Seats for Women in Mercantile Establishments

Chairs, stools, or other suitable seats shall be maintained in
mercantile establishments for the use of female employees
therein, to the number of at least one seat for every three
females employed, and the use thereof by such employees shall
be allowed at such times and to such extent as may be necessary
for the preservation of their health.

The enforcement of this law is very difficult. The mercantile inspectors
can compel the requisite number of seats. They have successfully issued
one hundred and fourteen orders on this point[6] to the stores within the
year 1909. But the use of these seats to such extent as may be necessary
for the preservation of the health of the women employees is another
matter. For fear of being blacklisted by the merchants, the saleswomen
will not testify in court in those cases where employers practically
forbid the use of seats, by requesting the employees to do something
requiring a standing position whenever they sit down. So that in these
cases the inspectors cannot bring prosecution successfully, on account of
lack of sufficient evidence.

Further, in one store the management especially advises the saleswomen to
be seated at every moment when the presence of a customer does not
require her to stand. But the saleswoman's inability to attract possible
customers while she is seated still keeps her standing, in order not to
diminish her sales.

Curiously enough, it would seem that the shopping public of a nation
professedly democratic will not buy so much as a spool of thread from a