Welfare Work. Employers' Experiments for improving Working Conditions in Factories. With a Foreword by The Rt. Hon. David Lloyd-George
London, G. Bell and Sons Ltd., 1916.
Octavo, [iii]-xx, 364 (last colophon) pages.
Full morocco ruled in blind on the sides, with gilt lettering and blind-ruled raised bands on the spine; all edges gilt; leather a little rubbed and lightly marked; one opening partially discoloured by an acidic bookmark; basically an excellent copy in a contemporary deluxe binding.
Emily Dorothea Pavy (nee Proud, 1885-1967), teacher, sociologist and lawyer, was awarded the first Catherine Helen Spence scholarship for sociology in 1912. 'She left next year for the London School of Economics where she investigated the industrial conditions of female factory workers (DSc, 1916). Her thesis was published as "Welfare Work" (London, 1916); the term described employers' initiatives to achieve harmonious relations with their workers by providing conditions and amenities which would both humanize the industrial environment and increase productivity. Proud's book examined the "betterment" of such conditions, and welfare policies for women in British factories. Her research drew on her many factory visits across Britain and observations in Australasia; before leaving Adelaide she had gained first-hand experience as an unskilled factory-worker in New Zealand. She believed that welfare measures could enhance the "recognition of individuality" and the standard of living - it was neither demeaning charity nor the mechanistic efficiency disdained by some Australians. Marion Phillips considered that Proud took "the whole subject of welfare work out of the range of philanthropy into that of social economics". Prime Minister Lloyd George, who contributed an enthusiastic preface to "Welfare Work", had established a welfare department at the Ministry of Munitions under the direction of B. Seebohm Rowntree, whom Proud was appointed to assist in 1915-19. A "live wire", she proved accessible and unaffected in the position, and organized factory inspections to ensure the health and output of women workers in a vital industry. In 1917 the British government appointed her CBE' ('Australian Dictionary of Biography'). This copy was purchased from the dispersal of the deceased estate of the author's son.
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