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X./3.31/&8
ST/Ht 7~A,CHERS COLLEGE LIBRAETr
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
WOMEN’S BUREAU
Bulletin No. 168
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND
FAMILY SUPPORT
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
FRANCES PERKINS, Secretary
WOMEN’S BUREAU
MARY ANDERSON, Director
4
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND
FAMILY SUPPORT
By
MARY ELIZABETH PIDGEON
AND
MARGARET THOMPSON METTERT
Bulletin
of the
Women’s Bureau, No. 168
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 1939
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington. D. C.
Price 10 cents
CONTENTS
Letter of transmittal
Part I. Introduction and summary
Summary of findings
Part II. Employed women and family support in Fort Wayne, Ind_____
Introduction
Occupations of gainfully-employed women___________________
Age of gainfully-employed women
Marital status and occupation
Occupations of various nativity groups of women_____________
Responsibility of women for the support of familiesI
Responsibility of single women for family support____________
Responsibility of married women for family support__________
Responsibility of widowed and divorced women for family support.
Families of gainfully-employed women in Fort Wayne_____________
Families having women gainfully occupied___________________
Families with no men wage earners
11
Summary as to family support
12
Gainfully-employed homemakers in Fort Wayne__________________
Occupations of homemakers and of other employed women____
Age of gainfully-employed homemakers_____________________
Employed homemakers’ families dependent for support entirely on
women____________________________________________ _
_
Occupations of homemakers who were the sole wage earners in
their families
16
Size of family of the gainfully-employed homemakers in various
occupations
16
Families of employed homemakers that had small children____ I
Nativity of employed homemakers
18
Women heads of employed homemakers’ families_____________
Families of employed homemakers that had lodgers___________
Part III. Employed women and family support in Bridgeport, Conn____
Introduction
20
Occupations of gainfully-employed women___________________
Ago of gainfully-employed women
22
Marital status and occupation
23
Occupations of various nativity groups of women_____________
Responsibility of women for the support of families■_______________
Responsibility of single women for family support.___________
Responsibility of married women for family support__________
Responsibility of widowed and divorced women for family supportFamilies of gainfully-employed women in Bridgeport______________
Families having women gainfully occupied___________________
Families with no men wage earners
_ Summary as to family support
Gainfully-employed homemakers in Bridgeport___________________
Occupations of homemakers and of other employed women.___
Age of gainfully-employed homemakers
29
Employed homemakers’ families dependent for support entirely
on women
31
Occupations of homemakers who were the sole wage earners in
their families
31
Size of family of the gainfully-employed homemakers in various
occupations
32
Families of employed homemakers that had small children..."’
Nativity of employed homemakers
35
Women heads of employed homemakers’ families_____________
Families of employed homemakers that had lodgers___________
in
Pago
v
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2
5
5
5
6
7
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9
9
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10
11
11
13
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20
21
24
24
24
25
26
26
26
27
28
28
29
33
35
36
IV
CONTENTS
Part IV. Employed women and family support in Richmond, Va_______
Introduction___ ..
Occupations of gainfully-employed women___________________
Age of gainfully-employed women
38
Marital status and occupation,.____________________________
Occupations of various nativity groups of women_____________
Responsibility of women for the support of families_______________
Responsibility of single women for family support____________
Responsibility of married women for family support__________
Responsibility of widowed and divorced women for family supportFamilies of gainfully-employed women in Richmond______________
Families having women gainfully occupied ' 43
Families with no men wage earners
43
Summary as to family support
44
Gainfully-employed homemakers in Richmond-_•_________________
Occupations of homemakers and of other employed women____
Age of gainfully-employed homemakers
46
Employed homemakers’ families dependent for support entirely
on women
47
Occupations of homemakers who were the sole wage earners in
their families
47
Size of family of the gainfully-employed homemakers in various
occupations,___________________________________________
Families of employed homemakers that had small children_____
Nativity of employed homemakers
50
Women heads of employed homemakers’ families_____________
Families of employed homemakers that had lodgers___________
Page
37
37
38
39
40
41
41
42
43
43
45
45
48
49
50
50
APPENDIX TABLES
I. Age of gainfully-employed women, by occupational group—Fort
Wayne
52
II. Occupation of homemakers and of other gainfully-occupied women—
Fort Wayne
53
III. Age of gainfully-employed women, by occupational group—Bridge
port---------------------------------------------------------------------------------IV. Occupation of homemakers and of other gainfully-occupied women—•
Bridgeport
55
V. Age of gainfully-employed women, by occupational group-—RichmondVI. Occupation of homemakers and of other gainfully-occupied women—
Richmond
57
54
56
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
United States Department op Labor,
Women’s Bureau,
Washington, February 16, 1939.
I have the honor to transmit a report indicating that em
ployed women constitute a major factor in the support of their
families and in many cases furnish their entire maintenance.
Since the Women’s Bureau has numerous requests from organiza
tions and individuals in this and other countries for information on
this, matter, through the courtesy of the Bureau of the Census the
family schedules from three large industrial cities in 1930 have been
examined. The findings, presented in this bulletin, show that women
support others to a much greater extent than ordinarily is realized.
The material was analyzed by Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon, chief of the
research division of the Women’s Bureau, who wrote parts I and II
of the report; parts III and IV were written by Margaret Thompson
Mettert of the Bureau’s research division.
Respectfully submitted.
Mary Anderson, Director.
Hon. Frances Perkins,
Secretary of Labor.
Madam:
v
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY
SUPPORT
Part I.—INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY
The great majority of the employed women in this country are at
work to support themselves and in many cases others as well, or at
least to contribute heavily to the family needs. During the years of
depression the Women’s Bureau has had abundant evidence that more
and more women have had to seek employment so as to take up their
share of the burden of family support, either because of unemploy
ment of male wage earners or because of greatly reduced circumstances.
The responsibility women have for family support has been studied
by the Women’s Bureau from schedules of the regular 1930 Census of
Occupations, generously made available to the Women’s Bureau for
this purpose by the Bureau of the Census, as was done in the preceding
decade. Because of unavoidable differences in method, the data for
1930 are not comparable with those for 1920.
The information secured by the Women’s Bureau includes more
detail on the types of employment and of family relationships of
employed women than the Bureau of the Census had facilities for
preparing. While it was not possible to take off the records for more
than a few industrial cities, the picture that can be shown for three
cities, widely scattered geographically and of diversified industrial
character, gives a good indication of the general situation likely to be
found throughout urban areas of the entire country, and affords a
background for analysis of the changes in woman employment that
the Census of Occupations of 1940 may find.
The occupations, ages, and marital status of the working women
have been made known, and the original census data have afforded
the Women’s Bureau a basis for discovering, for both the single and
the married, whether they were living at home or with relatives outside
the immediate family, the size of these families and the number of
small children they included, how many of the women were entirely
responsible for support of the family, and how many shared such
responsibility with other women alone or with men and women.
The data tend to underestimate the responsibilities of women, since
they show nothing of the contribution women made to dependents
outside the family group, and they show nothing of the unemployment
of members of the household who normally were wage earners. Even
with these omissions the data are evidence that employed women were
sharing heavily in the support of their families.
Note—The term “gainfully employed” means “normally a gainful worker.” It does not take into
account temporary unemployment.
i
2
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
Numbers of women reported.
The material prepared by the Women’s Bureau from the 1920
census schedules showed the family status of nearly 40,000 gainfullyemployed women in the four selected cities of Passaic, N. J., Butte,
Mont., Jacksonville, Fla., and Wilkes-Barre and Hanover Township,
Pa. That from the 1930 schedules covers the more than 58,000 gain
fully-employed women 16 years of age and over in Fort Wayne, Ind.,
Bridgeport, Conn., and Richmond, Va. These cities were selected as
representative industrial communities in various sections of the
country, all having considerable proportions of their women in gainful
employment. The proportions of women 16 years of age or more in
gainful occupations in the United States and in these cities were as
follows:
Percent
Bridgeport, Conn__________
United States
Fort Wayne, Ind
Richmond, Va
25.
29.
32.
38.
3
6
7
8
Occupations of women reported.
In each city the occupations of women were quite diversified. They
were distributed in the characteristic occupational groups of women
likely to be found in most cities. Of the nearly 85,000 persons 16
years of age and over in Fort Wayne in 1930, about 13,000 were gain
fully-employed women, chiefly in electrical-supply factories, knitting
mills, clothing factories, clerical work, domestic and personal service,
such professions as teaching and nursing, and the selling trades.
The 17,000 working women of Bridgeport found employment to a
greater extent in clothing factories, in the manufacture of electrical
machinery and supplies, of iron and steel and their products, and of
chemicals, but large numbers were in clerical occupations, in domestic
and personal service, in the professions of teaching and nursing, and
in the selling trades.
The typical working woman in each of these two northern cities was
employed in manufacturing; in Richmond she was working as a domes
tic in a private home. Though the greatest proportion of Richmond’s
more than 28,000 employed women were in some branch of domestic
and personal service, considerable numbers were in other occupations
usually employing many women. This city had a large group of
factory-employed women highly concentrated in cigar and tobacco
factories.
Age of women reported.
In each city these working women, though mature, were likely to
be younger than the rest of the woman population of the city. From
one-half to three-fifths of them were 25 and under 55 years of age.
The median age of the working women—half older and half younger—is shown by city in the following:
Fort Wayne 28 years
Bridgeport 28 years
Richmond 30 years
Marital status of women reported.
Of every 10 employed women in the two northern cities, 6 were
single, 2 were married and living with their husbands, and 2 were
3
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY
separated, widowed, or divorced; in Richmond only 5 were single, 3
were married, and 2 were widowed, separated, or divorced.
Clerical work or manufacturing was the largest employer of single
women, while manufacturing or domestic service was the largest em
ployer of married and widowed and divorced women. The proportion
of single women in professional fields far exceeded the proportion of
married or widowed and divorced women in professional work.
Nativity and race of women reported.
As the summary following indicates, the employed women in the two
northern cities were predominantly native white, though in Bridge
port over a fifth were foreign-born. In Richmond two of every five
were Negro.
Percent native
white
United States
Fort Wayne 95.
Bridgeport 75.
Richmond 58.
71.
6
1
5
7
Size of family of women reported.
The families of wage-earning women in the three cities ranged in
size from 2 to more than 10 persons. Though small families pre
dominated, a very large number had 4 or more members. The propor
tion of families that had a woman worker increased directly with size
of family. Of all families reported, 1 in every 3 or 4 had an employed
woman member; but 2 in 5 of the families of 5 persons, and approxi
mately 3 in 5 of the families of 9 or more persons, included a working
woman.
Women reporting support of dependents.
A surprising number of these households were supported entirely
by women; in Bridgeport and Fort Wayne about a sixth, and in
Richmond something over a fifth, of the families of the wage-earning
women had no male wage earners. In Richmond an even larger pro
portion of Negro families were supported by women.
In many cases the families of working women were dependent on the
earnings of one woman, as is indicated by the following statement as
to the proportion of women who were the sole support of families.
Percent responsible
for sole support of
family
Fort Wayne 10.
Bridgeport 10.
Richmond 13.
5
3
9
The burden of support for dependents was heaviest, of course, on
the widowed and divorced women. About 3 in 10 of these women in
Richmond and Bridgeport, and 1 in 4 in Fort Wayne, were the sole
support of the family in which they lived. Married women were least
likely to be solely responsible for family support, but there were many
cases, especially among the Negro women, where they were supporting
families of considerable size, and these families very often included
small children.
Well over half the single women in the study were living with one or
both of their parents, but this did not mean that their wages could be
used solely for personal adornment or pin money. The parents of 1 in
14 of these single women had no other means of support than the
132712°—39------ 2
4
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
daughter’s earnings. Frequently the household included not only
dependent parents but small children also dependent on her earnings.
Employed women homemakers.
One-third of the 58,000 women whose records were studied com
bined with a job of breadwinner the many tasks and responsibilities of
a homemaker. This is approximately the same as the proportion in
the United States as a whole. The percentage was somewhat less in
Fort Wayne and Bridgeport and somewhat larger in Richmond.
Well over nine-tenths of these homemakers were at work on jobs
that took them away from home, in the northern cities most frequently
to work in factories, in Richmond to domestic jobs in private homes.
They were more highly concentrated in these occupations than other
gainfully-occupied women, and much smaller proportions of them were
in clerical or professional fields.
Homemakers in the three cities were an older group than the other
employed women. Only about a tenth of the homemakers, as com
pared to approximately two-fifths of all gainfully-occupied women,
were under 25. A correspondingly large proportion of the homemakers
were women at least 45 years of age. These older women were more
likely than the younger groups to work at paid jobs in their own
homes—to take in washing or to make a business of lodging and board
ing.
Homemakers came from smaller families than the other employed
women. As a class, homemakers are not likely to leave young children
to take jobs unless the economic situation demands it. The family
units in Bridgeport ranged in size from 2 to 10 or more persons. A
fifth of the homemakers’ families had no men gainful workers and
about an eighth were supported entirely by the homemaker. Approxi
mately half the families supported by the homemaker and half those
whose support was entirely from women comprised 3 or more persons.
In the other cities these proportions differed only slightly. In Rich
mond 1 in 5 of the homemakers who were the sole support of a family
supported 4 or more persons; 1 in 20 were in families with 3 or more
small children.
The percentage of homemakers who were the sole support of a
family and the percentage whose household included young children
are shown in the following:
Percent of employed home
makers—
Who were
sole support
offamily
United States13. 7
Fort Wayne 10. 2
Bridgeport___ 12. 7
Richmond 14. 1
Whose household
included children
under 10 years
29. 6
20. 5
24. 4
27.7
Part II.—EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
IN FORT WAYNE, IND.
INTRODUCTION
Of the. nearly 85,000 persons 16 years of age and over in the city of
Fort Wayne, Ind., in 1930, not far from 44,000 were women. Almost
13,000 of these women were in gainful occupations—practically 30
percent of the total.1
_
Many studies have indicated the large extent to which employed
women bear their share in the family support. An analysis of the
1930 census records for Fort Wayne was undertaken to show what
manner of women these were who were making a living in that city,
and to gain some idea as to what economic responsibilities they were
carrying.
_
Their occupations, ages, and marital status have been made known,
and the original census data afford a basis for discovering, both for
the single women and those married, whether they were living at
home or with relatives outside the immediate family, how many of
them were entirely responsible for support of the family and how
many shared this responsibility with other women alone or with men
and women, and the size of these families and the number of small
children they included.
The data show that more than a fifth of the single women who
lived in families of 2 or more persons were making or helping to make
the living for families having no men wage earners. About 400 of
these were the only wage earners in their families, even though many
of them lived with one or both parents. In almost 100 instances, too,
a married woman constituted the sole support of the family.
Nearly a third of the employed women of Fort Wayne had the
work of homemaking as well as a paid job, and the census has now
for the first time supplied separate information on homemakers, so
that it is possible to discover the kind of work that women did, the
number of small children they had, the size of their families, and the
extent of the wage-earning burden they bore.
Occupations of gainfully-employed women.
The working women in Fort Wayne in 1930 were distributed
throughout the characteristic occupational groups of women that are
likely to be found in most cities. Not far from three-tenths of
them were in manufacturing and over one-fourth were in clerical
pursuits, somewhat less than one-fifth were in domestic and personal
service, slightly more than one-eighth in managerial or professional
occupations, just over one-tenth in selling trades, and small propor
tions (less than 3 percent in each case) were at work in their own
homes and in telephone and telegraph exchanges. The most impor
tant manufacturing industries employing women in this city were
i U. S. Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census, 1930: Population, vol. V., pp.' 210-245. Only women
16 years of age and over are included in the figures used by the Women's Bureau.
5
6
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
electrical supplies, knit goods, and clothing. The following summary
shows the distribution of Fort Wayne women in the chief occupational
groups.
Women 16 years of age
Occupation
and over
Number1
Percent
Total 12, 897
100. 0
Manufacturing----------------------------------------------- 3, 614
Electrical machinery and supply factories___
1, 575
Knitting mills
861
Clothing factories
530
Clerical occupations 3, 308
Domestic and personal service 2, 374
In private homes 1, 029
In hotels, restaurants, etc_________________
563
Managerial and professional service 1, 672
Teachers
783
Trained nurses
505
Selling trades 1, 395
Saleswomen and clerks in stores 1, 138
Working in own home
304
Telephone and telegraph operators_____________
181
Not elsewhere classified__________________________
49
28. 0
____
____
____
25.6
18.4
____
____
13. 0
____
____
10. 8
____
2.4
1.4
.4
1 Totals exceed details, as not all occupations classified are shown separately.
Age of gainfully-employed women.
The median age of all the women 16 years of age and over employed
in Fort Wayne was just over 28 years, which means that half of them
were younger, half older, than this. Fourteen percent were very
young—16 and under 2’0—and one-half as many (7 percent) were
56 years or older, a few of those still in gainful work being as old as 75.
Table I in the appendix shows the occupational distribution of the
women of various ages. The following summary, taken from table I,
shows what large proportions of these employed women were under 25.
Percent 16 and
Occupation
old
All women24. 0
Women gainfully employed39. 6
Manufacturing44. 5
Clerical occupations 54. 2
Domestic and personal service 25. 7
Managerial and professional service31. 5
Selling trades 32. 2
Working in own home•
Telephone and telegraph operators 56. 4
Not elsewhere classified20. 4
3. 0
On the whole, the women who were employed were much younger
than the woman population in general, and only a relatively small
group were as old as 55. Only 24 percent of all women in the city
were under 25, yet nearly 40 percent of those in. gainful occupations
were so young. Taking a still younger group, 14 percent of the
employed women were 16 and under 20, though only slightly more
than 9 percent of all those in the city were of such ages.
Well over one-half of the women in telephone and telegraph service
and in clerical occupations were under 25, and very few were as old as
55. Older women were found in the largest proportions among those
in domestic and personal service and those in their own homes engaged
in such work as taking boarders and doing washing, in which groups
7
POET WAYNE, IND.
practically one-sixth and three-tenths, respectively, were 55 or older.
Young women constituted well over two-fifths of those in manufactur
ing, roughly one-third of those in the selling trades and in managerial
and professional pursuits. In all the occupational groups but the
exceptions noted, women as old as 55 were found in relatively small
proportions.
Of the women under 25, approximately a third were in manufactur
ing and a third in clerical occupations; and of the youngest group,
those 16 and under 20, about a sixth were in domestic and personal
service, a ninth in selling trades.
Turning to women who were considerably older—those of 55 years
or more—it is found that much the largest group were in domestic
and personal service, well over two-fifths of the older women being so
employed, more than half of these at work in private homes. About
one-sixth were in manufacturing, over half of these working in clothing
factories; more than one-eighth were in managerial and professional
positions, almost two-fifths of them teachers; a tenth were in selling
trades and another tenth at work in their own homes, half the latter
taking in boarders or lodgers and an appreciable group doing washing.
Clerical pursuits occupied comparatively few of the older women.
(See appendix table I.)
Marital status and occupation.
Of all women in the population about 60 percent were married, but
of those gainfully employed only about 27 percent were married.2
Manufacturing industries employed more than a third of the mar
ried women, the largest group of them in any occupation, though only
about a fourth of the single women were in the city’s factories.
Single women were employed largely in clerical occupations and in
manufacturing, 34 percent and 26 percent, respectively. The selling
trades, manufacturing, domestic and personal service, and the home
occupations engaged larger proportions of the married than of the
single women, while in clerical work, managerial and professional
pursuits, and telephone and telegraph occupations single women
predominated. The following summary shows the occupational
distribution of single women and of those who were married.
Occupation
Percent distribution of—
Married and
separated
women
Single
zvomen
All occupations 100. 0
Manufacturing_______
Clerical occupations 34. 2
Domestic and personal service 13. 0
Managerial and professionalservice 16. 7
Selling trades
7. 6
Working in own home
.5
Telephone and telegraph operators________________
Not elsewhere classified
.2
100. 0
26. 0
1. 7
33. 5
16. 1
19. 6
8. 2
16. 9
4. 1
1.0
.5
The most striking features of the occupational distribution of the
other marital group—widowed and divorced—were the very high
proportions in domestic and personal service, much higher than for
the married women, and the lower proportions of widowed and
divorced who were in manufacturing.
2 Marital-status figures for all women refer to women of 15 and over, as given in the census; those for the
gainfully employed are for women of 16 and over. In each case those separated are included with the married
women.
8
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
01 the women in manufacturing, somewhat similar proportions of
the married (including those separated) and the single were in elec
trical-supply factories, which employed larger groups than did any
other industry. The proportion in knitting mills was largest among
the single women, while in clothing factories it was largest among
married women.
Of the single women in domestic and personal service, not far from
three-fifths were at work in private homes (for the most part living in),
and about one-sixth were in hotels and restaurants. Of the married
women so employed, only about one-fourth were in private homes
(as living-in jobs were not suited to them); nearly one-third were in
hotels and restaurants and about two-fifths in other occupations,
such as hairdressing, power laundries, and so forth. The occupations
last named engaged only about a fourth of the single women in this
group.
Occupations of various nativity groups of women.
Women who were native white of native parentage formed just
over 70 percent of all those 16 years of age and more in the popula
tion and nearly 77 percent of those gainfully employed. Twenty-two
percent of all women of these ages and about 18 percent of the em
ployed women were native whites at least one of whose parents was
foreign-born. In each case foreign-born whites formed small, and
Negroes very small, proportions.
One-third of the Negro women in Fort Wayne were gainfully
occupied, as were almost as large a proportion of the native white.
Only 14.5 percent of the foreign-born white were gainfully employed;
some explanation of this may be found in the excess of older women
in the foreign-born population, age as well as language difficulties
closing the door to many jobs, notably in clerical occupations. Only
18 percent of the Negro women under 20 were employed; only 11 such
women had found places in clerical work or in manufacturing. The
highest proportion of employed Negro women were in the 45-to-54year group, while among both native-born and foreign-born white
women the highest proportion at work were in the 20-to-24-year
group, with a large proportion even in the 16-to-19-year group.
The general occupational distribution of the native white groups
differed very little as between those of native parentage and those of
foreign or mixed parentage. Somewhat larger proportions of the
former were in clerical and managerial and professional occupations or
were telephone and telegraph operators, and slightly larger propor
tions of the latter were in manufacturing and domestic and personal
service. In domestic and personal service, larger proportions of
those with American-born than of those with foreign-born parents
were in hotels or restaurants. Private homes, however, employed
nearly half the native white women of foreign parentage but only
about two-fifths of those of native parentage.
Of the small group of foreign-born women, not shown separately
in the tables in this report, nearly two-fifths were in domestic and
personal service, the largest number of these being in private homes,
and about one-fourth were in manufacturing. Of the small number
of Negroes, also not shown separately, over four-fifths were in
domestic and personal service,
9
POET WAYNE, IND.
RESPONSIBILITY OF WOMEN FOR THE SUPPORT OF
FAMILIES
Responsibility of single women for family support.
The reports show that very many single women were engaged in
the serious business of sharing the support of dependents, and there
were many cases in which families were entirely dependent on single
women for support. The table following shows the data tabulated
for the 7,586 single women reported.
Over one-fifth of the single women in families of two or more persons
(1,035 in all) were making or helping to make the living for families
that had no men wage earners; more than three-fourths lived with one
or both parents.
The popular idea of a girl at work for “pin money” or for luxuries
for herself can no longer be credited as the usual case, not even when
she lives with her parents. Almost half of all the single women re
ported (3,666) were living with one or both parents, but the parents
of nearly 1,000 of these girls wTere not at work. In the families of
651 of these employed women living with parents, there were no men
wage earners. Though they lived with one or both parents, 299 of
these women were the sole wage earners in the family, 251 of them
joined with one other woman, and 101 of them joined with two or
more women, in the support of the parent or parents.
The responsibility for support falling on single women can be com
pared for those whose parents were native-born and those who were
of foreign or mixed parentage in the following table.
Native white of—
Family status
Total i
Foreign or
Native
parentage mixed par
entage
7,586
With no men wage earners:
Woman the sole support of family:
Living with parent or parents:
With parents not gainfully occupied:
Single women not in families—living‘alone, boarding, or living with
5, 867
1,485
4,807
63.4
3,645
62.1
1,073
72.3
1,035
21.5
681
18.7
280
26.1
398
8.3
272
7.5
114
10.6
3, 666
76.3
2,849
78.2
753
70.2
994
27.1
666
23.4
306
40.6
2,779
Single women in families of 2 or more persons:3
2,222
412
1 Totals exceed details, as the small groups of foreign-bom and Negro women are not shown separately.
* Excludes women lining alone, boarding, or living with employer, except those with dependent children.
3 Excludes 1 woman with dependent child or children, transferred to family group.
A larger proportion of the women of foreign or mixed parentage
(26.1 percent) than of those of native white parentage (18.7 percent)
represented families supported entirely by women. Further, if only
those single women who were living with their parents are considered,
a larger proportion of those of foreign or mixed (40.6 percent) than of
those of native white parentage (23.4 percent) were living with parents
who had no gainful employment.
10
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
Responsibility of married women for family support.
The reports illustrate the fallacy that marriage is a release from
economic responsibility. Though there were considerably less than
half as many employed married women as employed single women,
in an appreciable number of these married women’s families the only
wage earners were women. The summary following shows the data
for the 3,163 employed married women in families in the city; besides
these were some 300 living alone, boarding, or living with employer.
All gainfully-occupied married women 13, 469
Married women in families of 2 or more persons: 2
Number 3, 163
Percent of all married women 91. 2
With no men wage earners:
Number
Percent of all married women in families____________
Woman the sole support of family
Number with children under 10____________________
Living with husband2,
Husband gainfully employed 2,
Husband not gainfully employed___________________
Married women not in families—living alone, boarding, or living
with employer3
122
3. 9
95
34
989
913
76
306
»Includes separated women.
* Excludes women living alone, boarding, or living with employer, except those with dependent children.
8 Excludes 19 women with dependent children, transferred to family group.
In 122 of these married women’s families the only wage earners
were women, and in 96 of these the married woman was the only
wage earner, 34 of them having children under 10. These facts, in
conjunction with the statement that over half the married women
reported were employed in manufacturing or in domestic and personal
service (see p. 7), give a vivid picture of the serious economic neces
sity under which these married women were at work.
The husbands of nearly one-tenth of these employed married women
(174 in all) were not living with them, and 76 of these had children
under 10 years of age.
Of the 2,913 employed married women whose husbands were gain
fully employed, 2,032 (practically 70 percent) were working to main
tain their homes, the husband and wife being the only wage earners
in the family. In 423 of these cases there were children under 10.
Responsibility of widowed and divorced women for family support.
It is not surprising that more than two-fifths (42.5 percent) of the
1,111 employed women who were widowed or divorced and in families
of two or more persons were in families having no male earner. Data
for these individual women are shown in the following summary.
All gainfully-occupied widowed and divorced women____ 1, 828
Widowed and divorced women in families of 2 or more persons: 1
Number 1, 111
Percent of all widowed and divorced women 60. 8
Women -with no men wage earners
472
Percent of all widowed and divorced women in families,
Woman the sole support of a family
285
Number with children under 10
Widowed and divorced women not in families—living alone,
boarding, or living with employer 2
42. 5
108
717
1 Excludes women living alone, boarding, or living with employer, except those with dependent children.
! Excludes 16 women with dependent children, transferred to family group.
FORT WAYNE, IND.
11
Of the 1,111 widowed and divorced women in families, 377 were
responsible for children under 10 years of age. There were 285
women who were the only wage earners in families including other
members besides themselves.
FAMILIES OF GAINFULLY-EMPLOYED WOMEN
IN FORT WAYNE
The reports show many families with women in gainful occupa
tions, many with no male wage earner, and a very considerable
number with one woman as the sole wage earner.
Families having women gainfully occupied.
Of 27,565 families 3 in the city, more than a fourth had some woman
member in a gainful occupation, 7,496 3 such families in all. One-
fifth of these families with employed women, 1,521 of them, also had a
woman head.
Many of these families with employed women were of considerable
size, over half of them (3,877) having four persons or more. This was
a proportion somewhat greater than that of all families in the city
that had as many as four members.
These families with an employed woman member had small children
in many cases, 1,891 in all (about a fourth) having children under 10,
and 260 families having at least 3 small children, 27 of them 5 or more.
Families with no men wage earners.
There were no men wage earners in practically one-sixth of the
families of 2 or more persons that had women at work—in all, 1,154
families. Of these, 192 had children under 10 years of age. Nor
were these families, dependent for support solely upon women, neces
sarily of small size, since 250 of them (over one-fifth) had 4 persons
or more; in a number there were at least 3 children under 10 years of
age.
In almost 800 families—more than a tenth of all those with a woman
member in gainful occupation—the full wage-earning responsibility
was borne by only 1 woman. Of these families, 137 had 4 persons or
more, and 20 of them had at least 3 children under 10.
In 304 families there were 2 women (and no men) wage earners, and
68 of these (more than one-fifth) had 4 members or more.
Nearly three-tenths of the 1,881 families of 2 persons with a woman
gainfully occupied (561 women in all) and nearly one-fifth of the 1,738
such families of 3 persons (343 women in all) were entirely dependent
on the woman for support.
If the nativity of the chief wage-earning woman in the Fort Wayne
families be considered, 5,704 of them are found to have been families
of native white women of native parentage, while in 1,449 the parent
age was foreign or mixed. The proportions of families supported
3 Excludes 1-person families.
132712°—39-------3
12
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
Only by women were the larger among those of foreign or mixed
parentage, as appears in the following:
Families of native white women of—
Total i
Native parentage Foreign or mixed
parentage
Family status
Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent
7,496
Two wage earners__
-
Three or more wage earners_____________
100.0
5,704
100.0
1,449
100.0
1,154
788
137
304
68
62
45
15.4
10.5
798
546
102
211
51
41
29
14.0
9.6
293
192
25
80
14
21
16
20.2
13.3
4.1
.8
3.7
.7
5.5
1.4
1 Totals exceed details, as the small groups of foreign-born and Negro women are not shown separately.
A larger proportion of the families of foreign or mixed than of those
of native parentage were supported by a woman, and in respectively
37 and 46 percent of the cases the woman was homemaker as well as
sole wage earner.
The families supported entirely by women tended to run larger
among those of women of native than among those of foreign or mixed
parentage, 23 percent of the former and 19 percent of the latter
consisting of four persons or more.
In the families of four persons or more, slightly larger proportions
among those of foreign or mixed parentage than among those of
native parentage were entirely supported by women.
Summary as to family support.
Not far from a sixth of the families reported had no man wage
earner. Of all the employed women living in families of two or more
persons, almost 9 percent were the sole wage earners in such families.
Naturally, the differences according to marital status were great,
very many more of the widowed and divorced than of the other women
being the sole wage earners, as the following shows:
Percent solely responsible
for family support
Marital status
All women living in families
8. 6
Single______________ __________ ______________ 8.3
Married and separated 3. 0
Widowed and divorced_____________ ___________ 25. 7
It is of interest to compare these figures with data taken 30 years
before in the census of 1900, which showed a somewhat larger pro
portion—13.9 percent—of the employed women living at home in 27
selected cities to be the sole family wage earners. The cities reported
in 1900 that were geographically nearest Fort Wayne were Chicago
and Detroit, in which respectively 14.3 percent and 11.7 percent of
the women were the sole wage earners in their families.4
4 U. S. Bureau of the Census. Statistics of Women at Work. Based on unpublished information derived
from schedules of the Twelfth Census: 1900. pp. 208, 316, 328.
FORT WAYNE, IND.
13
GAINFULLY-EMPLOYED HOMEMAKERS IN FORT
WAYNE
Up to the present point, the discussion in regard to Fort Wayne
has included all gainfully-occupied women. Of the 12,897 women so
reported in this city, nearly a third bore the homemaking responsi
bility for their families besides being wage earners; in all, just over
4,000 women had this double job.6
Occupations of homemakers and of other employed women.
Table II in the appendix shows the chief occupations engaged in
by homemakers and by other employed women in Fort Wayne, and
the following summary makes this comparison possible and also a
comparison of homemakers’ occupations in Fort Wayne with those
in urban United States as a whole.
Percent distribution of—
Occupational group
Homemakers in—
All other
gainfullyoccupied
Urban United Fort Wayne women in
States1
Fort Wayne
All occupations 2______ ____
100.0
100.0
100.0
Manufacturing. _ _ _____________
Selling trades__________________
Clerical occupations_____________
Managerial and professional service.
Domestic and personal service____
Working in own home___________
22.4
8.1
16.0
10.3
27.6
9.7
30.8
15.6
15.3
10.0
20.1
6.7
26.7
8.6
30.4
14.3
17.6
* *J. s-Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census, 1930: vol. VI, p. 31. The classifications used by the
Census differ somewhat from those used by the Women’s Bureau, and are as follows: Industrial workerssaleswomen; office workers; professional workers; and servants, waitresses, and so forth.
2 Totals exceed details, as not all minor groups are shown separately.
8Less than 0.05 percent.
The occupational distribution differed considerably as between the
employed homemakers and other women who had jobs. Among the
homemakers, the largest group (including not far from a third of these
women) were in manufacturing, with domestic and personal service
next, engaged in by one-fifth. Women who were not homemakers
were employed in largest numbers in clerical work (not far from a
third of them), with manufacturing a fairly close second. The pro
portions in clerical and in managerial and professional work were
smaller among homemakers than among other employed women,
while all other occupations were engaged in more largely by home
makers.
In manufacturing, the largest groups were in electrical machinery
and supply factories, nearly two-thirds of these women being non
homemakers. Knitting mills engaged the next largest group of non
homemakers, and the third largest number were in clothing factories.
8 Eliminating 1-person families (women living alone), 3,593 women. In the discussion, 1-person families
will be eliminated where the question of support or family responsibility arises, in cases in which the ma
terial has been so tabulated that it is possible to omit them. Where comparison is made with data for the
United States, however, the 1-person families have been left in, since they cannot always be eliminated
from census data for the United States. The slight differences throughout the report are due to differences
m methods of tabulation by the census and by the Women's Bureau, and do not seriously affect the picture.
When it was possible to get unpublished information from the census—as, for example, occupation of home
maker correlated with age—such information was used. Data not correlated by the census were tabulated
in the W omen’s Bureau.
14
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
In domestic and personal work, nearly a third of the homemakers
were in hotels and restaurants, cooks forming the largest group, many
also being waitresses. One-fourth of all the homemakers were em
ployed in private homes. An appreciable number were beauty-shop
operators.
In contrast to this, well over half the nonhomemakers in domestic
and personal service were in private homes, the great majority of them
living in; a slightly larger proportion were waitresses than was the case
with homemakers.
In the selling trades, of course, the large groups were saleswomen
and clerks in retail stores, and not far from 60 percent of these were
nonhomemakers. On the other hand, homemakers predominated
among the owners of the shops.
In professional work teachers and trained nurses predominated, and
in each of these occupations the great majority were not responsible
for homcmaking in addition to the other job.
Nine-tenths of the 304 women who were at work in their own homes
also were the homemakers. The largest group of these (129) had
boarders or lodgers, 63 did washing, and 62 were doing sewing, knit
ting, or millinery, chiefly on their own account. In only 1 case was it
obvious that this home work was obtained from a factory.
If the occupational distribution of Fort Wayne homemakers be com
pared with that of all employed homemakers in urban United States,
it is found that Fort Wayne had larger proportions than had all urban
United States in manufacturing industries and selling trades, but
smaller proportions in work at home and in domestic and personal
service. Fort Wayne approximated urban United States conditions
more nearly in the managerial and professional work and the clerical
work among its employed homemakers than in the other types of work
just mentioned.
Age of gainfully-employed homemakers.
It is not surprising that the younger women—those under 25—
ordinarily were found in considerably larger proportions among all
employed women in Fort Wayne than among the employed home
makers, and that larger proportions of homemakers than of all women
were 45 or more.
Employed homemakers tended to be younger in Fort Wayne than
in urban United States as a whole in manufacturing and clerical occu
pations, larger proportions of them being under 25 years of age than
was the case for all cities. Generally, smaller proportions of the home
makers in Fort Wayne were 45 and over. In the service group, in the
selling trades, and in the professions, however, the proportions of
women under 25 were somewhat less for Fort Wayne than for urban
United States. Moreover, in the service group a considerably larger
proportion of Fort Wayne homemakers than of those in all United
States cities were 45 or older.
The table following shows the proportions of women in the various
occupations at the ages discussed.
15
PORT WAYNE, IND.
Percent of women in occupation specified who were—
Under 25 years of age
Occupational group
45 years of age and over
Employed home
All gain
makers in—
fully-em
ployed
women
Urban
Fort
United Wayne 1 in Fort
Wayne
States 1
Employed home
All gain
makers in—
fully-em
ployed
women
Urban
Fort
in Fort
United
States 1 Wayne 1 Wayne
All classes 2_________ ________ _
11.6
14.0
39.6
30.5
29.7
17.7
Employed at home
Employed away from home:
Industrial workers.,...................... ..............
Servants, waitresses, etc................................
Office workers________________
Saleswomen___________________________
Professional workers
3.6
1.3
3.0
52.4
60.6
57.9
14.0
9.4
22.1
11.5
8.0
18.8
6.5
27.4
11.3
6.9
44.5
25.7
54.2
32.2
31.5
26.0
33.1
14.0
26.7
33.3
23.0
44.1
11.0
25.8
31.4
13.4
34.0
4.8
21.4
20.2
• From unpublished data of the Bureau of the Census.
2 Totals exceed details, as some occupations are not shown separately.
Employed homemakers’ families dependent for support entirely on
women.
In families having no men wage earners, it is obvious that the em
ployed women, whether homemakers or not, have great economic
responsibility. Almost one-sixth of the 3,593 families of employed
homemakers in Fort Wayne had no men wage earners, 586 families in
all depending entirely on women. The proportions of all families
and of homemakers’ families in Fort Wayne that had no men wage
earners were practically the same.9
When it is remembered that only about 13 percent of all home
makers in Fort Wayne were employed, it is of interest to note that the
homemaker was gainfully occupied in 48 percent of the families that
had women gainful workers and in 51 percent of the families having
no men wage earners.
Nor were these families that had no men wage earners always small.
Just over 100 of them were of 4 persons or more, and 16 of them had at
least 3 children under 10 years of age. The following summary
shows the size of the homemakers’ families compared with those of
all employed women (whether or not homemakers) who represented
households with no men at work.
Families of employed homemakers
Type of family
Total
With no men wage
earners
With homemaker
sole wage earner
Number
All families of 2 or more persons__________ ______
Families of 4 or more persons
Having 3 or more children under 10____ _____
3, 593
1,052
91
Percent
Number
586
101
16
100.0
17.2
2.7
352
62
15
Percent
100.0
17.6
4.3
The employed homemaker herself was the only wage earner in
practically a tenth of the employed homemakers’ families, 352 of
them in all. Whether for all gainfully-occupied women or for employed
6 Exclusive of 1-person families in each case.
16
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
homemakers in Fort Wayne, or for all employed homemakers in the
United States, fairly similar proportions of families of two or more
persons had a woman as their sole wage earner; the following shows
the proportions of these families that had a woman as the only wage
earning member:
With a woman
sole waqe
earner
Percent of families of all employed women in Fort Wayne__ 10. 5
Percent of families of employed homemakers—
In Fort Wayne 9. 8
In United States 13. 7
In many cases the gainfully-employed homemaker who also was the
sole wage earner was catering to a family of considerable size. Sixtytwo of these families had four or more persons, and 15 of them had at
least three small children. It is not easy to realize the heavy respon
sibility borne by a woman who is the homemaker and the only wage
earning member of a family having three children under 10 years of
age.
Occupations of homemakers who were the sole wage earners in their
families.
The various occupations in which homemakers who were the sole
wage earners in their families were engaged are shown in the following
summary:
Occupation-of homemaker
All home
makers in
Fort Wayne
in families of
2 or more
persons
Homemakers sole gainful workers in fam
ilies of 2 or more persons
Fort Wayne
United States
Number
All occupations________ ____________
Percent
of total
Number
Percent
of total
i 3, 671
1364
10.2
i 462,106
13.7
3
227
39
17.2
61,332
52,905
14. 2
18.5
247
671
1,261
699
484
179
32
46
120
79
31
17
13.0
8.1
9.6
13.2
6.4
9.6
39, 678
44,424
71,300
124, 679
25,314
42, 674
13.2
10.4
10.9
15.9
10.5
16.7
Employed at home:
Other____________ __________________
Employed away from home:
Professional workers.....................................
Office workers................... ................ .........
Industrial workers........................................
Servants, waitresses, etc...............................
Saleswomen.......................... .......................
Other____________________________
1 See footnote 5, p. 13. Limited to homemakers in white and Negro households.
In three occupation groups well over a tenth of the Fort Wayne
homemakers employed were the sole wage earners in their families—
those employed at home in nonagricultural pursuits, those who were
servants, waitresses, or in allied jobs, and professional workers. In
several of the occupation groups the proportions of homemakers
who were the sole family wage earners were fairly similar in Fort
Wayne and the United States as a whole.
Size of family of the gainfully-employed homemakers in various
occupations.
The families of employed homemakers showed some tendency to be
small rather than large, more than three-fifths of them consisting of
two or three persons (counting the employed homemaker herself).
17
FORT WAYNE, IND.
However, nearly one-fourth of the families had from four to seven
persons, and almost 2 percent had eight or more, as may be seen
from the following summary.
Occupation of homemaker
All occupations...................
Employed at home:
Agricultural workers
Other............................. ........
Employed away from home:
Professional workers..............
Office workers........................
Industrial workers____ ____
Servants, waitresses, etc
Saleswomen______ _______
Other.................................. .
Number of families of—
Total fam
ilies with
gainfullyoccupied 1 per 2 or 3 4 to 7 8 or
home
per
per more
son
per
makers
sons sons
sons
Percent of total families of—
1 per 2 or 3
per
son
sons
4 to 7
per
sons
8 or
more
per
sons
14,060
489
2,533
979
59
12.0
62.4
24.1
1.5
3
307
80
3
139
79
9
26.1
100. 0
45.3
25.7
2.9
318
643
1,369
696
512
212
71
72
108
97
28
33
198
473
904
376
326
114
46
96
342
207
148
61
3
2
15
16
10
4
22.3
11.2
7.9
13.9
5.5
15.6
62.3
73.6
66.0
54.0
63.7
53.8
14.5
14.9
25.0
29.7
28.9
28.8
.9
.3
1.1
2.3
2.0
1.9
i Limited to white and Negro households.
Small families of homemakers were found in the largest proportions
among- office workers, with industrial workers, saleswomen, and pro
fessional workers following in the order named. Large families were
found in the largest proportions among the servants, waitresses, and
so forth, and the saleswomen.
Where the homemaker was gainfully occupied, a much larger pro
portion of the families were small—of only two or three persons—■
than was the case with the families of all employed women in Fort
Wayne, half of which had four or more members. This comparison
for small families is as follows:
Families of 2 or 3 persons
All families 1
Number
Total, all classes...................... ...............................
Families with an employed woman______ _______________
27,565
7', 496
3, 593
14,839
3,619
2, 541
Percent
53.8
48.3
70.7
Excludes 1-person families.
If size of family of homemakers in the various occupations in Fort
Wayne be compared with that of homemakers in the entire United
States, the proportions with small families will be found quite similar.
Families of employed homemakers that had small children.
In all, there were 11,135 families in Fort Wayne that had children
under 10 years of age, and in less than 7 percent of these families
was the homemaker gainfully occupied.
However, there were more than 700 women with small children
who had the double job of wage earner and homemaker. This means
that practically a fifth of the employed homemakers had children
under 10. This is smaller than the proportions with young children
among families of all women at work in Fort Wayne and among fam
ilies of all gainfully-employed homemakers in the United States.
Of the employed homemakers in Fort Wayne, 94 were working to
help support 3 or more small children, and 7 of them had as many as
18
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
5 such children. In 23 cases the homemaker was the sole support of
herself and 1 small child, and all but 1 of these women were working
away from home to earn such support. The following table shows
the occupations of these employed homemakers.
Percent of home
makers’ families in—
United States
732
23
94
20.5
2.6
29.6
100.0
100.0
3
227
72
1
14
31.7
6.2
47. 3
35.1
9.8
17.4
10.3
247
571
1,261
599
484
179
41
66
256
156
99
42
1
3
10
4
4
1
2
28
30
12
7
16.6
11.6
20.3
26.0
20.5
23.5
(*>
(»)
2.2
5.0
2.5
3.9
20. 2
15.0
30.7
30.7
22.6
33.7
5.6
9.0
35.0
21.3
13.5
5.7
6.2
6.6
20.6
24.6
5.6
8.8
der
3 or
10
3,571
2 persons, 1 a
Fort Wayne
W ith 3 or more
children un
Percent dis
tribution of
homemakers’
families with
children
Fort Wayne United under 10
States
With children
under 10
der 10
more children un
child un
der 10
Children under
(total)
10
Number of home
makers’ families
with—
With children
under 10
All occupations....... ................
of 2 or more persons
Occupation of homemaker
Number of homemakers’ families
Families of employed homemakers with children under 10 years of age, by occupation
of the homemaker 1
Employed at home:
Other_______
__________
Employed away from home:
Professional workors...................
Office workers......................... .
Industrial workers....... ...............
Servants, waitresses, etc.............
Saleswomen_______ ______
Other............................................
1 See footnote 5, p. 13. Table limited to white and Negro households.
2 Less than 0.05 percent.
The responsibility for children under 10 was borne by large propor
tions of the homemakers working at home (nearly a third), of those
who were servants, waitresses, and in allied occupations (more than a
fourth), and of those in manufacturing and sales occupations (practi
cally a fifth in each case). The occupation in which the smallest
proportion of women had children under 10 was the office group, but
even in this case well over a tenth had young children.
If occupations of homemakers be compared for those with and those
without small children, the greatest difference is found in the propor
tion in office work, only 9 percent of the homemakers with young
children, but 18 percent of those without, being so engaged. On the
other hand, higher proportions of homemakers with young children
were engaged in work at home other than agricultural and as servants,
waitresses, or in allied work.
A comparison of homemakers in Fort Wayne and those in the
United States as a whole shows for the occupations specified that the
proportions of women who had little children differed by only 2 to 5
points except for industrial workers, of whom 30.7 percent in the
entire United States but only 20.3 percent in Fort Wayne bad children
under 10.
Nativity of employed homemakers.
Over 90 percent of the employed homemakers in Fort Wayne, as
compared to about 60 percent in tbe United States as a whole, were
from native white households. There were only 201 foreign-born and
19
FORT WAYNE, INI).
136 Negro homemakers employed in Fort Wayne. In general this
was due to the situation in the population as a whole, Fort Wayne
being predominantly native white.
Employed homemakers
Nativity
Number
Percent dis
tribution of
all employed
Percent dis
women
tribution
4,060
100.0
100.0
3,723
201
136
91. 7
5. 0
3.3
95 1
2 8
2.1
This summary shows that the families of the employed homemakers
in Fort Wayne were native white in a smaller proportion, and were
foreign-born and Negro in somewhat larger proportions, than was the
case with all gainfully-employed women in the city.
The groups of servants and waitresses and of women a t work at home
in nonagricultural occupations had the largest proportions of foreignborn homemakers, but even these wTere only about 7 percent. The
servants and waitresses also had the largest proportion of employed
Negro homemakers, nearly 14 percent, but even this group numbered
less than 100.
Women heads of employed homemakers’ families.
Of the families of gainfully-employed homemakers in Fort Wayne,
more than 1,200 had women at the head. This is very significant
when it is realized that the tendency of most enumerators probably
would be to report as the head any man connected with the family
who lived under the same roof, such as a son-in-law, unemployed
husband, or young brother, though this rule did not hold invariably.
However, though 40 percent of the employed homemakers’ families
in the entire United States were headed by women, only 31 percent
of such families in Fort Wayne had women heads.7
Families of employed homemakers that had lodgers.
Of the families with gainfully-occupied homemakers, practically a
fifth had lodgers, and the proportion ran considerably higher among
those whose homemaker was employed at home than among those in
which she had a job away from home.
Where lodgers were taken by a homemaker with a gainful occupation
at home, it was also much more usual to have a considerable number
of lodgers than where the homemaker went out to work, though 126
of the latter group had 3 or more lodgers. Lodgers numbered 6 or
more in 38 families where the homemaker had a job at home and in
24 where her employment took her outside.
Of the 3,869 families with gainfully-occupied women other than the
homemakers, only about one-tenth took lodgers and only 1 percent
had as many as 3 lodgers.
7 These figures include women living alone, since they cannot be subtracted from the United States
figures. Excluding the woman-l-person families (nearly 500) in Fort Wayne still leaves about 750 with
women at the head among employed homemakers’ families of 2 or more persons.
132712°—39----- 4
Part III.—EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
IN BRIDGEPORT, CONN.
INTRODUCTION
In Bridgeport, a New England industrial city of 103,000 inhabitants
16 years of age and over in 1930, some 17,000 women were wage
earners. This figure represents almost one-third of the woman-pop
ulation of the city.1
Over 6,200 of these employed women (36 percent) were in factories,
principally engaged in the manufacture of clothing, of electrical ma
chinery and supplies, and of iron and steel, machinery and vehicles.
Clerical occupations employed about 4,000 women (24 percent) and
domestic and personal service 2,600 (15 percent). About an eighth
of the total were engaged in managerial or professional work, and an
appreciable number were saleswomen and clerks in the selling trades.
The stake these women had in the economic life of the 10,869 fam
ilies of which they were members2 is indicated by the statistics in
census tables. In more than one-seventh of these families there
were no men wage earners, and in one-tenth of them a woman worker
was the sole support of the family.
About 64 percent of all the women wage earners were single.
Though a large proportion of the single girls and women lived with
one or both parents, in many cases the burden of their responsibility
was increased rather than decreased by that fact. Almost 1,900 of
these women lived with parent or parents who were not employed.
Some 336 single girls were the sole support of their mothers.
The more than 4,200 married and separated women at work com
prised a fourth of the total. A tenth of their families had no men
working. Almost half of the 236 married women who were the sole
support of their families had small children.
Twelve hundred widowed and divorced women lived in family
groups. As would be expected, they present the most striking picture
of responsibility for family support. Twenty-nine percent of them
were the sole support of their families, and almost a third of the
groups included children under 10 years of age.
• U. S. Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census, 1930: Population, vol. V, p. 62. Only women 16 year?
of age and over are included in the figures used by the Women’s Buroau.
2 32 percent of all the families of 2 or more persons in Bridgeport.
20
21
BRIDGEPORT, CONN.
Occupations of gainfully-employed women.
The tabulation following shows the main occupational groups in
which women were employed:
Women 16 years of age and over
Occupation
Number1
Percent
Total......... ........................................................ 17, 066
100. 0
Manufacturing 6, 217
Clothing factories 1, 964
Electrical machinery and supply factories____
Iron and steel, machinery and vehicle factoriesChemicals and allied products factories______
Clerical occupations 4, 040
Domestic and personal service_________________
In private homes 1, 538
In hotels, restaurants, etc_________________
Managerial and professional service 2, 109
Teachers.,
Trained nurses
677
Selling trades 1, 384
Saleswomen and clerks in stores 1, 171
Working in own home
256
Telephone and telegraph operators______________
Not elsewhere classified
100
1, 236
1, 027
S39
2, 601
305
1, 114
359
36.4
____
____
____
____
23.7
15.2
____
____
12. 4
____
____
8. 1
____
1 .5
2.1
.6
1 Totals exceed details, as not all occupations classified are shown separately.
Bridgeport is essentially a manufacturing city with a large foreignborn labor supply to man its factories. More than one-third of the
17,000 employed women were listed as operatives or laborers in
factories. Tho largest group of factory-employed women—more
than 1,900—worked in the manufacture of some kind of clothing.
The making of corsets accounted for the employment of practically
half the women in clothing factories.
Electrical machinery and supplies employed the second largest
group of women, 1,236, and iron and steel, machinery and vehicles,
ranked third with over 1,000. Chemicals and allied products, the
textile industries, and metal industries other than iron and steel
together employed only about 1,200 women.
Clerical occupations ranked next to manufacturing, employing
almost a fourth of all working women. Domestic and personal
service employed 15 percent, a much smaller proportion than that
for the United States as a whole. Almost three-fifths of those in
domestic and personal service worked in private homes; less than oneeighth were in hotels and restaurants.
One-eighth of all women were in managerial or professional work.
As in the total United States, over half these women were teachers
and the next largest group were trained nurses.
The selling trades employed one-twelfth of all gainfully-occupied
women in the city, 85 percent of them being saleswomen or clerks in
stores. About 6 percent were the owners of retail stores.
About 2 percent of all employed women were telephone or tele
graph operators.
A small number of women, 256, were carrying on some gainful
occupation within their homes. Only 11 of these women were doing
work given out by a factory. Most of them were taking boarders or
lodgers and a considerable number were doing sewing, knitting, or
millinery at home as independent workers,
22
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
Age of gainfully-employed women.
Less than one-fourth of all women in Bridgeport were under 25
years of age, but more than two-fifths of the women who had a gainful
occupation were under 25; in fact, more than one-fifth of the employed
women were under 20, though girls below 20 constituted only oneninth of the woman-population. Conversely, the proportion of work
ing women who were 45 and over was only about half the proportion
in the general population who were at least 45.
Of the gainfully-occupied women in the United States as a whole, a
considerably smaller proportion than in Bridgeport were under 25.
The percent distribution by age of the women 16 years old or more
in Bridgeport and in the United States as a whole may be compared
in the following:
Bridgeport
Age
All women
16, under 25 years..___ _______________ __________
25, under 45 years ______ _____________________________
45 years and over_______________ ______ _______________
United States
Employed
women
23.4
44.3
32.3
Employed
women
42.8
40.5
16.7
36.1
43.1
20.7
Among the various occupations of employed women, in every age
group but the oldest women were found in largest proportions in
manufacturing. The older women, 55 years and over, were employed
in somewhat larger numbers in domestic and personal service occu
pations, though this class of employment claimed fewer than did
clerical in the 25-and-under-55-year group, and fewer than either
clerical or managerial and professional in the under-25-year group.
(See appendix table III.)
The selling trades drew principally from the women who were 25
and under 55, over half of all women in the industry being in that age
group. Less than one-twelfth of the saleswomen had reached the
age of 55. More striking is the predominance of youth among clerical
workers and telephone and telegraph operators. Well over half the
employees in these types of work were under 25 years old, and less
than 2 percent were as much as 55.
It is not surprising that two-fifths of the women who were taking
boarders and doing washing in their own homes were 55 or older.
The following summary is taken from appendix table III, which
shows the occupational distribution of younger and older groups of
employed women.
Percent 16 and under
16 years old
All women 23. 4
Women gainfully employed
42. 8
Manufacturing 46. 6
Clerical occupations____________________ ______
Domestic and personal service 26. 6
Managerial and professional service 34. 7
Selling trades.. 38.4
Working in own home
3. 1
Telephone and telegraph operators 57. 1
Not elsewhere classified 46. 0
54. 4
23
BRIDGEPORT, CONN.
Marital status and occupation.
From the following summary it may be seen that in Bridgeport the
proportion of employed women who were single was considerably
higher, the proportion widowed or divorced much lower, than among
employed women in the United States as a whole.
Bridgeport
Marital status
Number
Percent
United
States—
Percent
17,038
Total reported 1............... ...... .................. —-....... -....................
Married and separated--------------------------------------------------------Widowed and divorced---- ------ ----------------------------------------------
100.0
100.0
10,996
4,231
1,811
64.6
24.8
10. 6
53.9
28.9
17.2
i In Bridgeport women of 16 years and over; in the United States, women of 15 and over, as given by the
census.
Of all women in the population of Bridgeport about three-fifths
were married, but only a fourth of the women in gainful employment
were married.
.
.
A relatively small proportion of the employed married women in
Bridgeport lived in families with no male wage earner, but examination
of the occupations they entered is evidence of the need of married
women for employment. Compared with single women, the married
women entered the less attractive occupations. Almost one-third of
the single women reported clerical occupations and one-sixth were
employed in managerial and professional work—occupations affording
some creative opportunity—but the proportions of married women so
employed were one-eighth and one-twentieth, respectively. Nearly half
the married and less than a third of the single women were in manu
facturing. A larger proportion of married than of single women were
engaged in domestic and personal service and in selling trades.
Percent distribution of—
Occupational group
Single
women
Widowed
Married
and separated and divorced
women
women
100.0
100.0
100.0
32.0
30.7
10.7
16.1
7.1
.4
2.4
.5
All occupations.......................... ...................................... .
48.5
12.2
19.0
5.0
10.3
2.5
1.7
.7
35.0
7.8
33.7
6.7
9.2
5.8
1.0
.7
The foregoing shows also the relatively high proportions of widows
who were in domestic service and working in their own homes.
The 85 married women whose husbands were not gainfully em
ployed had a much higher proportion in domestic service and a lower
proportion in clerical work than married women whose husbands were
employed. Divorced women were engaged in clerical work to a
greater extent than were widows, a variation probably due chiefly to
age.
24
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
Occupations of various nativity groups of women.
Three-fourths of the gainfully-employed women were native white,
but the great majority of these native white women were of foreign
or mixed parentage. About a fifth of the total were foreign-born, and
some 450—less than 3 percent—were Negro.
Factory workers were much the largest group among the foreignbom (over 50 percent) and the native white women of foreign or
mixed parentage (nearly 40 percent), but those of native parentage
had their largest proportion in clerical work.
There is little difference between women with native parents and
those with foreign parents in the proportion employed in clerical
occupations, each with about 30 percent. Few of the foreign-born
and less than 1 percent of the Negro women were doing clerical work.
The list following summarizes these variations, and those in manu
facturing and in managerial and professional work.
Percent of each nativity group in—
General nativity and race
Native white..............................
Native parentage________
Foreign or mixed parentage
Foreign-born white__________
Negro..........................................
Manufactur Clerical occu Managerial
ing occupa
and profes
pations
tions
sional service
32.7
19.8
39.2
52.3
11.5
29.3
29.9
29.0
7.0
.9
15.0
21.0
11.9
4.5
2.2
In managerial and professional work the limitations of language and
race operate to reduce the employment of the foreign-born. More
than one-fifth of the women of native parentage, but less than oneeighth of the native-born of foreign parentage and less than one-twen
tieth of the foreign-born, were engaged in these types of work. Among
the native-born women, the greatest number were teachers; among the
foreign-born, trained nurses outnumbered teachers considerably.
More than three-fourths of the Negro women worked in domestic
or personal service, most of them servants in private homes. Only a
tenth of the native white women, but something over a fourth of the
foreign-bom, were in domestic service.
The selling trades and telephone or telegraph occupations drew
largely from native white women, though 7 percent of all the foreignborn were in sales work.
RESPONSIBILITY OF WOMEN FOR THE SUPPORT OF
FAMILIES
Responsibility of single women for family support.
Of the 11,000 single women at work in Bridgeport, over 8,900 wore
in family groups of two or more persons, the very great majority living
with one or both parents. The following discussion considers chiefly
these women, who were an integral part of a family group.
A sixth of all these single women in families were in groups with no
men gainful workers. Of those families where a single woman was
living with her mother, almost half had no men gainfully employed.
S'?ATE TEACHERS COLLEGE LIBRAE^
BRIDGEPORT, COHU.
25
Where the father or both parents were in the family group, this pro
portion was, of course, much smaller.
Though 7,663, seven-tenths of all single working women in the city,
lived with one or both parents, many of these women had heavy re
sponsibilities. Almost a fifth (336) of those living with their mothers
were the solo support of the family.
More than 6 percent of the 8,900 women living in families were the
sole support of the home. Though the families with young children
were likely to include an employed man, the sole gainful worker was a
single woman in 21 families having children under 10 years of age.
As the following shows, women of native parentage were less likely
than those of foreign or mixed parentage to be living with their par
ents, but they were more likely to be in families with no men employed
and to be the sole support of the family. The family status of for
eign-born women, not shown here, approximates that of women of
foreign or mixed parentage.
Native white of—
Family status
Total2
With no men wage earners:
Woman the sole support of family:
Living with parent or parents:
With parents not gainfully occupied:
Single women not in families—living alone, boarding, or living with
Foreign or
mixed par
entage
10,996
Single women in families of 2 or more persons:2
Native
parentage
2,810
6,697
8, 920
81.1
2,124
75.6
5, 857
87.5
1,461
16.4
474
22.3
837
14.3
556
6.2
• 206
9.7
299
5.1
7,663
86.0
1,765
83.1
5,170
88.3
1,887
24.6
494
28.0
1,241
24.0
2,076
686
840
1 Totals exceed details, as the small groups of foreign-born and Negro women are not shown separately.
s Excludes women living alone, boarding, or living with employer; none of these had dependent children.
Responsibility of married women for family support.
Something over a fifth of all employed married women in Bridgeport
lived in families in which the husband either was not living at borne or
was not a gainful worker. Some 230 of these women were the sole
support of families, and nearly one-half of these families included
children less than 10 years old. More than 300 women were in
families having no men at work.
That about 1 in every 4 of the 3,335 working women whose husbands
also were employed had children under 10 indicates that economic
necessity was the reason for their employment.3 Almost nine-tenths
of these women whose husbands were employed were maintaining a
home, while well over two-thirds of those whose husbands were not
at home were living with or maintaining a home with relatives.
»See p. 23 for the occupational distribution of married women.
26
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
The following summarizes the status of married women who were
the whole or partial support of a family.
All gainfully-occupied married women 1
Married women in families of 2 or more persons:2
Number__________________________________________
Percent of all married women~~__ 2_
_
Women with no men wage earners:
Number__________________________________
Percent of all married women in families
Woman the sole support of family_____________________
Number with children under 10"
Living with husband______________________________
Husband gainfully employed’
Husband not gainfully employed____________________
Married women not in families—living alone, boarding, or living with
employer3______________________________________
4, 231
3, 890
91. 9
319
8. 2
236
110
3, 420
3, 335
85
341
1 Includes separated women.
! Excludes women living alone, hoarding or living with employer, except those with dependent children
3 Excludes 21 women with dependent children, transferred to family group.
Responsibility of widowed and divorced women for family support.
It is not surprising that a large proportion, 29 percent, of the 1,186
employed widows and divorced women who were living in family
groups were the sole support of a family. As the following shows,
almost a third of these families included young children. Practically
half the gainfully-occupied widows were 'in families that had no men
assisting in the support of the family.
All gainfully-occupied widowed and divorced women l 811
Widowed and divorced women in families of 2 or more persons:1
--------Number
__
1 186
Percent of all widowed and divorced women _ gg g
Women with no men wage earners~~
ggy
Percent of all widowed and divorced women in families__ __ _ 47 8
Woman the sole support of family~
ggg
Number with children under 10ZZZ
107
Widowed and divorced women not in families—living alone, boarding or
living with employer2
_ _
g25
1 SXf!U^es ®omen living alone, boarding or living with employer, except those with dependent children
2 Excludes 7 women with dependent children, transferred to family group.
FAMILIES OF GAINFULLY-EMPLOYED WOMEN IN
BRIDGEPORT
The census data show many thousands of families with employed
women and many hundreds supported entirely by women.
Families having women gainfully occupied.
The employed women in Bridgeport came from 10,869 families
almost a third of all the families in the city. The family of a gainfullyoccupied woman was. most likely to consist of three persons, though
the most common size among all families was two persons. The
summary following shows that the larger the family the more likely
it was to. have its women members employed.
Thus it is that only about a fourth of all two- or three-person
families in the city had a gainfully-employed woman, but from
two-fifths of the families of six, seven, or eight persons to well over
one-half of those of nine or more persons included women who were
gainfully occupied.
BRIDGEPORT, CONN.
27
Families with gainfully
employed women
Size offamily
Percent of
all families
of size
specified
Number
Total----------- ------- ------------------------ 10,869
2 and 3 persons 4_ 332
4 and 5 persons 3’ 593
6, 7, and 8 persons 2,’ 256
9 or more persons
’ 553
32.
27.
32.
41.
55.
4
7
4
8
9
Almost three-fourtlis of the families of 2 or more persons with
women working had no children under 10 years of age. About onefourth of these families (2,966) had small children under 10, 445
families having at least three small children, 47, five or more. ’
There was a woman_at the head in the case of 5,100 families, oneseventh of all the families in Bridgeport in 1930, and not far from twothirds of these families with a woman head included an employed
woman.
Families with no men wage earners.
One in every 7 of the families of 2 or more persons that had em
ployed women members were without the assistance of a gainfullyemployed man. These 1,677 families supported solely by women
included 299 with small children. One in every 10 of all families
were supported solely by one woman. The families supported by
one woman included 239 with children less than 10 years old.
About half the families having an employed woman included at
least two persons who were not gainful workers. Over two-fifths of
the families supported solely by a woman included at least two other
persons.
Total ■
Families of women of—
Native white
parentage
Foreign or
mixed white
parentage
Num
ber
Per
cent
Num
ber
Per
cent
Num
ber
100.0
2,588
100.0
5,346
100.0
2,664
100.0
15.4
10.3
475
349
47
103
26
23
20
18.4
13.5
726
462
66
214
64
50
36
13.6
8.6
422
274
65
111
32
37
29
15.8
10.3
Family status
Num
ber
All families of wage-earning women... 10,869
Families supported entirely by women
1 wage earner____________
Families of 4 or more persons __
2 wage earners___ ... ...
Families of 4 or more persons__
3 or more wage earners__
Families of 4 or more persons___
1,677
1,124
191
443
129
110
85
Per
cent
4.1
1.0
4.0
.9
4.0
.9
Foreign
birth
Per
cent
4.2
1.4
1 Totals exceed details, as the small groups of Negro women are not shown separately.
Considered by nativity groups, the families of foreign-born women
with no men working or with one woman as sole support of the family
were much larger, and in more cases included young children, than
was. the case in native families. While less than 18 percent’of all
families with no men at work included children under 10, 27 percent
28
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPOBT
of such families of foreign-born women were so reported. The
summary following shows that one-third of the families supported by
one woman of foreign birth included small children, while less than a
sixth of the families supported by a native white woman had such
children.
Total1
Families of women of
Native birth
Family status
Foreign birth
Number Percent
Number Percent Number Percent
All families with one woman sole support.
1,124
100.0
811
100.0
274
100.0
Families with children under 10. ____
___
Families with 2 or more children under 10.........
Families of 4 or more persons__________ ____
239
83
191
21.3
7.4
17.0
129
38
113
15.9
4.7
13.9
91
33
65
33.2
12.0
23.7
1 Totals exceed details, as the small groups of Negro women are not shown separately.
Almost a fourth of the families having one foreign-born woman as
sole support consisted of four or more persons, but only one in every
seven of the families supported by a native woman were so large.
Summary as to family support.
The status of women in Bridgeport with regard to their family
responsibilities differed somewhat from such status as found in the
other cities in this report. Based in part on differences in nationality,
such variations do not alter the fact—a matter of common knowledge
■—that in all cities and at all times large numbers of women are engaged
in the business of sharing the support of dependents and in many
cases families depend entirely on women for support. In Bridgeport
a tenth of all the employed women living in groups were the entire
support of their families. This proportion, which was only 6 percent
for the single and the married or separated women, was 28K percent in
the case of women who were widowed or divorced.
Marital status
Percent solely
responsible
for family
support
Total__________ _____ ________________
Single
6. 2
Married and separated
Widowed and divorced
10. 3
6. 1
28. 5
GAINFULLY-EMPLOYED HOMEMAKERS IN BRIDGEPORT
Turning to a consideration of the women workers who not only were
breadwinners for their families but bore the homemaking responsi
bility,4 it is found that this group represented one in every seven
families in Bridgeport.
4 Eliminating 1-person families (women living alone), 4,588 women. See footnote 5, p. 13.
BRIDGEPORT, GOUTS'.
29
Occupations of homemakers and of other employed women.
Table I\ in the appendix compares the principal occupations of
homemakers with those of other employed women. As the following
summary shows, the occupational distributions of the two groups differ
considerably.
Percent distribution of—
Occupational group
Homemakers in—
Urban United
States i
Bridgeport
All other
gainfullyoccupied
women in
Bridgeport
All occupations *.................
Manufacturing..............
Selling trades.......................
Clerical occupations_______
Managerial and professional service
Domestic and personal service
Working in own home..
32.4
7. 6
10.3
27.6
14.5
4.1
* See footnote ], p. 13.
J Totals exceed details, as not all minor groups are shown separately.
Ihe occupational distribution of homemakers approximated that of
employed married women.5 Not far from half the homemakers found
employment m Bridgeport’s factories, though less than a third of
other employed women were in this tvpe of work. The proportion
of homemakers who were in clerical or in managerial and professional
woik was only half as great as the proportion of other working women
m these occupations.
One in 25 of the homemakers carried on their gainful work at home
usually taking in boarders or lodgers, while only 1 in 300 of other
women were at work in their own homes.
In manufacturing, the largest group of homemakers were in elec
trical machinery and supply shops. Almost as great a. number were
m the corset factories, the industry that ranked fourth with other
employed women. A tenth of other employed women were in the
chemical and allied industries, but only one-sixteenth of the home
makers were in such work.
In domestic and personal service, which employed nearly one-fifth
of all the homemakers, half these homemakers, as compared to twothirds of the other women, worked in private homes.
These variations in occupation of homemakers and other employed
women are explained in part at least by differences in nativity and age.
A laiger proportion of homemakers than of all employed working
women were foreign-born, and homemakers were, on the average^
older than other employed women.
Age of gainfully-employed homemakers.
Only one-tenth of the homemakers, as compared to over twofifths of all employed women, were under 25. Three-tenths of the
' See p. 23.
30
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND EAMILY SUPPORT
homemakers were 45 years old or more. The presence of such num
bers of older women goes to prove that they are not transients in
industry, who remain only in the years from completing school to
marriage, but are a mature group looking for a degree of security and
permanence in the job.
_
.
The ages of the women in the various occupations are quite differ
ent for the homemakers and all employed women, as is clear from the
following table:
Percent of women in occupation specified who were—
Under 25 years of age
Occupational group
All classes 2.............. .................
Employed away from home:
45 years of age and over
All
All
Employed home gainful Employed home gainful
makers in—
makers in—
ly-em
ly-em
ployed
ployed
Urban Bridge women Urban Bridge women
in
in
United
United
Bridge
Bridge States 1 port 1
States 1 port 1
port
port
..............
11.6
3.6
10.8
2.6
42.8
3.1
30.5
52.4
30.1
67.4
16.5
63.3
14.0
9.4
22.1
11.5
8.0
12.3
4.4
22.3
7.6
5.4
46.7
26.6
54.4
38.4
34.7
26.0
33.1
14.0
26.7
33.3
24.7
40.3
15.6
30.2
41.5
14.4
32.8
5.4
18.9
19.4
i From unpublished data of the Bureau of the Census.
Totals exceed details, as some occupations are not shown separately.
Homemakers at work in Bridgeport closely approximated those in
urban United States in the proportions of the main occupational
groups in specified age classes. Notable, however, is the very small
percentage of homemakers employed as servants in Bridgeport who
were under 25 years, as compared to homemakers employed as ser
vants in urban United States who were under 25.
There were striking occupational differences in Bridgeport between
homemakers and all working women. Except for the women em
ployed in their homes, there was no similarity in their age groupings.
More than half of all women office workers in the city were less than
25, but not much over a fifth of the homemakers in that occupation
were so young. Differences were great also for saleswomen, profes
sional workers, and industrial workers.
Another interesting comparison is that of the occupations of the
young and of the older women, among the homemakers and all work
ing women in Bridgeport. Of the 565 homemakers under 25, more
than half were in industrial work, but only two-fifths of all working
women under 25 were so employed. Less than 4 percent of these
young homemakers, but 10 percent of all employed women under 25,
were in managerial or professional work. Of the homemakers 45
years old or more, a tenth were working in their own homes, but only
about half that proportion of all working women were working at
home. A greater percentage of all women than of homemakers who
were at least 45 years old were in professional work. Two-fifths of
the older homemakers, as compared to less than a third of all older
employed women, were industrial workers.
31
BRIDGEPORT, CONN.
Employed homemakers’ families dependent for support entirely on
women.
There were 4,588 homemakers in the 2-or-more-person families
reporting on the sex of gainful workers in the family in 1930. A fifth
of all these families had no men gainful workers; an eighth were sup
ported entirely by the one woman who was also the homemaker for the
family. About half the families supported entirely by the homemaker
and half the families without male support included 3 or more persons.
The following tabulation shows by size of family the number of
families having no male support and the number of homemakers who
carried the entire responsibility of their families.
Families of employed homemakers
Type of family
Total
With no men wage
earners
With homemaker
sole wage earner
Number
All families of 2 or more persons
Families of 4 or more persons ______
________
Having 3 or more children under 10
4,588
1,645
115
Percent
Number
898
185
21
19.6
11.2
18.3
553
100
19
Percent
12.1
6.1
16.5
Where homemakers were sharing family support with one other
person, about a tenth of them shared such responsibility with another
woman. The families having two or more persons employed were
likely to be large families, and their size is evidence of the need for the
earnings of more than one person. One-fifth of the employed home
makers sharing support with one or more persons were in families of
at least five people. In a twelfth of all cases where a homemaker was
the entire support of a family, she lived in a family of five or more
persons.
Occupations of homemakers who were the sole wage earners in their
families.
A very considerable number of women not only bore the responsi
bility for the comfort of a family in the home, but were actually the
sole gainful workers in their households. This responsibility was
carried by almost 600 women in Bridgeport, one-eighth of all the
employed homemakers in families of two or more persons.
In the various occupation groups, from one-tenth to almost threetenths of the employed homemakers were the sole wage earners in the
family. The proportion was lowest for saleswomen, highest for women
working at home.
As would be expected, very small proportions of the young home
makers were the sole support of families. About a tenth of all em
ployed homemakers in Bridgeport were under 25, but not quite a
twentieth of those who were the sole support of a family were so
young.
32
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
All
home
makers
in
Bridge
port in
families
of 2 or
more
persons
Occupation of homemaker
All occupations____________ _____________
Employed at home:
Agricultural workers........ ..................... .............. .
Other
Employed away from home:
Professional workers______ __________ ____
Office workers.
Industrial workers_________________ _______
Servants, waitresses, etc ...
Saleswomen ___________________ _ _
Other___ _____ ___________ _______________
Homemakers sole gainful workers in
families of 2 or more persons
Bridgeport
Number
Percent
of
total
United States
Number
Percent
of
total
i 4, 535
i 677
5
153
3
43
(■)
28.1
51, 332
52, 905
14.2
18.5
265
648
2,301
693
326
144
53
68
236
123
32
19
20.0
10.5
10.3
17.7
9.8
13.2
39, 578
44, 424
71, 300
124,579
25,314
42,674
13.2
10.4
10.9
15.9
10.5
16.7
1 Limited to homemakers in white and Negro households.
12.7 i 452,106
13.7
2 Not computed; base too small.
Size of family of the gainfully-employed homemakers in various
occupations.
Considering as families only those groups including at least 2
persons, there were 4,535 white or Negro family units ranging in size
from 2 to 10 or more. Well over a third of these included four or
more persons, and there were almost 100 families with 8 or more
members whose homemaker was employed away from home. More
than half of the homemakers in the very large family groups repre
sented were industrial workers, while considerably less than half of
the homemakers in 2-person families were so employed. As the size
of family increases, a definite difference may be noted in the propor
tions of homemakers occupied in the several types of work. None of
the 102 homemakers in families of 8 or more persons was a profes
sional worker, while in 2-person and 3-person families over 7 percent
of all the homemakers were in such occupations. Homemakers of
large families were more likely to be in the servant and waitress
group.
Occupation of homemaker
All occupations
Employed at home:
Agricultural workers____ __
Other. ... ...
.
Employed away from home:
Professional workers....... ......
Office workers....................
Industrial workers____ ___
Servants, waitresses, etc
Saleswomen
Other........................ ......... .
Total
families
with
gainfullyoccupied
home
makers
Number of families of—
Percent of total families of—
1 per 2 or 3
per
son
sons
4 to 7
per
sons
8 or
more
per
sons
1 per 2 or 3
per
son
sons
4 to 7
per
sons
8 or
more
per
sons
i 5,226
691
2,905
1.628
102
13.2
65.6
29.2
2.0
6
227
1
74
104
4
45
]
4
(2)
32.6
45.8
(2)
19.8
(*)
1.8
369
732
2,496
856
367
173
104
84
195
163
41
29
208
522
1, 374
423
209
65
57
119
871
249
112
71
7
56
21
5
8
28.2
11.5
7.8
19.0
11.2
16.8
56.4
71.3
55.0
49.4
56.9
37.6
15.4
16.3
34.9
29.1
30.5
41.0
1.0
2.2
2.5
1.4
4.6
1 Limited to white and Negro households.
2 Not computed; base too small.
A third of the women gainfully employed at home were classed as
1-person families, but only about an eighth of all employed home
makers were living alone.
A disproportionately large number of
BRIDGEPORT, CONN.
33
professional workers also were not members of a family group. Home
makers in the small families of two or three persons constituted
seven-tenths of all who were office workers. Though 29 percent of all
employed homemakers were from families of four to seven persons,
only 15 percent of the professional workers and 16 percent of the
office workers were from families of that size.
The families of gainfully-employed homemakers were more likely
than the families of all employed women to be small—of two or three
persons. The comparison for small families follows:
All fami
lies 1
Total, all classes.... .................. ................. .........
Families with an employed woman___ ______
Families with an employed homemaker................ .......................
33,544
10,869
4,588
Families of 2 or 3
persons
Number
15,734
4,362
2,943
Percent
46.9
40.1
64.1
1 Excludes 1-person families.
_ The families of all employed women and of employed homemakers
in Bridgeport were likely to be larger than those in Fort Wayne.
Families of employed homemakers that had small children.
There were over 1,100 employed homemakers in Bridgeport who had
children less than 10 years old in their families. These comprised
8 percent of all families in the city with children of that age. In
some instances they were not the mothers of these children, but
whether they were or not, as homemakers they bore the chief respon
sibility for the home life of the children.
In a fourth of the employed homemakers’ families in the city there
were children less than 10. This is a somewhat smaller proportion
than in homemakers’ families throughout the United States, and a
much smaller proportion than in families of all types, either in Bridge
port or in the United States. The proportions for these four classes
follow:
Percent of employed
homemakers’ families
Bridgeport
With children under 10.......................................... .
24.4
2.6
United
States
29.6
5.7
Percent of all families
Bridgeport
35.2
8.5
United
States
36.2
11.1
In families supported entirely by the homemaker, a considerably
greater proportion than of all homemakers’ families had small chil
dren. Almost a third of these families included children under 10
and over a tenth had at least two such children.
Though there is little difference between the percentage of families
of all employed women that had children and the percentage of em
ployed homemakers’ families that had children, the type of work
done by these homemakers with children is an indication of their
need for employment.
Size of family does not depend entirely on the number of small
children, but they are an important factor, and it is not surprising
34
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
that the occupational distribution of homemakers with no children
differed from that of homemakers with one or several children.
More than a fifth of the 394 homemakers who had two or more
little children were in the servant or waitress group; very few (only
7 percent) were professional or office workers. On the other hand,
more than a fifth of the homemakers whose families did not include
little children were office or professional workers, and more were
employed in offices than as servants.
The table following shows that about three in every five working
homemakers in Bridgeport with small children in the family were
industrial workers; one in every six were servants or waitresses. A
comparison with employed homemakers of the total United States
who had little children shows the greatest difference in the proportion
who were industrial workers, only one in five of those in the entire
United States being in that occupational class. A fifth of those who
were in the professional group in the total United States had children
under 10, but only a tenth of the professional group in Bridgeport
had children so young.
Families of employed homemakers with children under 10 years of age, by occu
pation of the homemaker 1
Number of home
makers’ families
with—
Occupation of homemaker
Percent of home
makers’ families in—
Num
Bridgeport
ber of
home
makers’
families Chil 2 per 3 or
With
of 2 or dren sons, more
chil
1a
more under child dren With 3 or
chil more
persons 10
(total) under under dren chil
10
10
under dren
under
10
10
United
States
Percent dis
tribution of
homemakers’
families with
children
under 10
With
chil
dren Bridge United
States
under port
10
4, 535
Employed at home:
Employed away from homo:
1.107
35
116
24.4
2.6
29.6
100.0
100.0
5
153
3
48
4
8
(2)
31.4
6.2
47.3
35.1
.3
4.3
17.4
10.3
265
648
2,301
693
326
144
29
82
653
183
71
38
8
62
27
6
5
10.9
12.7
28. 4
26.4
21.8
26.4
1.2
2.7
3.9
1.8
3.5
20.2
15.0
30.7
30.7
22.6
33.7
2.6
7.4
59.0
16.5
6.4
3.4
6.2
6.6
20.6
24.6
5.6
8.8
2
4
12
12
1
i Table limited to white and Negro households.
3 Not computed; base too small.
In the small group of families that included only the homemaker
and one child under 10, the concentration as servants or industrial
workers was marked; 24 of the 35 homemakers in such families were
in one or the other of these types of work. Women in this group of
homemakers were, on the average, much younger than homemakers
in other types of families; almost a fourth of them were under 25.
BKIDGEPOKT, CONN.
35
Nativity of employed homemakers.
The nativity distribution of gainfully-employed homemakers in
Bridgeport differed strikingly from that of all employed women in
the city. Three-fourths of all working women, in contrast to little
over one-half of the homemakers, were native white. Two-fifths of
the employed homemakers, compared to about one-fifth of all employed
women, were foreign-born. Together, women of foreign birth or
foreign parentage comprised seven-tenths of all working homemakers.
Employed homemakers
Nativity
Number
Total_______ _____ _______ _____
Percent dis
tribution
Percent dis
tribution
of all
employed
women
5,226
100.0
100.0
2,656
2,315
255
Native white.................................. „
Foreign-born white___ _________
Negro ____________ ______________
50.8
44.3
4.9
75.5
21.9
2.7
The striking differences in occupational distribution due to nativity
are shown in the table following:
Percent of homemakers in—
Nativity of homemaker
Manu Selling
facturing trades
Native white:
Native parentage _. .
Foreign or mixed parentage...........
Foreign-born white _________ ____
Negro____________________
26.3
44. 1
62.6
8.2
13.0
9.1
8.1
1. 2
Manage Domes
Clerical rial and tic and
profes personal
sional
22.7
19.7
2.7
15.4
9.6
2.1
14.0
11.4
20.2
79.4
Tele
phone
and
tele
graph
3.0
1. 5
.3
Employ
ment at
home
4.9
3. 5
7.8
The contrast in factory employment between the foreign-born and
the native white women is more striking for homemakers than for all
employed women. Over three-fifths of the foreign-born homemakers,
as compared to about half of all the foreign-bom working women, were
in manufacturing.
Striking occupational differences between the homemakers of various
nativity groups are not confined to manufacturing. About a fifth of
the native white homemakers, as compared to less than 3 percent of
the foreign-born, were in clerical occupations. Considerable differ
ences also are evident in the managerial and professional occupations.
Women heads of employed homemakers’ families.
There were 5,100 families in Bridgeport with a woman at the head.
This is one-seventh of all the families in the city. Two-thirds of these
5,100 families had one or more women gainfully occupied, and in
almost two-fifths the homemaker herself was employed. Over 1,900
36
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
of the 5,280 families in which the homemaker was employed had a
woman head, a proportion fairly similar to that for the total United
States. Comparison is made in the following summary.
Number of
families in
Bridgeport
Total_______________________________ 35, 807
Families with employed woman 11, 561
Families with employed homemaker 5, 280
Families
with a
woman head
5,104
3,312
1,930
There was a striking difference in the age distribution of employed
homemakers between families with a man head and families with a
woman head. Where the family had a man head only a fifth of the
homemakers employed were 45 years old or more, but in families
with a woman head about half the homemakers were at least 45. It
is probable that in many cases where the family head was listed as a
woman the homemaker and the head were the same. In the case of
homemakers employed at home they were likely to be of the older
generation whether the head was man or woman, but the proportion
at 45 and above was larger in families with a woman head.
Next to families with the homemaker working at home, the largest
percentage of families with a woman head were those in which the
homemaker was in professional work. Half the homemakers in pro
fessional work were in families with a woman head. This proportion
was almost equaled by the percentage of families with a woman head
in which the homemaker was a servant, waitress, or in allied work.
In actual numbers industrial workers far exceeded all other groups
whether the family head was man or woman.
Well over half of the women heads of families were widowed or
divorced, but a very considerable number, one-fourth of the total,
were single. In families with a man head, nine-tenths were married
and the wife was at home.
Percent distribution of em
ployed homemakers*
families having—
Marital status of head offamily
Married, spouse absent 1.
Married, spouse present89. 3
Widowed and divorced 7.
Single-------------------------------------------
Man head
2
2
2. 3
Woman head
18. 4
___
56. 7
24. 9
Families of employed homemakers that had lodgers.
A very considerable number of employed homemakers were adding
to the family income not only by working outside the home but by
taking lodgers. There were 679 families of employed homemakers
that had lodgers, and in 531 of these families the homemaker also
worked outside the home. Almost a fifth of the homemakers in the
servant or waitress group, about a tenth of those who were in industry
or sales, and a seventh of the professional women had lodgers.
About two-tliirds of the homemakers who were gainfully occupied
at home took in boarders or lodgers as a means of earning a living,
and most of these had three or more lodgers.
Part IV—EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
IN RICHMOND, VA.
INTRODUCTION
Richmond, a city comparable in size, gives a very different occu
pational picture from those of Fort Wayne and Bridgeport. Though
Richmond is important as a manufacturing center, by far the largest
number of employed women reported by the 1930 census were in
the domestic and personal service industries; there were approxi
mately 8,500 women, 30 percent of all women in gainful employment,
in the various occupations of this group. Nearly three-fourths of
them were working in private homes, over 6,000 women being so
reported.
_ The responsibilities of Richmond’s working women are indicated
in the analysis of census data that follows. Two-fifths of all the
families of Richmond, and an even larger proportion of the Negro
families, had a woman gainfully occupied. More than a fifth of
these families with women at work had no male members assisting
in their support, and one-seventh—2,187 families—depended entirely
on the earnings of one woman. The weight of family responsibility
was greatest in the case of Negro women, but it was not limited
to them.
As in the other cities reported, many single women were the sole
support of a mother, or of both parents, and frequently the family
group included young children who depended on women’s earnings.
In Richmond there were 703 married women at work who were not
assisted in the support of their families by any male member. The
great majority of married women workers were living with their
husbands, but in some cases the husband was not a gainful worker.
Over 5,000 of the working women of Richmond were widowed or
divorced, a group whose burden of family responsibility was especially
heavy.. Thirty percent of the 3,226 widowed or divorced women
living in families were the sole support of the family, and 44 percent
of these families supported by one woman included children younger
than 10 years.
37
38
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
Occupations of gainfully-employed women.
The following list groups the main occupational divisions of the
women employed.
Women 16 years oj age and over
Occupation
Number1
Percent
Total................. ......................... .......... ........... 28, 143
100. 0
Manufacturing 6,
Cigar and tobacco factories 3, 946
Paper, printing, etc___________________
Clerical occupations 5,
Domestic and personal service 8,
In private homes 6, 055
In hotels, restaurants, etc_____________
Managerial and professional service_________
Teachers________ _____________ ____
Trained nurses 1,111
Selling trades
Saleswomen and clerks in stores________
Working in own home 1,
Telephone and telegraph operators__________
Not elsewhere classified___________________
128
501
790
474
853
3, 359
1,497
1, 981
1, 598
625
684
102
21.8
______
______
20.6
30.1
______
______
11. 9
______
______
7. 0
______
5.8
2.4
.4
1 Totals exceed details, as not all occupations classified arc shown separately.
For the most part women working in private homes were living out,
but about 1,200 of them lived with their employers.
Of the women engaged in manufacturing, two-thirds worked in
cigar and tobacco factories. Second to the 3,900 tobacco workers
were the 500 women in the paper, printing, and publishing group.
There wore over 3,300 women engaged in managerial and profes
sional work, more than three-fourths of them teachers or trained nurses.
Clerical occupations employed 5,800 women, the selling trades about
2,000. Some 1,600 women were working in their own homes, twothirds of them taking in washing and one-tenth doing sewing. Almost
6 percent of all employed women in Richmond, as compared to less
than 2 percent in Bridgeport and Fort Wayne, worked in their homes.
Age of gainfully-employed women.
The age distribution of the working women of Richmond is very
similar to that of the working women in the total United States.
Employed women were, on the average, somewhat older than the
employed women of Bridgeport and Fort Wayne, though the age
level of the woman population in Richmond was somewhat below that
of these other cities. Slightly over a third of the working women
of Richmond were 16 and under 25, as compared to about a fourth of
all women in the city. Almost 60 percent of the working women were
25 and under 55, a percentage little different from that of all women
in the city. A very considerable number of employed women, almost
a fifth of the total, were 45 years old or more, and about 7 percent
were at least 55. (See appendix table V.)
39
KICHMOND, VA.
Percent 16
and under
85 years old
All women 24. 9
Women gainfully employed34. 0
Manufacturing43. 5
Clerical occupations 42. 2
Domestic and personal service 25. 8
Managerial and professional service 32. 2
Selling trades 31. 2
Working in own home 4. 5
Telephone and telegraph operators 68. 6
Not elsewhere classified 16. 7
Among the young women, factory work employed the largest group,
with clerical occupations engaging an almost equal number. In each
of the older groups domestic service was by far the predominant
occupation. Domestic and personal service employed principally
women in the group 25 and under 55 years; in hotel and restaurant
occupations this age group was especially large. Work in private
homes was the principal occupation of women in domestic service,
regardless of age.
Over a fifth of the women who were working in their own homes
were 55 years old or more, and less than 5 percent of them were under
25. In no other occupation were more than 8 percent of the employed
women as old as 55.
Over two-thirds of the women operators in telephone or telegraph
establishments were girls of less than 25. Three-fifths of the women
in selling trades and in managerial or professional work were in the
middle group, 25 and under 55, though a third were younger.
Of the girls under 20 who were working, manufacturing employed
over a third, domestic and personal service a fourth, and clerical
work a fifth. Manufacturing was decreasingly important to the older
women, and above the age of 25 domestic and personal service em
ployed more than a third of each age group. Almost a fifth of the
women of 55 or over were working at home, a much larger part of
this group than in Fort Wayne or Bridgeport.
Marital status and occupation.
The distribution of employed women by marital status differs con
siderably in this southern city from that of working women in Bridge
port and Fort Wayne. Approximately 1 in every 5 employed women
in Richmond, in contrast to 1 in every 10 in Bridgeport, were widowed
or divorced. The proportion of women in Richmond who were single
was less than in the total United States and much less than in Bridge
port; just under half the employed women of Richmond were single.
The following compares the marital status of women at work in
Richmond with that of all employed women in the United States.
Marital status
Richmond
Number
Percent
United
States—
Percent
Total reported 1...............................................
28,129
100.0
100.0
Single................................... ............................ ...... .............
13,776
9,079
6,274
49.0
32.3
18.7
53.9
28.9
17.2
1 In Richmond, women of 16 years and over; in the United States, women of 15 and over, as given by the
census.
40
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
The large number of women in Richmond who were widowed or
divorced is particularly important because an occupational distribu
tion has shown in every locality that this group enters the less de
sirable occupations. As the following tabulation shows, more than
twice as large a proportion of this marital group as of single women
were in domestic and personal service. Three in every ten single
women, but only 1 in ever 12 of the widowed and divorced, were
doing clerical work. One in every five single women were in man
agerial or professional occupations, in contrast to 1 in every 17 married
or widowed women.
Percent distribution of—
Occupational group
Single
women
Married
and
separated
women
Widowed
and
divorced
women
100.0
100.0
100.0
20.2
20.9
20.2
18.3
6.5
1.3
3.5
.2
24.1
13. 5
37.6
5. 9
7.9
8.7
1. 9
.4
21.8
Selling trades.............. ........ ................. ............................... ..................
Working in own home____ _ _____ _ ___ _ _____
43 2
5.7
7.0
12.6
.6
.5
Occupations of various nativity groups of women.
Much of the difference between Richmond and the two other cities
in the occupations and marital status of working women is explained
by the race and nativity of the women.
In Richmond two of every five employed women were Negroes,
while in Bridgeport and Fort Wayne the proportions were so small as
to be negligible. Only about three-fifths of the employed women in
Richmond were native white, as compared to three-fourths of all
employed women in Bridgeport and more than nine-tenths of those in
Fort Wayne.
Almost half of all the Negro women in Richmond were gainfully
occupied, as compared to three-tenths of the native white women and
a fifth of the foreign-born.
More native white women were in clerical occupations than in any
other industry, over a third of the employed native whites being in
such work. These occupations employed only one-seventh of the
foreign-born women, and 1 percent of the Negro women. There was
little opportunity for Negro women in managerial and professional
work, but a sixth to a fifth of the other groups were in these occu
pations.
More than a fourth of the native white women worked in factory
occupations, about half of them in cigar and tobacco factories. A very
considerable number of Negro women also worked in factories, and
nine-tenths of them were in cigar and tobacco factories.
Domestic and personal service was a minor source of employment
for native white women in Richmond. Only about 6 percent of this
nativity group were classed in such occupations and two-thirds of
these women were in work other than household employment. They
were principally practical nurses, hotel and restaurant workers, or
RICHMOND, VA.
41
hairdressers and manicurists. On the other hand, about 7,500 Negro
women, two-thirds of all employed, were in domestic service and 5,700
of them worked in private homes. Over a tenth of the Negro women
worked in their own homes, almost all of them taking in washing.
The following shows the occupational distribution of native white
and of Negro women:
Percent distribution of—
Native white
women
Occupation
All occupations
100. 0
Manufacturing 26. 1
Clerical occupations 33. 8
Domestic and personal service
5. 7
Managerial and professional service 16. 8
Selling trades 10. 6
Working in own home
2. 6
Telephone and telegraph operators
4. 1
Not elsewhere classified
,4
Negro
women
100. 0
15. 7
D3
6&4
16
l! 1
lo! 6
___
.3
RESPONSIBILITY OF WOMEN FOR THE SUPPORT OF
FAMILIES
Responsibility of single women for family support.
The census data are evidence that very considerable numbers of
the employed single women of Richmond carry some responsibility
for family support. No fewer than 738 of the 8,850 single women
living in families of two or more persons were the sole support of the
family. Over half of those women lived with and were the only sup
port of their mothers. In some cases these families included not only
the mother and her employed daughter but children under 10 years.
More than a fourth of all the single women who were working lived
with both parents, and many of these supported the family without
assistance. Even where they were living with other relatives there
were a number of cases in which they were the only gainful workers
in the family.
More than one-third (36 percent) of the single women were not
living in family groups but were alone, boarding and lodging, or living
with their employer.
The table following shows the differences in family responsibility
of the native white and the Negro women. Of special significance
are the much greater proportions of Negro women in the group with
no men wage earners and m the group living alone, boarding, or living
with employers. The second of these follows, of course, from the
larger proportion who were in household employment, and the large
number of such Negro employees who lived in the homes of their em
ployers. A slightly greater percent of the Negro women than of the
native white women were the sole support of the family.
42
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
Single women in families of 2 or more persons:*
With no men wage earners:
Woman the sole support of family:
Living with parent or parents:
With parents not gainfully occupied:
Single women not in families—living alone, boarding, or living with em-
Total i
Native
white
13,776
Family status
10,248
3,353
8,850
64.2
6,916
67.5
1, 852
55.2
2,289
25.9
1,629
23. 6
645
34.8
738
8. 3
556
8.0
170
9.2
6,186
69. 9
4,954
71. 6
1,175
63. 4
1,840
29. 7
1,601
32. 3
218
18. 6
4,926
3,332
1, 501
Negro
i Totals exceed details, as the foreign-born are not shown separately.
> Excludes women living alone, boarding, or living with employer, except those with dependent children.
* Excludes 5 women with dependent children, transferred to family group.
Responsibility of married women for family support.
More than half the 9,079 employed married women were Negroes,
and these Negro women carried heavy burdens of family support.
There were 465 married women who were the only gainful workers in
their families, and 313 of these women were Negroes. Of these
Negro women, 165 had children younger than 10 years.
Though the great majority of married women were living with their
husbands, it did not follow that they were free of economic responsi
bilities. In over 200 cases the census records show that the husband
was not a gainful worker. The majority of these cases were Negro.
The husbands of 1,099 women of all races in family groups were
not living at home and 198 of these women had little children to
support. In 140 cases the Negro women, and in 58 cases the native
white women, were the sole support of small children in families from
which the father was absent.
Family status
Total1 * Native
white
Negro
9,079
With no men wage earners:
Married women not in families—living alone, boarding, or living with
4,057
4,904
7,822
86.2
3, 607
88.9
4,104
83.7
703
9.0
465
233
7,325
7,101
224
209
5.8
150
67
3,497
3,405
92
487
11.9
313
165
3,718
3, 589
129
1,257
Married women in families of 2 or more persons:3
450
800
i Totals exceed details, as the foreign born are not shown separately.
* Includes separated women.
3 Excludes women living alone, boarding, or living with employer, except those with dependent children.
* Excludes 116 women with dependent children, transferred to family group. Many not so transferred
had husbands, some of them, no doubt, unemployed.
RICHMOND, VA.
43
Responsibility of widowed and divorced women for family support
As in the other cities studied, widowed and divorced women carried
the heaviest total burden of responsibility for the family; of the 5,274
such women, 983 were the sole support of a family of two or more
persons. Of these 983 women, well over two-fifths had children less
than 10 years old. Where family support was shared with other
persons, those other persons were women in 688 cases. In 1,671
cases of the 3,226 widowed and divorced women in family groups
there were no male wage earners. Well over a third of the 3,226
women were responsible for children under 10.
All gainfully-occupied widowed and divorced women. 5, 274
Widowed and divorced women in families of 2 or more persons: 1
Number______________________________________
3, 226
Percent of all widowed and divorced women_________ 61. 2
Women with no men wage earners 1, 671
Percent of all widowed and divorced women in
families 51. 8
Woman the sole support of family
983
Number with children under 10________ _______
428
Widowed and divorced women noi in families—women living
alone, boarding, or living with employer22, 048
i Excludes women living alone, boarding, or living with employer, except those with dependent children,
i Excludes 97 women with dependent children, transferred to family group.
FAMILIES OF GAINFULLY-EMPLOYED WOMEN IN
RICHMOND
The census data show many families in Richmond depending on
women for their entire support, many large families including young
children dependent on the earnings of one gainfully-employed woman.
Families having women gainfully occupied.
Of the 40,758 families of two or more persons in Richmond, about
two-fifths included a gainfully-occupied woman. Not far from a
third of these families with a gainfully-occupied woman member also
had a woman head, 4,847 families being so reported.
Very many of these families with employed women were of con
siderable size—7,959 had four or more members—and the proportion
of families having a gainfully-employed woman increased directly
with size of family. Of all the families of 3 persons, 33 percent in
cluded an employed woman; this proportion ranged up to 38 percent
for families of 5, and to over 58 percent for families of 9 or more.
Women were less likely to be gainfully employed if the family
group included children under 10 years. About 59 percent of the
2-or-more-person families in Richmond had no children under 10, and
69 percent of the 2-or-more-person families with gainfully-employed
women had no children. Nevertheless, there were 4,817 families with
an employed woman who had small children. Twelve hundred had
2 children under 10, and 868 had 3 or more children under 10.
Families with no men wage earners.
The 15,706 families of two or more persons that had women at
work included 3,307 families, more than a fifth of the total, that had
no men gainful workers. Over a fourth of these families supported
44
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
entirely by women had 4 persons or more; close to a thousand of
them included children under 10, and 123 had 3 or more children
under 10.
In 2,187 families, practically one-seventh of all with gainfullyoccupied women, the family was supported entirely by one woman.
These families included 753 with children less than 10 years old.
On every point the weight of responsibility for family support was
accentuated in the case of Negro women. Excluding the 1-person
families, there were 6,243 Negro families with a gainfully-employed
woman. One in every four of these, 1,535, had no men gainful
workers, and one in every six, 1,026, were supported entirely by one
woman. The families without gainfully-employed male members
included 643 families with children under 10. There were 99 Negro
families with 3 or more children supported by women.
In many cases the 1,026 Negro families supported by the gainful
employment of 1 woman were large families; 258 comprised 4 persons
or more. There were 77 families with 3 or more children under 10
supported by the earnings of one Negro woman.
The proportions of families supported by native white women and
by Negro women are compared in the following summary.
Families of—
Total1
Native white
women
Family status
Negro women
Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent
All families of wage-earning women--------
15,706
100.0
9,252
100.0
6,243
100.0
Families supported entirely by women-----------1 wage earner........................................... ......
3,307
2,187
441
902
254
218
153
21.1
13.9
1,730
1,131
178
457
118
142
104
18.7
12.2
1,535
1,026
258
435
136
74
48
24.6
16.4
2 wage earners................-............................ .
3 or more wage earners----------------- ----------
5.7
1.4
4.9
1.5
7.0
1.2
i Totals exceed details, as the foreign-bom are not shown separately.
Summary as to family support.
Over a fifth of all the families reported, and an even greater pro
portion of the Negro families, were supported entirely by women.
Of all employed women living in family groups of two or more, 11
percent were the sole wage earners. The great variation according
to marital status is shown below.
Marital status
Total
Percent solely
responsible for
family support
11. 0
Single 8- 3
Married and separated 5. 9
Widowed and divorced----------------------------------------30. 5
Three in ten of the widowed and divorced women, as compared to
3 in 50 of the married and separated women, were the sole support
of a family.
45
RICHMOND, VA.
GAINFULLY-EMPLOYED HOMEMAKERS IN RICHMOND
The employed women who were homemakers, combining the duties
and responsibilities of that position with the job of breadwinner,
made up almost two-fifths of the wage-earning women in Richmond.
One-fourth of all the homemakers in the city were gainful workers.
The discussion following turns to a detailed analysis of these 10,573 1
women who had the double responsibility of homemaker and bread
winner.
Occupations of homemakers and of other employed women.
Table VI in the appendix shows the principal occupations of these
homemakers and the occupations of other employed women. The
following is a summary of that table.
Percent distribution of—
Occupational group
Homemakers in—
Urban
United
States 1
All other
gainfullyoccupied
women in
Richmond Richmond
100.0
Manufacturing......... ..................... ........... .....................
Selling trades.._______ _________ _____________ _________
100.0
100.0
22.4
8.1
16.0
10.3
27. 6
9.7
20. 8
7. 0
11.4
8. 2
37. 7
13.3
22.4
7.0
26.1
14.2
25.5
1.2
1 See footnote 1, p. 13.
2 Totals exceed details, as not all minor groups are shown separately.
The occupational distribution in Richmond furnishes a greater con
trast between homemakers and other employed women tfian appears
for other cities studied. The largest group of the homemakers in
Richmond, almost three-fifths, were in domestic and personal service,
the industry group that employed three-tenths of all working women
in the city. In contrast to this, only one-fourth of the women who
were not homemakers were in such employment. Over seven-tenths
of the homemakers in domestic and personal service worked in private
homes.
Clerical occupations employed the greatest number of women who
were not homemakers. One in every four such women, as compared
to 1 in every 10 of the homemakers, earned their living in clerical work.
Manufacturing ranked second in importance to the homemakers,
third to other employed women. The largest group of factoryemployed homemakers, as of the other employed women, worked in
cigar and tobacco factories.
The most striking contrast exists among women at work in their
own homes, but it is not surprising that homemakers comprise the
great majority of such women. Thirteen percent of the homemakers,
but only a little over 1 percent of the other women, were carrying on
gainful occupations at home, the employment reported for 10 percent
of the gainfully-occupied homemakers in urban United States. Twothirds of these homemakers in Richmond were taking in washing;
< Eliminating {be 1,6921-person families (women living alone), 8,881 women. See footnote 6, j>, 18.
46
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
a fifth earned the principal income of the family by taking in boarders
or lodgers.
Of the homemakers in managerial and professional occupations,
45 percent were teachers. Only 21 percent, as compared with 37
percent among other working women, were trained nurses.
Comparing the occupational distribution of homemakers in Rich
mond with all employed homemakers in urban United States, the
most striking difference is in the domestic and personal service
occupations. Richmond homemakers were more concentrated in
these services. They also were more likely to be working in their
own homes. A much smaller proportion of the Richmond home
makers were in clerical occupations and somewhat smaller proportions
wore in managerial or professional work, in selling, and in manufacturing.
Age of gainfully-employed homemakers.
Women under 25 years of age constituted about a third of all gain
fully-occupied women in Richmond; those of 45 or more comprised
less than a fifth. In contrast, slightly over a tenth of the gainfullyoccupied homemakers were under 25, and almost three-tenths were
45 or older. The homemakers who were less than 25 were most likely
to be in office work; 1 in every 5 of the homemakers in office occu
pations were in that age group. This is the only type of work in
which fewer of the homemakers were 45 or over than were under 25.
Two in every five of all women office workers were under 25, and less
than 1 in 10 had reached 45 years.
Less than 7 percent of the professional workers who were home
makers were under 25, though a third of all women professional
workers were in that age group. Differences in the other occupa
tional groups, though on the whole less striking, were very consider
able. In every group but office workers, homemakers who were
working were predominantly in the older class.
Employed homemakers in Richmond approximated the age distri
bution of employed homemakers in urban United States. The
principal difference was among the “industrial workers,” who were a
younger group in Richmond than in all cities.
The following tabulation gives, by occupation, the proportions of
Richmond women in selected age groups and compares the groups of
homemakers with those in urban United States.
Percent of women in occupation specified who were—
Under 25 years of age
Occupational group
Employed home
makers in—
Urban
United
States 1
All classes 3____________
Employed at home_____
Employed away from home:
Industrial workers
Servants, waitresses, etc.............
Office workers _
Saleswomen___________ _____
Professional workers...................
Rich
mond 1
45 years of age and over
All gain
fully- _
women
in Rich
mond
Urban
United
States 1
Rich
mond 1
All gain
fullyemployed
women
in Rich
mond
11.6
3.6
11.6
2.7
34.0
4.5
30.5
52.4
28.3
50.3
18.6
50.6
14.0
9.4
22.1
11.5
8.0
17.2
9.3
20.8
12.2
6.7
43.5
25.8
42.2
31.2
32.2
26.0
. 33.1
14.0
26.7
33.3
21.3
26.5
15.5
25.1
37.6
14.2
22.2
9.0
21.6
19.9
1 From unpublished data of the Bureau of the Census.
3 Totals exceed details, as some occupations are not shown separately.
Employed home
makers in—
47
KICHMOND, VA.
Employed homemakers’ families dependent for support entirely on
women.
In more than a fifth of the 2-or-more-person families of these
Richmond homemakers there were no employed men. This is a
markedly higher proportion that in the northern cities studied, and
probably is accounted for by racial differences, over half the 2,037
women being Negro.
Well over two-fifths of the homemakers’ families had only 2 mem
bers, but almost a third were of 4 persons or more. There were
more than 250 families of 4 or more persons (more than 100 of five or
more) in which the homemaker was the sole support of the family, and
61 of these families had at least 3 children less than 10 years old.
The following summary indicates the burden of dependency on the
employed homemakers of Richmond, showing the number of families
with no male support and the large group of these in which the
homemaker was the sole wage earner.
Families of employed homemakers
With no men wageearners
Type of family
With homemaker sole
wage earner
Total
Number
All families of 2 or more persons
Families of 4 or more persons___
Having 3 or more children under 10
8, 881
2, 881
431
Percent
100.0
23.7
4.1
2,037
482
84
Number
Percent
1,208
255
61
100.0
21.1
5.0
The homemaker was the only wage earner in almost a seventh of
all the cases, and one in five of these women was the sole support of a
family of four or more persons. One in twenty had the entire support
of three or more young children.
Occupations of homemakers who were the sole wage earners in their
families.
The occupational distribution of the Richmond homemakers who
were the sole wage earners in their families was fairly similar to the
distribution of such homemakers in the United States as a whole.
The principal differences were in the greater proportions of Richmond
homemakers in professional work and in industrial work, and the
smaller proportion in office work.
Occupation of homemaker
more
persons
Employed at home:
Employed away from home:
Homemakers sole gainful workers in families
of 2 or more persons
All home
makers in
Richmond
in families
Richmond
Number
i 8, 777
2
1,142
538
1,154
2,158
3,034
494
255
1 Limited to homemakers in white and Negro households.
i 1,234
United States
Percent
of total
Number
Percent
of total
14.1
i 452,106
13.7
225
19.7
51,332
52,905
14.2
18.5
81
96
286
449
15.1
8. 3
13.3
14.8
10.9
16.9
39, 578
44,424
71,300
124, 579
25,314
42,674
13. 2
10.4
10.9
15.9
10.5
16.7
43
48
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
The largest proportion of homemakers in Richmond carrying the
heavy responsibilities of sole wage earner was among the women
working at home, where 1 in every 5 supported without aid a family
of 2 or more persons. It should be remembered that most of the
women who worked at home (2 in every 3) were supporting the home
by taking in washing. Second in the proportion supporting a family
group were the professional workers—about 1 in every 7. The small
est proportion was among the office workers, of whom only 1 in every
12 were the sole support of a family, probably due chiefly to their
youth, as a fifth of them were less than 25 years old.
Size of family of the gainfully-employed homemakers in various
occupations.
The families of employed homemakers ranged in size from 1 to 10
or more persons. Classified by the number of members each house
hold contained, in every 100 homes there were 56 in which the home
maker was working to support 2 or 3 persons including herself, 24
where 4 to 7 persons were supported by her, 3 where 8 or more persons
were members of the family, and 16 in which she worked to support
herself alone. In the following summary the size of family is correlated
with the occupation of the homemaker.
Occupation of homemaker
Number of families of—
Total
families
with
gain
fully2 or 3 4 to 7 8 or
occu 1 per per
per more
pied
son
per
sons
sons sons
home
makers
All occupations.-__________ ' 10,502
Employed at home:
Other______________________
Employed away from home:
Professional workers
Office workers______________
Industrial workers___ _____ _
Servants, waitresses, etc
Saleswomen ______________
Other............................................
Percent of total families of—
1 per 2 or 3
per
son
sons
4 to 7
per
sons
8 or
more
per
sons
1,725
5,928
2,535
314
16.4
56.4
24.1
3.0
2
1,386
244
2
653
414
75
17.6
100.0
47.1
29.9
5.4
745
1,315
2, 516
3, 701
541
296
207
161
358
667
47
41
397
902
1,446
2,039
327
162
135
245
647
855
155
84
6
7
65
140
12
9
27.8
12.2
14.2
18.0
8.7
13.9
53.3
68.6
57. 5
55.1
60.4
54.7
18. 1
18.6
25.7
23.1
28.7
28.4
.8
.5
2.6
3.8
2.2
3.0
1 Limited to white and Negro households.
Homemakers employed in professional and clerical work lived in
the smallest family groups—4 in every 5 families in each of these occu
pational classes were of 3 or fewer persons. The women working at
home had the largest households; over a third of their families had 4
or more members and 1 in every 20 had 8 or more. Also from large
families were the homemakers who worked as saleswomen, as indus
trial workers, or as servants, waitresses, and so forth.
Generally speaking, however, the household whose homemaker was
gainfully occupied was smaller than the household of all employed
women and smaller than the average Richmond household, as is clear
from the following comparison.
49
RICHMOND, VA.
All fami
lies 1
Families of 2 or 3 per
sons
Number
40,758
15,706
8,881
Percent
51.2
49.3
67.6
20,886
7, 747
6,000
i Excludes 1-person families.
Families of employed homemakers that had small children.
Of the 16,666 white and Negro families in Richmond with children
less than 10 years old, 2,435 (15 percent) had homemakers at work.
This proportion is very much greater than those for Bridgeport and
Fort Wayne. Well over a fourth of the homemakers in Richmond
combined the heavy tasks and responsibilities of homemaker for young
children with a money-making job. The number of children of under
10 years in these households ranged from 1 to 7, with 431 families
having 3 or more such children. There were 159 homemakers working
alone to maintain a home for 1 small child with no other persons in the
household.
Summarized according to occupation, the table following shows that
women working at home were the most likely to have several children
and to have small children.
Families of employed homemakers with children under 10 years of age, by occupation
of the homemaker 1
Occupation of homemaker
All occupations
Employed at home:
Agricultural workers........ .
Other______ _____
_
Employed away from home:
Professional workers
Office workers____________
Industrial workers.._ ____
Servants, waitresses, etc........
Saleswomen..........................
Other____ ____ _____ _____
Num
ber of
home
makers’
families
of 2 or
more
persons
Number of home
makers’ families
with—
Chil
dren
under
10
(total)
Percent of home
makers’ families in—
Richmond
Percent distri
bution of
homemakers’
families with
United children under
States
10
2 per 3 or With With With
3 or
sons, more chil more
chil Rich
chil dren chil
1a
dren mond United
child dren
States
dren
under under under under under
10
10
10
10
10
8,777
2,435
159
434
27.7
4.9
29.6
100.0
100.0
2
1,142
427
26
123
37.4
10.8
47. 3
35.1
17.5
17 4
lol 3
538
1,154
2,158
3,034
494
255
88
163
675
914
109
59
3
10
54
61
2
3
6
7
106
162
24
6
16.4
14.1
31.3
30.1
22.1
23.1
1.1
.6
4.9
5.3
4.9
2.4
20.2
15.0
30.7
30.7
22.6
33.7
3.6
6.7
27.7
37.5
4.5
2.4
6.2
6.6
20.6
24.6
5.6
8.8
1 Table limited to white and Negro households.
The industrial workers and the servant and waitress group bore the
responsibility for children under 10 in a large proportion of cases (3
in every 10 households). In each of these classes many of the home
makers were responsible for 3 or more children. There were 162
50
EMPLOYED WOMEN AND FAMILY SUPPORT
servants and waitresses and 106 industrial workers whose households
included 3 or more young children.
Only 1 in 15 of the homemakers with small children were in office
work, as compared to 1 in 7 or 8 of all the homemakers. In every
100 households with young children, 38 of the homemakers were
servants or waitresses, 28 were industrial workers, and 10 were in office
or professional work.
Nativity of employed homemakers.
Much of the difference between Richmond and the northern cities
in occupational distribution and responsibility for family support is
caused by differences in racial make-up of the cities. Three in every
ten homes in Richmond were Negro homes. As among all employed
women, the Negro homemakers carried the heaviest economic burden,
their families comprising about 6 in every 10 of the families whose
homemakers were employed.
Employed homemakers
Nativity
Number
Percent dis
tribution
Percent dis
tribution
of all
employed
women
10,502
100.0
100.0
4,228
229
6,045
40.3
2.2
57.6
58.7
1.3
39.9
Well over half the Negro homemakers were in the domestic service
occupations, more than a fifth were factory employees, and a sixth
were working in their own homes. In contrast, the largest numbers
of native white homemakers were in office and factory work in equal
proportions, and only 1 in every 12 were earning money in their own
homes.
Excluding the 1-person families, almost a fourth of these Negro
homemakers were in families with 5 or more members. There were
333 of their families with at least 3 children under 10 years. A fourth
of the Negro women in families of 2 or more persons had no male
assistance in supporting the family.
The native white women were more likely to have small families,
and a somewhat smaller proportion of them had no men gainful
workers in the family.
Women heads of employed homemakers’ families.
Four-fifths of all families in Richmond had a man at the head, but
less than three-fifths of the families of employed homemakers had a
male head. In all there were 4,486 homemakers’ families, 42 percent
of the total, whose head was a woman who was homemaker as well as
breadwinner. Excluding the women living alone (one-person fami
lies), there still were 2,794 families—almost a third of the families
with two or more members—with a gainfully-occupied homemaker
at the head.
Families of employed homemakers that had lodgers.
Of the homemakers working at home, about a third took in lodgers.
Even among the women working outside the home this was not an
RICHMOND, VA.
51
uncommon method of augmenting the family income, and 1,600
homemakers (almost a fifth of all those employed away from home)
had lodgers.
The homemakers earning their living at home frequently had a
considerable number of lodgers. One in three of the 481 taking
lodgers had 6 or more, and 71 of these women had 9 or more. There
were 269 women whose occupations took them away from home who
also had 3 or more lodgers.
Women who took lodgers were not listed as gainfully occupied
unless the income from that source was the principal income of the
family. In Richmond in 1930 there were some 4,700 homemakers
not tabulated as gainfully occupied who took from 1 to 4 or more
lodgers, 364 of them having 4 or more.
APPENDIX
Tabi,e
I.—Age of gainfully-employed women, by occupational group—Fort Wayne
Women who were—
Occupational group
All women
of 16 and
over
16 and under 16 and under 25 and under
20
25
55
55 and over
Num- Per- Num- Per- Num- Per- Num- Per- Num- Perher cent ber cent ber cent
ber cent ber cent
Total in population—
Number
43,541
Percent distribution___ 100.0
4,105
9.4
Total gainfully occupied with age
reported—
Number_________________ _ 112,887 100.0
Percent distribution............... . 100.0
10, 447
24.0
1,806 100.0
14.0
5,104 100.0
39.6
6,902 100.0
53.6
881
6.8
100.0
25, 656
58.9
17 1
ManufacturingNumber 3, 610
Percent distribution......... 100.0
28.0
591
16.4
32.7
1,608
44.5
31.5
1,851
51.3
26.8
151
17.1
Clerical occupations—
Number
3,306
Percent distribution_____ 100.0
25.7
564
17. 1
31.2
1,791
54.2
35.1
1,481
44.8
21.5
34
3.9
18.4
292
12.3
16.2
610
25.7
12.0
1, 385
58.4
20.1
377
15 9
42.8
13.0
118
7.1
6.5
526
31.5
10.3
1,025
61.3
14.9
121
13.7
Selling trades—
Number___ _______ ____ 1,393
Percent distribution.......... 100.0
10.8
203
14.6
11.2
448
32.2
8.8
850
61.0
12.3
95
10.8
Working in own home—
Number
304
Percent distribution_____ 100.0
2.4
1
.3
1
9
3.0
.2
203
66.8
2.9
92
10.4
Telephone and telegraph
operators—
Number.................... ..........
181
Percent distribution........ . 100.0
1.4
34
18.8
1.9
102
56.4
2.0
77
42.5
1.1
2
.2
3
.2
30
.4
9
1.0
Domestio and personal
serviceNumber............. ...............
Percent distribution
2,372
100.0
Managerial and professional
serviceNumber
1,672
Percent distribution.......... 100.0
Not elsewhere classified—
Number.................................
49
.4
.
1 Excludes 10 women in this study whose age was not reported.
52
10 1
1.1
53
APPENDIX
Table
II.—Occupation of homemakers and of other gainfully-occupied women—Fort Wayne
All gainfully-oc
cupied women
Homemakers
Others
Occupation
Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent
Total..-------- -------- --------------------- -------Percent distribution.........................................
12,897
100.0
100.0
4,067
31.5
100.0
8,830
68.5
100.0
Manufacturing............................................................
3, 614
28.0
1,252
30.8
2,362
26.7
Selling trades.............................................................
1,395
10.8
181
634
8.6
640
17
104
32
.8
149
1.7
15.3
2,686
30.4
10.0
1,266
14.3
Clerical occupations---------------------------------------
3,308
25.6
Managerial and professional service.......... ...............
1,672
13.0
406
591
449
48
178
192
56
82
76
783
505
130
254
2,374
761
1.4
622
Domestic and personal service--------------------------
356
15.6
498
48
88
1,138
65
192
Telephone and telegraph operators............................
259
52
1,020
271
64
555
186
176
530
116
1,575
861
532
18.4
816
20.1
1,558
563
240
164
159
164
1,029
608
421
203
252
70
101
81
86
210
210
106
Nurses not trained (not elsewhere classified)----
28
106
281
15
37
110
13
69
171
Working in own home.............. .................................
304
17.6
311
170
63
78
78
819
608
211
97
Housekeepers and stewardesses (not elsewhere
Taking boarders, lodgers (not elsewhere elassiTaking in sewing, millinery, knitting—own
Taking in sewing, millinery, knitting—from
Not elsewhere classified..............................................
2.4
274
131
66
129
63
82
1
19
30
.3
62
1
24
6.7
49
.4
31
3
5
.8
18
.2
54
APPENDIX
Table
III.
Age of gainfully-employed women, by occupational group—Bridgeport
Women who were—
Occupational group
All women
of 16 and
over
16 and un
der 20
16 and un
der 25
25 and un
der 55
55 and
over
Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per
ber
cent
ber
ber cent
cent
ber
ber
cent
cent
Total in population—
Number
Percent distribution
52,158
100.0
5,797
11.1
Total gainfully occupied with age
reported—
Number.. __ _ _
'17,056 100.0
Percent distribution............. 100.0
12,192
23.4
30. 865
59.2
9,101
17.4
3,478 100.0
20.4
7,309 100.0
42.8
8, 566 100.0
50.2
36.4
1,642
26.4
47.2
2, 900
46. 6
2,974
47.8
23.7
878
21.7
25.2
2,196
54.4
30.0
15.2
358
13.8
10.3
691
26.6
9.5
12.4
185
8.8
5.3
731
34. 7
281
20.3
8.1
532
38.4
1,181
6.9
100.0
34.7
338
5.4
28. 6
1,790
44.3
20.9
54
1.3
4.6
1, 478
56.8
17.3
429
16.5
36.3
1,218
57.8
14.2
158
7.5
13.4
7.3
755
54.6
8.8
97
7.0
8.2
.1
59^4
1.8
96
37.5
8.1
Manufacturing—
6, 212
Percent distribution.......... 100.0
Clerical occupations—
Percent distribution
4,040
100.0
Domestic and personal serv
ice—
Number . .
...
2, 598
Percent distribution_____ 100.0
Managerial and professional
service—
Percent distribution
100.0
Selling trades—
Number
______ ____
Percent distribution
1,384
100.0
8.1
Working in own home—
Number____________
Percent distribution__
256
100.0
1.5
Telephone and telegraph oper
ators—
Number_________
Percent distribution __
359
100.0
2.1
Not elsewhere ClassifiedNumber___ _________
100
0.8
3.1
96
26.7
2.8
36
1.0
1 Excludes 10 women in this study whoso age was not reported.
205
57.1
2.8
46
.6
42.3
1
47
1.8
0.6
55
APPENDIX
Table
IV.—Occupation of homemakers and of other gainfully-occupied women—
Bridgeport
All gainfully-oc
cupied women
Homemakers
Others
Occupation
Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent
Total................ ............................. ...............
Percent distribution.......................................
17,066
100.0
100.0
5,280
30.9
100.0
11, 786
69.1
100^0
Manufacturing____ _____ __________ _________
6, 217
36.4
2,393
45.3
3, 824
32.4
Other clothing in factories............... .................
Iron and steel, machinery and vehicle indusMetal industries (except iron and steel)
Electrical machinery and supply factories.........
All other
Selling trades.,............................................................
539
921
933
110
163
428
341
52
1,027
'373
1,236
324
754
422
133
444
125
285
1,384
8.1
1,171
87
126
489
376
592
240
792
199
469
9.3
895
7.6
363
76
Telephone and telegraph operators............. .............
356
2.1
69
1.3
290
2.5
Clerical occupations........ ........ ......... ...... ..................
4,040
23.7
675
12.8
3,365
28.6
Managerial and professional service ...................... .
2,109
12.4
405
7.7
1,704
14.5
Teachers
Trained nurses__
___. _ __________ ...
Owners, managers, officials (except retail)
Other
Domestic and personal service.
--------------------
Cooks.................................... ...... ..................
Housekeepers and stewardesses (not elsewhere
1,114
'677
74
244
2,601
222
72
33
78
15.2
305
154
54
97
189
1, 538
' 683
855
129
Nurses not trained (not elsewhere classified)...
256
Taking boarders, lodgers (not elsewhere classitied).-- ............ .................. -........ ..................
18.8
63
39
40
109
487
1, 609
1,051
368
76
26
54
121
1.5
13.7
91
15
57
487
44
167
229
Working in own home____________ _____„..........
992
892
605
41
166
18
113
108
218
4.1
38
142
29
138
23
4
6
67
43
24
Other work at home—own account....................
Other work at home—from factory
2
7
9
2
4
8
3
1
Not elsewhere classified................... ..........................
100
.3
Taking in sewing, millinery, knitting—own
Taking in sewing, millinery, knitting—from
.6
39
.7
61
.5
56
APPENDIX
Table
V.—Age of gainfully-employed, women, by occupational group—Richmond
Occupational group
Women who were—
All women of
16 and over 16 and under
16 and under 25 and under
55 and over
20
25
55
Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per
ber cent ber cent ber cent ber
cent ber
cent
Total in population—
Number________
72,453
Percent distribution.......... 100.0
7,603
10.5
Total gainfully occupied with age
reported—
Number. _....... ............. . *28,107 100.0
Percent distribution............. 100.0
Manufacturing—
Number _______ ____
Percent distribution...... .
Clerical occupations—
Number
Percent distribution____
Domestic and personal service—
Number. .............. .........
Percent distribution...... .
Managerial and professional
service—
Number. _ . . _ .........
Percent distribution..........
Selling trades—
Number...... ...................
Percent distribution........
Working in own home—
Number.............................
Percent distribution
Telephone and telegraph operators—
Number_______ ______ _
Percent distribution
Not elsewhere classified—
Number_____ __________
18,027
24.9
15.2
" "
— • -
3, 423 100.0
12.2
9, 551 100.0 16,674 100.0
34.0
59. 3
1, 882
6.7
100.0
6,124
100.0
21.8
1,203
19.6
35.1
2, 665
43.5
27.9
3,149
51.4
18.9
310
5.1
16. 5
5,783
100.0
20.6
691
11.9
20.2
2, 443
42.2
25.6
3, 215
55.6
19. 3
125
6 6
8,457
100.0
30.1
827
9.8
24.2
2,184
25.8
22.9
5, 583
66.0
33.5
690
8.2
36.7
3, 356
100.0
11.9
219
6.5
6.4
1,082
32.2
11.3
2,026
60.4
12.2
248
7.4
13. 2
1,979
100.0
7.0
228
11.5
6.7
618
31.2
6.5
1,219
61. 6
7.3
142
7. 5
1,622
100.0
5.8
23
1.4
.7
73
4.5
.8
1,199
73. 9
7.2
350
21.6
18. 6
684
100.0
2.4
223
32.6
6.5
469
68.6
4.9
209
30. 6
1.3
6
0.9
.3
102
.4
9
.3
17
.2
74
.4
11
.6
1 Excludes 36 women in this study whose age was not reported.
59.9
—=----
57
APPENDIX
Table
VI.—Occupation of homemakers and of other gainfully-occupied women—
Richmond
Occupation
All gainfullyoccupied women
Homemakers
Others
Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent
Total
Manufacturing ..........................................................
28,143
100.0
100.0
10, 673
37.6
100.0
17,670
62.4
100.0
6,128
21.8
2, 200
20.8
3,928
22.4
147
106
128
1,502
317
338
256
601
3,946
1,087
Selling trades...............................................................
1,981
7.0
745
191
150
373
2, 444
770
7.0
527
105
113
1,598
141
242
1, 236
7.0
1,071
’ 36
129
Telephone and telegraph operators............ ...............
684
2.4
114
1.1
570
3.2
Clerical occupations ..................... .......... _ __...........
5,790
20.6
1,204
11.4
4,586
26.1
Managerial and professional service. ........................
3,359
11.9
862
8.2
2,497
14.2
1,497
1, 111
'212
539
Domestic and personal service
8,474
1,105
' 929
105
358
392
182
107
181
30.1
3,990
37.7
4,484
853
389
200
264
495
6,055
1,171
4, 884
181
Working in own home_____________________
2,834
91
27
107
305
25.5
468
245
70
153
254
3,221
1,171
2,050
' 90
73
234
683
Living out.....................................................
Housekeepers and stewardesses (not elsewhere
385
144
130
111
241
2,834
46
127
278
1,625
6.8
1,406
13.3
219
1.2
Taking boarders, lodgers (not elsewhere classi311
1,087
Not elsewhere classified..............................................
7
151
141
47
1
36
2
Taking in sewing, millinery, knitting—from
304
936
188
Taking in sewing, millinery, knitting—own
1
23
1
13
1
102
o
.4
52
.5
50
.3
@FedFRASER