The supply factor in women's wages was discussed by Professor P Sergeant Florence in a paper in the Economics Section yesterday.
The lecturer said there were plenty of occupations pursued by men for which women were not physically unfitted. In fact, however, statistics did not show substitution on any large scale. Among the causes put forward in explanation were relative efficiency, conventions, and such institutions as trade unions. The most important factor, however, the restricted supply of available women, had not hitherto received much attention. Except among the very poorest strata, or where, as in the textile industry, skill had been acquired, or where homework was still carried on, women left industry on marriage and did not readily re-enter the labour market.
The supply of women available for employment consisted chiefly of spinsters (and possibly widows) of 14 to 65. No doubt some of the less available might be induced into industry at a price, but the "economic" employers might be unwilling to raise the whole level of women's wages merely to obtain those marginal cases.
The marginal supply price of the number of women employed at present was low, probably because that number consisted of women who merely had to keep themselves or whose bargaining position was weak. If inroads were to be made on the less available supplies of women the wages offered would have to rise steeply. In part, the substitution of women for men that was theoretically to be expected failed to occur because the wage the employer would have to pay to be sure of ample and continuous quanta of women's labour, would be very much higher than current wages, and might entirely cancel the better "value for money" that the current wage gave.
