A photographic print of Industry, Miscellaneous, Workers - Women - Factory Scenes

TERRY FINCHER DH 29.12.1960 WORKING HOUSEWIVES' REPORT. (See story by Dan Slater) OPS Mrs. J.McCarthy seen at work in the Peek Frean biscuit factory. FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE FAMILY By JOYCE CHESTERTON WIVES go out to work first and foremost because they want the money. But they do not usually need it for basic necessities. Nor do they spend it as "pin-money" on themselves. They want it so that their families can have a higher standard of living than is possible on one wage alone. And if a conflict arises between the claims of their jobs and the interests of their families, they put their families first. This new evidence on the controversial subject of working wives and mothers is put forward today in a report published by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. It is based on a study of married women workers, sponsored by the DSIR and carried out by social scientists from the London School of Economics under Professor R. M. Titmuss, at the Peek Frean biscuit factory in Bermondsey, London. At this factory, three-quarters of the 4,000 workers are women - most of them married, more than half of them with children. Few work the full 10-hour day. Most are part-timers on shifts of 4, 5 or 6½ hours. NOT AN ESCAPE The investigators found that for most wives "work was undertaken as a means of helping the family, not as an escape from it." Two pay-packets in the family mean that more can be spent on refurnishing the home, on more varied food, on pocket-money and toys for the [illegible] They can leave home and get back at the same time as their families. Mothers with under-fives work mostly in the evening. Without considerable help from husbands, in fact, most of the wives would find it very hard to cope with both job and home. Three of the working wives are 39-year-old Mrs. Dorothy Anderson, of Kitto-road, New Cross, Mrs. Joan McCarthy, aged 35, and Mrs. Gladys Helmer, a mother of six - including twins - of Napier-street, Dartford. Said Mrs. Anderson yesterday: "My husband helps me in a dozen ways with the housework." MRS. J. MCCARTHY "£3. 18s. a week"