Full text of Facts on Women Workers : August 31, 1951

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FACTS

♦

on Women Workers
U. S. Department of Labor

Maurice J. Tobin,

Secretary

Women's Bureau

Frieda S. Miller,

Director

WASHINGTON 25, D. C. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN IN JULY 1951

LIBRARY
A. & M. COLLEGE OF TEXAS

August 31, 1951

Estimated at 19 mA 11A on in the week ending July 14, total civilian employment of
women was 368,000 higher than in June, and 1.4 million above the level of a year
ago, according to the latest Census Bureau figures. Total civilian employment of
men was 78,000 below the level of July 1950, reflecting the fact that young male
workers were being inducted into the armed forces in sizable numbers during the
year. The increased employment of women compensated for the decrease in male
employment and accounted for a rise of 1.3 million in total employment over the
past year, bringing the total to 62.5 million men and women, the highest July
level on record.

In nonagricultural jobs the number of women has now reached the level prevailing
at the peak of World War H, when millions were working as replacements for men
in the armed forces.

Number of
women
Civilian population
(14 years and over)
Civilian labor force
Employed
In agriculture
In nonagricultural
industries
Unemployed
Nonworkers

Percent women
of all persons

Change since
June 1951

Change since
July 195 0

57,058,000
19,780,000
19,022,000
1,638,000

52.4
30.7
30.4
20.7

♦ 56,000
♦ 313,000
♦ 368,000
- 110,000

♦
670,000
♦ 1,061,000
♦ 1,390,000
♦
175,000

17,384,000
758,000
37,278,000

31.8
40.8
83.8

♦ 478,000
- 55,000
- 257,000

♦ 1,215,000
329,000
391,000

(U„ S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census)

WOMEN PERFORMING "MEN’S* WORK AT BENICIA ARSENAL
Women now form about 30 percent of the working force at Benicia Arsenal, in the
San Francisco Bay Area, and are filling so-called "men’s* jobs with notable success,
according to a recent news letter of the Office of the Secretary of the Amy,
Civilian Personnel Division. The jobs on which the women perform best, the arsenal
reports, are those of crane operator, lift truck operator, fire control inspector,
parts requirements planner, and talleyman. Their work also is said to be satis­
factory in most of the arsenal’s other mechanical and warehouse jobs, including
welding, toolroom operation, and inspection. Benicia's successful utilization of
its women workers is credited to job engineering. This, together with equipment
modification and the increased use of power tools, has enabled the arsenal to make
33/. 4 extensive use of women In "heavy" operations. An outstanding example of the
successful use of women, the newsletter notes, is an employee who was hired during
World War II as a student in the watch repair school. This woman now is a foreman

and Is in charge of a shop which operates on three shifts. She supervises
http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/
/35J
30 employees, most of whop; are men.
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

♦

MINIMUM WAGE
The District of Columbia Vs revision of its 1946 laundry and dry cleaning order,
effective August 22, 1951, establishes a basic minimum wage of $30 for a workweek
of over 24 but not more than 40 hours.
For work in excess of 40 hours, $1.12^
an hour must be paid, and for part-time work, i.e., a week of 24 hours or less,
85 cents an hour.
Two new standards provide for 4 hours’ pay on any day an employee
is called to work, whether or not work is provided, and 75 cents, in addition to
the applicable minimum wage, for any day on which employee works a split shift or
her over-all hours exceed 11.
(Former minimum was $22 for a week of over 16 up
to and including 44 hours.)

Connecticut revised its cleaning and dyeing order and extended application of the
new order for this industry to adult males, establishing a basic hourly minimum of
75 cents for all workers, with time and a half the employee’s regular rate for all
hours worked in excess of 45 a week.
(Under the former order, 60 cents was the
basic hourly minimum for experienced workers and 55 cents for inexperienced.)
Utah amended its 1947 minimum-wage order applying to women and minor restaurant
workers, making changes only in the wage rates of part-time employees, which, in
two classes of cities, are increased by a fraction of a cent an hour after the
first two hours of employment, and, in a third class of cities, are decreased by
approximately 3 cents an hour for all, part-time work.
For towns having a
population of 5,000 or fewer, the amended order omits part-time rates entirely.

WOMEN RECEIVING OLD-AGE BENEFITS

The number of women receiving old-age benefits more than doubled in 1950 due to
recent amendments to the Social Security Act.
These amendments made workers in
additional occupations, including household employment, eligible for benefits.
Women were 16 percent of those receiving benefits in 1950 under the former
provisions of the Act, and 28 percent of those newly eligible under the 1950
amendments.
Three-fourths of the women compared to two-thirds of the men
beneficiaries were aged 65 and under 70.
New eligibles could not qualify if
they reached their 75th birthday before the last 6 months of 1950.
Among those
coning under the Act in 1950 before amendment, 11 percent of the women and 17 per­

cent of the men were 75 or older.
The amendments also increased the average monthly benefits. For eligibles under
the old basis, the monthly amount awarded under the 1950 amendments was $40.44 for
women, $51.37 for men.
This was an increase from the old basis of payment of
70 percent for men and nearly 77 percent for women.

WOMEN IN UNIONS

Women are taking an active part in the International Association of Machinists (AFL)

according to a series of articles which have appeared recently in THE MACHINIST,
the trade union’s weekly publication.
There are 376 women officers in local and
district lodges and several thousand others are shop committeewomen and shop
stewards•




4

MAJOR

occupations OF WOMEN. JULY 1951

Major increases in the employment of women since July 1950 have occurred among
clerical workers and factory workers, which together account for more than a
m-ilUon additional employed women.
Women employed as farm laborers and foremen

also have shown an increase.

Number

All occupations
Clerical and kindred workers
Operatives and kindred
workers
Service workers, except
private household
Private household workers
Professional, technical,
and kindred workers
Sales workers
Farm laborers and foremen
Managers, officials and
proprietors, except farm
Craftsmen, foremen and
kindred workers
Farmers and farm managers
Laborers, except farm and
mine

Employed women. July 1951
Percent of
Changes since
Percent
distribution
all workers
July 1950

19,022,000

100.0

30.4

*1,390,000

5,128,000

27.0

66.3

♦

520,000

3,721,000

19.6

28.9

*

463,000

2,150,000
1,851,000

11.3
9.7

45.8
97.2

♦

18,000
122,000

1,617,000
1,467,000
1,416,000

8.5
7.7
7.4

35.9
37.2
39.4

*
*

42,000
55,000
234,000

1,092,000

5.7

17.6

♦

17,000

250,000
212,000

1.3
1.1

2.9
5.0

*
-

45,000
65,000

118,000

0.6

2.8

*

38,000

(U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census)
WOMEN ESTABLISH NEW RECORD IN PURCHASE OF LIFE INSURANCE
Women established a record during 1950 when they bought more than 44 billion

dollars worth of new life insurance protection, according to the Institute of
Life Insurance.
This amount represents the largest purchase ever made in a single
year.
The total amount of life insurance which women now own, the Institute’s
survey shows, has reached nearly 45 billion dollars, about a fifth of all life
insurance in America.
The 1950 purchases by women included nearly 2 billion dollars each of "ordinary"
and "weekly premium" life insurance and almost a billion dollars of group life
insurance.
Of the women who purchased ordinary life insurance during the year,
nearly two-thirds were employed outside their homes, 29 percent were housewives,
and the remaining 7 percent were in school or living with their families.
Women’s present ownership of this kind of life insurance is around 23 billion
dollars.




z
EMPLOYMENT
BY AGE GROUP
1 a J" rx - - -STATUS
i
** . OF
. i - VOMEN
i 1 One-half of all women 18 to 24 years of age are in the labor force, according
to the figures for July 1951 from the U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of
the Census.
Only slightly over a third of the women in the next age group—25
to 34—are workers; but 40 percent of the women from 35 to 54 ere in the labor
force.
There has been very little change In these figures since December 1950.

Age

Woman
population
(14 years
and over)

:
:
:
s

Women in labor foroe
:
Total
:
x
:
•
Percent
;
:
:
Number :
of woman
: Employed jUnemployeds
* population
:j

Women
not in
labor
force
J

57.058.000

19.780.000

34.7

19.022.000

758.000

37.278.000

14-15
16-17
18-19
20-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65 and

2,146,000
2,056,000
2,078,000
5,714,000
12,140,000
10,820,000
8,918,000
6,962,000

400,000
896,000
1,280,000
2,698,000
4,256,000

18.6
43.6
61.6

372,000
798,000
1,180,000

2,592,000
4,126,000

4,220,000
3,640,000
1,872,000

47.2
35.1
39.0
40.8
26.9

4,102,000
3,538,000
1,804,000

28,000
98,000
100,000
106,000
130,000
118,000
102,000
68,000

1,746,000
1,160,000
798,000
3,016,000
7,884,000
6,600,000
5,278,000
5,090,000

over

6,224,000

518,000

a *2

510,000

8,000

5,706,000

Total

o >M

Jx)

a

O K

W <3

> K

(U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census)

THE OCCUPATIONAL OUTLOOK HANDBOOK. U. S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor
Statistics, Bulletin 998 (prepared in cooperation with the Veterans
Administration).
575 pp.
Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. $3.
This illustrated volume, which contains reports on 433 occupations by which
Americans earn their living, will be used by the Veterans AdmirH pt.yftt.jnn in
counseling veterans, by all other Federal agencies which provide counseling
services, and by high schools, colleges, and community guidance services.
THE LEGAL STATUS OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA—REPORTS AND SUMMARY
FOR THE TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS.
U. S. Department of Labor, Women’s
Bureau Bulletin 157-50. 77 pp.
THE OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN IN SOCIAL WORK AEMINISTRATION, TEACHING, AND RESEARCH.
U. S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau Bulletin 235-6.
83 pp.




(The printing of this publication has been approved by the
Director of the Bureau of the Budget, Iferch 9, 1950.)