. Scientific, Surgical, Optical, Instrument makers, Scale makers, Leather Case makers, etc.) could expect a wage of 35 shillings per week. Whereas the average weekly wage for the lower class occupational groups (e.g. General and Road Labourers, Soldiers and Silk workers) could expect between 12-14 shillings per week. Women did not have the luxury of staying at home, to nurture and care for the children as the upper classes did; they were needed to bring additional money into the family to survive. An added problem for women, as explained by Annie Besant in her booklet The Law of Population published in 1884 was the restriction on employment and was one of the reasons why so many ended up in the workhouse. ‘Many who are willing to work cannot find employment; in most of our important branches of industry there has been great over-production; every trade and every profession is over-crowded. Difficult as it is for men to obtain a livelihood, it is ten times more difficult for women to do so; partly on account of unjust laws, and partly because of the tyranny of society, they are shut out from many employment’s.’Conditions in the WorkhouseThe New Poor Law formed a new administration unit called the Union, replacing the Parish for poor relief purposes. The poor belonged to their own Parish, and Union. The Settlement System tended to send the poor back to their Settlement Parish, sometimes miles away and probably where they no longer had family connections. The citizens in the parish, usually the well to do, were appointed to run them as Guardians. The Guardians had to provide accommodation, for paupers, known as the Workhouse. The workhouse symbolised the criminalising of poverty and unemployment, and was a ‘for profit’ institution.There was mounting evidence, shortly after the New Poor Law was introduced, that it was not working as intended. A number of scandals hit the headlines the most famous was the A...
