The Effect of Industrial Employment of Women and Girls
(NRS reference: HH31/27/47 pp13-14)

Transcript: 

… Women Inspectors have been trying to keep pace with the necessary inspection of hundreds of factories newly employing women in the making of shells, gaines, fuzes, [bomb fuses] projectiles, bayonets, guns and rifle parts, field telephones, wire ropes, seaplanes, aircraft and other munitions of war.

… The staff of Women Inspectors has been increased for such war work by 50 per cent… 

… Reports vary from different parts of the country as to the extent to which Emergency Orders are used.  …As regards Scotland, most of the Orders for night shifts are for shell making and paper factories.

… The Inspectors are unanimous in speaking of the admirable spirit and natural skill widely shown by the women. “What strikes one most in Scotland is the adaptability of the women.’ ‘Most satisfactory’ is the common reply of employers questioned as to how far substitution has succeeded. 

… In a certain part of Scotland women are being introduced for the first time into brickyards with considerable success, such employment being customary in other Scottish centres.

… A question arises - why has the manufacture of munitions of war on a terrible scale led at last to systematic introduction of hygienic safeguards that Factory Inspectors have advocated for many years, such as supervision of women by women in factories, provision of means of personal cleanliness, proper meal and rest rooms, and qualified nurses? Probably it is in part due to a recognition that wages alone cannot adequately reward those who serve the State in time of need, but it also points again to the new general awakening to the dependence of efficient output on the welfare of the human agent.