Full text of Facts on Women Workers : September 30, 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.

September 30, 1951
EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN IN AUGUST 1951

The number of women employed in the United States was larger by 653>000 in

August 1951 than in August 1950? as estimated by the U. S. Department of
Commerce, Bureau of the Census.
Two-thirds of this increase was accounted
for by new entrants to the labor force with the remainder resulting from a
decrease in unemployment.
The major proportion of the increase in employ­
ment was in nonagricultural industries.
A slight decline occurred in comparison with July 1951 in the number of women
employed, as farm women withdrew from the labor force during the usual mid­
summer lull in agriculture.

Number of
women
Civilian population
(l4 years and over).... .57,118,000

August 1951
Percent women Charge since
of all persons
July 1951

Change since
August 1950

52.5

+

60,000

♦ 644,000

30.4

- 292,COG
- 156,000

- 110,000

* 439,000
+ 653,000
* 67,000

.19,488,000
.18,866,000
. 1,528,000

30.1
19.9

.17,388,000
622,000

31.6
39-U

- 46,000
- 136,000

4- 586,000
- 214,000

Not in labor force............ .37,630,000

84.2

♦ 352,000

♦ 206,000

In labor force.......................
Employed...................................
In agriculture............
In nonagricultural
industries..................
Unemployed.............................

MASSACHUSETTS ISSUES MINIMUM WAGE ORDER
Massachusetts recently issued a Food Processing Wage Order, effective October
20, 1951? which will supersede three previous wage orders:
Canning and Pre­
serving, 1939; Bread and Bakery Products, 1944; and Candy, 194-3.
The new

order is noteworthy because it is the first Massachusetts wage order to set
a 75-cent basic minimum wage and the first to set, by wage board action, an
industry wage which is higher than the 65-cent statutory rate in effect
under the 1949 amendment to the Massachusetts law.

33/. 4

LlsO



WOMEN WORKERS AROUND THE WORLD

Married women - Information gathered by the International Labor Organization on
married women in the labor force In 11 countries appears in International Labor
Review (June 1951)•
In countries such as Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands,

#

Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland, where relatively few married women go out
to work, there is a tendency for the proportion to increase. Economic necessity

was found to be a factor of first importance.
For example, a study of Paris
metal-works laborers1 families in 19U9 showed that only if both husband and
wife worker could they reach a budget of

ntnimum adequacy.

The age and number of children are important factors in the decision to work.
It was estimated that in 19^7 in Stockholm, 70 percent of the married women
without children were workers, ’3U percent of those with one bhild, and 25 percent
of those with more than one child. A sample survey by the Central Office of
Information in the United Kingdom, also in 19^7, indicated that 32 percent of
the married women without children under l6 and only 20 percent of those with
children under l6 were in the labor force.

Manpower needs are a factor of varying importance.
Several governments have
a policy of encouraging women, including married women, to enter employment.
Sweden and Denmark have taken steps to protect women workers in order to help
meet manpower needs; Norway in I9U7 appointed a commission to study ways to

expand the employment of women.
Report to UN - The Fifth Report of the ILO to the United Nations (Geneva, 1951 >
285 pp.) devotes chapter XIV to women’s employment, with stress on equal remunera­
tion for men and women workers; vocational training of adults; proposed revision
4*

of Maternity Protection Convention of 1919*
Reflecting shift in Government
policy in many countries toward insuring more effective use of women in the
labor force and toward promoting equality of opportunity, ILO activities re­
lating to women are increasingly concerned with the status of women and their
opportunities for employment.

Japan - A report on “Activities of Women in Trade Unions in Japan,” by Gladys
Dickason, vice president, Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, CIO, who
recently made a 3 months’ study of women workers in Japan as visiting expert
for the Economic and Scientific Section, Labor Division, General Headquarters,
SCAP, contains the following:

"More than 12 million (12,170,000) women workers were in the Japanese labor
force as of February 1951*
They comprised 37 percent of the total labor force
of 33,030,000.
Five million seven hundred and twenty thousand of the women
in the labor force, or about half (b-7 percent) were engaged in agriculture.

Farm women work In the rice paddies side by side with their husbands and feed
cocoons in the home.... Six million four hundred and fifty thousand women were
engaged in nonagricultural employment in February 1951) of* this number, 3,650,000

were paid employees. Women constitute 32 percent of the nonagricultural labor
force and 27 percent of the total number of paid employees.
”As of June 30, 1950, 1,30^,332 women were members of trade unions in Japan.
This number represents 23 percent of the total union membership of 5 3/4 million.

♦

Nearly one out of every four union members in Japan is a woman.
Thirty-eight
percent of all women in paid employment are union members.
The largest number

of women union members in any single occupational group is in the textile industry,
where 284,000 women belong to unions."



EXCHANGE TEACHER PROGRAM ENTERS SIXTH YEAR

Eighty exchange teachers out of 101 arriving from Great Britain are women; also
6 out of 7 from France and all 11 of those from Canada. For a year they will
exchange positions with American teachers in 96 communities of 32 States.
Federal Security Administration's Office of Education, in the 5 years of its in­
ternational teacher exchange program has brought in more than 1,200 teachers from
Great Britain, Canada, France, Belgium and Luxemburg, Norway, the Netherlands,
Austria, Italy, New Zealand, and Australia.
WOMEN LOSE GROUND IN LIFE-INSURANCE COMPANIES

Woman life-insurance personnel lost out conspicuously in upper-level jobs after
the war. 1951 Life Insurance Fact Book shows 108,800 women employees, of whom
71,800 were home-office workers and ^2,390 were agency cashiers and clerks.
Only 4,700 women (4.3 percent of all woman employees) were managers or agents in
1949/ coapared with 7/200 in 1945* Men managers and agents increased 30 percent
during this time, to 186,000. Conversely, the percentage of managers and agents
who were women fell from 5 percent at claae of the war to 2.5 percent in 1949.
The Increase in total number of lifmiimafems workers, 1945-49, was 30 percent;
the increase in women workers, only 2a percent.

WOMEN AS LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVES

A Congressional Quarterly survey of wonen actively engaged as registered lobby­
ists indicates that the majority of the 35 who filed lobbying law reports with
Congress, between January 1 and August 1, 1951/ were working for educational
and welfare groups, on a voluntary or small salary basis. The 27 organizations
represented by women lobbyists currently reporting include 8 women's organiza­
tions, 7 welfare groups, 4 citizens* groups, 3 professional groups (two have
primarily woman memberships), 3 business or trade groups in the food or food
products field, 1 mail order house, and 1 labor union.
The highest-paid woman lobbyist is Mrs. Leone Baxter Whitaker of Whitaker and
Baxter, public relations finn lobbying for the American Medical Association's
national education campaign, at $50,000 salary and expenses annually. Mrs.
Whitaker's husband also receives a $50,000 annual compensation from the AMA.
They handle the AMA's campaign against compulsory health insurance. Mrs.
Margaret K. Taylor, education director for the National Milk Producers Associa­
tion, is next with a $9/000 annual salary. (Congressional Quarterly News
Features Weekly Report, week ending Sept. 7/ 1951*)

ALL-WOMAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE AIDS U. S. ARMED FORCES
A committee of 48 prominent American women was appointed August 11, 1951/ to
give the United States Department of Defense advice on the administration of
the wonen*s branches of the armed forces. The Defense Advisory Committee on
Women in the Services reports to Mrs. Anna M. Rosenberg, the first woman
Assistant Secretary of Defense. More than 80,000 volunteers are expected to
enlist in the women's branches of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force
within the next year. Committee members will help set standards for their
training, education, housing, and recreation.




MORE WOMEN WORKERS BROUGHT UNDER SOCIAL SECURITY

The extension of old-age and survivors insurance under the Social Security Act
provides this protection for many additional women workers and their dependent
families.
Participating for the first time are an estimated 2 million women or
more, including, in addition to women working regularly in private households,
on farms, and some who are employed by nonprofit organizations or by State and
local governments, women who work for themselves. Because of the special pro­
visions relating to the self-employed, and their obligation to report earnings
and pay the social security tax early in 1952, this article is directed to
women workers in this category.

,

As of January 1, 1951, self-employed people, with the exception of farm operators
and certain excluded professions, were brought under social security.
In recent
years an ever-growing number of women have entered this field of gainful work—
for example, proprietors of beauty shops, gift shops, restaurants, tea rooms,
or decorating establishments. Mrny women are now self-employed as artisans, or
conduct their own real estate, insurance, or brokerage businesses.
Others are
working for themselves as free-lance writers, artists, designers,or photographers.
A large number are self-employed as teachers, especially in the fields of music
and the other fine arts.
Like men working for themselves in such trades and businesses, their occupa­
tions are now covered by social security.
If their net earnings are $U00 or
more in a taxable year, they must report such earnings up to $3,600 a year and
pay the social security tax of 2J- percent for their old-age and survivors in­

surance protection.
The first such report will be made when they file their
1951 income tax return by March 15, 1952.
The form will contain a special section
for entering their self-employment earnings.
The social security tax will be
due in full at that time.
WOMEN IN THE NEWS

One of three Negroes elected to the board of directors of the New York City
Cancer Committee is a woman pharmacist, Mrs. Ednah R. Boutte.

Chairman of the local defense manpower labor-management committee newly ap­
pointed for the Waterbury, Conn., area is Edna M. Harmon.
The Waterbury and
Hartford committees are the first to be set up in New England.

H
A
V

THE LEGAL STATUS OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, as of January 1, 19^8.
U. S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau Bull. 157 revised.
(1951# 105 PP-,
30 cents, Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D. C.)

E

STATE MINIMUM-WAGE LAWS.

U. S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau Leaflet U,

revised 1951.

o >

w

»

THE OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN IN SOCIAL GROUP WORK.
U. S. Department of Labor, Women’s
Bureau Bull. 235-7.
(1951, ^1 PP*, 20 cents, Superintendent of Documents,
Washington, D. C.)




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