Author: Charles P. Neill

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2018-02-11

Total Pages: 124

ISBN-13: 9780656302192

Excerpt from Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage-Earners in the United States, Vol. 12 of 19: Employment of Women in Laundries For the purpose of studying the working conditions of women and girls employed in laundries and the effect Of the work and the condi tions surrounding it upon the health of the employees, an investiga tion was made of the laundries in Chicago, New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and in Rockford, III. A large number Of representa tive laundries were visited, and a considerable number of the women employed were interviewed by a physician. There are in these cities approximately American and Chinese laundries. The latter are largely hand laundries. Of the American laundries, about one-sixth are motor laundries and the rest hand laundries. In Chicago the motor laundries largely outnumber the hand laundries, but in the other cities included in the investiga tion the reverse is true. A study Of the organization and Operation of steam laundries em ploying a considerable force of women requires attention to three important considerations: General conditions of the workrooms in the laundries, the hours of labor, and the effect of the employment on the women employees. Recent improvements in laundry machinery have considerably lightened the work in certain occupations where formerly manual labor was almost exclusively employed. The advances which have been made enable laundry managers to make a more even distribution of their hours of labor and to follow more closely a definite schedule. By increasing their capital and equipping their plants with the most modern devices some of the laundries have abolished much Of the irregularity in hours Of labor, which has been characteristic Of laun dry work. But the old method Of Operation has persisted in many Of the smaller laundries, though recent competition as well as pressure from the employees has wrought changes which have placed the small laundry upon a better plane Of work. In the investigation of the working and health conditions of women and girls employed in laundries a general survey Of the industry and its occupations was found necessary. For this pur pose 315 laundries were visited in Chicago, New York, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia. These laundries employed a total of persons. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.