ABSTRACT
Sweated labor was defined in 1890 by a House of Lords Select Committee on the Sweating System as long hours, unsanitary working conditions, and unduly low wages——with the accent falling on “earnings barely sufficient to sustain existence.” Not all needlewomen were sweated. Some could make a good living. The Liverpool branch of the Women’s Industrial Council observed in 1909 that certain tailoresses in that city inhabited the best streets, and even dispatched servants to collect and to return work. These needlewomen were forced to accept exploitative rates of pay because they suffered from two interrelated disadvantages in the labour market. First, freedom of access into the needle trades caused an oversupply of labor, a “reserve army” competing for work that led to barely sufficient piece rates for the women. Second, the women were unable to establish collective as opposed to individual bargaining techniques to regulate the price of their labor.
