Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/144

 their maximum salary is £800. The midwives are under their charge, and are required by them to be sober, clean, and careful. Seven women Inspectors are appointed under the Infant Life Protection Act. The purpose of this Act is to secure public control of those people who make a livelihood out of the care of young children. Those who look after these children under five and keep them longer than forty-eight hours from their parents must be registered. The business of discovering those who evade registration is done by men Inspectors. The women Inspectors control those who are registered. The average number of visits which one of these women Inspectors makes in a year is 1800, and the results they gain are very encouraging. Under the Shops Act there are three women Inspectors of the London County Council. The duty of these women is to see that no young person under eighteen is employed for more than 74 hours a week, that seats are provided at the rate of one for each three assistants, that sanitation, lighting, etc., are good.

Women Sanitary Inspectors are employed in twenty-three out of the twenty-seven Metropolitan Boroughs, and a considerable number by the towns in the provinces. In the latter cases the salaries are much smaller than in London, but, fortunately, the cost of living is smaller also. A considerable impetus