, with the consequent leave of
absence, would probably in the long run be less expensive than the
dismissal, at the zenith of their powers, of experienced workers,
who have to be replaced by younger and less efficient women. It
is, moreover, a truism that the best work is produced by the
most contented worker. A fundamentally happy woman, continually
strengthened and refreshed by affectionate companionship, is obviously
better able to endure the strain of professional work than her
unmarried sister, who at best, is deprived of the normal joys
of fully--developed womanhood. The action of Central and Local
Authorities and of other employers who make marriage a disability
for their women employees, is alluded to by our contributors with an
indignation, the more striking for the studied calm with which it is
expressed.[2]
The future as foreshadowed in these papers seems to us bright with
hope. In spite of difficulties, opposition, rebuffs, and prejudice,
professional women workers are slowly but surely advancing in status
and in recognition. They are gaining courage to train themselves
to claim positions of responsibility and command, and to refuse, if
occasion arises, to be subordinated, on the ground of their
womanhood, to men less able than themselves. They are learning by
experience,--many have already learned,--the need for co-operation and
loyalty to one another. While they are thus gaining new and valuable
qualities, they have never lost, in spite of many hardships, the
peculiar joy and lofty idealism in work which are, in part, a reaction
from ages of economic and personal dependence.
[Footnote 1: For an analysis of the whole scheme of work of the Fabian
Women's Group, _see_ Appendix I.]
[Footnote 2: In Western Australia the following Amendment, 340A.,
to the Criminal Code has passed the third reading in the Legislative
Assembly, and is expected to pass the Legislative Council before this
book appears:--
(1) Any person, who, either as principal or agent--_(a)_ Makes
or enters into or enforces or seeks to enforce any rule, order,
regulation, contract, agreement or arrangement in restraint of or
with intent to restrain, prevent or hinder the marriage of _any person
(N.B._ A woman is a "person" in Western Australia) who is in his
employment or in the employment of his principal, and is of the age of
twenty-one years or upwards; or
_(b)_ Dismisses or threatens to dismiss any person from his employment
or the employment of his principal, or alters or threatens to alter,
any such person's position to the prejudice of such person by reason
of the fact that such person has married or intends to marry, or
with a view to restrain, prevent, or hinder such person from getting
married;
is guilty of an offence, and is liable to imprisonment for three
months, or to a fine not exceeding five hundred pounds.
(2) The provisions of this section shall apply to corporations so far
as they are capable of being applied.]
WOMEN WORKERS IN SEVEN PROFESSIONS
SECTION I
THE TEACHING PROFESSION
"All stood thus far
Upon equal ground: that we were brothers all
In honour, as in one community."
I
INTRODUCTION
Until recently, girls who desired to earn their livelihood drifted
naturally into teaching, which was often the last refuge of the
destitute. Even nowadays, it is taken too much for granted that some
form of teaching is the obvious opening for educated women, who
aspire to economic independence. But, thanks to various causes and
developments, it is now almost universally recognised that teaching is
a profession, and one which can be entered only by candidates, who are
properly equipped and trained. In a book such as this, it may then
be assumed that the elderly governess, driven to teach by poverty and
lack of friends, with no qualifications but gentility, good manners,
good principles, and a humble mind, is a figure which is mercifully
becoming less and less common. It is still necessary, however, to
insist on the fact that brains and education and training are not
by themselves sufficient to produce a successful teacher. Quite
literally, teaching is a "calling" as well as a profession: the true
candidate must have a vocation; she must mount her rostrum or enter
her class-room with a full conviction of the importance of her
mission, and of her desire to undertake it. This earnest purpose
should not, however, destroy her sense of humour and of proportion;
it is possible to take oneself and one's daily routine of work too
seriously, a fault which does not tend to impress their importance on
a scoffing world. No girl should become a teacher because she does
not know how else to gain her living. The profession is lamentably
overstocked with mediocrities, lacking enthusiasm and vigour, drifting
more and more hopelessly from one post to another. But there is plenty
of room for keen and competent women, eager to learn and to teach, and
this is true of all branches of the profession. No work can well be
more thankless, more full of drudgery and of disappointment than that
of a teacher who has missed her vocation. Few lives can be more full
of happy work and wide interests than those of teachers who rejoice in
their calling.
Yet there is need to call attention to certain drawbacks which are
common to all branches of the profession. As a class, teachers are
badly paid, and many are overworked. The physical and mental strain
is inevitably severe: in many cases this is unnecessarily increased
by red-tape regulations that involve loss of time and temper and an
amount of clerical work, which serves no useful purpose. Teachers
need to concentrate their energies on essentials: of these the life
intellectual is the most important, and this, however elementary the
standard of work demanded in class. No one can teach freshly unless
she is at the same time learning, and widening her own mental horizon.
Too many forms to fill up, too many complicated registers to keep, too
many meetings to attend--these things stultify the mind and crush the
spirit. They are not a necessary accompaniment of State or municipal
control, though sometimes under present conditions it is hard to
believe that they are not the inevitable concomitants of official
regulations. Anything which tends to make teachers' lives more narrow,
is opposed to the cause of education. This truth should be instilled
into all official bosoms. Wherever the State or the local authority
intervenes, wherever public money has been granted, there regular
inspection obviously becomes inevitable, but the multiplication of
inspectors, each representing a different authority, is not necessary
or sensible. At present, in all grant-aided institutions, whatever
their status, inspectors do not cease from troubling, and teachers as
well as administrative officers, though weary, find no rest.[1] This
is as detrimental to the pupil as to the teacher, for it lowers the
intellectual standard by substituting form for matter and the letter
for the spirit. Thus the inspector of an art-school who enquires only
about what are officially termed "student-hours," and not at all about
the work therein accomplished, does not make for artistic efficiency
either in teacher or taught. Yet this instance is of very recent
occurrence, and there are countless parallel cases. No wonder the
Universities demand freedom from State control; no wonder Training
Colleges and subsidised secondary as well as elementary schools groan
under its tender mercies. The present forms taken by this control are
mostly obnoxious to all practical educationists. They arise from lack
of trust in the teaching profession on the part of administrators--a
mistrust which it is of primary importance to allay by increased
efficiency, independence, and organisation. Nationalisation of
the schools is necessary, if a real highway of education is to be
established: it must be obtained without irritating conditions which
make freedom, experiment, and progress too often impossible. The task
before the teaching profession is to retain full scope for initiative
and experiment, whilst working loyally under a public body. This
should be specially the work of the socialist teacher, while the
socialist administrator and legislator must see that their side of the
work leaves full room for individuality.
In the following section it is obviously impossible adequately to
consider all branches of the teaching profession, and it has therefore
been thought the wisest course to select the leading varieties of work
in which women teachers are engaged and to treat them in some detail.
The writers of the various articles express their own points of view,
gained by practical first-hand experience of the work they describe.
Allowance must, perhaps, in some cases be made for personal
enthusiasm, or for the depression that arises from thwarted efforts
and unfulfilled ideals. At any rate no attempt has been made to
co-ordinate the papers or to give them any particular tendency. As
a result, certain deductions may be made with some confidence. Women
teachers of experience are convinced of the manifold attractions of
their profession, and at the same time are alive to its disadvantages
as well as to its possibilities. Alike in University, secondary
school, and elementary school there is the joy of service, and the
power to train,
"To riper growth the mind and will.
"And what delights can equal those
That stir the spirit's inner deeps,
When one that loves, but knows not, reaps
A truth from one that loves and knows?"
Of all teachers, perhaps she who elects to work in an elementary
school is in this respect most fortunate and most rich in
opportunities, since, to many of her children, she is the one bright
spot in their lives, the one person who endeavours to understand and
to stimulate them to the effort which all normal children enjoy. For
her, too, particularly if her work lies in a poor district, there
is the opportunity, if she care to take it, for all kinds of social
interests. There will, of course, be much to sadden her in such
experiences, but at least they will add a sense of reality to her
teaching which will keep her in close touch with life. She will find
that there are compensations for hard work and red-tape regulations,
even for low remuneration and slowness of promotion. Nor must it
be forgotten that, inadequate as is her salary, it contrasts not
unfavourably with that of other occupations for women, _e.g._
clerkships and the Civil Service, in which the work is in itself less
attractive. As compared with the assistant mistress in a secondary
school, her lot is not altogether unenviable. If she has shorter
holidays, larger classes, and at the worst, but by no means
inevitably, a lower stipend, these facts must be counterbalanced by
remembering that she has comparatively few corrections, much less
homework, and no pressure of external examining bodies, that her
tenure is far less insecure, and that her training and education
have been to a very large extent borne by the State or by local
authorities.
The following table gives the approximate cost of College education
for elementary teachers-in-training. If it be compared with the
expenses that have to be met by other students from private sources
(_vide_ p. 7, or, in greater detail, pp. 82 _et seq_.), it will be
seen that the elementary teacher begins her career with a substantial
subsidy from the State.
_Elementary Teachers_.
The following is a typical table of annual cost at a University
College which provides for two-year and for three-year students. The
training is obtainable at slightly lower cost to students in some
other colleges.
Grants by Board of Fees payable by students
Education to College. to College.
Tuition. Maintenance. Tuition. Maintenance.
Women students L13 L20 L12 From L12 to
in residence L22 according
to accommodation.
(It is to be noted that the Government maintenance grant
for men students in residence is L40, which can be
made practically to cover expenses.)
Women students L13 L20 L12 ...
living at home (paid to student)
Men students receive _L25 _maintenance grant.
Apparently the Government policy, as evidenced by its maintenance
grants, is to discourage women students from entering residential
colleges. Yet it is a well-known fact that the wear and tear involved
in living at home is far greater than at college--especially for
women--and the educational advantages correspondingly fewer than those
resulting from residence.
County Councils frequently provide "free places" at local colleges,
together, in some cases, with supplementary bursaries for
maintenance. Non-resident students--_e.g._, in London--seldom have
any out-of-pocket expenses for their actual education. Nor must it be
forgotten that education up to college age is free to junior county
scholars and to bursars, who also receive small grants towards
maintenance.
_College Fees for other than Elementary Teachers-in-Training_[2]
Oxford and Cambridge Colleges From L90 to L105 a year for a
minimum of 3 years (of 24 weeks).
Other Residential Universities
and Colleges From L52 to L90 or L110 a
year for a minimum of 3
years (of 30 to 35 weeks).
Non-residential Colleges From L20 to L55 a year for a
minimum of 3 years. (The
cost of maintenance must be
reckoned at about L40 a
year, as a minimum.)
Students who desire to do advanced work will need at least one, and
probably two, additional years at the University, while all women who
intend to teach in schools ought also to spend one year in training.
A large number of County Councils provide "senior" scholarships to
cover or partially to cover college fees. In some counties only one
or two such scholarships are given annually, and there is severe
competition: in others they are comparatively easy to obtain, though
there are never enough for all candidates who desire a University
education. Most of these scholarships are not renewable for a fourth
year of training--an extremely short-sighted policy on the part of the
authorities.
At practically every University, entrance or other scholarships and
exhibitions are awarded annually. Competition for these is usually
very severe, and they are extremely difficult to gain. At Oxford
and Cambridge only quite exceptional candidates can hope to secure
scholarships at the women's colleges. Moreover, scholarships seldom
cover the complete cost of maintenance and tuition; at Oxford and
Cambridge they never do so.
Most secondary teachers, then, must incur liabilities varying from
L60 to L350, apart from school, holiday, and personal expenses, before
they obtain their first degree. On the other hand, a graduate with
good testimonials can very often obtain her professional training at
comparatively small cost by means of a bursary: with luck, she may get
maintenance as well as free tuition. Every year, however, as training
is more widely recognised as essential, the proportion of scholarships
available becomes smaller. With the advent of the new Teachers'
Register, which makes training indispensable after 1918, girls will
more and more often be obliged to find means to pay for their own
training. At present it is often possible to borrow for this purpose
from loan societies specially formed to meet the needs of women
preparing to enter professions.
The training for kindergarten and lower-form mistresses is less
expensive, arduous, and lengthy. Students are required to give
evidence of having received a good secondary education; they can then
take their First Froebel Certificate after one year, and their Higher
Froebel Certificate after about two years' training. The cost of such
training varies from L30 to L58 non-resident; L120 to L150 resident.
If they elect to go to the House of Education at Ambleside, the
training is for two years, and is specially suited to those who
wish to teach in private families. The cost amounts to L90 a year,
including residence, which is obligatory.
Kindergarten assistant-mistresses usually obtain from L90 to L100
salary for part-day work, while for whole-day work the rate is the
same as that of their colleagues. Mistresses in charge of a large
kindergarten department often receive additions to their stipend if
they are willing to train student-mistresses for Froebel examinations.
The Ambleside students usually teach small private classes, or accept
posts as resident governesses in families. Their remuneration varies
in accordance with the work done, but it is usually about the same as
that received by kindergarten and lower-form mistresses.
The stipends of other secondary teachers are considered in the article
by Dr O'Brien Harris (see p. 32). It should be noted that in good
private schools where the standard of teaching is equally high, the
salaries are approximately on the same scale as in public schools. But
private schools vary enormously in standing. When they are inferior,
the teachers are paid miserable pittances, and are often worth no more
than they receive. Such schools, however, are rapidly decreasing in
number, since they cannot survive competition with public State-aided
schools. The best private schools, on the other hand, supply a real
need, and, as a large proportion of their pupils do not enter
for public examinations, it is possible in them, to make valuable
experiments which could not easily be tried in larger subsidised
institutions.
In boarding-schools, the conditions do not markedly differ from those
obtaining in day-schools. The chief danger is lest the teachers should
suffer from the strain of supervision-duties in addition to their
work in school. But in the better schools this is avoided by the
appointment of house-mistresses, the teaching staff living apart from
the girls, either in lodgings or in a hostel of their own. When they
"live in," the value of their board for the school terms is usually
reckoned at about L40 a year, which is deducted from the ordinary
salary of an assistant. The cost of living in a mistresses' house is
usually higher, but there are many counterbalancing advantages, the
chief of which is complete freedom when school duties are over.
It would not be surprising if all women who have incurred the heavy
expenses of preparation for a teaching career, were dissatisfied with
the very small return they may expect by way of salary. Certainly if
we judged by the standard of payment, the profession might well appear
unimportant. Men and women alike receive inadequate remuneration in
all its branches, but, as in other callings, women are worse paid than
men. One might imagine that the training of girls was less arduous
or less important than that of boys, since no one suggests that women
teachers are less conscientious or less competent than their male
colleagues. Now that at every stage co-education of the sexes is
becoming less unusual, it is wise policy in the interests of men as
well as of women, to make the standard of remuneration depend, not on
the sex of the worker, but on the quality of the work. Otherwise
men will gradually be driven from the profession, as is already the
tendency in the United States of America and, to some extent, in
elementary teaching in this country. Needless to say, the women's
salaries need levelling up: it would be hopeless policy to reduce the
men's maxima to those of the women. In many secondary schools and in
at any rate some elementary ones, there is too great a discrepancy
between the salary of the head and that of the assistants. Here
again, teachers might endeavour to arrive at some united expression
of opinion. All would probably agree that the profession should be
entered for the sake of the work itself, and not on the remote chance
of becoming a head-mistress. But while the difference in salary is
very great, it is inevitable that ambitious teachers must aspire to
headships, even though they be better suited to class work.
Finally, it may be repeated, that with all its drawbacks, the teaching
profession has much to recommend it to those who desire to make
it their life-work. It is not suited to all comers: it makes heavy
demands on mind and body and heart; it gives little material return.
But it gives other returns in generous measure. For teachers it is
less difficult than for most people to preserve their faith in human
nature, less impossible, even in the midst of daily routine, to
believe in the dignity of labour, and to illuminate it with the light
of enthusiasm and aspiration.
"... whether we be young or old
Our destiny, our being's heart and home,
Is with infinitude, and only there;
With hope it is, hope that can never die,
Effort, and expectation and desire,
And something evermore about to be."
[Footnote 1: The ideal inspector is, of course, a help and not a
hindrance to the teacher, acting as a propagator of new ideas
and bringing into touch with one another, workers who are widely
separated. But the reach of most inspectors far exceeds their grasp.]
[Footnote 2: See table at end of section, p. 82.]
II
WOMEN AT THE UNIVERSITIES AND UNIVERSITY TEACHING AS A PROFESSION
When a girl is about to leave school at the age of seventeen or
eighteen, she is often as little able to determine what profession
she wishes to adopt, as is her brother in similar case. If she is
intelligent, well-trained and eager to study, her natural impulse is
to go to college, and to get there, it is still usually the line of
least resistance to say that she wishes to become a teacher. When
there are pecuniary difficulties in the way, the decision must be
taken still earlier. The unfortunate child in the elementary school
used to be compelled to make her choice at the age of twelve
or thirteen, often to find later on, when the first barriers of
pupil-teaching and King's Scholarship were surmounted, that she
was not really suited to her profession or that continued study
was uncongenial. Even now, when the system is different and better,
children are bound too early by a contract they find it hard to break.
It cannot be too often insisted that every intelligent child who
is worthy of a junior or senior scholarship, is not therefore of
necessity predestined to the profession of teaching--a profession so
arduous, so full of drudgery and of disappointment that it should be
entered by those only who are sure of their mission, and full of the
spirit that makes learning and teaching a lasting joy.
There should be other paths from elementary and secondary school to
the University than that which leads to the teacher's platform.
Moreover, granted that the desire to teach is a real one, and that
the girl has aptitude, it ought still to be unnecessary to choose
a particular branch of the profession before she has become an
under-graduate. A University career means, among other things, the
discovery of new powers, new interests, and opportunities; sometimes
it brings with it the painful conviction that aspiration has
outstripped capacity. The bright girl who has excelled at school,
may find that she is unfitted for independent honour work: she is not
necessarily worse on that account, but she must substitute some other
plan for her ambition to become a "specialist." The slow plodder who
could never trust her memory at school, may, at College, discover
unsuspected powers of investigation and co-ordination which mark her
out for some branch of higher study. The University, the first contact
with a more independent and larger life, is the "testing-place for
young souls": students should enter its portals as free women, the
world all before them where to choose. In many cases not until the
first degree is taken, has the proper time come to determine finally
the profession which is to be adopted. This is the ideal--for most
people admittedly a far away one at present. But even now, the
would-be teacher should not be asked to decide earlier than this on
the particular branch of the profession which she is to enter. The
average pass graduate will do best to fit herself as an all-round
form mistress: there should be no reason to determine in what type of
school, elementary or secondary. The training required should be the
same if the classes were, as they ought to be, of manageable size, and
the equipment in both types of institution equally good. Teachers
in both kinds of school would benefit if the present absurd division
between them ceased to exist. Children under fourteen require similar
discipline whatever their social status: even if the subjects taught
are to differ somewhat--a matter which is controversial and need not
be discussed here--the teachers need similar training and the same
kind and amount of academic education. Until these are secured, there
can be no real equality of opportunity for the elementary school
child: only the very best intellects in the class of 60 can hope to
compete with the average individually educated child in the form of
20 or 30--and this is true whatever the merits and enthusiasm of the
teacher.
Some girls will welcome the larger opportunities for social service
which are open to the elementary school-teacher: others will prefer
and be better suited to the conditions of the secondary school.
Clearly, the student, whose expenses have been defrayed by the
Government on condition that she enters its service, must fulfil her
undertaking: but that should not in itself limit her to one type of
school in these days of grant-aided institutions.[1] The new four-year
course makes it possible for her, as for independent students, to
train in the year subsequent to taking a degree--an essential reform
if the old over-strain and rush are to be avoided. It is generally
accepted, and in girls' secondary schools commonly acted upon, that
professional training for one year after graduation, is indispensable.
The teacher is born, not made, but she needs help if she is to avoid
mistakes equally disastrous to herself and her pupils: she requires
some knowledge of child-character, some acquaintance with the history
and theory of education, some leisure to formulate, some opportunity
to consider the aims as well as the methods of her teaching. We have,
perhaps, passed beyond the stage when it is necessary further to
discuss the value and effect of training. It is still desirable
to emphasise the fact that the untrained woman teacher finds it
increasingly difficult to obtain satisfactory and well-paid school
posts.[2] Girls should endeavour by every means in their power to
secure this fourth year at college, which is essential to their
competency and to security of employment. It would also be well to
impress on county councils that their work is but half done if they
continue to refuse a renewal of scholarships for training to those who
have taken a degree.
Students who have graduated with honours will have to decide before
they begin to train, whether they wish to become specialist teachers
and whether they have sufficient intellectual capacity to do so.
Generally speaking, a student who has obtained third-class honours
will do better to prepare herself for ordinary form work; she is
not likely to obtain control of the teaching of her own subject in a
first-rate school, though doubtless she will often get the opportunity
to take some classes under the direction of the specialists. Graduates
in high honours will usually desire to devote themselves mainly to the
subject in which they have proved their ability, and their training
must be adapted to their end. Modern language or English specialists
will need practical training in phonetics, for example: mathematicians
require to study modern methods of teaching their subject, and so
forth. The best training colleges, of course, provide for such cases;
in this respect, University training-departments have the advantage
over others, since they can secure the services of experts for the
discussion of their own subjects.
There remains, lastly, the case of the student who, while definitely
desiring to teach, wishes at the same time to go on with her own work,
to undertake research or advanced or independent study. Such an
one will aim at a University or College appointment, in the hope
of pursuing her own work under congenial conditions. At Oxford and
Cambridge a woman is, at this stage and always, definitely at a
disadvantage by reason of her sex. For her there are scarcely any
fellowships or post-graduate scholarships, and too often the promising
scholar is caught up in the whirl of teaching for her daily bread at
the very moment when it is most necessary for her to have leisure and
ease of mind. Few things are more required in women's education at
the moment than liberal endowments for post-graduate study. The
comparatively new Federation of University Women Graduates has done
good work by making a list[3] of the opportunities available for women
graduates, either by open competition or otherwise, at the various
Universities and elsewhere: it has also founded, and twice awarded,
an annual fellowship for a woman who has already published a
distinguished contribution to learning. But much more is needed in
this direction if women are to have the same chances as men to qualify
themselves for the higher university appointments. At almost all the
new Universities men and women are nominally alike eligible for every
teaching post. In practice, women are rarely if ever selected for the
higher positions. Sex prejudice undoubtedly counts for something in
this result. It may be assumed that, with two candidates of equal
merit, preference will certainly be given to the man: indeed, it is
certain that a woman must be exceptionally qualified and far more
distinguished than her male competitors to stand a chance of a
professorial appointment even in the most liberal of co-education
universities--Manchester, for example, where the conditions are
exceptionally good. This fact should not deter _fully qualified_ women
from applying for professorial chairs. The power of suggestion is
very great, and it is well to accustom appointment committees to the
consideration of women's claims: in time it may appear less strange to
choose a strong woman candidate than to reject her in favour of a less
qualified male applicant.
It must be confessed, however, that the case does not at present often
arise. The girl who has had a brilliant undergraduate career, and who
has real capacity for advanced study, exists in her hundreds. But in
almost every case when she is not financially independent, at best
after an interval of preparation for her M.A., she accepts a junior
lectureship or demonstratorship, and from that time onwards is
swallowed up in the vortex of teaching and routine work. Often she
makes heroic efforts and succeeds in producing independent results,
but, so far, to nothing like the extent that would be commensurate
with the promise of her undergraduate achievement. Generally she
is too conscientious about detail, too interested in her students
individually and collectively, to secure sufficient time for her own
studies.
If a lecturer be known to teach between twenty and thirty hours a
week, it is tolerably, though not entirely, safe to assume that it is
a woman who is so foolish. In so doing, she is destroying her chances
of advancement--intellectual and professional--and is laying her whole
sex open to the charge of being unsuited to university work except in
its lower branches.
It is certain that the number of University appointments open to women
is on the increase, and that there is no present likelihood that the
demand for qualified women will remain stationary. On the other hand,
the necessary qualifications, personal as well as intellectual, are
high; the work is hard, though attractive, and it is in every respect
undesirable that those whose talents can better be exerted in other
branches of the profession should endeavour to obtain College posts.
Roughly speaking such openings are of four kinds :--
(1) Administrative posts. These are usually the reward of long and
successful service in junior appointments. The heads of the various
women's University Colleges are often, but by no means invariably,
well paid, and may look forward to a salary ranging from L400 to
L1,000. Such posts are obviously few in number and entail hard work
and grave responsibility. They necessarily preclude much time for
research, or even for teaching. The corresponding, but much less
responsible, influential, and well-paid position in a co-educational
University is that of Dean or Tutor of Women Students. This post
is usually, and should always be held by a woman of senior academic
standing, whose position in the class-room or laboratory commands
as much respect as her authority outside. The Dean or Tutor is
responsible for the welfare and discipline of all women students, and
is nowadays usually a member of the Senate or academic governing
body. Sometimes she is also Warden of a Women's Hostel, but this is
obviously undesirable if there be more than one Hall of Residence,
lest she may appear to favour her own students at the expense of the
others.
(2) Professorial posts and Staff Lectureships.[4] These are almost
entirely confined to Women's Colleges, though there are a very few
exceptions to this rule. The University of London has established
University Professorships and Readerships at the various constituent
Women's Colleges.[5] One of the former and several of the latter
are held by women who have been appointed after open competition. In
addition, a woman, Mrs Knowles, holds a University Readership at the
co-educational London School of Economics. There are also one or two
women professors at the newer Universities, but these as a rule retain
their positions by right of past service in a struggling institution,
not as a result of open competition, when University status had been
attained and reasonable stipends were offered to new-comers. The
National University of Ireland has, however, appointed several women
professors at its various constituent Colleges.
Salaries probably range from L300 to L700, the better paid posts as
yet very seldom falling to women.
(3) Lectureships, assistant lectureships, and demonstratorships. These
are usually open to women in practice as well as in theory, though
much depends on the personal idiosyncrasy of the head of the
department, and on the importance of the post and the salary offered.
But since it is, unhappily, often easy to secure an able woman for the
same stipend as that which must be offered to an inexperienced man,
fresh from college, difficulties are not, as a rule, placed in the
way of such appointments. The salary begins at about L150 (sometimes
less), and rises normally to about L200 or L250. A few senior and
independent lectureships are better remunerated.
(4) Closely allied with University work is the work of training
teachers. In Training-Colleges, and in University training-departments
there is a constant demand for lecturers and mistresses of method.
These posts, which are remunerated on about the same scale as other
University lectureships, are well suited to those whose interest lies
mainly in purely educational matters. Girls who have obtained
good degrees, but who do not wish to devote themselves entirely to
scholarship, will find here an attractive and ever-extending sphere of
influence. Lecturers in Training-Colleges must, of course, themselves
hold a University teaching-diploma: they should have school experience
of various kinds, and they must be enthusiastic in the cause of
training and of teaching. For competent and broad-minded women there
are many openings in this branch of the profession, and there is
much scope for independent and original work in many directions. The
training of teachers, as well as actual teaching, is of the nature
of scientific, experimental, and observational work. Lecturers in
Training-Colleges most of all, but to a large extent teachers of every
degree, must be students of psychology and of human nature. Mistresses
of Method are well aware that the ideal type of training has not yet
been evolved: they are seeking new ways of carrying on their work and
experimenting with new methods at the same time as they are guiding
others along paths already familiar to themselves. This absence of
finality, characteristic of the teaching profession as a whole, and
constituting one of its chief attractions, is especially noticeable in
all work connected with the training of teachers.
Senior appointments at all properly constituted Universities are of
life tenure--nominally until the age of sixty-five, though probably
earlier retirement will be made possible. They are made by the
Council, which usually entrusts the election either to the Senate or
to a committee, on which are representatives of both the Council and
the Senate. Unfortunately this procedure is not universal, and the
teachers are not invariably consulted in their official capacity.
Junior appointments, while subject to ratification by the Council,
are usually made in the first instance by the head of the department
concerned, usually, but not invariably, after consultation with the
Dean of the Faculty or the Vice-Chancellor. They are sometimes of
three years' tenure with or without possible extension, sometimes
subject merely to terminal notice on either side.
In the last four or five years contributory pension schemes for
the professorial body and for permanent assistants in receipt of
a specified income (usually L250 or L200 and upwards) have been
compulsorily established at all British Universities in receipt of
a Government grant. In June 1913, the Advisory Committee on the
Distribution of Exchequer Grants to Universities and University
Colleges laid on the table of the House of Commons a scheme which came
into force on 29th September, and is compulsory on every member of
the staff entering a University after that date at a salary of L300 or
upwards. Members appointed at salaries of between L200 and L300 have
the option of joining the scheme, while those appointed at salaries
of between L160 and L200 may join with the consent of the institution.
Members of existing schemes are entitled to join under similar
conditions. Special facilities are given for the transference of
policies from one University to another, since the view is taken
that the teachers in all the Universities constitute a profession
comparable with the Civil Service, and that transference from one
University to another should not be accompanied by a financial penalty
any more than is transference from one Government office to another.
A competent girl who can bide her time can usually get a footing in
some University. Her future advancement will depend on her value to
the institution, on her original writing and research even more than
on her teaching, work on committees and influence with the students.
Largely, too, it will depend on her tact and popularity with her
colleagues: to a very considerable extent it still rests also on
conditions over which she has no control, and which are part and
parcel of the slow recognition of a woman's right to compete on equal
terms with men.
It seems, as far as can be judged, that future opportunities are
likely to occur when the right candidates for posts are there in
sufficient numbers to make their exclusion on the ground of sex,
already seldom explicitly stated, impossible or inexpedient. Meanwhile
it is probable that individual women will continue, in some cases, to
suffer injustice, while in others, by virtue of their unquestionable
attainments and strength of personality, they may attain the positions
they desire. Slow progress is not altogether bad for the ultimate
cause of women at the Universities: nothing could injure that cause so
much as mistakes at the initial stage. An important appointment
given to the wrong woman, or to one in any respect inferior to her
colleagues, would be used as an argument against further experiment
for many years.
University women teachers can best help to secure equality of
opportunity by rendering themselves indispensable members of the body
corporate. In their case much is required of those to whom little is
given. Above all they must avoid the temptation to live entirely in
the absorbing interests of the present: they must remember that it is
the business of a University to make contributions to learning as well
as to teach. Secondly, they must insist on equality of payment and
status when there is any disposition, overt or acknowledged, to
differentiate on the score of sex. It is not right to yield on these
points, for an important principle is at stake. On the other hand the
time and place for insistence must be wisely selected, and any
claim made must be incontrovertible on the score of justice and
practicability. Lastly, women on committees and elsewhere are
not justified in keeping unduly in the background. When they have
something worth contributing to the discussion, it is not modesty but
lack of business capacity, which makes them silent. "Mauvaise honte"
is as much out of place as undue pertinacity. Women who are unwilling
or unable to assert themselves when necessary, are not in place at
a co-educational University. Most women, however, will derive
intellectual stimulus from the free interchange of opinion, possible
only when both sexes are working happily together, with common
interests and common aims.
If relatively too much space in this article has been given to women's
work at mixed Universities, the excuse lies ready to hand. In Women's
Colleges there is, of course, no sex bar, and the way lies clear
from the bottom to the top of the ladder. Conditions of appointment,
tenure, and work do not greatly differ from those described, except
in so far as the stipends tend to be lower, especially for more
responsible posts, when these are ordinarily occupied by women. It is
a sign of the times that in at least one Women's College in a mixed
University, it has been recently necessary to rule that posts are
open to men as well as to women, unless it is specially stated to the
contrary. Thus, when the power is theirs, women also may be unwisely
tempted to erect a new form of sex barrier. To do so would be to
play into the hands of those enemies who are always raising the voice
against equal pay for equal work. The most suitable candidate for a
post is the one who should be selected, irrespective of sex. It is
this principle that women are endeavouring to establish. They must
do so by scrupulous fairness when the power is theirs: by making
themselves indisputably most fitted, when they are knocking at the
closed door.
One further topic needs discussion in this section--the continued
employment of married women in University posts. At present there
is no universal rule, and every case has to be judged on its merits.
Every lecturer who marries, can and ought to help to form the
precedent that continuance of professional work is a matter for her
own decision and is not one that concerns governing bodies. Already a
good many women, mothers as well as wives, have set the good example
and have established their own position, sometimes without question,
sometimes as the result of a difficult struggle. It is clear that
Universities, with their long vacations, and with their established
recognition of long absences for specified purposes, have less ground
than most employers to raise difficulties for married women. Thus the
holder of an A.K. scholarship may travel for a year, in order, by the
wise provision of the founder, to enlarge his or her mind and
bring back new experience to University organisation, research,
and teaching. The woman who fulfils the claims of sex, and to do so
journeys into the realm where life and death struggle for victory,
cannot thereby be unfitted for the profession for which she has
qualified. Enlargement of mind and new experience will help her too,
in the daily routine. It is for her alone to decide whether new claims
and old can be reconciled. If in practice in an individual case they
cannot, then and only then has the University or College a right to
interfere, and on no other ground than that the work suffers. Since
women workers are as a rule only too conscientious, this contingency
is unlikely often to arise.
[Footnote 1: Her local authority may, however, have claims upon her,
if she has promised to teach in an elementary school.]
[Footnote 2: Trained teachers only, men and women, will be admitted to
the new Register.]
[Footnote 3: See tables at the end of this section, pp. 82 to 136.]
[Footnote 4: On the Continent even in Germany, and in the U.S.A.
several women have been elected to University chairs.]
[Footnote 5: Dr Benson, Staff Lecturer at Royal Holloway College, was
raised to the status of University Professor of Botany in 1912 without
open competition; Dr Spurgeon was appointed to the new University
Chair of English Literature, tenable at Bedford College as from 1st
September 1913, after open competition. These professorships are
the only two held by women at the University of London but there are
several women Readers.]
III
SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHING
The girls' secondary day schools of this country, largely built up in
the first place by the individual pioneer work of broad-minded women
during the last thirty years of the nineteenth century, are now in
most cases coming, if not under State control, at least into the
sphere of State influence. These women educationists in some cases
worked on old foundations, in others obtained from guilds or governors
a share for girls' education of funds previously allocated to various
benefactions or to the education of boys only. Private enterprise,
individual or, as in the case of the Girls' Public Day School Company,
collective, added schools in most important towns.
Thus by the beginning of the twentieth century there was provision for
a large number of girls of the middle class up to eighteen years of
age, in schools which as High Schools were analogous to the Grammar
Schools for boys dating to a corresponding burst of educational
activity rather more than three centuries earlier. Dependent on the
fees of their pupils or on special funds or endowments, these schools
could not, for the classes unable to pay a fee, adequately supplement
the elementary schools of the country, which provide for such
children education at most up to fourteen or fifteen years of age. The
Education Act of 1902, therefore, placed education beyond this age in
the hands of local authorities, the Board of Education supplementing
the rates by grants for secondary education--so that publicly owned
schools have been started by municipalities and County Councils, while
other institutions receive grants on certain conditions.
Schools of all the types mentioned and a few others, providing
education at least from ten to sixteen (or eighteen) years of age,
are known as secondary schools, and it is to work in them that this
article refers.[1] Various as may be their origins, and different
their aims, the teachers in them form a fairly homogeneous group,
with definite points in common, resulting from the requirements of the
Board of Education for the earning of the grant now paid to most of
these schools, or for the register in force for a short time--as
well as from the co-ordinating influence of membership of the
Headmistresses' or the Assistant Mistresses' Associations and other
professional and educational bodies, and of educational literature
from the publications of the Board of Education downwards.
It would be well if for this, as for other parts of educational work,
people of middle age, or in fact all whose school days lie in the
past, would dismiss their ideas gained from schools of even the end
of the nineteenth century, and realise that the daily life of a school
to-day is, in most cases, very different from that which they have
in their minds. The time-table and the class-room work may not
appear dissimilar to the casual observer, but a difference there
is, nevertheless. The chief alteration, however, is that a girl's
education is increasingly carried on by many agencies other than
these. In the school society rather than in the class-room lesson,
at net-ball and hockey rather than in the drill lesson, on the school
stage or in the school choir she learns, rather than is taught, her
most valuable lessons. Examinations still exist, it is true; but these
come later in a girl's school life, and are more frequently based on
the school curriculum and held in the school than used to be the case.
What does all this new life mean in the work of the teacher and her
preparation for it?
Miss Drummond, President of the Incorporated Association of Assistant
Mistresses, spoke thus on the subject[2]:--
"In a lesson in a good school there is most often a
happy give and take between the teacher and the class.
The teacher guides, but every girl is called on to take her
part and put forward individual effort. The homework is
no longer mere memorizing from some dry little manual,
but requires thought and gives scope for originality. The
whole results in a rigorous mental discipline, real stimulus
to power of original thought, eager enthusiasm in learning.... It
means an enormously increased demand upon the teacher." Again, "it
must not be thought, however, that the work of the school is limited
to lesson hours. We aim not only at giving a definite intellectual
equipment but at producing independence and self-reliance together with
that public spirit which enables a girl quite simply and without
self-consciousness to take her part in the life of a community."
Besides games, which may be organised by a special mistress (see p.
59) or by ordinary members of the school staff,
"there are nearly always several societies, run again by
the girls as far as possible, but almost always with the
inspiration and sympathy of some mistress at the back of
them. Thus there are social guilds of various kinds.
These vary from mere working parties for philanthropic
purposes to large organisations which embrace a number
of activities.... Of something the same kind are the
archaeological and scientific, the literary and debating
societies.... These societies are among the most interesting
and important parts of the work of a teacher, as they are
also among the most exacting. Games and societies together
tend to lengthen the hours of a school day, but even on
leaving school, her work is not finished. There are always
corrections to be done.... Still this is not all if lessons
are to be kept as alive and stimulating as they should be.
First and foremost, it is absolutely essential that the
teacher should not be jaded. She must get relaxation,
she must mix with other people and exchange ideas, she
must go about and keep in touch with all kinds of
activities. But at the same time she has to read in her
own subject, she has to keep up with modern methods of
teaching, she has to think out her various lessons."[3]
Just as the headmaster of a public school often seeks for a cricketer
rather than a classical scholar for his staff, so the headmistress
thinks not only of academic attainments but seeks for an assistant who
can keep going a school society or a magazine (while leaving it in the
hands of the girls), who enjoys acting and stage management, who can
take responsibility for a dozen girls on a week's school journey (the
nearest approach to camping out--and experience of this would perhaps
be a recommendation!). She wants some one not merely to teach or
manage or discipline girls, but a woman who can share the life of the
girls, or at least understand it well enough to let them live it.
Not that the intellectual side is unimportant. A University degree is
normally required in an assistant and this involves a three or four
years' course of considerable expense (see p. 7). An honours degree
is often essential--always, nowadays, in the case of a headmistress.
Whilst well-trained foreigners hold an important place in some
schools, modern languages are more frequently taught by an
Englishwoman who has lived abroad rather than by a foreign governess;
even English, happily, is no longer entrusted to any one not specially
qualified. As will be seen from the article on domestic work, the
graduate in chemistry has in this a promising field, while the
botanist or zoologist and the geologist have the basis on which to
specialise in nature-study or geography. This, however, usually comes
after the preliminary general academic training. It is well to keep up
a many-sided interest apart from bread-and-butter subjects, not
only in view of demands that may be made on one, but because the
intellectual woman will best qualify by developing her own powers as
far as possible. If of the right calibre, she can afterwards readily
take up even a new subject and make it her own. A good secondary
school needs that some of its mistresses should have the habits and
tastes of the scholar who loves work for its own sake, or rather for
the sake of truth. A woman with strong well-trained intellectual power
need not fear the competition of even the capable woman of action
indicated in the preceding paragraph. Both qualifications may, in
fact, exist in the same person.
The woman with brains is indeed needed in the schools. The work of
women's education was but begun by the illustrious pioneers to whom
reference has already been made. There are to-day many new problems
to solve, new difficulties caused by the very success of the older
generation. On the one hand it was necessary that women should at
first, by following the same lines as men, prove their powers on
common ground; now they must find whether there are special fields for
them, and how, if these exist, they may best be occupied. They need
no longer be afraid to emphasise what was good in the old-fashioned
education of girls. Might not, for example, elocution and caligraphy
with advantage re-appear as good reading aloud and beautiful
penmanship? just as physical training carries on the lessons of
deportment and the Domestic Science course revives the lessons of the
still-room, the kitchen, and the store. On the other hand, under the
existing pressure to relieve the burden of childhood, women must see
to it that the mothers of the coming generation are not sacrificed to
the earliest stages of the lives of their children that are to be.
The motherhood of women and their home-making powers are indeed to
be developed, but not at the expense of their own lives and their
citizenship. Women educators, then, must take what is good in boys'
education, what has been good in girls', and must utilise both. This
work is great, and it is specially difficult because legislation and
administration are almost entirely in the hands of men. Now men are
apt to take for granted either that girls should be treated just like
boys, or that they are entirely different and are to be brought up on
different lines; and women who see the truth there is in both of these
propositions are hindered alike by the men who hold the one and those
who hold the other.
The pioneer girls' schools of the nineteenth century did much
experimental work and established the right of individual initiative
and a distinct line of work for each school. Perhaps special gratitude
is due in respect of this to the governing body of the Girls' Public
Day School Trust, since its schools were numerous enough soon to
create a tradition requiring for their Headmistresses great initiatory
power and considerable freedom.
"This freedom," writes a recently retired Headmistress
of thirty-six years' standing (Mrs Woodhouse, late of
Clapham High School), "was of the greatest value as leading
to differentiation of type and character of school. It
ensured a spirit of joy in work for the whole staff; for the
Headmistress and her band of like-minded colleagues were
co-workers in experiments towards development and
sharers in the realisation of ideals. The vitality thus
secured has been appreciated at its true value by His
Majesty's Inspectors when in recent years they have
come into touch with these schools, and as far as my
experience goes, they have left such initiative untouched."
The danger resulting from the progress made in education during the
twentieth century is that secondary schools, coming as nearly all now
do under the cognizance if not the control of the Board of Education,
may become too much office-managed and State-regulated, thus losing
life in routine. The task of resisting this, of working loyally with
local and central government departments, and yet of keeping the
school a living organism and not merely a moving machine is one
requiring by no means ordinary ability. Is there not here a call to
women of the highest power and academic standing?
It is true that the direct facing of these wider problems does not
fall to the lot of the assistant mistress in her earlier years. But
the ambitious aspirant to a profession looks to the possibility of a
judgeship or bishopric in choosing his life-work. The capable woman
then will look at all the possibilities in the teaching profession.
Long before she is Headmistress she will have made her mark in her
school--for not only the numerous activities mentioned but also
the organisation of ordinary school work require initiative and
self-reliance. The head of a large school is only too glad to hand
over to a competent assistant the organisation of her own department
and its co-ordination with other school activities.
Just because there are now openings in other branches of work for
women of the highest power, those of this type should give teaching
some consideration. Since it has ceased to be the only avenue for
trained and educated women, it is no longer so crowded with them, and
as in other callings, there is plenty of room at the top.
In addition to a degree, the qualification of training is a strong
recommendation.[4] It involves, as a rule, a year after graduation, in
special colleges such as exist in Oxford, Cambridge, or London, or
in the Secondary Training Department of one or other of the local
Universities. The expense varies, usually meaning a fee of about L10
to L30 in addition to cost of living; so that a fairly expensive
year intervenes between graduation and the commencement of a salary.
Alternatives to a training-college course have been recently suggested
by the Board of Education, and may shortly be available. During the
training period the intending teacher must, if this is not already
determined, decide on the special branch for which she wishes to
prepare, according to her qualifications and the needs of schools.
If actual teaching experience can first be obtained for two or three
years, it enables earning to begin at once and greatly increases the
value of the training taken subsequently.
The secondary teacher thus spends from three to five years in academic
and professional training; and in accordance with current economic
ideas should receive a salary proportionate to the outlay involved.
The scheme of salaries approved by the Assistant Mistresses'
Association in January 1912 suggests L120 as the initial minimum
salary (non-residential) for a mistress with degree and training,
rising in ten years to L220 in ordinary cases, to L250 where
"positions of special responsibility" are occupied. L100 to L180 is
suggested for non-graduates. "These salaries are higher than those
provided by the Girls' Public Day School Trust, and other governing
bodies outside the London County Council. In most cases L120 to L130
a year may be taken as a fair average for an assistant mistress."[5]
Headmistresses' salaries vary from L200 to, at least in one
exceptional case, L1,500. They often depend in part on capitation
fees. The Headmistresses' Association considers that the minimum
should be L300.
In secondary schools as in other grades of educational work the
salaries of women are lower than those of men, as may be illustrated
by the London County Council scale of salaries.
Men: Assistants . . L150-L300 (or L350)
Heads . . L400-L600 (or L800)
Women: Assistants . . L120-L220 (or L250)
Heads . . L300-L450 (or L600)
The difference between the salaries of heads and assistants is in many
cases greater than is desirable. Things being as they are, it is
well that there should be some prizes to attract ability into the
profession. On the other hand, a woman, whose best work is that of
an assistant, should not be tempted to give it up for the salary of
a headmistress. The assistant has the opportunity for closer and more
personal touch with her girls, being intimately responsible for a
smaller number; she has also better opportunities for working out the
teaching of her subject and improving its technique. Education would
gain if more of the ablest teachers, specially successful in one or
other of these directions, were left in a position to continue this
work, instead of feeling obliged to substitute for it the perhaps
uncongenial task of organisation on a large scale, and that contact
with visitors, organisers, inspectors, committees, and the public,
which occupies the time of the heads of schools. The truth of this is,
I am told, better appreciated in Germany than in this country.
Since local authorities took over the work, secondary teachers have
gained considerably both as regards salaries and tenure. They are now,
as a rule, better paid than elementary teachers, which was not always
the case before 1902.
The tenure of the teacher varies in different schools. It is now less
common than formerly for the appointment and dismissal of the staff to
be entirely in the hands of the Headmistress; and assistants are
thus safe-guarded against possible unfair and arbitrary action. The
Headmistress,[6] however, has almost invariably a preponderating voice
in the selection of her staff--as is right if the school is to be
a living organism, not merely one of a series of machines with
interchangeable parts; but the power of dismissal, if in her hands,
is usually safe-guarded by the right of appeal to the appointing
body--local authority or board of governors as the case may be. This
right of appeal should be universal, and formal agreements should in
all cases be made. (A model form of agreement has been drawn up by the
Association of Assistant Mistresses.)
Pensions are not generally provided for secondary teachers; but a
national pension scheme for them is under consideration, and there is
hope that it will not be long delayed.
The poorer members of the teaching profession come under the National
Health Insurance Act and are provided for by the University, Secondary
and Technical Teachers' Insurance Society which already numbers eleven
thousand members. This society also offers, in its Dividend Section,
to those not compulsorily insured the opportunity for voluntary
insurance against sickness. Association among secondary teachers has
been considerably furthered by the desire to qualify for membership in
the Insurance Society.
The distinctive associations for secondary mistresses are the
Headmistresses' Association and the Association of Assistant
Mistresses in Public Secondary Schools. These are concerned with
general educational as well as professional problems, and their
opinion is sought at times by the Board of Education with regard to
proposed regulations. Each of them is represented on the recently
established Registration Council, which has just reported (November
1913).
Membership of the Teachers' Guild of Great Britain and Ireland, of the
College of Preceptors, and of the National Union of Teachers is also
open to secondary teachers. In the last-named they may join hands with
the great body of elementary teachers; in the first two organisations
with private teachers also. There are also associations for teachers
of certain subjects, the Ling Association and the Association of
Teachers of Domestic Subjects. Membership of such bodies as the
Historical, Geographical and various Scientific Associations is
valuable because not confined to teachers.
Though the President of the Association of Assistant Mistresses
has said that "there would be a strong feeling against definite
organisation for the purpose of forcing up rates of remuneration,"[7]
yet that body has investigated the scales of pay offered by local
authorities, and writes in protest when posts are advertised at low
rates.
Under present conditions the principle of general equality of income,
not yet being considered as a serious proposition, it is surely
economically right for the teaching profession to claim remuneration
sufficient to give it a status corresponding to the worth and
dignity of its work. Above all, women not entirely dependent on their
earnings, and therefore in a position to resist under-payment, should
not act as blacklegs and keep down the rate for others dependent for a
livelihood on their occupation.
Under-payment for teachers means a narrower, more anxious life than
should be theirs who are to live in the strongly electric atmosphere
of a body of girls and young women and yet keep a calm serenity of
spirit--a life less full than is essential for those who have to give
at all times freely of their best.
Similarly, in order that the fullest possible life may be open to the
woman teacher, it seems desirable that continuance in the profession
after marriage should be more usual than it is. Again, from the point
of view of the pupils this is desirable. Mrs Humphrey Ward is not
the only opponent of women's suffrage to state that the atmosphere
of girls' schools suffers from the preponderating spinster element.
Suffragists may for once join hands with her and urge that the
married woman is in some ways better suited for young people than her
unmarried colleague.[8] Often the most valuable years of a woman's
life are lost to the school by her enforced retirement at marriage.
She gives to it her younger, less experienced years, when she knows
less of the world, less of the problems of the household, less of the
outlook of the parents. It must be remembered that the parents' point
of view is important if there is to be right co-operation between home
and school. To the teacher-mother there will come an altogether new
power of understanding, which should ultimately compensate the school
for broken time during the earlier years of the life of her children.
Provision for absence in these cases might well render more possible
provision for a "rest-term" or a _Wanderjahr_, such as should be
possible to all mistresses at intervals in their teaching career.
Mistresses are not as a rule aware that under most existing agreements
they may claim to continue their work after marriage. They would in
a large number of cases be rendering a service to girls' education by
doing so. Many secondary teachers will welcome the idea that they
need not abandon either the career they have chosen or the prospect of
their fullest development as women. The teaching profession would thus
retain many valuable members now lost to it on marriage, and the ranks
of married women be recruited by many well suited to be the mothers of
citizens.
The career of teaching adolescent girls gives to those following
it, in the daily routine, many experiences which others seek for in
leisure hours. The woman among girls has the privilege of handing on
to them the keys to the intellectual treasuries where she has enriched
herself, of setting their feet in the paths which have led her to
fruitful fields. She may watch over the birth and growth of the
reasoning powers of her pupils and guide them to their intellectual
victories, initiating them into the great fellowship of workers for
truth. It is interesting but it is not easy work. We have seen that
the material recompense of the teacher is not great, and if she looks
for other return she will too often be disappointed. And yet there is
compensation. Here as elsewhere he that saveth his life shall lose it;
but he that loseth his life shall indeed find it.
[Footnote 1: "A secondary school ... is a school which provides a
progressive course of general education suitable for pupils of an
age-range at least as wide as from twelve to seventeen" (Board of
Education, Circular 826).]
[Footnote 2: Lecture on "The Life of a Teacher" given to the Fabian,
Women's Group, 1912.]
[Footnote 3: Miss I.M. Drummond, _loc, cit._]
[Footnote 4: By the Conditions of Registration issued November 1913,
one year's training will be required for all entering the profession
after the end of 1918.]
[Footnote 5: Miss I.M. Drummond _loc. cit._ For example, a science
graduate with special qualifications in geography, three years'
experience, and a training diploma has recently been appointed to a
leading London High School at a salary of L110, with no agreement for
yearly or other augmentation. [EDITOR].]
[Footnote 6: The practice of the Girl's Public Day School Trust,
largely followed by other governing bodies, is to give the Head the
right of nomination, and of dismissal during the probationary period
subject to the veto, rarely exercised, of the Committee.]
[Footnote 7: Miss I.M. Drummond _loc. cit._]
[Footnote 8: This is surely a better solution than that proposed
in the November 1913, Educational Supplement to the _Times_. The
suggestion is there made that the "conventual system" prevailing in
some girls' boarding-schools should be changed by having Headmasters
instead of Headmistresses. The writer apparently fails to realise
that one of the greatest difficulties in co-educational schools is to
attract the right sort of mistress, because there is no prospect that
she may ultimately attain a headship. The same danger will inevitably
arise in any schools which introduce Headmasters. If the masculine
element is desirable, and we agree that this may well be so, the
obvious course is either to have some male assistants, or to have
married house-mistresses, on the analogy of the married house-master
at boys' schools. A still better solution, in our opinion, is
co-education, with pupils of both sexes, a mixed staff, and a joint
Headmaster and Headmistress. In many of the new County and Municipal
Secondary Schools this innovation has been successfully adopted,
though the Senior Mistress is unfortunately in all cases definitely
subordinate to the Headmaster. [EDITOR.]]
IV
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHING
Progressive women to-day resent the social system which requires them
to be economically dependent upon others. They realise that social
service needs labour of a highly skilled variety, and they therefore
demand, on the one hand, training for their work as a guarantee of
their efficiency in its performance, and, on the other hand, monetary
payment and security of tenure as guarantees to them of economic
independence. As a natural corollary to woman's lack of political
power, there are no spheres of professional work in which prevailing
conditions are in these respects completely satisfactory. Perhaps the
teaching service in the State schools comes nearest to complying with
progressive demands: at any rate Government recognises the need for
training, and, to a large extent, meets its cost; a salary, more or
less adequate, is paid in return for the teaching given, and security
of tenure is, with few exceptions, assured. Again, the work done
in the State schools is now generally and rightly regarded as of
first-rate importance to the community, and therefore as meriting
national gratitude in the form of Government superannuation. Popular
prejudice against compulsory education, once so strong, may now be
said to have disappeared, and the work of the pioneers who endeavoured
to create a public opinion in its favour, has borne fruit. To-day
the parents' attitude towards the teacher is normally one of friendly
co-operation and respect, with the result that the latter is fast
becoming a powerful factor in shaping and influencing the democracy.
The school is extending its influence in every sphere which touches
on the social, physical, intellectual, and spiritual well-being of the
people. Activities which, until recently,[1] were associated only
with institutions distinctly religious in character, are now regularly
connected with the work of primary schools. Thus the teacher has
every opportunity for the exercise of public spirit, within school
and without. He is daily confronted with the problem of evolving and
developing an educated democracy, which will demand and obtain proper
conditions of life.
The nature of the work asked of the teachers in primary schools, has
led to insistence by the State on the necessity for their professional
training, as well as for their academic proficiency. These
requirements have met with the counter-demand on the part of
the teachers in State schools, for State registration. When this
Register,[2] now in process of creation, has become an accomplished
fact, one of the chief remaining obstacles to the progress of the
teaching service will be removed.
It is now time to turn to the conditions of training, service, and
remuneration prevailing in English and Welsh elementary schools. The
Scotch service differs in some respects, while the state of primary
education and the position of elementary teachers in Ireland[3] are
altogether worse than in Great Britain.
The Board of Education recognises the following grades of men and
women teachers in public elementary schools: pupil teachers, bursars
and student teachers, uncertificated teachers, and certificated
teachers. Women, over eighteen years of age, who have been vaccinated,
may, without any other qualifications, be engaged as supplementary
teachers, although the Board cannot entertain any application for the
recognition of men in this capacity. A supplementary teacher may teach
(I) infants' classes, that is to say, classes in which the majority of
the scholars are under eight years of age, or (2) the lowest class
of older scholars in a school or department in a rural parish, if the
average attendance in the school does not exceed 100.
The number of supplementary teachers employed in the schools of
England and Wales in the year 1910-11 was 14,454.
If we turn to uncertificated teachers, we find that during the year
1909-10 there were 45,549 employed in the schools of England and
Wales, and that this number was increased by 182 during the year
1910-11. Of the uncertificated teachers of England in the year
1910-11, 5,106 were men and 35,222 were women.
The vast majority of rural schools have only one certificated teacher
on the staff, and in hundreds of rural schools the head teacher is not
certificated.
The following statistics with regard to certificated teachers have
been taken from the published return of the Board of Education,
1910-11:[4]--
England. Wales.
Men. Women. Men. Women.
Trained 22,134 30,410 2,260 1810
Untrained 9,060 33,121 539 1598
These figures show that of men teachers, 70 per cent. in England and
81 per cent. in Wales are trained, while of women teachers only 46 per
cent. in England and 51 per cent. in Wales are trained.
These statistics are indicative of the urgent need for total abolition
of uncertificated and supplementary teachers, since the recognition
of these grades offers a direct incentive to girls just to bridge
over the period between leaving school and getting married, without
qualifying even for what ought to be regarded as the lowest ranks of
the profession. This fact is at once realised, when one contrasts the
percentage of women teachers who are untrained, viz., 54 per cent, in
England, 49 per cent, in Wales, with the corresponding figures for men
teachers, viz., 30 per cent, in England and 29 per cent, in Wales.
Every candidate for teachership, who has passed through a Training
College, is required by the Board of Education to serve in a
recognised school--a woman for five out of the first eight years after
leaving College; a man for seven out of the first ten years after
leaving College--or pay the whole or part of the Government grant
in respect of College training. But, notwithstanding this agreement,
enforceable under Act of Parliament,[5] the Board of Education neither
takes steps to find employment for such candidates in the State
schools of the country, nor admits any responsibility on its part for
the conditions under which teachers are employed. By the Education Act
of 1902, local authorities, of which there are 318, were made
chiefly responsible for the work of education, and it is these local
authorities who lay down the conditions of appointment.
This refusal by the Board of Education of responsibility for
appointments and conditions of appointment to teaching posts, leaves
it for local authorities to fix scales of salaries, and to decide such
questions as, for example, whether married women teachers shall be
employed. The grave effect of this state of things on the economic
interests of the teachers of the country cannot be too much
emphasised, having regard to the fact that local authorities are
bodies composed mainly of men elected on a rate-saving principle.
The salaries paid to bursars and student teachers are insufficient
to cover charges for maintenance, clothes, books, etc. Speaking
generally, a quite substantial sum must also be found during each
year of the collegiate course, for college expenses and for board
and lodging during vacations, so that a candidate's parents must hold
themselves financially responsible for her during the various
stages of her training, except in so far as the cost is covered by
scholarship and maintenance grants. Women candidates are in this
respect far worse off than their male colleagues, as, at every stage
of their training, they receive a smaller maintenance grant. At a
residential college, while men receive L40, women receive L20; at a
non-residential college the grant for men is L25, for women L20.
As the whole supply of teachers for each year leaves the Training
Colleges in July,[6] it follows that many of these must wait for
varying periods before finding employment: during these periods the
burden of maintenance must again be borne by the parents. The need for
legislation in the economic interests of teachers is borne out by the
fact that highly trained students of good character are unable to
find employment, even at low salaries. Of 4,384 teachers who left
the training colleges in July 1908, at least 1,226 were, three months
later, without employment, and 259 were known to be without employment
even twelve months later; whilst of the 4,386 students who left the
Training Colleges in July 1909, 1,528 were still without employment in
October 1909. These figures are for both sexes, but by far the larger
number of teachers are women.
These facts explain why it is that local authorities, bent on
keeping down the rates, have been enabled to obtain the services of
certificated teachers at the scale of salaries which they advertise
for uncertificated teachers: in fact many fully qualified certificated
teachers have been forced to work for a rate of payment lower than
that received by an unskilled labourer; a natural corollary to this
condition of things is that many would-be teachers refuse to expend
time and money on training.
This state of affairs has had one other effect which is of vital
importance when the economic position of women teachers is being
considered, namely, that local authorities, in order to appease the
popular outcry against this apparently overstocked market, have been
led to sanction regulations for the compulsory retirement of women
teachers on marriage. Happily the London County Council has not
succumbed to this temptation, and there are other equally enlightened
authorities. But constant watchfulness is needed in order to prevent
retrogression in this matter. Young teachers, anxiously awaiting
promotion, sometimes foolishly resist the appointment or retention of
married women. This is a suicidal policy, to be resisted at all costs,
both in the interests of the teachers and of the children. Salaries
are bound to remain low, while women are forced to consider their
profession in the light of a stop-gap until marriage, and not as
a life-work. Moreover, there are real dangers in entrusting girls'
education entirely to unmarried women. The salaries of assistant
teachers vary very considerably. In no single instance is a woman
teacher paid the same rate of salary as a man of the same professional
status. This is true even when the work is identical in character, as
is the case in mixed schools and pupil teachers' centres. One of the
results of this inequality of payment is that women teachers are often
employed to teach the lower classes in boys' schools, and some rural
schools are staffed entirely by women, not because the woman teacher
is deemed more suitable for the work, but because her labour is
cheaper; hence the need, in the teaching profession, for recognition
of the principle of "equal pay for equal work." Without it, the
status of the woman becomes lower than that of the man, inferior
or unqualified women are appointed, and men are driven from the
profession. Only when there is equality of pay can there be security
that the best candidate will be appointed, irrespective of sex.
The following table taken from the latest returns of the Board of
Education contrasts the number of women and men employed in the
elementary schools of England, and the number of women and men
employed in the better paid higher elementary schools of the country,
for the year 1910-11.
Higher
Elementary Elementary
Schools Schools.
No. of Head Teachers (certificated) Men : 12,477 : 36
" " " " Women : 16,648 : 4
" Assistant " " Men : 18,659 : 161
" " " Women : 46,881 : 117
" " (uncertificated) Men : 5,091 : 4
" " " Women : 34,910 : 2
An examination of statistics with regard to the salaries of teachers
in England, taken from the same returns, year 1910-11, shows that--
I. Average salaries (Elementary Schools) were:--
L s. d.
Head Teachers (Certificated) Men 176 3 11
" " " Women 122 18 1
" " (uncertificated) Men 94 8 0
" " " Women 68 3 5
Assistant Teachers (certificated) Men 127 9 11
" " " Women 92 8 6
" " (uncertificated) Men 65 2 11
" " " Women 54 14 1
II. (1) 67.93 per cent. of the certificated head masters receive less
than L200 per annum.
(2) 93.9 per cent. of the certificated head mistresses receive less
than L200 per annum.
(3) 93.38 per cent. of the certificated assistant masters receive less
than L200 per annum.
(4) 97.73 per cent. of the certificated assistant mistresses receive
less than L150 per annum.
III. The salaries of certificated teachers (England) were:--
Head Teachers. Assistant Teachers.
Men. Women. Men. Women.
Under L50 1 2 2 352
Totals L50 and under L100 394 4,967 3,838 29,915
" 100 " " 150 4,506 8,032 9,933 15,548
" 150 " " 200 3,575 2,631 3,651 1,065
" 200 " " 250 2,395 742 1,235 1
" 250 " " 300 963 209 ---- ----
" 300 " " 350 422 65 ---- ----
" 350 " " 400 125 ---- ---- ----
" 400 " " 450 93 ---- ---- ----
" 450 " " 500 2 ---- ---- ----
" 560 1 ---- ---- ----
IV. The salaries of uncertificated teachers are usually lower than the
wage of a skilled artisan--the average for men _head_ teachers being
below L100, and for women _head_ teachers below L70, whilst 7,855
assistant teachers receive less than L50.
V. Supplementary teachers usually receive, of course without board
or lodging, a salary equal to the money-wage of an average domestic
servant. They are commonly less well qualified than is she, for the
work undertaken.
The chances of promotion to a headship are obviously so few, that the
certificated teacher will probably remain an assistant all her life.
Chances of head-teacherships are being still further reduced by the
amalgamation of departments under a head _master_.
In the schools of many large urban education authorities, less than 1
per cent. of the assistant teachers obtain promotion in twelve months.
The total number applying for the 163 places to be filled in the last
promotion list that was formed by the London Education Authority, was
2,337, so that, as a direct result of the publication of that list,
2,174 teachers resumed their work after the summer vacation of
1911 with feelings of less hopefulness with regard to their future
prospects. The issue of a promotion list is in itself a fact to be
deplored, seeing that it acts as a check to mental alertness. For the
2,174 unsuccessful candidates for inclusion, their application has now
either destroyed hope, or suspended any chances of its realisation
for at least two years. There is a consciousness in the unsuccessful
applicant of somehow being worth less than she was before, since
she is now an assistant mistress without potentiality for head
teachership. This feeling does not promote good work. The issue of a
promotion list is from every point of view bad policy, and although
its direct action is confined to London, its sphere of indirect
influence is very far-reaching, since London County Council applicants
for country posts are often asked whether they have been included in
it.
The essential qualification in a mistress of an elementary school is
ability to teach a great variety of subjects: she must be qualified
for and prepared to teach all the subjects which make up the
curriculum of her school. The diversity of these will be seen from the
subjects taught in an average typical elementary school:--
_Girls' Department_.--Reading, writing,
arithmetic, English grammar, literature, history,
geography, nature study, hygiene, physical
training, drawing (including brush-work),
needlework (including cutting-out), knitting,
scripture.
_Infants' Department_.--Reading, writing,
number, kindergarten and other varied
occupations, physical exercises (dancing
and games), needlework and knitting,
singing, drawing, painting, modelling,
recitation, oral composition, dramatising
stories, scripture.
The ordinary day is divided into two sessions: the morning session
lasting from 9 A.M. to 12 noon, and the afternoon session from 2 P.M.
to 4 P.M. (infants), 4.30 P.M. (girls).
The strain of a teacher's life in an elementary school, and the
deadening influence of routine work will be realised when it is stated
that, besides teaching all the subjects above-mentioned, she is
in front of her class of sixty pupils during the whole of the two
sessions each day, from Monday morning to Friday afternoon.
In addition to the purely teaching work the mistress has to take
her share in the various activities which are now centring in the
school--Care Committees, After-Care Committees, the feeding of
necessitous children, the cleansing of children, medical inspection,
and so forth. There are also such social activities as old girls'
clubs, school journeys and school parties, in which she has to
co-operate; finally, the strain is not lessened by the fact that she
has to satisfy two sets of inspectors, viz., those of the Board of
Education and those of the local authority who require her to keep
special report books, varying in character and in the amount of detail
required, according to the idiosyncrasies of the particular inspectors
who may happen to be allocated to her district.
In spite of the building regulations of the Board of Education, many
school premises are far from satisfactory with regard to lighting,
ventilation, construction, and often even cleanliness; these defects
naturally have their effect on the health of the teachers, so that
notwithstanding medical inspection during training and the rejection
of the unfit, an alarming number of cases of consumption has been
reported to the Benevolent Fund of the National Union of Teachers.
In addition to this, the strain (already referred to) under which
teachers in the Metropolitan and larger urban districts work, is
resulting in an increasing number of nervous breaksdown.
The conditions under which a teacher works in a school in a rural
district are so unsatisfactory that they deserve special mention.
There are 245 schools in Wales and 2,199 in England with an average
attendance of less than 40; such schools are staffed by a head
teacher, assisted, in all probability, only by a supplementary
teacher. Education suffers in these circumstances as a result of the
number and the manysidedness of the responsibilities which devolve
upon the head teacher; while the consciousness of her inability to
realise her ideals will re-act unfavourably upon her health. Another
factor that must be borne in mind is that these rural schools, being
small, should, to secure efficiency, be proportionately expensive for
up-keep. In order to keep the cost of maintenance as low as possible,
however, the remuneration offered to teachers in rural schools is so
small as to be a national disgrace. To this must be further added the
fact that many rural teachers are compelled to live 5, 10, and even 15
miles away from a railway station, so that the cost of living is much
more than it would be in town. Thus it is that rural schools which
should cost more for up-keep than large urban schools, work out at a
smaller figure per scholar.[7]
Not only is her salary low, but a mistress in a rural school often
has to live in a state of semi-isolation from social and intellectual
activities. It should excite no surprise, therefore, that mistresses
are reluctant to apply for such posts. This difficulty of shortage
of supply is having a sinister and subtle effect on the economic
interests of married women teachers, for, owing to the difficulty in
obtaining assistant teachers in rural districts, it frequently happens
that where the head teacher is a master, his wife, who may be a
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