Author: Clara Elizabeth Collet

Clara Elizabeth Collet was a British economist, statistician, and civil servant whose research made women’s employment visible in public policy. Educated at University College London, she taught before undertaking investigations connected with Charles Booth’s study of London life and the Royal Commission on Labour. She later became a senior investigator for women’s industries at the Board of Trade. Women in industry, published in 1911, belongs to her sustained examination of wages, occupations, working conditions, and the economic choices available to women. The concise work followed detailed reports and essays gathered in Educated Working Women, where Collet combined statistics with observation rather than treating employment as an abstract question. Her service on the councils of the Royal Economic Society and Royal Statistical Society extended that professional role after retirement from government. Women in industry reflects the central concern of her career: reliable evidence about paid work could challenge assumptions about dependence and help administrators understand how education, marriage, household costs, and labour markets shaped women’s lives.