Blaze e-catalogue - Catalog - Page 112
Annie
Duncan
1858-1943
First woman
factory inspector
In her 21 year career with the NSW Department
of Labour and Industry, Annie Duncan improved
the lives of working women and children.
The NSW Factories and Shops Act, 1896 aimed
to improve the conditions of manufacturing and
trade workers. Duncan was the first woman
factory inspector appointed under the Act.
Visiting factories and shops, she inspected
conditions under which female and child
workers were employed. Low wages, long hours,
poor sanitation—or ‘sweating’—proliferated,
damaging workers’ health, and, Duncan believed,
women’s fertility.
After 12 years, Duncan was joined by other woman
inspectors, including Belle Golding. Like many
of her peers, Duncan was involved in social causes
outside her employment. With the Golding sisters,
she participated in deputations that demanded
women be admitted to the legal professions.
Duncan was an executive member of the National
Council of Women—co-founded by Rose Scott—
and President of the Professional Women’s
Association.
“She has always been firm and
discriminating in her decisions,
and won the goodwill of
factory owners in the days
when a woman-inspector was
regarded as a dangerous kind
of animal.”
By the time of WWI, Duncan had become
disillusioned. Her conservative political views,
she felt, impeded her career opportunities under
a Labor Government, and she subsequently
retired in 1918.
‘Miss Annie Duncan’, The Lone Hand, 2 December 1912, Vol. 12,
No. 68, p. 133
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