London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Wandsworth 1907
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wandsworth, Metropolitan Borough]
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129
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
With the exception of laundries and the Incandescent Mantle Works, there are few places in this Borough where women are industrially employed, and the following Table shows in statistical form the results of the enquiries made during the year in the places inspected.
| Factory Laundries | 2267 | 444 | 83 | I03 | 28 |
| Other Laundries | 1089 | 114 | 12 | 16 | 3 |
| Laundry Workshops | 946 | 413 | 148 | 104 | 43 |
| Other Workshops | 49 | 1 | ... | 4 | ... |
| Laundry Workplaces. | 150 | 56 | 52 | 13 | 11 |
| Total | 4501 | 1028 | 295 | 240 |
Of the total number employed 22*8 per cent, were married
women between the ages of 15 and 45, 6"5 per cent, were married
women over 45, and 5.3 per cent, were widows.
In factory laundries the percentage of married women
between 15 and 45 employed was ig'6, in other factories io'4, in
laundry workshops 43'6, in other workshops 2"o, and in laundry
workplaces or laundries in which only one or two women are
employed 38'6.
Of the 1,028 married women between 15 and 45, only 85 had
infants under one year.
The female Inspectors state that in making the above
enquiries great difficulty was sometimes experienced in obtaining
trustworthy and definite information.
The proprietors and manageresses of laundries know very
little about the private life of their employees.
Again, there are so many women employed only occasionally
that statistics will constantly vary.
In dressmakers' and milliners' workrooms, the employees,
who are not included in the Table given, are chiefly young girls
and unmarried women, and the same may also be said of the
workers in the Incandescent Mantle factories.