Maud
Reeves,
the daughter of a bank manager, was born in Australia in 1865. The
family moved to New Zealand when Maud was a child. In her youth Maud
had been involved in the successful campaign to obtain women the vote
in New Zealand. Later, Maud married the journalist and politician,
William Pember.
Maud Pember Reeves and her husband arrived in London
in 1896. William Pember Reeves had a successful career in England
serving as High Commissioner for New Zealand (1905-1908) and Director
of the London School of Economics (1908-1919).
Soon after arriving in England Maud
Pember Reeves became active in a variety of women's organisations
including the Women's Trade Union League, the NUWSSand
the National Anti-Sweating League.
Pember Reeves was a socialist and was active in the Fabian
Society. By 1907 she was a member of the executive committee and
the following year founded the Fabian Women's Group. Pember Reeves
and her fellow members campaigned for equal rights for women and state
support for motherhood.
In 1909 Pember Reeves and her Fabian Women's Group began
a four year study of the daily lives of working-class families in
Lambeth. The report, written by Pember Reeves, was published as a
Fabian pamphlet, Family
Life on a Pound a Week
in 1912. The material later appeared as a book Round
About a Pound a Week.
In the report, Pember Reeves argued for a series of government reforms
including child benefit, free health clinics and the provision of
school meals.
After the outbreak of the First
World War, Pember Reeves worked as Director of the Education and
Propaganda Department of the Ministry of Food. Maud
Pember Reeves died in 1953.
William Pember Reeves
(1)
Maud Pember Reeves, Round About a Pound a Week (1913)
One
of the criticisms levelled at respectable, hard-working, independent
people is that they do not like to squander money on funerals. A working
man and his wife who have a family are confronted with the problem
of burial at once. They are likely to lose one or more of their children.
The poorer they are, the more likely they are to lose them. Shall
they run the risk of burial by the parish, or shall they insure each
child as it is born, at the rate of one penny a week? If they decide
not to insure, and they lose a child, the question revolves itself
into one of borrowing the sum necessary for the funeral expenses,
or of undergoing the disgrace of a pauper funeral.
For months afterwards the mother and remaining children will eat less
in order to pay back the money borrowed. What is the sum necessary
to stand between a working man and pauperdom should he suffer the
loss of a child? Inquiry among undertakers in Lambeth and Kennington
resulted in the discovery that a very young baby could be buried by
one undertaker for 18s. and a dozen others for 20s. To this must be
added the fee of 10s to the cemetery paid by the undertaker, which
brought up to 28s or 30s.
(2)
Maud
Pember Reeves, Round About a Pound a Week (1913)
Mr.
W. aged twenty, a toy-packer in a London warehouse - wages 20s. His
wife before marriage was a machinist on piece-work, and could earn
10s a week. She worked for six months after marriage, and paid for
most of the furniture in their own room; also she provided the coming
baby's clothes. She is clean and thrifty, writes a good hand, and
keeps excellent accounts. She is nineteen. Out of the 2s retained
by the husband, he pays 6d a week into a clothing club, and of course
his 4d is deducted for State Insurance. With the rest "he does
what he likes". Sometimes he likes to give his wife an extra
penny for her housekeeping.
Rent (one good room upstairs; two windows) 5s.; burial insurance:
3d.; boot club: 6d.; coal: 1s. 3d.; gas: 8d.; soap; 3d.; oil: 2d.;
matches: 1d.; food: 9s. 10d. If the wages never rise, and if the family
grows larger, the amounts spent on burial insurance, soap, gas, and
later on, rent will increase, leaving less and less for food, and
more people to feed on the less amount.
Mr. H. is twenty-two and works in a brewer - wages 20s. Every third
week he has night work. He allows his wife his whole wage. There is
one child of six months. The wife is twenty. She worked in a polish
factory until marriage, when she was dismissed, with a small bonus,
as the firm does not employ married women.
It is obvious that with both these young men marriage is, so far,
both pleasant and successful. The young women's lives are far more
changed. They tell you that they are a bit lonely at times, and miss
the companionship of the factory life and the money of their own to
spend.
The first baby is a source of great interest and pleasure to both
parents, especially if it is well managed and does not cry at night.
It is different when the children multiply and the room becomes crowded
and food is less plentiful. Then he must never smoke, he must never
take a glass of ale; he must walk to and from work in all weathers;
he must have no recreations but the continual mending of the children's
boots; he must never read nor go to picture palaces nor take holidays.
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