Factory Inspector, HSV member 1932-1944
When Margaret Cuthbertson joined the HSV in 1932 she was a 68 year old retiree living with her sister Ada in a small house in Toorak. Her membership application was approved by the Committee on 9 February.
Fellow members of the Society may not have been aware that this genteel woman – described later in her obituary as ‘modest and retiring’ – had been a tireless and effective campaigner for improving the conditions of working women over many years and later a committed volunteer for a number of charities devoted to the welfare of women and children.
Margaret Cuthbertson was born in Bacchus Marsh on 6 September 1864. Her father James Cuthbertson was a building contractor and her mother Jessie (nee Watson) was from a local pioneer family who had migrated from Edinburgh in 1841. Margaret was the youngest of seven children. Her sister Ada was one of the first women to work as a librarian in Australia and her brother Robert Melville Cuthberston was a South Melbourne Councillor from 1912-1933 and MLA for Albert Park from 1927-1929
At the age of 16 Margaret left Bacchus Marsh for Melbourne and worked in factories for eight years. In 1888 she obtained a position as telephone operator in the Postmaster General’s Department.
Victoria had experienced a period of industrialisation in the 1880s and 90s. As well as a general increase in the numbers of people employed in factories, this brought an increase in the number of women (especially single women) into the paid workforce. There was a growing awareness of exploitation of worker, leading to pressure from the protestant churches and the emerging union movement to control this. The Victorian Factory and Shops Act was passed in 1885 and provided for the appointment of factory inspectors. Victoria was the first state to appoint a Female Factory Inspector.
In 1894 Margaret Cuthbertson was one of 100 applicants for the new position of Female Factory Inspector at the Department of Labour. Despite her youth and relative inexperience, she was appointed to the position.
She continued in this role until 1920, contributing to the Chief Inspector of Factories’ reports to the Victorian Parliament each year. She showed herself to be a strong advocate for women workers in the nursing, furniture and clothing industries. She repeatedly drew attention to shortcomings in the treatment of apprentices, the underpayment of overtime and the exploitation of outworkers. Two additional female inspectors were employed in the following years and in 1900 Margaret was promoted to Senior Inspector.
In 1901 she became the first president of the Victorian Women’s Public Service Association and the following year became its representative on the National Council of Women.
The system of Wages Boards was established partly as a result of her investigations and by 1907 Margaret Cuthbertson was secretary of seven boards concerned with the clothing and footwear industries.
In 1912 the government sent her to Britain to investigate factory conditions there and also to recruit workers to emigrate to Australia.
In 1913 Margaret Cuthbertson and Henrietta C. McGowan published Woman’s work a guide to many types of work for women. It listed many occupations ranging from Agency Work to Weaving Textile Fabrics and set out the qualifications required, and expected rates of pay.
During the First World War she worked with Vida Goldstein to assist unemployed women.
In 1920 Margaret Cuthbertson resigned to work with the retailer Sidney Myer as superintendent of his female staff. In this position she continued to advocate for women workers. She was on the council of the College of Domestic Economy (later Emily MacPherson College) from 1921 .
Margaret resigned from the paid workforce in 1925 and this gave her more time to devote to various charities. She became vice president of the Queen Victoria Hospital and for many years the honorary treasurer of its auxiliaries and also of the Yooralla Hospital School. She was also a committee member of the Lyceum Club and was on the Free Kindergarten Council. She had a long-standing involvement with the National Council of Women.
In 1934 she proposed producing a book documenting the contribution of pioneer women in celebration of Victoria’s centenary. Margaret Cuthbertson was the convenor of the Women’s Centenary Council set up by the National Council of Women. This massive research project was carried out by a small committee which included the RHSV’s long-time honorary librarian Mary Webster. The result was a massive tome Records of the Pioneer Women of Victoria 1835-1860 which included information on more than 1,300 women pioneers. It is likely that the group made much use of the HSV Pioneer Register which had earlier collected information on pioneer families. Only five copies of the book were produced. One was presented to the HSV in April 1937 and the others were allocated to the Melbourne Public Library (now State Library), the Canberra Library (now National Library ), the Mitchell Library in Sydney and the British Museum Library in London. It is a tangible memorial to a remarkable woman.
Ada Cuthbertson, Margaret’s sister, died suddenly of heart failure in 1936. Margaret died in an East Melbourne hospital in 1944 after a long illness.
Elisabeth Jackson, July 2021
Sources
Hyslop, Anthea, ‘Cuthbertson, Margaret Gardiner (1864–1944)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cuthbertson-margaret-gardiner-5858/text9961 , published first in hardcopy 1981, accessed online 10 June 2021
Damousi, Joy, ‘Female factory inspectors and leadership in early twentieth century Australia’ in Diversity in leadership : Australian women, past and present edited by Joy Damousi, Kim Rubenstein and Mary Tomsic Canberra, ANU Press 2014
Victorian Factory Inspector reports 1895-
https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/papers/govpub/VPARL1895-96No49.pdf
Women’s Centenary Council, Records of the Pioneering women of Victoria. Melbourne, National Council of Women, 1937
McGowan, Henrietta and Cuthbertson, Margaret, Woman’s Work, Melbourne, Lothian, 1913
Obituary, ‘Miss Margaret Cuthbertson’, Bacchus Marsh Express, 25 November 1944, p.1
‘Our public women, Miss Margaret Cuthbertson’, Australasian, 1 September 1928, p. 19
Historical Society of Victoria archives, Council minute books 1932-1944
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