I know that women's temperance groups in Ireland protested against employers
paying their workers inside the pub.  I also know that during World War I
women assisted the police in Dublin in a scheme designed to cut down the
growing threat of female drunkenness and drunken soldiers, not to mention
their usefulness in informing the police of nationalist plots against the
government.  Probably not what you're looking for, but some interesting
tidbits.

Brad Kadel
Luther College

----- Original Message -----
From: David M. Fahey <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2000 9:55 AM
Subject: paydays and pay periods


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
header -----------------------
> Sender:       Alcohol and Temperance History Group
<[log in to unmask]>
> Poster:       "David M. Fahey" <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject:      paydays and pay periods
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
>
> I come from a railroading family.   My father was a machinist, working for
> several decades for the New York Central (now Penn Central).  I recall
> being told that the unions had arranged with management to change from a
> monthly (?) pay period to a weekly one.  A protest from wives, who feared
> that more frequent paydays would mean more frequently drunken husbands,
> forced a compromise (bi-weekly, perhaps).  My memory of all of this is
> hazy.  I think that the time was late 1940s.  Does anyone else know of
> cases of gendered protests against frequent paydays as a result of paydays
> being associated with drunkenness and squandering family resources?