ABSTRACT
Tawney argues that some trades were always overcrowded, while others needed workers by analysing the board of trade statistics. The seasonality of women’s work, Tawney notes, had made it difficult to get good numbers on women’s unemployment, and the distress committees had done little to help women out of work. She indicates that plans for unemployment insurance also did not take into account the occupations in which women were employed. The complete change in the home life of the working classes which was brought about by the rise of the factory system, had as its necessary corollary the appearance among women of the problem of unemployment in as acute and distressing a form as among men. Unfortunately, the factory regulations which mitigated the sufferings of long hours and bad conditions did nothing to cope with lack of employment, and it is only within our own generation.
