ABSTRACT
We are glad to observe a movement towards organisation and co-operation among the working women in Italy who are to the full as badly paid and even more over-worked than their London sisters of the same class. A little while ago the dressmakers and milliners of Turin, held a meeting at which facts were brought forward and remedies suggested. The press as a whole far from taking the kindly cordial view which it accords the movement here, covered these efforts with ridicule, and after a while they were forgotten. Now, however, the Dovere reports that under the wise guidance of a lady, Signora Marietta Ferraris, a co-operative society of working dressmakers, milliners and needlewomen Las been established. Central work rooms have been opened to which only those who have been members for six months will be admitted, and they will first pass through an examination of their technical skill. The funds will be divided into a reserve fund for emergencies, a benefit fund in case of sickness, a dowry fund, and most important of all, the wages fund. The work-women will receive regular wages, and share proportionally in the profits at the close of the year. The room in which the young work-women are assembled is already opened, and the enterprise promises well and the shares are being rapidly taken up.
