The employer is at the present moment a man, and a man will offer a salary of 30s. a week to a woman, because she will take 30s.:  but he will not offer that sum to an actor.  There is a subtle assumption that because women will take less, they are not entirely dependent on their work; and a manager will sometimes offer a large salary to a woman who drives up in a motor car, magnificently dressed, most obviously not dependent on her earnings; whilst the accomplished actress, without these powerful assets, and obviously dependent on her work, is paid practically a third of that salary.

Let us sincerely hope that this transitional stage from the days when each town had its own theatre, and engagements were always for the season, to the waste and despair of the present conditions of the mass of the workers in the theatre of this country, may give place to some system which will select the fit from the unfit, and give them a permanent engagement with a proper clause of notice on either side, such as that to which workers in other trades are entitled.  More care in selection; more belief that an actress, if she be of any use, can represent a diversity of types; a shutting of the doors on those who are obviously unfitted, however cheap their labour may be, would be salvation to the women who are trying to earn their bread in the theatre.  For it is time we ceased to grovel before this misused word “Art,” which covers the wasteful cruelty the present conditions in the theatre permit.

APPENDIX I

SCHEME OF WORK OF THE FABIAN WOMEN’S GROUP

The Group was formed by some women members of the Fabian Society in 1908, chiefly with the object of studying the problem of women’s economic independence in relation to socialism.  The work was mapped out on the following lines, to which the Group has adhered:—­

Part I.—­Differences in Ability for Productive Work Involved in Difference of Sex Function.

Division 1.—­Natural disabilities of women when not actively engaged in childbearing.

Division 2.—­Natural disabilities of women when actively so engaged.

Part II.—­Women’s Economic Independence in Relation to Social Conditions.

Division 1.—­Women as productive workers and as consumers in the past.

Division 2.—­Women as productive workers and as consumers in the present.

Part III.—­Practical Steps towards such Modification of Social Conditions as will enable Women:

(a) Freely to use and develop their physical and mental capacities in productive work, while remaining free and fully able to exercise their special function of childbearing.

(b) Each personally to receive her individual share of the social wealth.

Two Summaries of the lectures and discussions arising out of Part I. were issued for private circulation in 1910.  Copies, 1d. each, can now be procured through the Fabian Office, 3 Clement’s Inn, W.C.