Wednesday 9 December 2015

Women Sweepers in Glasgow

From the Glasgow Herald, 6th December, 1915. 

CLEANSING OF GLASGOW.


WOMEN AS SWEEPERS.

The Cleansing Committee of Glasgow Corporation drew the attention of the citizens recently to the great difficulty which the department is experiencing in overtaking work which is so essential to the health of a great community.  Owing to the large numbers of men who have enlisted into His Majesty's service the staff has been seriously depleted, and this state of affairs is becoming worse.  An appeal was made to householders to relieve the department by burning as much refuse as possible in the domestic fires.  The appeal has had a gratifying response, but much more might be done in this way with economic and sanitary results.  To relieve in some measure the pressure Mr Greig, the superintendent, has had about a dozen women engaged during the past weeks sweeping back courts, work which was formerly done by men who were beyond the age of the able-bodied class.  The experiment, which has been tried in various districts of the city, has proved so satisfactory that in all likelihood it will be extended.

[Mr Greig perhaps thought that he was very daring in employing women to do the work of men "beyond the age of the able-bodied class", but it's more than likely that many women in Glasgow were already doing much harder physical work.]  

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