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43
years ago it was frequently stated and believed that the industrial
employment of married women was one of the most important
direct factors in the causation of infantile mortality in large towns
Owing to investigations carried out in certain large towns, it is
now possible to approach this portion of the subject with greater
accuracy than formerly. Although the number of cases investigated
are not so large as could be desired, certain results have
been obtained which cast some doubt upon the direct influence
exerted by the industrial employment of women in producing
excessive infantile mortality.
Section 61 of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, makes
it an offence for the occupier of a factory or workshop knowingly
to allow a woman or girl to be employed therein within four
weeks after she has given birth to a child.
At the Conference on Infantile Mortality held in London in
1906, a resolution was adopted that this period should be extended
from one month to three.
In 1907 the Home Secretary addressed a letter to certain
Medical Officers of Health, asking for certain information, as he
was considering the question of the further regulation of the
industrial employment of women before and after child-birth.
Some of the results of these inquiries have now been published,
and so far no case has been made out for the further restrictive
legislation in the prohibition of employment of married women.
In Blackburn, amongst 314 mothers industrially employed,
135 per cent, of the infants died in the first year of life. Amongst
175 mothers not industrially employed, 12.2 per cent, of the infants
died in their first year.
In Birmingham it was found that, if the children who have
been weighed are divided into two classes, namely, those whose
mothers were industrially employed and those whose mothers
were not industrially employed, there is scarcely any difference
in the average weight in the two classes.