FAWCETT, Henry, & Thomas Bazley.

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Factory Acts Amendment Bill. First edition of this pamphlet arguing against a proposed bill to cap women's working day at nine hours, on the basis that Parliament's remit did not extend to the issue and that it would disadvantage women in the labour market. The pamphlet also includes a letter by Millicent Fawcett supporting her husband's speech, originally printed in The Times.Both Henry and Millicent were committed to broadening the rights and opportunities of the working class. "At a time when the place of organized labour in British society was at the centre of political debate, [Henry] Fawcett made the labour question his special study... he emerged as one of a group of intellectual and political 'friends of labour', adopting a sympathetic approach to trade unions and their request for legal and social acceptance" (ODNB). Millicent was as passionate, and shortly after this pamphlet's publication became one of the original trustees of the National Union of Working Women in 1874.The Bill in question was proposed by Anthony John Mundella (1825-1897), a fellow Liberal MP who previously attempted to reduce the working hours of children, a cause which Fawcett here declares his support for. Fawcett was not, however, in support of the same provisions for women, arguing that the Bill should be "for men as well as for women, or it will place the labour of women under such serious disadvantages as greatly to restrict their employment" (p. 5). He argued that in industries in which wo

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