compositor• The two children of a boot-closer, Katie and Andrew S., both became compositors.• It was not only the femalecompositors who were being asked for support.• Here then was a furtherdivision among malecompositors, well established before 1872.• What was atypical about Edinburgh was the large number of women recruited to the trade of compositor.• The compositors put the matter clearly in 1810.• We know the occupations of 161 fathers of women compositors, from their marriagecertificates.• Four hundred-odd signatures of women compositors were appended.• In 1916, many of the women compositors found themselves being called to work as PostOfficeclerks.