MISS MARY M.
PATERSON
ONE of the first two women Factory Inspectors to be appointed
by the Home Office, Miss Paterson began her work in 1893, and it is largely
owing to the signal success which has attended her efforts that there are now
over a dozen women in this branch of the department. From the first her
headquarters have been in Glasgow, and she has been engaged in peripatetic work,
chiefly in Scotland and the North of England, but often extending to other parts
of the country. In addition to the ordinary routine work of inspection, she is
called on to make many special enquiries into the conditions of women's
employment in specified industries, and their effects upon health, etc., to
investigate complaints, and to enforce the provisions of the Truck Acts. Her
duties entail travelling over never less than 10,000 miles a year, and often
considerably more. When so instructed she has also to conduct proceedings in
court.
Before 1893 Miss Paterson was a good deal abroad especially
in Italy and the United States. She accompanied her uncle, Dr. Henry Muirhead,
to America and made a long tour there, visiting Canada, California, and the
United States. At home she was much interested in social work, and, beginning
with charitable undertakings, gradually found her interest centre in industrial
questions affecting women and girls.
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Index of Glasgow Men (1909)