Full text of Facts on Women Workers : May 31, 1948

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MAY 31,

1948

BtPLQIMSNT OF WOMEN IN APRIL 1943
In April 1943, 31 percent of all women 14 years and over were in the civilian
labor force, according to Census reports. Although below the wartime level
of nearly 39 percent, this proportion was substantially higher than in April
1940 (27.6 percent) or in April 1930 (2$.6 percent). In April 1943, 3*6 percent
of the women in the labor force were unemployed, compared with 14.3 percent in
April 1940.

________________________ April 1943______________________
Number of
Change since
_______ Total persons
women________ March 1943_______ Number
Percent women

Population (14 years
and over)
Civilian labor force
Employed
Unemployed
Armed forces
Nonworkers

54,969,000
17,155,000
16,529,000
626,000
16,000
37,798,000

108,173,000
♦ 35,000
60,524,000
* 395,000
+ 444,000
58,330,000
- 49,000
2,193,000
1,236,000
1,000
46,414,000
- 359,000
(U. S. Bureau of the Census)

50.8
28.3
28.3
28.5
1.3
81.4

COST OF LIVING
The total amount needed for adequate maintenance and protection of health of
a woman living as a member of a family group in the State of New York was
$1,990 per year, or $38.27 per week, as of September 1947* Of this amount
$1,486 was needed to buy the goods and services allowed and $$04 for income
and social security taxes and savings. The U. S. Department of Labor, Bureau
of Labor Statistics* all-items consumers*-price index for New York City has
risen 1.5 percent from September 1$, 1947 to March 15, 1943.
EQUAL PAY FOR TSACHSRS

According to figures recently compiled by the National Education Association,
considerable progress has been made since the school year of 1944-45 in
cutting down differentials in salary scales between men and women. In cities
over 100,000 in 1944-45, 13 percent of the salary schedules reported made
such differentiation, whereas in 1947-43 this practice had dropped to only 2.4
percent on the basis of approximately the same number of schedules reported.
In cities of 30,000-100,000, 31.6 percent made such differentiation in
1944-45> while in 1947-43 this had dropped to 11.4 percent. At the same
time the number of schedules reported rose from 171 to 201.




BfffrOIMENT OF WOMEN
Railroads. From January 1947 to January 1948 women’s employment by Class I
steam railways declined by nearly 5,500 - from a total of 72,943 to
67,448. The largest decline in occupational groups was for “professional,
clerical and general” (from 57,699 to 54,099), but each of the other main
occupational groups decreased also - “transportation (other than train,
engine, and yard),” “maintenance of equipment and stores,” and “all other.”
(For further information, write the Interstate Conraerce Commission for its
release “Number of Females Employed by Class I Steam Railways.”)

Older Women in Aetna Life Affiliated Companies. Of the 150 employees
45 years or over who were hired by this group of insurance companies since
1940, 133 are women and 17 are men. A study made of the experience with
this older group showed that while not as rapid as the younger group, they
are more industrious in their work and are willing to do the simple clerical
work (at which more than 68 percent of them are employed) for much longer
periods of time than are the younger group. The group showed a smaller turn­
over than the younger group and no worse experience on absenteeism. It is
the company’s impression that the older group are out less frequently but may
average a slightly longer time when out. A considerable number of the women
had never previously held clerical jobs.

PERSONNEL PRACTICES
A new report on personnel practices affecting factory and office workers,
based on information received from 2,479 companies employing about 5 million
workers, is available from the National Industrial Conference Board. A few
of the practices refer specifically to women or show slightly different
treatment as between men and women:

Maximum Hiring Age. Practically half the firms reported no top limit on age
in hiring men as either hourly or salaried workers. In hiring women,
47 percent of the firms reported no maximum age limit on women applicants
as factory workers, while slightly more (49 percent) said they had no top
age limit for women applying for jobs as salaried workers.

Married Women. The present report shows that 3 percent of the firms required
women factory workers to resign on marriage (compared to 8 percent in 1937),
and 6 percent of the firms had such a policy for woroen salaried workers
(compared to 15 percent in 1937).
The 1948 report also showed that 6 percent of the firms have restrictions
against hiring married women as factory workers, and 11 percent of the firms
do not hire married women as salaried workers.

Pregnant women in factory jobs must resign their jobs in 24 percent of
the firms covered by the report, while 30 percent of the firms required
women salaried workers to resign on becoming pregnant.




AMENDMENT TO IMMIGRATION ACT OF 1924

H. R. 5137, which would permit foreign husbands of American wives to
enter the United States on a non-quota basis, provided the marriage
occurred prior to January 1, 1943, has been enacted into law. The
Women’s Bureau testified in favor of the bill but opposed continuance
of a limitation as to the date of marriage. Although the present law
appropriately relieves a great many hardship cases, it nevertheless
continues a discrimination against women in principle. (See February 1943
’’fact sheet” for earlier details.)

WOMEN IN UNIONS - Massachusetts, 1947
There were 167,635 women and 423,634 men members of 2,005 local unions in
Massachusetts, January 15, 1947, according to reports made by the unions
to the Massachusetts Department of Labor and Industries. In each of the
following industry groups there were more than 12,000 women trade
unionists: Textiles, 33,992; metal and machinery, 30,427; clothing and
garment trades, 23,156; boots and shoes, 13,300.
HOUSEHOLD EI.TLOYMENT

The Puerto Rico Employment and Migration Bureau of San Juan reported
three training centers for household employees in operation in April,
with an enrollment of 90 girls.
This is the most recent development under the new Puerto Rican
government project which recently led to the placement of 21
Puerto Rican household workers in the homes of Scarsdale, N.Y.,
housewives. It represents the insular government’s Pilot Project
of Training and Placement of Household Workers, a program made
possible by the foresight and work of the Puerto Rican commissioner
of labor and the cooperation of the Women’s Bureau of the U. S»
Department of Labor and the New York State Employraent Service.
/flor information about the training plan and employraent agreements,
see the article in the May 1943 Labor Information Bulletin of the
U. S. Department of Labor, ’’Household Workers from Puerto Rico
Arrive in New York.^/
The outgrowth of consultations between the Women’s Bureau and the
insular government was a decision by the latter to suspend the
migration of women as household workers until a program of selection
and training could become effective. The new training program is
designed to correct the undesirable features of last year’s
experience by insuring that girls and women who migrate to the
continental United States (born on the Island, the girls are - like
all Puerto Ricans - citizens of the United States) have knowledge
of at least the rudiments of cooking, housekeeping, and other
related skills and are able to speak English.




NINTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN STATES

At the recent Ninth International Conference of American States held at
Bogota, Colombia, several actions taken were of special interest to women:
Two treaties regarding the status of women were voted on:
(1) “The High Contracting Parties agree that the right to vote and to be
elected to national office shall not be denied or abridged because
of sex.”
The delegates of 14 countries, including the United States,
have signed this treaty,
(2) ’’The American States agree to grant to women the same civil rights
that men enjoy.”
The delegates of all the American Republics, except the United
States, signed this treaty. /The United States Delegate made
a statement in support of the principle of equal civil and
political rights but referred to the fact that under the
constitutional system of the United States many of the commonly
accepted civil rights are matters for State action rather than
Federal/
The statutes of the Inter-American Commission of Women were approved and a
resolution adopted charging the Commission with the responsibility of making
a study of the economic position of the woman worker in the American
Republics, including a study of maternity protection.
Three women were plenipotentiary delegates of their countries: Dra. Blanca
Mie res de Botto, from Uruguay; Srta. Minerva Bernardino, from Dominican
Republic; and Sra. Maria 3. Lopez Cabanillas de Ivanissevich, from Argentina.

“Earnings of ’Women in Selected Manufacturing Industries, 1946.” Bull. 219.
Women’s Bureau, U. S. Department of Labor.

HAVE

“Community Household Employment Programs.”
U. S. Department of Labor.

YOU
READ

Bull. 221.

Women’s Bureau,

’’Women in the New Japan”, by Lulu Homes in Journal of the American Association
of University Women, Spring 1948. (Address, 1634 Eye St. N.V., VJashington,,D.C.)
’’Women in Banking”, - 23th Anniversary Edition (1946 Supplement; 1944 Supple­
ment; 1942 Survey). Published by Association of Bank Women (Miss Catherine
S. Pepper, chairman, research committee; c/o The National City Bank of
New York, 55 Wall Street, New York 15, N. Y.) A record of women holding
executive positions in banks throughout the United States.

"Health of Arc Welders in Steel Ship Construction.”

Public Health Bull. No. 298.

U. S. Public Health Service. A survey made in cooperation with U. S. Maritime
Commission and United States Navy, in 1944, based on physical examinations
of 2,950 males and 1,700 females employed in 7 United States Maritime
Commission or Navy-contract shipyards. About one out of every four persons
examined was a nonwelder (the medical findings of this group served to
control the clinical observations on welders). Separate data for men and

i

women•