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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