Full text of Facts on Women Workers : February 28, 1951

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FACTS

on Women Workers
U. S. Department of Labor

Maurice J. Tobin,

Women's Bureau

Frieda S. Miller,

Secretary

Director

WASHINGTON 25, D. C.
February 28, 1951

WLOYMKKT OF VOW IN JANUARY 1951
The number of women in the labor force in January 1951 exceeded the total in
January a year ago by about 700,000, according to monthly reports of the Bureau
of the Census. Most of thio change, about 600,000, was among women 25 to 54
years of age* Unemployment of women fell by 1/3 of a million in the year, whi
the number employed rose by more than 1 million, almost entirely among non­
agricultural women workers.

The decline from December 1950 to January 1951 in women in the labor force, and
in those employed represented a usual seasonal trend. Many women who held
temporary jobs during the Christmas season withdrew from the labor force*

library
A. & M. COLLEGE OF TEXAS
Employment status

Civilian population
{14 years and over)
Civilian labor force
Baployed
In agriculture
In nonagricultural
Indus tries
Unemployed
Nonworkers

January 1951
Number of
women

Percent women
of all persons

Change since
December 1950

Change since
January. 1950

56.751.000
18,421,000
17,577,000
656,000

52.0
29*9
29*8
10.9

A 49,000
- 582,000
- 655,000
- 87,000

♦ 676.000
♦ 709,000
♦ 1,083,000
♦
31,000

16,921,000
844,000
38,331,000

31.9
33*7
80.4

- 569,000
♦ 74,000
♦ 631,000

♦1,052,000
- 374,000
32,000

(U. 3. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census)
COST OF LlTOjQ

' Die Industrial Welfare Commission of California reported last month that the
average cost of a minimum budget for a single working woman in California was
$2,013*98 in October 1950. Of this amount $1,071.68 was for food and housing,
$180.76 for clothing, $31*16 for clothing upkeep, $104*67 for medical care,
$37.15 for personal care, $94*79 for carfare and transportation, $105*79 for
vacation and recreation, $66*45 for miscellaneous items, and $52 for insurance
and emergencies. Taxes withheld (including Federal income tax, unemployment compen­
sation disability benefit tax and old age insurance tax) amoisited to $259*52.
This budget was designed, as provided in the State minimum-wage law, to
measure the annual cost of a minimum standard adequate to supply a proper
living which Is not prejudicial to the health, morals, or welfare of women
workers in California. It is the first *official* budget to be issued by the
State; previously, the only budget figures available for California were

those issued by the Heller Conaaittee of the University of Calii 7rnia.
http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/

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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

CHANGES PROPOSED IN IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION LAWS
Companion bills (S.716 and H.R.2379) to revise and enact as a whole the laws
on immigration, naturalization, and nationality are before Committees on the
Judiciary of the Senate and the House. One of the aims of the new bills is to
remove needless sex distinctions resulting from inadequate phrases of another
era. The proposed changes include recommendations made by a Special Senate
Committee which studied the subject during the 31st Congress and by Departments
of the Executive Branch of the Government. All of the suggestions made by the
Women’s Bureau before the Special Committee in 194-3 for removal of sex distinctions
have been included in the current bills#
GUARD OUR WORKING STANDARDS

A warning that in the present emergency good labor standards should not be
sacrificed through a misguided sense of patriotism was sounded by the Director
of the U. S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau, Frieda S. Miller, in a talk
to the New York Women’s Trade Uhion League on February 17. Attacks undoubtedly
will be launched against the various women's laws, she said. Reviewing past
experience* Miss Miller stated, "World War II directed special attention to the
practical benefits that are derived from good labor standards and to the sound
basis on which such laws rest. During its first half century of growth, labor
legislation for women generally was considered to be an altruistic effort to
improve the lot of one group of workers. Today, such standards receive another
emphasis—they are recognized as plain good business. World War II was a
A
proving ground in this respect, for employers then realised that the best
results were obtained by employing women for moderate hours and under desirable
conditions. They learned the relationship between long hours and substandard
working conditions, on the one hand, and fatigue and unsatisfactory performance,
on the other. That experience constitutes real evidence that moderate hours and
desirable standards help rather than hinder production•*
AILMENTS OF HOUSEWIVES AND DOMESTIC WORKERS STUDIED
Dishpan hands, housemaid's knee and other aches and pains of women who do house­
work have at last "achieved respectable scientific status," it is reported. A
symposium appearing in the January issue of the Journal of American Medical
Women’s Association, titled "The Pathology and Hygiene of Housework," presents
an accumulation of findings by women doctors in 17 countries.

Fatigue induced by "long hours and continued demands" has much to do with the
health of housewives, the doctors found. Homemakers and domestic workers in
Britain, Norway, Austria, Denmark, and elsewhere suffered from inflammation of
muscles and tendons in the neck, shoulders, and legs. "The cause," wrote a
Norwegian woman doctor, is "too heavy carrying* while marketing, shopping, and
doing laundry, and "bad muscular use."
Training of the muscles mainly used
for housework, lifting, and carrying should be taught in domestic schools, a
Danish doctor urged. Many countries reported that better design of kitchens
and equipment could cut down on disorders of the back often caused by heavy
work and by wrong height of tables and sinks.




MAJOR OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN, JANUARY 1951

There was a net increase of about a million employed women from January 1950
to January 1951 according to the Bureau of the Census. Not far from half of
this gain was among operatives, laborers, and the like — representing to a
considerable extent a growing demand for factory workers. Wbre than a fifth
of the increase was among women office workers. Service workers (except in
private households) showed a substantial, though smaller, gain. Only the
managerial group recorded a decline in employment.

Occupational group

All occupations

A

Clerical and kindred
workers
Operatives, laborers
(except farm and mine),
craftsmen and foremen
Service workers (except
private household)
Private household workers
Professional, technical,
and kindred workers
Sales workers
Managers, officials, and
proprietors (except farm)
Tarmers and farm workers

Huaber

Employed women. January 1951
Percent of
Change from
Percent
distribution
all workers
January 1950

17.577,000

100.0

29.8

♦1.083.000

4,734,000

27.2

63.6

♦

237,000

3,967,000

22.6

16.2

♦

493,000

2,136,000
1,851,000

12.2
10.5

44.9
96.5

♦
♦

149,000
86,000

1,843,000
1,395,000

10.5
7.9

38.3
38.2

♦
♦

91,000
29,000

969,000
632,000

5.5
3.6

15.9
10.8

♦

29,000
25,000

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

EARNINGS XN DEPARTMENT AND WOMEN’S READY-TO-WEAR STORES

Sales clerks of women’s and misses’ suits and coats in department and women’s
ready-to-wear stores had the highest average weekly earnings among selected
saleswomen groups in 11 of 17 major cities surveyed in the spring (May-July)
of 1950 by the U. S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics,..Their
earnings ranged from an average of $36.85 a week in Providence to $70.57 in
Dallas. Baltimore was the only other city in which weekly earnings of these
saleswomen were below $40, while in 6 oltles averages were over $50.

Average earnings of saleswomen of women’s shoes ranged from $36.18 a week in
Baltimore to $67.42 in New York. The lowest earnings of the groups studied
were generally found among those selling blouses and neckwear, notions and
trimmings, and women’s accessories. Nearly half of the city averages for
these workers were $35 or less.
Titters of women’s garments whose weekly earnings ranged from $38 to $62 were
highest paid among women’s nonselling occupations studied (except office)
and received, on the average, from $2 to $13 more a week than alteration sewers
of women’s garments, the next ranking group. Stockglrls employed in selling
sections were the lowest paid women workers and typically averaged less than
$30 a week.



IMTgR-AMEHl

« COMffiSSIOH OF WOMEN HOLDS

a

A seminar on the status of women in the Central American Republics, Mexico, and
the Suited States was held recently in San Salvador, under auspices of the InterAmerican Commission of Women* Miss Mary Gannon, Chief, International Division of
the Women1 s Bureau, was chairmen of the United States delegation to the seminar*
The seminar analyzed civil rights of women set forth in the laws of the various
countries and considered ways of Improving these laws. Also discussed were the
contribution of women to the political and administrative life of America, and
problems of the economic, social, and educational status of women. The seminar
drew up recommendations* to the Inter-American Commission of Women for measures to
improve women1 s status* Two similar regional meetings to be held later will be
modeled after the San Salvador seminar*

*

REPORT FROM GREECE
Equal pay for women is a problem in Greece, and the burdens of the woman worker
who also has a home and family to care for are even heavier there than here. This
was brought out by a Greek woman, one of an oftherwise all-male committee of
tobacco workers who visited the Labor Attache at the United States Embassy in
Athens recently and described conditions among the tobacco workers there. Boughly
half the workers in the tobacco industry are women* They receive wages 30 percent
lower than those of men, but the unions are currently backing the women’s demand
for equal pay*
The typical woman tobacco worker is over 40, married, with a family to help
support. “After her day’s work, in the evening,® the union representative said,
•the worker has to go to the market to buy
necessaries for food, which means
a loss of time because the markets are in the center of town and their homes on
the outskirts, and also additional fatigue from the transportation. At. home the
female worker has to do the household work, which is very fatiguing because of
the lack of kitchen and laundry facilities, lack of water in the house,
electricity, and cooking utensils. »• .Household work drags on most of the time
until twelve and she has to get up at five in the morning to prepare food wnich
she will carry with her and take care of her husband and children. The latter
will be left in the streets because there are no children’s care centers.

*

...The fact is that she is confronted with much hardship, having to work at the
work place and at homej and in both, facilities which we know are provided for
our colleagues in other countries are lacking here.®

When the French Prime Minister, Bene Pleven, and President Truman met in
Washington in January, much of the groundwork for the meeting had been laid by
a woman, Mile* Jeanne Paul© Sioard, chief assistant to M* Pleven^who had arrived
in Washington the previous week* Mile. Sioard, according to newspaper reports,
is the first woman chief assistant to any French minister*
133

STATE MHMUM-WAGE LAWS AMD ORDERS, July 1, 1942-July 1, 1930s Revised
Supplement to Bulletin 191* U* 5* Dept. of Labor, Women’s Bureau Bull.227, Bev*
•State Labor Legislation! Improved Hour and Wage Lavs Would Provide Better
\ Working Conditions for Nurses as Well as Other Working Woman® by Ethel V. Weiss.
Reprinted from the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF NURSING, Fol. 30, No. 11,November 1930.
(Available at Women’s Bureau.)



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