A Respectable Occupation: - University of Hertfordshire Research ...

pharmacies until January 1913. 72 Another reason for the continued
increase in female candidates at this time could have been the loss of male
apothecaries‘ assistants to the armed forces from 1914. The war was not the
only momentous event of the time. The Suffragettes were at the forefront of
a campaign to increase women‘s interest in the advancement of democracy,
which led, in 1918, to the Representation of the Peoples Act. This
encouraged women to see themselves on an equal footing to men and must
have stimulated them to take up employment. 73 The dishonesty of the
Society of Apothecaries, which continued to market its assistant‘s
examination after the transfer of dispensing, because it provided an
important source of income, could have been a factor in the continued
recruitment of candidates. This issue is discussed further in chapter 5, but
in respect of the continued growth after 1911, it is interesting that it was
not brought to the notice of the Private Court until October 1914. 74 It is
possible that the displaced apothecaries‘ assistants found themselves
financially better off working as chemists‘ assistants. It might have been
that they were prepared to relinquish the status of working for a doctor
under minimal supervision, for a job with a chemist and druggist under
greater supervision, but for more money. This would have maintained the
popularity of dispensing as a career. In considering the increasing
popularity of the qualification among women, from the first application in
1878 to the peak in 1917, one must bear in mind the state of girls‘
72
Anderson Stewart, „Jubilee of the National Insurance Act‟, 33-34.
73
„The Representation of the People Act 1918‟, < http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/1918-reppeople-act.pdf>
74
Society of Apothecaries Archive, Examination Committee Minutes, 12 May 1914.
106