Full text of Facts on Women Workers : June 30, 1950

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FACTS

on Women Workers
U. S. Department of Labor

Maurice J. Tobin,

Women’s Bureau

Secretary

Frieda S. Miller,

Director

WASHINGTON 25, D. C.

Library

QiPLOXMSHT OF WOMBS IS MAT 1950

June 30, 1950

■*M C0UfGE OF TOMS

Over the year from May 1949 to May 1950 there was an increase in the popni at.inn
of nearly 2/3 million women 14 years of age and over, according to the U.S.
Bureau of the Census. The civilian woman labor force increased by nearly 2/5
million. Nonagricultural employment of women rose; whereas agricultural employ­
ment was below that of 1949 because of the less favorable weather conditions.

The increase in numbers of women in the labor force between April and May 1950
was nearly 10 times the increase in the number of women in the population. This
is a season when agricultural employment normally advances, and most of those
who joined the labor force were girls and women who were helping on family farms.
There was no material change in the number of women unemployed.

Number of
women

Population (14 years
and over)
Civilian labor force
Employed
In agriculture
In nonagricultural
industries
Unemployed
Armed Forces
Nonworkers

May 1950
Percent women
Change since
of all persons
April 1950

Change since
May 1949

56,300,000
18,472,000
17,545,000
1,473,000

50.9
29.4
29.4
18.3

♦ 43,000
+ 409,000
4 369,000
+ 550,000

4
4
4
-

16,072,000
927,000
22,000
37,806,000

31.1
30.3
1>7
81.3

- 181,000
4 40,000
*
1,000
- 367,000

+ 763,000
4
4,000
4
4,000
4 261,000

641,000
375,000
372,000
392,000

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

Support was given to equal pay for equal work for women by Secretary of Labor
Maurice J. Tobin and Director of the Women’s Bureau Frieda S. Minay in their
testimony on May 19 before a Subcommittee of the House Committee on Education
and Labor in behalf of H.R. 1584 and H.R. 2438, bills to provide equal pay for
equal work for women.
These bills introduced, respectively, by Congresswomen Woodhouse of Connecticut
and Douglas of California, are similar to bills considered by the 79th and 80th
Congresses, and they identify as an unfair labor practice the payment of wages
to any female employee at a rate less than the rate paid to male employees "for
work of comparable character on jobs, the performance of which requires comparable
skills, except where such payment is made pursuant to a seniority or merit in­
crease system, which does not discriminate on the basis of sex.”



HBff ENGLAND AND MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES CONKER ON STATE LABOR DEPARTMENT PROGRAMS
Representatives of the labor departments of 11 Northeastern States met in New
Tork City on May 23-25 to discuss their programs relating to labor statistics
and to State labor legislation for women. The latter session was presided over
by the Director of the Women’s Bureau and was devoted to a discussion of the
economic and social background of women’s labor legislation, review of existing
laws, and discussion of problems relating to equal pay legislation.

£

JUKI SERVICE

State — The jury law in Virginia was amended by the 1950 Assembly to include
women on
jury lists. Any woman selected may be released from service upon
her written request submitted to the jury commissioners within 15 days after she
is notified of her selection. Women are not yet eligible for grand jury duty.
Federal — On May 17 the Women’s Bureau Director testified in favor of amending
the Federal Judicial Code (H.R. 2051) to permit women to serve on juries in
Federal courts in all States, even though they may be barred from serving on
juries of State Courts. There now remain only 9 States in which women are
barred from jury service in State courts.

PART-TIME WORK
**As women become older they tend to be more and more interested in part-time and
even fwlKHne outside jobs,” concludes a WOMAN’S HOME COMPANION poll on whether
women want employment outside the home. If completely free to choose, the women
(who were all COMPANION readers) said their preferences would be as follows:
Full-time job outside home
Part-time job outside home
Keeping house full time
No answer or don’t know

10
36
52
2

percent
percent
percent
percent

According to the U. S. Census Bureau’s latest figures—for November 1949—3,483,000
women (20 percent of all employed women) were regular part-time workers: 3,029,000
did not prefer or could not accept full-time work; the remaining 454,000 preferred
and would have accepted full-time work if available. Only 6 percent of all em­
ployed men usually worked part time.
AAUW FELLOWSHIP GRANTS ANNOUNCED

Thii*f.y«.t.wn women have been awarded a total of $51,650 in fellowships for advanced
research by the American Association of University Women. The projects for which
the fellowships were granted show women exploring the intricacies of electricity,
the physical sciences and other fields traditionally men’s. Only a few are in the
conventional feminine subjects—literature, history, and education.
Seme typical projects: One woman will do research on a problem in electromagnetic
theory and electric circuit analysis. A research paleontologist will survey
fossil brains in museums in America, and in 5 European countries, then write a
<i
book on paleone urology. Research basic to an understanding of disturbances in
muscular coordination arising in polio will be carried on by another fellow, who
goes to Ghent, Belgium, and Stockholm, Sweden, for a study of micro-electrical
stimulation and recording techniques as applied to spinal-cord arid muscle physi-

oLoiy.




BIRTH RATES AMONG WOMEN COLLEGE GRADUATES
The number of children bom to men and women college graduates has steadily in­
creased from the class of 1936 to the class of 1940, according to a survey re­
cently made by the Population Reference Bureau of Washington, D. C. Women grad­
uates of the class of 1940 have families 21 percent larger than women graduates
of the class of 1936. The increase in size of family among men graduates for
the class of 1940 was 37 percent over the class of 1936.

This study’s findings were similar to those of an earlier survey made by the U.S.
Census Bureau. Both indicate a very substantial increase in reproduction rates
of college graduates during the last ten to fifteen years, although as late as
1947 women with only a grade school education had reproduction rates 43 to 73
percent higher than needed for replacement, while college graduates fell 5 percent
short of reproducing themselves.

Ten years after graduation, the Population Bureau’s studies of 92$ colleges’
classes of 1936 through 1940 show an average of 1.09 children per female graduate
and 1.29 per male graduate. Birth rates are considerably higher among graduates
of co-educational and western colleges. Highest birth rate for women of the
class of 1940 was found among Brigham Young University (Utah) graduates, who
averaged 2.03 babies each. By contrast, University of Pennsylvania alumnae aver­
aged only .86 of a child apiece, and Mary Washington, Va., only .79*
PRBTTT.TTY BATES, ENTIRE POPULATION, BY INCOME GROUP AND LABOR FORCE STATUS OF WOMAN

a

The first direct data ever published for the U.S. as a whole on variations in
fertility by family money income, have been issued by the U.S. Bureau of the Cen­
sus for April 1949. (In this survey, fertility is measured by number of children
under 5 years old, not by actual birth rates.) Even when differences in ages of
wives in the various income groups are accounted for, fertility rates consistently
fan as income rises. Married couples in the lowest income group—under $1,000
a year__ had a rate of children under $ years old that was roughly two-thirds
higher than that among couples in the highest income group—$5,000 and over. The
denlina with advancing income is especially noticeable above the family income
level of $4,000 a year.
Also reported were data on the number of children under 5 years old per 1,000
married women (husband present) of ages 1$ to 49, according to labor force status
of the woman. There were 216 children under 5 per 1,000 married women in the
labor force and 658 children per 1,000 married women not in the labor force.
These figures bear out indications of other studies that women with young chil­
dren tend to remain outside the working force.
WOMEN IN THE ARTS

One of this year’s Pulitzer prizes went to a woman. In May, Gwendolyn Brooks,
33-year old Negro poet received the annual Pulitzer poetry prize for her cycle
of poems entitled, "Annie Allen," the story of a woman as daughter, wife, and

mother.
The New York Drama Critics Circle has chosen as the best American play of the
season, "The Member of the Wedding," by Carson McCullers. Mrs. McCullers, 32,
had previously won two Guggenheim fellowships.



NATIONAL WOMEN’S TRADE UNION LEAGUE TERMINATES ACTIVITIES

The National Women’s Trade Union League, after 47 years of forwarding organiza­
tion of women into trade unions, terminated its activities as of June 15. Founded
in 1903> at a time when working women and the labor movement had few sympathetic
supporters, the League has had a long and proud history of achievement for women
workers. It successfully pioneered in labor education for working women, in estab­
lishing industrial standards for women through organization and legislation, in
industrial hygiene, in interpreting to the public the problems of women wage
earners and of the trade union movement, and in support of international coopera­
tion among women and among nations.
Announcing the disbanding, Elisabeth Christman, for 28 years the SecretaryTreasurer of the League, said, ”Our task is not done, but much of it has been
taken over by the labor movement and by other groups which we have helped to
form. In effect we are and should be a self-liquidating organization. There
is now an enormous opportunity for women in the trade union movement...to
participate directly in the implementation of the program to which the National
Women’s Trade Union League has been dedicated for so many years
The League’s unusual collection of papers on women in industry have been assigned
to various archives, and the Library of Congress accepted all the League’s orig­
inal records.
WOMEN ABOUND THE WORLD

United Nations Commission on the Status of Women held its fourth session at Lak*1*
Success in May. Representing the United States was Mrs. Olive Remington Goldman
of Illinois.
The Commission noted the progress that has been made in women’s suffrage, 19
countries having granted women equal franchise since the organization of the
United Nations in 1945* The Commission endorsed the principle of independent
nationality for married women and requested the Economic and Social Council to
arrange for the immediate drafting of a United Nations Convention along this
line. It noted the plans of the International Labor Organization to discuss
equal pay for women in its conference in June and encouraged United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization to continue its efforts to
expand educational opportunities for women, especially in rural and undeveloped
areas. It suggested that the Social Commission give attention to discrimina­
tions against women in prisons and in its plans for rehabilitation of offenders.
It also recommended that more attention be given to obtaining qualified women
for higher posts in the United Nations Secretariat and again urged Governments
to include more women in their delegations to United Nations meetings.

At the request of the delegate from Greece, the Commission passed a strong
resolution in regard to the repatriation of Greek children still detained in
Iron Curtain countries. It also urged the Economic and Social Council to en­
sure that women be given opportunities for service under Technical Assistants
Programs wherever these are developed and underlined the need in areas where
economic development is taking place of safeguarding women workers against
exploitation and promoting equal pay for equal work.