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48
In September I reported as follows:—
An analysis of the work already done shows that women only were
employed in 39 per cent. of the workshops, while no less than 72 per cent. of
the total number of workers employed in these houses were women.
WOMAN SANITARY INSPECTOR.
A consideration of these facts has led me to the conclusion that the time
has arrived when it would be well to follow the practice now adopted by
many of the leading towns in this country and employ female inspectors to
supplement the work of the existing staff.
The employment of women for this purpose was, in the past, looked
upon by local authorities with some misgiving, but the test of experience has
shown that the originators of the proposal were justified in advocating the
system.
It is obvious that there are many questions in connection with the sanitary
surroundings of female workers in factories that can only be properly investigated
by one of their own sex ; moreover, the legislature has of late years
insisted upon the observance of many regulations in places where women are
engaged which men are ill-fitted to conveniently control.
The figures quoted above emphasise the necessity for a further new
departure in the methods of inspection of factories and workshops now
obtaining in the City of London, and I therefore recommend the immediate
appointment of at least one duly qualified woman sanitary inspector.
The duties of the person appointed should be entirely separate from the
work done by your male officers, and her part would be strictly confined to
visiting those establishments where women are employed, and any question
involving structural alterations or drainage work would be dealt with by the
Sanitary Inspector of the District.
It has been found advisable that women chosen for such an office should
hold a statutory qualification as Sanitary Inspectors and be duly appointed as
such under the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, for the purpose of
acquiring the "right of entry," and power to serve preliminary notices, and
sign certificates in case of dirty workrooms.
The following Metropolitan Boroughs have already appointed such Officers:
Kensington, St. Pancras, Islington, Hackney, St. George the Martyr, and
Battersea.
In the three first-mentioned, the women inspectors' duties are confined to
places where females are employed at work; in Hackney they have, in
addition, to visit the houses of out-workers; in St. George the Martyr they