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1954
HANDBOOK
on
WOMEN
WORKERS
Women's Bureau
Bulletin No. 255
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT O F L A B O R
James P. Mitchell, Secretary
WOMEN'S BUREAU
Mrs. Alice K. Leopold, Director
Washington : 1954
United States Government Printing Office, Washington : 1954
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office
Washington 25, D. C. - Price 30 cents
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
U N I T E D S T A T E S D E P A R T M E N T OF L A B O R ,
WOMEN'S BUREAU,
Washington, June i, 195J±.
SIR : I have the honor of transmitting a handbook of facts relating
to women workers. This publication serves as a source book for numerous organizations and persons, and also enables the Women's Bureau to give prompt and full replies to requests received daily for a
great variety of current facts about women and their work. It presents information that is in wide public demand, and that is new or
brought up to date since the 1952 biennial edition of the handbook.
Three divisions of this Bureau contributed to the 1954 revision. Coordination of new material and rewriting of the sections dealing with
the employment, income, and education of women are primarily the
work of Mary-Elizabeth Pidgeon, Economic Consultant, under the
general direction of Mary N*. Hilton, Chief of the Research Division.
The sections on legislation were revised in the Division of Women's
Labor Law and Civil and Political Status, directed by Alice A. Morrison. The section on national women's organizations is the work of
the Division of Special Services, directed by Adelia B. Kloak.
Respectfully submitted.
ALICE K .
LEOPOLD,
Director.
H o n . JAMES P .
MITCHELL,
Secretary of Labor.
ni
CONTENTS
1 — E M P L O Y M E N T OF W O M E N
Page
Growing employment opportunities
Chief occupation groups
Important individual occupations
Chief industry groups
Ages of women workers
Single and married women workers
Women as heads of families
Women as part-time workers
Women as members of unions
Negro women workers
1
3
5
7
10
12
16
17
18
18
2 — W O M E N ' S INCOME, EARNINGS, F A M I L Y SUPPORT
Income received in the year
Women's wages and salaries
Earnings of ''white-collar" workers
Earnings of factory workers
Earnings of women in laundries
Women benefiting from old age and survivors insurance
Women's contributions to family support
Working women's budgets
3 — W O M E N ' S E D U C A T I O N A N D VOCATIONAL
21
23
24
29
31
32
34
36
TRAINING
Education completed by women
Enrollment in schools and colleges
Women earning degrees
Women in Federal vocational courses
Women aided by vocational rehabilitation programs
37
38
39
42
45
4 — S T A N D A R D S FOR E M P L O Y M E N T OF W O M E N
Need for standards for women workers
Development of standards
Wage standards
Hours and leave standards
Health and safety standards
Industrial homework
- —
46
46
47
48
48
49
5—STATE LABOR LAWS FOR W O M E N
Basic standards
Minimum wage
Equal pay
Hours of work
Other labor legislation
Laws affecting household employees
50
50
52
53
56
58
v
CONTENTS
VI
6 — P O L I T I C A L A N D CIVIL S T A T U S OF W O M E N
Page
Political status
Civil status—family relations
Civil status—contract and property law
7—WOMEN'S NATIONAL
50
60
62
ORGANIZATIONS
Organizations having social, civic, or religious purposes
Professional and business organizations
Educational organizations
Political and legislative organizations
Patriotic organizations
Farm and rural organizations
Labor organizations
64
66
71
73
73
74
75
Note on Figures Used
Figures on labor force, employment, and income are based chiefly on census
data, and refer to women 14 years of age and over. Unless otherwise stated,
the data are taken from current sampling reports for the noninstitutional
civilian population. A spring month is used (March or April), avoiding some
of the extreme summer or midwinter seasonal influences that affect various
industries. In later years the spring has been the period of the decennial census,
though decennials of 1870-1900 and 1920 were taken in January or June. In
accordance with the practice of the Census Bureau, rounded percents in a
distribution are not adjusted to exactly 100.
HIGHLIGHTS
W O M E N I N THE L A B O R FORCE ( A P R I L 1954)
N u m b e r — O v e r 1 9 / 4 million.
This is a third of all women of working age.
Women are over 30 percent of the labor force.
O c c u p a t i o n — O v e r a fourth are clerical workers.
Over a fifth are service workers.
A fifth are operatives, chiefly in factories.
Over a tenth are professional or technical workers.
A g e — H a l f are 38 years of age or older.
4 4 percent are under 35 years.
33 percent are 45 or older.
M a r i t a l status ( A p r i l 1 9 5 3 ) — O f all single women, 42 percent are in the labor force
O f all married women, 27 percent are in the labor force.
Over half the women in the labor force are married.
A b o u t a fourth of all women workers have children under 18.
WOMEN'S
EARNINGS
Women's earnings vary widely with occupation, experience of worker, locality, period
of time, method of p a y , and other influences.
M o r e than a tenth of women workers are the only earners in their families. In addition,
women are two-thirds of the supplementary earners in some 17 million families.
WOMEN'S
EDUCATION
H a l f of all women 25 years of age and over have had more than 10 years of schooling/
over a tenth have had some college education (1952).
Over 4 0 percent of all college students and 33 percent of those earning degrees in 1953
were women.
STATE L A B O R L A W S FOR W O M E N *
26 States have minimum-wage laws applying to women, and 5 of these have extended
the law to men.
1 3 States have equal-pay laws.
43 States limit working hours for women,- in 24 States the maximum is an 8-hour d a y ,
and/or 48-hour week or less.
19 States limit the employment of women at night.
6 States prohibit employment of women immediately before and after childbirth.
24 States prohibit employment of adult women in specified dangerous or injurious
occupations.
•For similar laws in territories and the District of Columbia, see]pp. 50-58
VII
Chart 1.
Clerical workers
TH T n T H An
Occupations of women workers, April 1954
|
xHxflXHXn
JgJLJgiU
J^J^si^yS^
THTHxHTH
THTHxHTH
£
I B TflTfl Tfl
Operatives
Service workers
(except household)
Professional
workers
Private household
workers
Sales workers
T
T
T T
T
T
4444 4
ht
u.
a
Hi Hi Hi
ft
Managers, officials,
proprietors
Farmers, farm
laborers
A l l others
Each symbol represents
250,000 women workers
r
•954 HANDBOOK ON
WOMEN WORKERS
f
EMPLOYMENT
OF WOMEN
Growing Employment Opportunities
The advance in women's employment has been one of the most
marked features running through the past century of this country's
life, and has continued into the 1950's. Causes of this long-time
trend include great changes in the size and character of the population, in social customs, in the organization of business, and in modes
of living. Among these changes are the growth of giant business
corporations and large-scale financial organizations, and the expansion of marketing areas and of mail-order business, each of which
has created jobs for large numbers of women as office workers. Two
world wars also drew greatly increased numbers of women into the
labor force in a wide variety of occupations.
The growing demand for women's services has been accompanied
by broadened opportunities for their education and training, and thus
more of them have become available for work in occupations where
women have shown evidence of special aptitudes. At the same time,
housewives have found their traditional duties simplified by numerous
changes that reduced the time required for the physical tasks of
homemaking. These include the growth of urban areas, and the trend
toward more compact living quarters; the invention and mass production of numerous household appliances; and more recently the
revolution in methods of food preservation and preparation.
In 1954 the civilian labor force includes over 19y2 million women,
over 6 million more than in 1940. And even as early as 1940, there
were about as many women workers as there had been of both men
and women workers in the country 70 years earlier, when the Census
Bureau first fully reported women's occupations.
Recent years have witnessed a most important population change—
the numerical relation of men and women in the population has been
reversed. Today there are over 2 million more women than men of
working age, though at the turn of the century men outnumbered
302449—54
2
1
2
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
women by over 1 y 3 million, and when the 1940 census was taken there
still were slightly more men than women in the population. When
this is considered, it is not surprising that women are now over 30
percent of all workers, though in 1870 they were only 15 percent.
The summary following gives an indication of the trends.
Notable changes also have occurred in the types of occupations in
which women are chiefly engaged. They are now employed to a
much greater extent than formerly in clerical and factory work. On
the other hand, women's employment has declined through the years
in some service occupations and hand trades that once were considered
among the most characteristic occupations of women.
T R E N D S IN EMPLOYMENT OF W O M E N
Women workers (14 years and
over)
Number
Percent Percent
of all
of all
workers women
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS
[Census current sampling reports]
19, 726,
18, 912,
18,063,
16, 320,
19, 670,
13, 840,
Today (1954)
Current (1953)
Pre-Korea (1950)
Postwar (1947)
World War II peak (1945)
Pre-World War II (1940)
000
000
000
000
000
000
31
30
29
28
36
25
33
32
32
30
37
28
000
000
000
000
000
000
27
24
22
20
18
17
29
26
24
23
20
18
LONG-TERM TRENDS
[Decennial census]
1950
1940
1930
1920
1900
1890
16,
13,
10,
8,
4,
3,
512,
015,
396,
229,
999,
704,
Source: U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Detail for 1954 not exactly comparable with previous years. Decennial census figures not exactly comparable with current sampling.
The total number of women who worked at some time during the
past year is much larger than the 19^ million in the current labor
force—in fact it is nearly 25 million. This is about 43 percent of all
women of working age. Furthermore, the great majority of the
women in the population have worked at some time in their lives.
On the other hand about a fifth of all employed women are in parttime jobs, defined by the Census Bureau as work for less than 35 hours
a week. Many of these, and many of the full-time workers as well,
have not been employed through the full year. Although 33 percent
EMPLOYMENT 11
of all women of working age are in the labor force, only about 17
percent are in full-time jobs for the whole year.
Chart 2.—Percent of all workers who were women, 1870-1954
Selected
years
0
Percent
10
T
20
T
1954
31
1950
29
1945
36
1940
24 '
1930
22
1920
i 20
1900
18
1870
15 1
30
40
1
Chief Occupation Groups
Many more women are in clerical work than in any other major
group of occupations. Operatives come next, the majority of them
in factory production. About half of all employed women are in
these two occupation groups, as may be seen in the summary following.
Next come those in service occupations (other than in private households) and in professional or technical work. However, a combination group of those in household employment and in other services
would outnumber the operatives. The remaining women—about a
fifth of the total—are chiefly salespersons or farm workers or are in
4
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
the group of proprietors, managers, and officials. Very few are
craftswomen or laborers.
Increases have occurred since 1940, some of them very great, in the
number of women in every occupation group except in household and
farm employment, which have declined. The greatest expansion has
been among clerical workers. Operatives and those in service trades
also constitute larger proportions of all employed women than
formerly. Management and sales occupations show growth for
women, though employing considerably smaller numbers than clerical,
operative, and service occupations.
W O M E N IN E A C H OCCUPATION
Occupation group
All women
Clerical workers
_ _
_ _
Operatives
Service workers (except private
household)
Professional workers
Private household workers. _
Sales workers
Managers, officials, proprietors
Farmers, farm laborers.
Craftswomen
_
Laborers (except farm)
— _
Number,
1954
GROUP
Percent distribution
Percent of all
workers
1954
1940
1954
18, 604, 000
100
100
31
26
5, 122, 000
3, 462, 000
28
19
21
18
65
28
53
26
2,
2,
1,
1,
13
12
10
8
5
4
1
1
11
13
18
7
4
6
1
1
48
39
97
37
16
12
3
3
40
45
94
28
12
8
3
3
491,
226,
770,
475,
963,
719,
269,
107,
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
1940
Proportion of Workers Who Are Women
Practically all the private household-workers are women, as are
almost two-thirds of the clerical workers and almost half the service
workers (other than in private households). Women are over a third
of the professional and sales workers, a somewhat smaller proportion
of the operatives, and a still smaller proportion of the employees in
other occupation groups.
In most of the occupation groups, the proportion of workers who
are women, though not as great as in wartime, is notably greater than
in 1940. The professional group is the only one in which the proportion of women in the total is below that of 1940. Some explanation of this may be found in the current stress on scientific professions,
in which women usually constitute a rather small minority; pressure
for jobs for returned veterans, many of whom have been receiving
college training; and a slowed-up entrance of women to their largest
profession—teaching. Teaching requires a longer training period
than, for example, many clerical occupations greatly in demand, or
5
EMPLOYMENT
some nonprofessional jobs offering relatively high pay. Although the
number of women in the teaching profession has increased, the increase has been far less in proportion than in woman employment
as a whole.
Important Individual Occupations
The decennial census (1950) gives a detailed occupation list of 446
items. Of these 270 are specific occupations, such as textile spinner,
librarian, waitress, busdriver, telephone operator. Other items are
in more general terms, as for example, operative in apparel or in
electrical factory; official or administrator in State public administration ; or forewoman in textile or apparel plant.
OCCUPATIONS EMPLOYING 9 9 , 0 0 0
Rank
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
WOMEN
Stenographers, typists, secretaries
Saleswomen—Retail trade
Teachers (n. e. c.) (school)
Operatives—Apparel, accessories
Bookkeepers
Waitresses
Nurses (professional)
Telephone operators
Managers, proprietors—Retail trade
Farm laborers (unpaid family workers)
Operatives—Laundry and dry cleaning
Cooks (except private household)
Operatives—Textile yarn, thread, fabric mills
Beauticians (includes manicurists, barbers)
Operatives—Food products
Cashiers
Operatives—Electrical machinery, supplies
Housekeepers (private household)
Dressmakers, seamstresses (except factory)
Farm laborers (wage workers)
Practical nurses
Attendants—Hospitals, other institutions
Office machine operators
Farmers (owners, tenants)
Operatives—Footwear, except rubber
Operatives—Wholesale, retail trade
Operatives—Knitting mills
Textile spinners, weavers
1950
Women employed
Percent of
all persons
in the
occupation
Number
Occupation
Note: N . e. c. means not elsewhere classified.
Source: U. S. Bureau of the Census. Decennial Census.
OR M O R E ,
1950.
1, 501, 090
1, 192, 323
834, 996
616, 864
556,229
545, 565
388,921
341, 706
320, 139
317, 578
287, 533
242, 422
220, 054
189, 870
186, 337
183,586
179, 946
134,453
134, 310
130, 327
130, 304
121, 261
116, 917
114, 179
110, 743
107, 834
104, 926
99, 182
94
49
75
81
77
82
98
95
17
35
67
56
50
50
38
81
54
96
97
9
96
59
82
3
53
38
72
55
6
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
Women are at work in all the 446 occupations, though of course
some employ great numbers and others very few women. The largest
groups of women workers are in some of the clerical and sales occupations, household employment, and teaching.
Even though found in all occupations, women workers are concentrated to a large extent in relatively few. Of all employed women,
almost a third are either manufacturing operatives, stenographers or
typists, or private household workers. Half are either in one of
these three occupations or are teachers, saleswomen, bookkeepers, or
waitresses.
Each of 28 individual occupations employs about 100,000 women or
more as the list on page 5 shows. Sixty percent of all women workers
are in these occupations.
Proportion of Women in Individual
Occupations
In certain individual occupations, most, or a very large proportion,
of all workers are women. The list that follows shows the occupations
in which half or more of the workers were women in 1950. Some of
these are among the largest occupations for women, others are relatively small.
OCCUPATIONS W I T H
WOMEN
H A L F OR MORE OF THE
Occupations with less than 100,000
women
WORKERS
Occupations with 100,000 or more
women
WOMEN ARE NINE-TENTHS OR MORE OF T H E WORKERS
Nurses (professional).
Dressmakers, seamstresses.
Practical nurses.
Telephone operators.
Housekeepers (private household).
Private household workers (except
housekeepers, laundresses).
Stenographers, typists, secretaries.
Nurses (student).
Laundresses (private household).
Attendants—Physician's, dentist's
fices.
Dietitians, nutritionists.
Librarians.
Milliners.
WOMEN ARE ABOUT FOUR-FIFTHS OF THE
Office machine operators.
Waitresses.
Cashiers.
Operatives—Apparel, accessories.
WORKERS
Midwives.
Demonstrators.
Housekeepers (except private household).
WOMEN ARE ABOUT THREE-FOURTHS OF THE WORKERS
Bookkeepers.
School teachers.
Operatives—Knitting mills.
of-
Spinners (textile).
Attendants, assistants—Library.
Boarding-, lodging-housekeepers.
Operatives—Fabricated textiles.
Dancers, dancing teachers.
Religious workers.
Operatives—Tobacco manufactures.
EMPLOYMENT
7
OCCUPATION W I T H W O M E N H A L F OR MORE OF THE W O R K E R S — C o n t i n u e d
Occupations with 100,000 or more
women
Occupations with less than 100,000
women
WOMEN ARE HALF TO TWO-THIRDS OF THE WORKERS
Operatives—Laundry, dry cleaning.
Social, welfare workers (except group).
Attendants—Hospitals, institutions.
Attendants—Professional, p e r s o n a l
Cooks (except private household).
services (n. e. c.).
Operatives—
Operatives—
Electrical machinery, supplies.
Confectionery.
Footwear (except rubber).
Canning fruits, vegetables.
Yarn, thread, fabric mills.
Drugs, medicines.
Beauticians (includes barbers, mani- Charwomen, cleaners.
curists).
Packers, graders—Fruit, nut, vegetable.
Salespersons—Retail trade.
Operatives—
Clocks, watches.
Food (not specified).
Technicians—Medical, dental.
Bookbinders.
Operatives—
Personal services.
Leather products
(except footwear).
Bakery products.
Counter, fountain workers.
Musicians, music teachers.
Therapists, healers.
Farm-, home-management advisers.
Operatives—Paper, pulp products (miscellaneous).
N o t e : N. e. c. means not elsewhere classified.
Source: U. S. Bureau of the Census. Decennial Census, 1950.
Women as Teachers
Teaching is one of the largest individual occupations of women,
and this has been true in every decade since the Census Bureau has
reported the occupations of women in full detail. Among women
teachers in elementary and secondary schools three-fourths are in the
elementary schools. Only about 5 percent of all women teachers are
in institutions of higher education. Women are about nine-tenths of
the elementary teachers, more than half those in secondary schools,
and about a fourth of those in colleges and universities.
Chief Industry Groups
About two-thirds of the women employed in 1953 were in three
industry groups—manufacturing, retail trade, and personal services.
Each of these employs 3 million or more, manufacturing over 4 million. The number and proportion of women among all workers in
8
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
each industry group are shown in the following summary. Any industry may employ women in a wide variety of occupations, as for
example, salespersons of several types, clerical office forces, manufacturing operatives, and so forth. Occupational data are shown elsewhere in this report (pp. 4. 5).
WOMEN
Industry
All groups
Manufacturing- _
_
Retail trade. _
_
Personal services
_
Professional, related services
All other industries
IN E A C H
INDUSTRY
Number,
1958
18, 434, 000
4,
3,
3,
2,
4,
524,
666,
094,
904,
246,
000
000
000
000
000
GROUP
Percent
of all workers
Percent
distribution
1958
1940
1958
30
26
100
100
26
39
73
57
17
23
31
73
57
11
25
20
17
16
23
21
17
26
17
19
1940
Women Factory Workers
Factories employ a fourth of all women workers, more than are in
any other industry group—over
million women in 1954. According to current reports of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about
40 percent of the women in manufacturing produce apparel, textiles,
or foods. Together with those in several other industries that long
have employed many women—the electrical machinery industry, printing and publishing, and leather plants—these account for about 60
percent of all women in factories. All but the electrical industry are
in the nondurable goods group, which always employs by far the
greatest number of women.
In recent years, durable goods, often called the heavier industries,
have shown a striking increase in employment of women; in 1954 they
employed almost one-half million more women than in 1950. Important employers of women in this group of industries are electrical and
other machinery, metals, and transportation equipment. Some of the
durable goods industries formerly not thought of as large employers
of women, have grown notably—machinery (except electrical), transportation equipment, and fabricated metals. The number and proportion of women in each of the various industry groups are shown
in the following table. These figures include all the women in factory
offices, as well as production workers. About four-fifths of the women
in factories are production workers, but the proportion varies
markedly from industry to industry. For example, in some of the
metal industries half or more of the women are in the factory offices,
while in the industries long known as important employers of women,
such as textiles and clothing, well over nine-tenths of the women are
production workers.
9
EMPLOYMENT
W O M E N W A G E AND SALARIED W O R K E R S IN C H I E F M A N U F A C T U R I N G INDUSTRIES
Women
1954
increase
Percent
from
distribution
Industry
Number
1950
Percent of
all workers
1954
1950
1954
1950
Total
4,289,700
14
100
100
26
27
Nondurable goods
2,567,100
2
60
67
38
38
22
11
8 '
5
4
3
3
2
1
24
15
9
5
5
3
3
2
1
77
43
24
27
51
18
23
26
58
76
43
24
27
46
17
23
26
57
(*)
33
6
18
5
17
Apparel, finished textile
products
Textile mill products
Food products
Printing, publishing
Leather, leather products.
Chemical products
Paper products
Rubber products
Tobacco manufactures. __
Products of petroleum,
coal
Durable goods
Electrical machinery
Transportation equipments
Machinery, except electrical
Fabricated metal products
(n. e. c.)
Instruments and related
products
Stone, clay, glass products
Primary metal industries.
Furniture,
fixtures
Lumber, wood products _ _
Ordnance, accessories
Miscellaneous manufacturing industries
949,000
466,400
339,800
220,800
191,800
143,200
121, 100
66,100
53,500
2
4
15
2
14
6
24
12
10
2 1
15,400
1,722,600
43
39
(*)
40'
432, 600
236,800
42
121
10
6
8
3
38
13
38
10
227,400
35
5
4
14
13
205,700
24
5
4
19
19
116,200
51
3
2
36
33
85,400
71,800
62,000
48,600
47,900
9
20
10
2 4
989
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
1
1
17
6
18
7
24
16
5
16
7
17
188,200
12
4
4
40
40
(*)
1 Less than 1 percent.
2 In this case a decline.
Source: U. S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Employment and Payrolls).
(March figures.)
Employment
and Earnings
(formerly
Of all factory employees in 1954, women were just over a fourth.
However, women were half to three-fourths of the employees in apparel, tobacco, and leather factories, a somewhat smaller proportion
302449—54
3
10
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
in textile mills, and well over a third of those in electrical machinery
and supply plants and instrument making.
Women as
percent of
all workers
Apparel
Tobacco
Leather
Textiles
Electrical machinery
Instruments
77
58
47
43
38
36
Women as
percent of
all workers
Printing, publishing
Rubber
Food
Ordnance
Paper
27
26
24
24
23
Women as Federal Employees
More than half a million women are at work in the executive branch
of the Federal Government. These women are a fourth of all such
workers. About a fifth of them are located in Washington, D. C.
Somewhat less than a tenth had veterans' preference in appointment
to their jobs. Of these, over half are women who have been in the
armed services; somewhat less than half are wives of disabled veterans,
or widows and mothers of deceased veterans. The table following
shows the number of women government employees in the postwar
years, and other information about them along the lines discussed.
The employment of women in government service was considerably
greater during the war years—in fact, in the highest postwar year it
was 42 percent less than at the wartime peak.
W O M E N IN THE E X E C U T I V E B R A N C H OF THE FEDERAL SERVICE
Percent of women
employees
Year
With Percent
Percent
veterans' wives,
of all Located prefer- widows,
Number workers in D. C.
ence mothers1
194 7
194 8
194 9
195 0
195 1
195 2
195 3
417,200
431,500
422, 200
440, 600
580,700
586, 600
536,000
24
23
22
23
25
25
24
21
(2)
(2)
(2)
20
18
18
9
9
10
10
8
8
9
40
43
39
41
42
44
45
1 As percent of all women with veterans' preference.
2 Not available.
Source: U. S. Civil Service Commission.
they are for November.
Figures are for September in each year except 1947, when
Ages of Women Workers
Most young women of today take a job until marriage or for some
time after. They then are most likely to leave the labor force during
11
EMPLOYMENT
the time their small children require continual care. When their
children are partly grown and no longer need constant attention, many
women return to work. Because of this cycle that appears in the lives
of many American women, a larger proportion are in the labor force
at the ages 20 to 24 years than in older groups. The proportion in the
labor force declines in the age group 25 to 34 and increases again at 35.
In the woman population as a whole, a somewhat larger proportion
than in 1940 are of the ages 35 to 64. Furthermore, a very much larger
proportion than formerly of these women are in the labor force, as
the following summary shows. There was a considerable movement
of women beyond 35 into the labor force during wartime, and many
of them remained at work after the war. Women 35 to 64 are now
more than half the women workers, though in 1940 they were less than
40 percent. Also larger than in 1940 is the proportion of women
under 20 years old who are in the labor force; however, these young
girls are less than a tenth of all women workers.
The only age group present in the labor force in somewhat smaller
proportion than in 1940 is that of women 20 to 24. This may be
largely explained by the postwar increases in youthful marriages, and
the high birthrate that keeps many of the wives at home to care for
their young children.
AGES
OF W O M E N
IN POPULATION
AND L A B O R
FORCE
Percent of popu- .
distribution inlation who were
1954
1940
in labor force
popu_
Lahor
Popu_
Percent
Age (in years)
All ages, 14 and over.
14
20
25
35
45
65
to 19
to 24
to 34
to 44
to 64
and over
1954
1940
lation
.force
lation
Laho~
force
33
28
100
100
100
100
27
44
36
41
36
9
20
48
36
29
22
7
11
9
21
19
28
12
9
12
22
24
30
3
15
12
21
18
25
9
11
20
28
19
20
2
The result of the changes just discussed is that the median age of
the women workers of today, 38 years, is several years older than the
median of the women employed in 1940. (The median is the midpoint,
half the women being older, half younger.) The trend toward entrance of increasing numbers of older women into the labor force
is not new, but has been continuing over a long period. However, it
has been especially marked since 1940. In 1900 the median age of
women workers was only 26 years, by 1940 it was nearly 32. Since
1940, the median age of women in the labor force has advanced as
much as in the preceding four decades, as the following figures show.
12
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
Median age
{years)
Date
Date
1954
1950
1947
1945
38
37
35
34
Median age
{years)
1940
1930
1920
1900
32
30
30
26
Among all women workers about 30 percent are 45 to 64 years of
age, but the proportions who are of these ages vary considerably in
different occupations. The proportion 45 to 64 is much larger than
this among management and household workers, somewhat larger
among service and farm workers. At the more youthful end of the
scale, over a fifth of the women workers are under 25 years of age,
but among clerical workers the proportion under 25 is much higher.
Single and Married Women Workers
Half the single women 14 years and over are in the labor force, as
are more than a third of the widowed and divorced women, and a
fourth of the married women.
Marked changes have occurred since 1940 in the proportions of
married and single women, both in the population and in the labor
force. These changes, which are indicated in the accompanying summary, began in the war period and still show their effects. The population of today includes over
million more married women and 3
million fewer single women than in 1940. This results to a considerable extent from the fact that the marriage rate was accelerated during
and just after the war and has continued at a high level. There nowT
are almost three and one-half times as many married as single women
in the population, though in 1940 there were only twice as many
married as single.
SINGLE
AND
MARRIED
WOMEN
IN THE P O P U L A T I O N
AND L A B O R
Number of women
(14 and over)
1953
1940
Marital status
FORCE
Percent
distribution
1953
1940
POPULATION
Total
Single
Married (husband present)
Other marital status
LABOR
Total
Single
Married (husband present)
Other marital status
58, 940, 000
50, 549, 176
100
100
10, 774, 000
37, 106, 000
11, 060, 000
13, 935, 866
28, 516, 937
8, 096, 373
18
63
19
28
56
16
18, 920, 000
13, 840, 000
100
100
5, 140,000
9, 588, 000
4, 192, 000
6,710,000
4, 200, 000
2, 930, 000
27
51
22
48
30
21
FORCE
13
EMPLOYMENT
The increase in married and decline in single women in the labor
force is not explained entirely by the marked changes in the population, though it likewise stems from wartime influences. In 1940
about half the single women were already in employment. Great
pressures were exerted to bring added numbers of women into wartime work. Both single and married women entered the labor force
in increased numbers, a larger proportion of the single than of the
married. But the number of married women in the population was
increasing markedly, the number of single declining. Many more
married than single women were available to meet the wartime needs
for labor-force increases. Furthermore, many of the older married
women were beyond the years when family care absorbs most of a
woman's time and energy, husbands of the more recently married were
in the Armed Forces, and the desire to be of service in the country's
emergency was general.
After the war, when the number of single women in the population
had declined, the proportion of single women who were workers
dropped to the prewar level. Among married women, on the other
hand, the proportion in the labor force not only maintained the wartime level but showed some additional increase. (See summary following.) A considerable part of the explanation for this is revealed
in figures on age. The median age of single women workers is 24
years, of those married, 39 years. This indicates that married women
of the ages when family cares are less pressing remained in the labor
force to a considerable extent, having become accustomed to use of
their new or revived skills at work. A custom well developed before
the war grew even more usual—that the new wife remain at work for
a time while establishing the home. This accounts for the fact that
about a tenth of the married women wTorkers are under 25 years of age.
With both these sectors of the married woman population, the prevailing high living costs accented the need to continue in an earning
status.
LABOR
FORCE
PARTICIPATION
OF W O M E N
BY
MARITAL
STATUS
Percent of all women of
each marital status who
were workers
Marital status
All groups
Single.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Married (total) _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _
Husband present
__
Husband absents
_
Widowed and divorced
_
1940
1944
1950
27
48
17
15
53
32
35
59
26
22
52
36
31
51
25
24
47
36
1953
22
42
27
26
48
35
14
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
The result of these changes is that among single women, who always are employed to a considerable extent, much the same proportion
as in 1940 are employed—about half. Among married women with
husband present, while 15 percent were employed in 1940, today 26
percent are employed. The changes in numbers appear especially
great because the total number of married women has increased, of
single women declined.
Occupations of Single and Married Women
There are notable differences in the occupations of single and
married women. Much larger proportions of single than married
women are in the clerical and professional groups, and considerably
larger proportions of the married than of the single are in the operative and the managerial groups (the latter, however, being relatively
small for women).
A much larger proportion of the widowed and divorced than of
either the married or the single are in service occupations. However,
more than three-fourths of all women workers, whether single or
married, are clerical or sales workers, operatives, or service workers.
Working Couples
The number of married couples in the population has increased
greatly since the prewar period, and in many more cases than formerly
both husband and wife are in the labor force. The number of couples
in the population with husband the head of the family increased from
26% million in 1940 to over 37 million in 1953. Of these couples,
the proportion with both spouses in the labor force increased from
11 percent (almost 3 million couples) in 1940 to almost 26 percent
(over 91/2 million couples) in 1953.
Moffiers in the Labor
Force
The exact number of working women responsible for the care of
young children is difficult to ascertain. Available data report on
married women with husband present. Thus, no account is taken
of mothers who are widowed or divorced, nor of women, whether
married or single, who are responsible for the care of children other
than their own. The number of such women may be considerable,
especially since the war.
Of all women in the labor force in 1953 just over 41^ million (about
1 in 4) are married, living with husband, and have children under 18
years of age. The majority of these have children of school age only
(6 to 17 years). Somewhat fewer than 2 million have children under
6; these constitute about 1 in 10 of all employed women.
Mothers of preschool children are much less likely to be in the labor
force than those whose children have reached school age.
15
EMPLOYMENT
Among women with children of school age only, as well as among
those with no children, just over .30 percent are workers, as the following summary shows. On the other hand, among the mothers of preschool children, the proportion who enter the labor force is only about
half as high—15 percent.
The age distribution of married women workers is revealing in
connection with their child-care problems. Over 45 percent of the
employed married women are 40 years of age or older, and in many
cases their children are grown. Somewhat larger proportions of the
married women in older than of those in younger groups are workers—
over 33 percent of those 40 to 44 compared to 25 percent of those 25
to 35 years of age.
In recent years when increasing proportions of married women
have entered the labor force (thus contributing both to family finances
and to the country's labor supply) their contribution to other primary
phases of home life also is maintained; in fact the birthrate continues
to be at a higher level than in almost any year in the past three decades.
Furthermore, the number of children under 5 years of age per 1,000
women aged 15 to 49 years was 429 in 1953 (latest figures available),
an increase from 281 in 1940, or more than 50 percent. In addition,
of the women 25 to 29 years of age, 24 percent in 1953 as compared
to 13 percent in 1940 had two or more children; of those aged 30 to
34,15 percent in 1953 and 9 percent in 1940 had two or more children.
M A R R I E D W O M E N IN THE LABOR FORCE W I T H AND W I T H O U T
Number of women in—
^
Population Labor force
Married women,
present
CHILDREN,
1953
Percent
of
al1
Per ceJii
°f all
women in 1labor
women
1 workers
force
husband
With no own children under 18__.
Total with own children under 18_
With children 6-17 only
With children under 6 only _ _
With children both 6-17 and
under 6
Total with own children under 6__
37,106,000
16, 430, 000
20, 676, 000
8, 538, 000
6, 618, 000
5, 520,000
12, 138, 000
1
9,588,000
51
26
5, 038, 000
4, 550, 000
2, 700, 000
1, 028, 000
27
24
14
5
31
22
32
16
822,000
1, 850, 000
4
10
15
15
1 Note that only married women with husbands present are reported for 1953.
It is estimated that: more
than 1 million additional mothers are at work—primarily those who are widowed, separated, or divorced.
The absence of the husband from the family tends to increase
markedly the necessity for the mother to seek employment. Among
all mothers with own children under 18, of those with husbands present, 21 percent were in the labor force, but of those with husbands
absent, 53 percent had gone to work, according to latest data available
16
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
(1951). Where all children were under school age, only 14 percent
of the mothers were in the labor force if the husband was at home,
but 41 percent of those with husbands absent had to work.
Of all children under 5 years of age in this country (1952) almost
nine-tenths have mothers not in the labor force (about 14y2 million
children). The remaining tenth (almost 2y5 million) have mothers
who work, some on part time, some in their own business, some on
full-time jobs.
Women as Heads of Families
In sharp contrast to the popularly envisioned picture of the "average" family, consisting of father, mother, and children, stands the
fact that in 1953 a woman was the head in nearly 4 million of this
country's families (two or more related persons living together).
This is about a tenth of all families in the United States.
Of the women family heads in 1953, two-thirds are 45 years of age
or older, a fourth being 65 or older. Almost 60 percent of them are
widowed. Over a fourth of them have families of four or more members. About half—almost 2 million women family heads—have children under 18 in the family, over one-half million of them having
at least one child under 6 years of age.
The percent of women family heads is likely to be appreciably
higher among the underprivileged than in the Nation as a whole.
The standard of living in families headed by women is lower than the
average for all families. The median income in families headed by
a woman was not much over half the median for those headed by
a man, according to the latest report available (1952 income). Almost
half such families have incomes below $2,000 a year.
Not all family heads, be they men or women, are in the labor force.
Data available on this subject (1949) show about 45 percent of the
women family heads in the labor force, most of them undoubtedly
working not only for their own support but also toward the family's
maintenance.
Before the war, the number of families with a woman head was
increasing. Constituting 9.4 percent of all families in the country
in 1930, such families were 11.0 percent of all families by 1940. In
spite of the accelerated marriage rate, the number of families with
women heads increased sharply during the war, for men in the armed
services were not counted as members of families unless living at home
off post. In the postwar period, accompanying the return home of
men from the war and the continuing increases in numbers of married
couples in the population, families with women heads returned to the
1930 proportion.
EMPLOYMENT
17
Women as Part-Time Workers
Work on a part-time basis brings into use the skills of a considerable number of women who would be unable to take full-time jobs
because of family and household responsibilities or for other reasons.
The Census Bureau defines part-time employment as work for less
than 35 hours a week. Under this definition more than a fifth of all
women workers were on part time in late 1953. Some of these are
only temporarily in this situation, some are unable to work full time
for economic reasons such as slack work or unavailability of fulltime jobs. Three-fourths of the women who regularly work parttime do not want or could not accept full-time employment, though
these constitute only 16 percent of the woman labor force as a
whole.
Part-time work is more likely to be sought by women than men,
since women frequently need to combine a paid job with household
cares. Over 60 percent of all those who usually work part time are
women.
Nearly a third of married women workers but only about a fifth
of other women workers are on part time, according to an earlier
census report (1950). If married women workers have children,
especially preschool children, they are much more likely to take a
part-time than a full-time job. If there are no children under 18,
the proportion of married women workers who are on part time is
similar to that of the single or the widowed or divorced.
Almost two-thirds of the women part-time workers are in household
employment, sales occupations, or f armwork. To obtain more detailed
information on kinds of part-time jobs women are doing, skills required, hours worked, earnings, and advantages and disadvantages in
such employment, the Women's Bureau made a special study of more
than 9,000 women part-time workers and over 1,000 employers of such
workers, in 10 cities. (See Bull. 238.) This study, which did not
include household employment or farmwork, shows that in most
cities some part-time employees are in social agencies, hospitals, educational and library services, insurance, and numerous other types of
work.
The age distribution of women part-time workers does not differ
greatly from that of the woman labor force as a whole. However,
larger proportions of the part-time than of the full-time woman labor
force are in the youngest and the oldest groups—under 20 years of
age, and 55 years of age or older.
302449—54
4
18
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
Women as Members of Unions
Complete information on the number of women workers who are
union members is not available. Many unions keep no separate record
of woman membership. Some organizations count only paid-up members, others report a wider count. Officers of unions can make rough
estimates, often on a local rather than a nationwide basis. It is estimated that about
million women, are union members. The State
labor departments in California and Massachusetts give pertinent information on membership of women in unions, from a questionnaire
sent out to the locals of all unions in the State. Reports of these
show that unions in industries known to be large employers of women,
such as the textile, clothing, telephone, and shoe industries, have larger
numbers and proportions of women members than such industries as
teaming and trucking, railroading, gas and electric, in which women
are much smaller percentages of the employees. The Bureau of Labor
Statistics reports the number of union members from questionnaires
sent to the officers of the unions. About 80 unions give some report
on their woman membership, and of these the 12 listed below each
report more than 35,000 women members. Largest of these, each with
over 260,000 women, are two great unions of clothing workers, and
three other important unions also have well over 100,000 women members apiece.
TJnion
Number
of women
reported
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (AFL)
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (CIO)
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (AFL)
Retail Clerks International Association (AFL)
United Automobile, Aircraft & Agricultural Implement Workers of
America (CIO)
United Steelworkers of America (CIO)
Laundry Workers' International Union (AFL)
Bakery and Confectionery Workers' International Union of America
(AFL)
Building Service Employees' International Union (AFL)
Alliance Independent Telephone Unions (Ind.)
American Federation of Teachers (AFL)
Brotherhood of Railway & Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express
& Station Employees (AFL)
292, 500
261,800
150, 000
125,000
118,500
80,000
65,000
60,200
55,500
45, 500
37,500
36,000
Negro Women Workers
Negro women are 10 percent of the woman population and 12 percent of the woman labor force, according to the decennial census, 1950.
Of all the Negro women in the population, 37 percent are in the labor
force. These women are 35 percent of all Negro workers. The num-
19
EMPLOYMENT
ber of Negro women in the labor force increased about 20 percent from
1940 to 1950. The following summary shows the numbers of Negro
women employed in the chief occupation groups.
C H I E F OCCUPATIONS OF N E G R O
WOMEN
Negro women
workers, 1950
Percent
of all
Negro
Occupation
Number
Total employed
Private household workers _ _ _ _
Service workers (except private household)
Cooks
Waitresses
Operatives
Laundry_
Apparel, fabricated textiles
Farm laborers _
Unpaid family workers
Wage workers _
Professional workers
Teachers
Clerical workers
All other occupations.
workers
1, 869, 956
35
773, 590
96
351, 856
60, 385
42, 139
1 274, 000
98, 998
52, 910
139, 657
72, 751
66, 906
i 104, 728
67, 857
74, 255
151, 870
43
58
50
27
69
87
28
39
21
58
78
41
1
Percent
distribution
1950
1940
100
100
41
59
19
11
14
6
8
13
6
4
4
8
1
6
_
_
_
.
_
_
.
i Total exceeds details, as only the individual occupations that employ as many as 40,000 Negro women
are shown.
Source: U. S. Bureau of the Census.
Decennial Census.
1950.
Changes in Employment of Negro Women
The number of employed Negro women increased from 1940 to 1950
by 20 percent. In the same period the total number of employed
women increased about 40 percent.
In the occupations of Negro women, marked changes occurred from
1940 to 1950. The addition to the Negro labor force of 60,000 women
as clerical workers and 40,000 as professional workers brought these
groups to 10 percent of all employed Negro women from only 5 percent
in 1940. The number of Negro women employed as operatives and as
service workers (except in households) each increased by more than
175,000. Well over half the operatives are in laundries or apparel
factories. Over 10,000 Negro women were added to each of the groups
of sales workers, laborers, and managers and proprietors, and nearly
10,000 to that of craftswomen. On the other hand, Negro women declined in number by more than 144,000 as household workers and
almost 75,000 as farm workers.
" Owing to the changes in employment, 10 percent of the Negro
women workers are in professional and clerical occupations (com-
20
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
billed) as compared to 5 percent in 1940, 15 percent are operatives as
compared to 6 percent in 1940, and almost 20 percent are service workers (other than in households) compared to 10 percent in 1940. As a
result of the declines that occurred over the decade, household occupations engage just over 40 percent of the Negro women compared to
almost 60 percent in 1940, and 9 percent are at work on farms compared to 16 percent in 1940.
Negro women are a larger proportion of the women workers in 1950
than in 1940 in all groups except farmwork. The gains in proportion
of Negroes among all women workers are especially marked among
household employees and general laborers.
C H A N G E S IN M A J O R OCCUPATION GROUPS OF N E G R O W O M E N ,
Occupation group
All occupations.
Service groups
Private household workers
Service workers (except private household) _
Manual groups
Operatives
Laborers (except farm, mine)
Craftswomen, forewomen
White collar groups
Professional workers
Clerical workers
Sales workers
Managers, proprietors, officials
Farm groups
Farm laborers, forewomen
Farmers, farm managers. _
Occupation not reported.
UUU UbVIO,
1940-501 1
1950
1940
327, 683
12
14
51, 3 3 2
35
34
-145,411
58
47
196, 7 4 3
18
13
202, 722
9
5
178, 6 0 5
9
5
15,007
22
13
9, 1 1 0
5
2
131,217
3
2
38,091
5
4
61, 180
2
1
17, 6 7 4
2
1
14,272
4
3
- 7 4 , 640
30
52
-59,373
31
62
-15,267
27
30
17,052
11
8
» Increase unless minus sign shown.
Source: U. S. Bureau of the Census.
1940-50
Decennial Census, 1940 and 1950.
2
WOMEN'S INCOME, EARNINGS/
FAMILY SUPPORT
Income Received in the Year
About nine-tenths of the men and almost half the women in the
adult population receive some income. About two-thirds of both men
and women receive all their income from wages or salaries in their
jobs. A fifth of the women and well under a tenth of the men have no
earnings but receive all their income from other sources such as
pensions, rents, or investments. Some have income from both earnings and other sources, as the following summary shows:
SOURCE OF INCOME, 1 9 5 2
Women
All income recipients
With earnings from:
Wages or salaries only
Self-employment only
Both wages or salary and self-employment. _
Both earnings and other income
With income but no earnings
1
Men
100
100
68
4
(J)
7
21
66
10
3
13
7
Less than 1 percent.
The median income for all women who receive income is $1,147 a
year, for men $3,105, according to the latest Census Bureau figures
(for the year 1952). In the 2-year period just preceding, median
incomes of both sexes increased by about a fifth. The median tells
only part of the story. Somewhat more than a tenth of the women
who have income receive over $3,000 a year and nearly half have less
than $1,000, as the following summary shows. Of the men, on the
other hand, over half receive $3,000 or more.
INCOME OF W O M E N AND MEN, 1 9 5 2
Total income
Annual money income
Women
Men
With income:
Number of persons (14
years old and over)___ 27, 150, 000 49, 242, 000
Percent of population
47
91
Median income
$1, 147
$3, 105
Wage and salary income
Women
20, 040, 000
34
$1, 398
Men
38, 629, 000
72
$3, 201
21
22
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
PERCENT DISTRIBUTION OF PERSONS W I T H INCOME, 1 9 5 2
Total income
Annual money income
Women
Total
Wage and salary income
Men
Women
Men
100
100
100
100
47
22
18
12
1
17
14
17
36
16
41
23
23
12
1
14
12
18
40
15
Under $1,000
$1,000, under $2,000
$2,000, under $3,000
$3,000, under $5,000
$5,000 and over
Women's income by Age
Income varies with age. For both sexes the median income rises to
age group 35 to 44, and declines somewhat at later ages. For women
the highest median is only 5 percent above that received by young
women 20 to 24 years old. On the other hand, the highest for men is
almost 75 percent above that of men 20 to 24 years old. Among both
women and men the income is lowest for young persons under 20 years
of age, and for those 65 and older, when many have retired. The
medians at various ages, and other information as to age differences
in income, are shown in the following summary.
Of the women 20 to 24 years old, when the proportion in the labor
force is largest, almost 60 percent have some income. The same is true
of women 65 and older, when many retired persons receive pensions or
old age insurance. Of the women 25 to 64 years of age about 45 percent have some income.
INCOME
AND
AGE,
1952
Women with income
Percent with
mcom e—
Age (years)
All ages 14 years and over.
14, under 20
20, under 25
25, under 35
35, under 45
45, under 55
55, under 65
65 and over_
Percent Median
of total income
47
37
58
43
45
46
43
59
$1, 147
447
1, 511
1, 578
1, 587
1, 576
1, 175
654
Under
$2,000
$8,000
or over
69
98
65
60
61
61
69
89
13
5
8
16
18
20
16
6
Median
income
of men
$3, 105
437
2, 137
3, 493
3, 709
3, 486
3, 009
1, 247
INCOME, EARNINGS, FAMILY SUPPORT
23
Women's Wages and Salaries
About $1,400 a year is the median for earnings of all women with
wages or salaries (half the women earn more, half less). The corresponding figure for men is $3,200. A single figure of this type conceals wide variations in the earnings of individuals. For example,
over 10 percent of the women whose earnings make up this median
receive $3,000 or more, and 40 percent of them receive less than $1,000.
(See p. 22.) These figures include the regular part-time workers who
are employed only for certain days in the week or for certain hours
in the day (see p. IT), and who consequently receive less than if they
Worked through the hours scheduled for a full week.
There are many reasons for the wide variations that occur in wages
and salaries. Important among these are differences in the industries
and occupations in which the workers are employed; in the training,
experience, and proficiency of individual workers in a given industry;
and in the methods or systems of payment for various types of work.
(See p. 29.) Furthermore economic conditions in any period of time
have the most powerful effect on the wage and salary levels of all
workers. Earnings also are affected by differences in the season of
the year or locality in which the work is done.
Because of the numerous factors that influence wages, the best information on earnings or on standards of wages and salaries is furnished by various studies that relate to particular industries or occupations at a given period of time, and often in particular localities,
and that take into account the specific reasons for wage variations.
Such studies sometimes afford separate data on women's wages;
information will be given below for the largest and most recent of
these that are available.
Take-Home Pay
The wage or salary shown in reports usually is either the basic rate
of pay or earnings on the job. The actual amount in the worker's
pay envelope or check usually is considerably less than this, because
before it is received deductions are made for various purposes, such
as taxes, socal security, union dues, pension, or health insurance.
Most of these deductions are eventually advantageous to the worker,
though they reduce the amount available for living expenses, including the building up of savings. The amount that the worker receives
after these deductions have been made is called "take-home" pay.
24
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
Women's Earnings by Occupation
It is well known that employed women's earnings differ according
to the occupations in which they are engaged. Median earnings are
highest for women managerial and professional workers—in each case
about $2,700 a year, as the following summary shows.
M E D I A N W A G E OR SALARY OF EXPERIENCED W O R K E R S , BY M A J O R
GROUP,
OCCUPATION
1952
Major occupation group
Managers, officials, proprietors
Professional workers
Clerical workers
Crafts workers
Operatives
Service workers (except private household)
Sales workers
Private household workers
Farm laborers, foremen
Farmers, farm managers
Laborers (except farm, mine)
Women
$2,
2,
2,
2,
1,
1,
1,
705
695
270
075
908
128
075
433
0)
0)
(l)
Men
$4, 696
4, 691
3, 421
3, 756
3, 216
2, 374
3, 576
0)
847
479
2, 244
i Sample too small to justify a median.
Earnings of "White-Collar" Workers
Widely varying grotips often are referred to under the term "whitecollar" workers (including, for example, those in professional, clerical, and sales occupations, which taken together employ almost half
of all women workers). Regular reports are made of earnings in some
of these occupations, such as those of office workers and teachers in
elementary and secondary schools. Although teachers' salaries are
not given by sex, they represent the earnings of many women, since
women are 75 percent of the school teachers. Occasionally the earnings of women in some particular "white-collar" occupation are reported in a special study made by some professional group for its
own membership, or by a research organization, a college alumnae association, a women's organization, or the like.
Earnings of Clerical
Workers
More than a fourth of all women workers are in clerical occupations,
and women are two-thirds of all clerical workers. A major source
of data on their salaries is in the reports of the Bureati of Labor Statistics on office workers' occupations in various large cities in the country.
Usually, especially large numbers of women clerical workers are in the
occupations of general stenographer, secretary, accounting clerk, and
class B typist. For these, and a few other occupations the range of
women's average earnings in 17 large cities is shown here.
25
INCOME, EARNINGS, FAMILY SUPPORT
AVERAGE
WEEKLY
EARNINGS
OP W O M E N
IN
SELECTED
IN 1 7 CITIES, 1 9 5 3 AND
OFFICE
OCCUPATIONS
1954
Average weekly earnings
in areas of—
Range of city averages
Accounting clerks A:
Highest average
Lowest average
Accounting clerks B:
Highest average
Lowest average
File clerks A:
Highest average
Lowest average
File clerks B:
Highest average
Lowest average
Secretaries:
Highest average
Lowest average
Stenographers-general:
Highest average
Lowest average
Typists A:
Highest average
Lowest average
Typists B:
Highest average
Lowest average
1
Over
600,000 under
1,000,000
1,000,000
population
population
$71. 5 0
$68. 50
57. 0 0
59. 0 0
58. 5 0
56. 5 0
48. 0 0
46. 0 0
62. 0 0
56. 5 0
47. 5 0
45. 5 0
47. 5 0
44.50
38. 0 0
38. 0 0
75. 5 0
67.00
58. 0 0
60. 5 0
64. 5 0
56. 0 0
49. 5 0
49. 5 0
60. 5 0
54. 0 0
47. 0 0
48. 5 0
51. 0 0
46. 5 0
41. 5 0
40. 0 0
Highest averages:
Largest cities—All occupations—Los Angeles or San Francisco-Oakland.
Cities of next s i z e Most occupations—Portland, Oreg.
Secretaries—Milwaukee; typists B—Denver.
Lowest averages:
Largest citiesMost occupations—Boston.
Accounting clerks A—Philadelphia; B—Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Cities of next size—All occupations—Dallas or New Orleans.
Other cities included:
Over 1 million—New York, Chicago, Buffalo, Detroit, St. Louis, Newark-Jersey City.
500,000 under 1 million—Atlanta.
1
Source: U. S. Department of Labor.
Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In clerical as well as in industrial work the occupations requiring
the greatest skill pay the best salaries. The reports indicate that the
girl who hopes to reach the higher salary ranges in an office occupation should look first toward perfecting herself as a general stenographer, and then use her initiative and intelligence to develop the
added versatility needed in the job of secretary, or she should aim
toward becoming an expert accounting clerk. Women in these two
302449—54
5
26
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
occupations have higher average pay than those in the other occupations listed here. The average weekly earnings in these 17 large
cities range from $58 to $75.50 for secretaries and from $57 to $71.50
for class A accounting clerks. Other occupations with the better pay,
not shown in detail here and usually employing smaller numbers of
women, are those of hand bookkeeper, class A bookkeeping machine
operator, and technical stenographer.
Lowest averages (except those paid office girls in some cities) are
those paid class B file clerks and class B typists, who are among the
larger groups of women office workers and would include beginning
clerical employees with less experience than those in the class A
grades. Salaries of class B file clerks range from $38 to $47.50 a week
in these 17 cities. Salaries of class B typists range from $40 to $51.
It must always be remembered that these are figures based on general averages. Many individual women whose salaries are included
will be receiving considerably more or less than the average.
The greatest ranges in average salaries among the 17 cities are for
secretaries, stenographers, class A accountants, and class A file
clerks. In these occupations, the cities with the highest average pay
from about $750 to over $900 more a year than those with lowest
averages. These are the occupations in which presumably it is most
possible for a worker to improve her level of skill, dependability, and
general usefulness on the job. In the other clerical occupations the
pay range is not so great.
Average earnings of clerical workers have been on the increase.
In some cases the increases have been considerable over the past 2
years. In a number of instances the pay raises brought more nearly
into line one of the occupations or one of the cities that had been
paying relatively little. For example, in some cities class A file
clerks who had been paid relatively low wages were advanced considerably more than workers in most other clerical occupations. Elsewhere, this was true for grade A typists. Frequently the larger
increases went to those in the higher paying occupations—secretary,
general stenographer, and file clerk A. As a result, in individual
cities the difference in wage levels among occupations is likely to be
greater than formerly.
Salaries of School
Teachers
School teachers are over 40 percent of all professional women. In
high schools their median salaries in the 1952-53 school year ranged
from $5,526 to $3,498, according to size of locality; in elementary
schools from $4,817 to $3,118. These figures are from a report of the
National Education Association covering a very large proportion of
all employees in city school systems through the country. While not
27
INCOME, EARNINGS, FAMILY SUPPORT
shown by sex, the figures represent what many women receive, since
three-fourths of all teachers are women. The list below summarizes
these salaries. Among factors influencing salaries are differences in
salary schedules of particular localities.
ANNUAL
SALARIES
OF
TEACHERS,
BY
TYPE
OF
SCHOOL
AND
SIZE
OF
CITY,
1952-1953
[Figures for men and women combined]
Percent receiving—
Median
salary
Size of city and type of school
Over 500,000:
Elementary schools
Junior high schools
Senior high schools
100,000-500,000:
Elementary schools
Junior high schools.
Senior high schools
30,000-100,000:
Elementary schools
Junior high schools
Senior high schools
10,000-30,000:
Elementary schools
Junior high schools
Senior high schools
5,000-10,000:
Elementary schools
Junior high schools
Senior high schools
2,500-5,000:
Elementary schools
Junior high schools
Senior high schools
$4, 817
4, 897
5, 526
Under
$2,500
«
$5,000
or more
35
49
74
_
3, 756
4, 023
4, 360
5
1
1
8
16
26
__ _
3, 682
4, 069
4, 292
4
1
1
6
12
21
2
3, 437
3, 695
3, 954
6
4
3
4
5
11
2
3, 190
3, 436
3, 620
11
3
5
2
2
4
2
3, 118
3, 233
3, 498
11
8
3
(2)
-
1
2
i Less than 1 percent.
3 Includes kindergartens.
Source: National Education Association.
Research Bulletin, April 1953.
Teachers' salaries are considerably higher in large than in small
cities. Median salaries in both elementary and junior high schools
are more than $1,660 higher for the largest than for the smallest
cities; in senior high schools, over $2,000 higher.
This report shows that three-fourths of the senior high, half the
junior high, and a third of the elementary school teachers in cities
over 500,000 receive salaries of $5,000 or more. In smaller cities, such
salaries are unusual except in some of the senior and junior high
schools, mainly in cities of 30,000 or more population. At the other
end of the pay scale, teachers who receive less than $2,500 are chiefly
28
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
in elementary schools or in cities of less than 30,000 population. Only
small proportions are paid so^ little, except that the proportion rises
to about a tenth among teachers in elementary schools in cities of
under 10,000 population.
Differences in teachers' salaries according to type of school are
tending to narrow somewhat as more cities adopt the single salary
schedules: that is, the same schedule throughout a city for teachers
with comparable training and experience, regardless of whether teaching in elementary or high school. The median salaries in senior high
schools exceed thosein junior high schools by from $184 for a group
of the smaller cities to over $600 for cities of over 500,000 population.
Median salaries in junior high schools exceed those in elementary
schools by from $80 for the largest cities to over $375 for cities of
30,000 to 100,000. In the larger cities (100,000 and over) the salaries
differ more from junior to senior high school than from junior high
to the elementary. On the other hand, in most midsize cities the
greatest salary differences are from the elementary to the junior high
school.
Earnings of Professional
Nurses
A fifth of all professional women are nurses; this is the second
largest professional group (after teachers). Little very recent information is available on their earnings in general. This may be
largely explained by the fact that half the nurses are in hospitals or
other institutions, and these with private-duty nurses constitute almost
three-fourths of all women in the profession. Reports on the earnings of public health nurses (about a tenth of the total) show that their
1953 salaries range in general from $3,000 to $3,599 for staff nurses
and $3,800 to $4,599 for supervising nurses. Salaries of nurse directors in nonofficial agencies (only a very small proportion of all nurses),
run to nearly $5,000. For all professional nurses throughout the country, the decennial census reports show about half earning under $2,500
in 1949, and somewhat more than a tenth earning as much as $3,500.
For the large group of private-duty nurses, there may be considerable
fluctuation in work on the job. The census data show that but little
more than half of all nurses work as much as 50 weeks in the year.
Earnings of Telephone Operators
Telephone employees are another large group of white-collar workers for whom some data on earnings can be shown. Experienced
switchboard operators receive an average of $1.35 an hour, clerical
workers in the same industry $1.45 an hour, according to a special
study of telephone carriers (Class A ) made by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics in late 1952. Practically all the switchboard operators and
nine-tenths of those in clerical occupations in this industry are women.
29
INCOME, EARNINGS, FAMILY SUPPORT
A worker earning $1.20 an hour receives $2,558.40 a year, if she works
a full 40-hour week throughout the year. However, about 80 percent
of the switchboard operators and clerical workers earned less than
$1.20 an hour. At the other end of the scale, about 15 percent of the
operators and over 20 percent of the clerical workers receive $1.70
or more, which would give about $3,500 for the full year's work. The
summary below gives further details.
H O U R L Y EARNINGS OF EMPLOYEES OF CLASS A TELEPHONE CARRIERS, SELECTED
OCCUPATIONS,
1952
Nonsupervisory
Experienced
switchboard
operators Clerical
Hourly earnings
Number of men and women reported
Women as percent of all workers. _
Business
office and Building
sales
service 1
2 165, 0 7 0
108, 9 2 8
28, 8 8 5
16, 2 1 3
100
93
77
52
Percent distribution
Under $1
$1, under $1.20
5
4
1
13
24
24
13
32
$1.20, under $1.40
31
22
22
29
$1.40, under $1.70
27
29
28
$1.70, under $2.10
13
16
19
1
6
17
$1.35
$1.45
$1.67
$2.10 and over
Average hourly earnings (men and
women)
20
8
6
()
$1.27
i Except foremen, mechanics, supply, and motor vehicle employees.
»Includes only 43 men.
' Less than 1 percent.
Source: U. S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Communications Commission.
From figures collected by the Federal
Earnings of Factory Workers
Manufacturing industries employ a fourth of all women workers.
To secure an average for the earnings of factory workers is particularly difficult because of the great variety in their occupations, the
skills required, the methods of payment, working time, and local wage
standards and customs. At present there is no agency that reports
current or periodic data on the average earnings of all women factory
production workers.
Time Worked and Methods of Pay Affect Earnings
Aside from the variety in factory occupations, the great differences
in methods of pay and in working time are influences that particularly
affect both factory and service workers, and that also apply to some
clerical and other occupations.
30
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
If the worker is paid by the time worked, the rate of pay is established for a given period, often by the hour (time rate). The worker
receives the rate per hour multiplied by hours worked. Individuals
may work for different lengths of time rather than for the full hours
scheduled by the plant for a week's work. Of course this will affect
their earnings and different individuals will receive different amounts
for work on the same kind of job. In fact, earnings of the same
worker at the same hourly rate may vary from week to week.
Another method of fixing the rate of pay is according to the number
of items processed or tasks completed (piece rate). In such cases, an
employee's earnings may differ from day to day and even from hour
to hour, since they are affected to a large extent by differences in the
way in which the employer or the worker organizes the work, as well
as by variations in the speed of the worker.
In some instances a special bonus is paid to individuals as an incentive to achieve a high rate of production (as on factory processes)
or a large volume of sales (as in a store or other sales job). The wage
figure reported then differs according to whether it includes or omits
the amounts of such bonuses.
Earnings in Particular Industries
For the country as a whole, a primary source of information on the
wages of factory workers is the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the
United States Department of Labor. This agency makes special
studies of numerous industries and reports average hourly earnings
in many occupations, showing separately the earnings of women in
occupations performed to any notable extent by women. The reports
give the averages that workers usually receive adjusted to a straighttime basis, omitting any premium pay that may be received for overtime or nightwork. The following table shows the most recently reported hourly averages in nine industries that employ large numbers
of women (in practically all these the report includes many more
women than men).
The earnings shown are averages for the industry, and include a
wide range of occupations in many different localities. The processes
performed by women and men in the same industry usually differ,
and this is one of the primary causes for the differences in the earnings
of the two sexes. The data illustrate a rather widespread situation—
that women workers in an industry often receive less pay than men
to meet their living costs. The averages also conceal the great differences in the earnings of individual workers that may arise in piecework occupations.
For example, men's hourly earnings discussed here average from
$1.07 to $1.53, women's from $0.90 to $1.20. In 4 of the 9 industries,
the average for men is higher than the maximums for women in any
31
INCOME, EARNINGS, FAMILY SUPPORT
of the industries. In eight of them, men's average is more than 20
cents an hour above women's, and thus at the end of a 40-hour week,
men have at least $8 more in the pay envelope than women have.
NUMBERS AND HOURLY EARNINGS OF W O M E N AND M E N IN SELECTED INDUSTRIES
Industry
Number reported
Women
Men
Footwear (1953)
100,429
Converted paper products1
(1953)
71,989
Work clothing i (1953)
58, 384
Overalls and industrial
garments.
'29,315
Work pants
18,185
Work shirts
7,710
Candy and other confectionery 1 (1953)
27,146
Hosiery 3 (1952):
Seamless
41,348
Full-fashioned.
31, 116
1
Median hourly
earnings
Women Men
Percent of
women
receiving—
Under $1 50
$0.80 and over
77,408
$1.13
$1.53
11
13
114,279
7, 803
1.16
. 94
1.51
1. 15
3
32
73
3
4,173
2,406
780
.96
.91
. 90
1.17
1.07
1. 16
31
37
32
4
2
18,951
1.08
1.39
7
5
14, 148
23,629
.95
1.20
1. 19
1. 85
25
7
2
17
(2)
F * Data for footwear, paper products, work clothing, and candy were reported for from 41 to 48 States, in
some cases with the District of Columbia in addition.
2 Less than 1 percent.
^ ^Reported from 27 States and the District of Columbia.
Even in the same occupation women often receive far less than men.
There are many valid explanations for this, since processes may differ
markedly in a single occupation, and workers differ in experience and
capabilities. However, the fact remains that to meet current living
expenses women's work frequently yields less than men's in the same
occupation. For example, in a skilled branch of the footwear industry—the making of men's welt shoes—women machine cutters, vampers, assemblers, and treers average at least 33 cents an hour less than
men, or $13.20 less for a 40-hour week. In the making of lighter
shoes—misses' and children's cement process shoes—women vampers,
assemblers, and treers average at least 43 cents an hour less than men,
or $17.20 less for a 40-hour week. For a year's work men's income
would thus exceed women's in the first group of occupations by over
$685 and in the second group by almost $900.
Earnings of Women in Laundries
Earnings of women in various occupations in laundries were reported in 1953 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 33 cities in all
parts of the country. These are straight-time earnings, omitting
premium pay for overtime and nightwork. Taking these cities together, the laundry occupations employing the largest numbers of
32
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
women were flatwork machine finisher, machine shirt presser, and
marker. No men were reported in these occupations. In some cities
men were employed as bundle wrappers, identifiers, or receiving
clerks, though usually these occupations had larger numbers of women
than of men.
In all or most of these six laundry occupations, women's average
hourly earnings were above 90 cents in the cities on the west coast
and in Chicago, Milwaukee, and in the Minneapolis, St. Paul, and
New York City areas. On the other hand, in all or most of these
laundry occupations, women averaged only 75 cents or less in 13 cities
in the South (or southern borderline, since this includes Baltimore).
Averages were below 60 cents an hour in all or most of these occupations in five of these cities.
In most cities the laundry occupation paying highest to women
was either machine shirt presser or receiving clerk. Lowest-paid
women in most cities were finishers operating flatwork machines, who
in 12 cities had average earnings of less than 60 cents an hour. The
following summary indicates the general range of pay in the chief
occupations of women in power laundries.
R A N G E OF H O U R L Y EARNINGS OF W O M E N , P O W E R LAUNDRIES, 3 3 A R E A S ,
1953
Number of areas with hourly
earnings averaging—
Occupation
Clerks (retail receiving).
Finishers—Flatwork machine
,
Identifiers8
Markers
Pressers
(shirt)—Machine..
Wrappers (bundle)3
Highest
hourly
average $1 or
earnings1 over
75 cents 60 cents
Lowest
and
and
hourly
under
under
Under average
$1
75 cents 60jcents cents2
$1.28
5
19
7
2
50
1. 10
1.29
1.28
2
4
6
16
14
15
3
7
3
12
3
9
29
51
44
1. 19
1.23
11
3
10
16
5
3
7
10
47
41
i in each occupation the highest average was in San Francisco, and in most cases Portland, Oreg., paid
second highest.
J In each occupation the lowest average was in Macon, Ga., or Montgomery, Ala.
* In a few of the 33 areas this occupation was not reported.
Source: U . S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Industry Wage Studies.
Women Benefiting From Old Age and
Insurance
Survivors
The old-age and survivors insurance system is an important source
of income for many women 65 years of age and over who have built
INCOME, EARNINGS, FAMILY SUPPORT
33
up insurance credits through their own employment, and also for
widows of men with insurance credits. This system is a family insurance plan under the social-security law, which is operated by the
Federal Government, through a tax on employers and workers. It
enables gainfully employed people to provide an income for themselves and their families when their usual income from employment is
cut off by old age or death. Through contributions based on the
amount of their wages or self-employment income, they establish
rights to future benefits. For aged persons who are not eligible for
old-age and survivors insurance and who have no other resources, oldage assistance is provided under federally aided State programs.
Of over 7 million women 65 years old or over in the 1953 population, over 2 million received monthly payments under the old-age
and survivors insurance system. These women were somewhat less
than half of such beneficiaries. Some of them were receiving insurance built up in their own working life; others were widows or
aged dependent mothers benefiting from the insurance of deceased
husbands or children.
Some indication as to what old-age insurance beneficiaries receive
is shown by figures for awards made during a recent 6-month period
when the monthly average was almost $45 for women and somewhat
less than $62 for men. Less than $35 a month was received by 40
percent of the women and 15 percent of the men; $65 or more by 15
percent of the women and 50 percent of the men.
Aside from those receiving OASI payments, almost two-thirds
million women of 65 and over were working, and 1 million had husbands who were employed. About two-thirds million were receiving
other types of Government insurance, as from State and local sources,
the veterans' pension program, and the like. About iy 2 million
women having no other resources received old-age assistance from
State and Federal funds (half a million fewer than those receiving
OASI). Almost 2 million women of 65 and over either had no income or their income was derived from other sources such as personal
funds or local relief.
By the close of 1953 the OASI program had been in effect 17 years,
so that time had enabled a major proportion of the working population to build up credits under it. Amendments that went into effect in
August 1950 substantially extended coverage and increased the amount
of benefits. Further improvements were made in the law in later
years.
302449—54
6
34
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
Women's Contributions to Family Support
Women's earnings are a substantial asset in maintaining and advancing the standard of living in many American families. A large
number of studies indicate that among women workers who live with
their families over nine-tenths usually make regular contributions to
the family upkeep. Among women who live apart from their families,
about a fifth contribute regularly to the support of relatives.
Most recent of many studies of the contribution of women as supplementary earners in their families is a survey by Fortune magazine related to 1953 incomes. This estimates women to be 15 million
of the 22 million supplementary earners in 17 million families. The
report credits these women with a substantial share in raising the
living levels of their families.
In more than a tenth of the families in the country, women furnish
half or more of the entire income, according to the only report that
has been made on this phase of the subject, issued by the Census
Bureau several years ago (1947).
Women as Only Earners in the Family
More than a tenth of the women workers are the only earners in
their families, according to numerous special studies that afford such
information. Most recent among these is a study made by the Women's
Bureau of about 9,000 women workers who were members of several
different union groups. The report shows that especially large proportions of the widowed and divorced are the only earners in their
families, but that many single women, and some of the married also,
are the sole earners in their families. The findings may be summarized briefly as follows:
Percent sole family
earner
Marital status
Single women.
Married women
WidowsDivorced women
___
__
Number
reported
3,050
3, 800
850
1, 100
Lowest,
Highest,
any union any union
12
3
30
40
23
13
47
54
Contribution of Working Wives and Daughters
It is generally recognized that most single women who work are
self-supporting. It is well known that working daughters and sisters
often contribute notably to family upkeep in many ways. For example, in some families daughters help with medical or grocery bills,
provide added household furnishings or facilities, or aid with education of younger sisters or brothers. In many families the contri-
INCOME, EARNINGS, FAMILY SUPPORT
35
bution of the employed wife is no less substantial. Of the women
reported in the Fortune survey referred to, 9 million are wives, 4
million daughters, the remainder in some other relationship to their
families.
A wife is more likely to enter the labor force if the income of her
husband is low than if it is at a considerably higher level. A census
report on income of nonfarm families shows that where the husband's
wage or salary is less than $2,000 a year (and he has no other income),
more than 35 percent of the wives are at work. Where the husband
earns $3,000 or more, only 25 percent of the wives are employed, and
where he earns $5,000 or more, 21 percent or fewer of the wives are in
the labor force. These figures are based on incomes in families with
wives 18 to 65 years old who were employed in 1952.
Where the husband's income is low the working wife's earnings also
are low. In fact, the wife's median income tends to be about half that
of the husband's. However, the wife's income is a substantial aid to
the entire family budget, and the family's median is raised well over
a fourth by her earnings, according to this report.
Women With
Dependents
Another way of approaching the financial responsibilities of women
is to inquire how many are supporting dependents. It happens that
women's share in family support is often given in ways which make
it difficult to measure the extent of their responsibility for dependents.
For example, many women put a part of their earnings into the general family fund. Others regularly pay certain of the family's expenses, such as those for groceries, rent, medical care.
Information on the proportions of working women who have dependents is afforded by a great variety of special studies made at
different times and places and including workers in differing occupation groups. An examination of a large number of these indicates
that half or well over half of the employed women consider themselves
in some degree responsible for the support of dependents.
A few of the examples of such reports include the following. A
comprehensive study of nurses showed 30 percent responsible for dependents. A study of women school teachers in cities throughout the
country indicated that over half had dependents. Various studies of
women workers in wartime showed a third to half with dependents.
In a number of States unemployed women receive additional payments
when they have dependents, and reports show that considerable proportions of the women receiving compensation during unemployment
proved their responsibility for the support of dependents. For
further details on this subject, see Women's Bureau Bulletin No. 239.
Women Workers and Their Dependents.
36
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
Working Women's Budgets
In connection with women's earnings, account must also be taken
of the necessary expenses that enter into their budgets. Estimates
for the budget requirements of self-supporting women have been prepared by various State labor departments, primarily for use in the
administration of State minimum-wage laws. These estimates are
based originally on field surveys that priced the necessities of living
at a given time, and are kept up to date, either by a complete repricing or by using current cost-of-living indexes. Budgets for the
States listed below are available through the Women's Bureau. The
commodity and service specifications and other pertinent facts about
budgets of the various States are contained in Women's Bureau Bulletin 226, Working Women's Budgets in Thirteen States.
All but two of the budgets set a minimum-adequate standard of
living for a self-supporting woman without dependents; two, Maine
and Massachusetts, consider the needs of self-supporting persons of
either sex. The budgets include board and lodging, clothing and its
upkeep, personal care, medical care, transportation, recreation (including vacation), reading material, educational and other miscellaneous expenses; with one exception, Massachusetts, they also make
allowances for taxes, insurance, and savings. In most budgets, the
cost of food and housing is based on average prices for a furnished
room and three restaurant meals a day. Variations in the amounts
budgeted reflect differences not only in living arrangements (as in
furnished room, boardinghouse, or family group), but also in quantity
and quality of commodities and other services allowed. Because of
differences in content and in the dates for which prices were collected,
budget figures for the several States are not comparable.
State
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
District of Columbia.
Kentucky
Maine
Massachusetts
New Jersey
New York
New York City
Pennsylvania
Utah
Washington. _
Total
budget
$2, 312
2, 004
1,813
1,867
2,209
1,992
2,236
1 1, 723
2,492
2, 442
2, 521
2, 121
2,230
2,664
Date
1954
1950
1949
1949
1953
1949
1950
1954
1950
1952
1953
1949
1950
1952
(Feb.).
(Oct.).
(Jan.).
(Mar.).
(May).
(Feb.).
(Dec.).
(Feb.).
(Oct.).
(Sept.).
(Sept.).
(Nov.).
(Oct.).
(May).
* A commodity and service budget only; no provision made for taxes or savings. Federal income and
social security taxes would amount to $209 and $34.46 respectively, which would bring the budget to $1,966.63
without savings.
2
WOMEN'S EDUCATION
AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING
Education Completed by Women
Of the women in the population 25 years of age and over, half have
completed more and half have completed less than 10.4 years in
school, according to Bureau of the Census reports for 1952. Fortyfive percent of all women 25 and over have attended high school but
not college; 13 percent have had some college education, including
6 percent who have completed 4 or more years of college. Women
are about half of all persons with some college education, almost 45
percent of those who have had 4 or more college years.
Among men in the population, the median of years of education
is a little below women's, and a somewhat larger proportion of men
than of women have no high-school education. However, slightly
larger proportions of men than of women have attended college, and
have completed 4 years of college. The following list shows further
details.
Y E A R S OP SCHOOL COMPLETED,
1952
[Women and men 25 years of age or older]
' Women
Median years of school completed
Men
10. 4
9. 7
100
100
41
45
18
27
13
8
6
1
45
37
17
21
15
7
8
2
Percent distribution
Total
No high school
High school only
Less than 4 years
4 years or more
College
Less than 4 years
4 years or more
No report
37
38
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
Enrollment in Schools and Colleges
Among young women and girls 5 to 24 years of age, not far from twothirds are enrolled in schools and colleges, according to census reports. However, 95 percent of those in age groups 6 years but under
18 are in school, and only small proportions of the 5-year-olds and
of those 20 and over are attending. These figures are for regular
schools only, and do not include kindergartens nor "special" schools
outside the regular system (such as trade schools and business colleges), nor correspondence courses, nor training on the job. As the
following summary shows, the proportion of girls and young women
enrolled has increased slightly in the past 3 years. In the male population the proportion in school is higher than among women and girls,
and has increased more than with women and girls.
SCHOOL ENROLLMENT
1
OP POPULATION U N D E R 2 5 Y E A R S OP A G E
Girls in school
Number
Age (years)
Total
5
6, under 18
18 and 19
20, under 25
—
1958-54
Percent of f emale
population
1953-54
15,702,000
265,000
14, 553, 000
538,000
346,000
1950-51
64
15
95
26
6
61
22
93
24
5
Percent of male population in school •
1953-54
73
14
95
38
19
1950-51
67
19
94
35
14
i Includes both public and private elementary schools (but not kindergartens), high schools, and
eolleges; enrollment as of October 1953 and 1950,
Types of Schools in Which Students Enrolled
By far the largest proportion of the students are in elementary
schools (including kindergartens) as the following summary shows.
T Y P E OP SCHOOL ATTENDED BY STUDENTS 5 TO 2 4 Y E A R S OF A G E , OCTOBER 1 9 5 3
Percent
distriGIRLS AND WOMEN
All typesElementary school
High school
College, professional school
Number
bution
15, 702, 000
100
11, 314, 000
3, 612, 000
776,000
72
23
5
16,560,000
100
11, 835, 000
3, 627, 000
1, 098, 000
71
22
7
BOYS AND MEN
All types
Elementary school
High school
College, professional school
39
EDUCATION AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING
Girls and young women constitute almost half the elementary and
high-school students, and two-thirds of the high-school graduates. In
the colleges, on the other hand, young men predominate much more
markedly, according to census figures for the 1953-54 school year.
Women Earning Degrees
Almost 125,000 women were graduated from institutions of higher
education in 1953, according to figures of the United States Office of
Education. Over 80 percent of these received the bachelor's or first
professional degree. Women are a third of all recipients of the bachelor's and master's degrees and a tenth of those granted the doctoral
degree.
The proportion of degree recipients who are women has increased
markedly in the past few years, as the following summary shows. The
increased number of women receiving master's or second professional
degrees has been especially striking—almost a fifth greater in 1953
than 3 years earlier. Among causes of this may be development of
greater incentives to women to improve their qualifications for jobs
or their cultural equipment for living. Moreover, the decreased number of men with veterans' training rights may enable more women to
take advantage of facilities for higher education. The number of
women receiving the doctor's degree also increased by nearly a fourth,
though they remain only 1 percent of all degrees taken by women
in the year.
COLLEGE AND PROFESSIONAL D E G R E E S E A R N E D BY W O M E N
Degree
All degrees
1952-58
1949-50
Percent
Percent
Nunber of total Percent Number of total Percent
of
degree distriof
degree distriwomen recipients bution women recipients bution
124,863
Bachelor's and first professional
104,037
Master's and second professional
20,034
Doctor's
792
33
100 121,540
24
100
34
83 103,915
24
85
33
10
16
1
29
10
14
1
16,982
643
Source: U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education.
No. 380a and No. 282.
Statistical Circulars
Subjects in Which Degrees Were Earned
A third of the bachelor's degrees granted to women are in the field
of education, another third in humanities, arts, and social sciences,
according to a special study made by the National Science Foundation
and reported in 1954. The concentration in these subjects is even
40
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
greater in the master's degrees, over half being in education, almost
three-fourths in education plus the humanities, arts, and social sciences.
Education is the one specific field where the proportion of women
receiving the master's degree is larger than the proportion receiving
the bachelor's degree. This indicates that many teachers whose first
degree was in a subject field obtained a second degree in education.
The marked growth in proportion of master's degrees in education
also reflects the usual practice of teachers to keep currently abreast of
the skills and developments in their profession and meet the requirements for advancement. In the smaller and more specialized fields
(all other) also, the percentage of women receiving the master's degree
was larger than the percentage who received the bachelor's degree.
The list that follows gives some basis for further interesting analyses
as to additional fields.
SUBJECTS IN W H I C H D E G R E E S
WERE
EARNED
Percent distribution
of~
WOMEN
Total
Education
Humanities, arts
Social sciences
Applied biological
Natural sciences
Business, commerceHealth
fields
—
All other
fields
Bachelor's
Master's
100
100
34
20
11
8
7
6
4
10
52
14
5
4
5
2
3
15
100
100
19
15
12
11
11
8
6
4
14
9
10
8
33
14
11
1
3
11
MEN
Total
Business, commerce
Engineering sciences
Social sciences
Education
Natural sciences
Humanities, arts
Health
Applied biological
Allother
fields
fields—
Source: National Science Foundation. Scientific Manpower Bulletin, Mar. 1, 1954. Based on questionnaires sent every third recipient of bachelor's and every fifth recipient of master's degrees in over 1,000
colleges and universities, in June 1951.
The chief subjects for men differed from those for women, and men
were not concentrated in 2 or 3 fields to such a large extent as women.
A fifth of the men with bachelor's degrees were in business or com-
41
EDUCATION AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING
merce, the second largest field being engineering sciences (represented by less than 1 percent among the women's degrees), and the
third, social sciences. A tenth each were in natural sciences and education. Among men, a larger proportion of the master's than of the
bachelor's degrees were in education, and also in natural sciences and
in the humanities and arts.
In the next year after receiving a bachelor's degree, the men professionally employed had a median income $1,000 above that of the
women. A part of the explanation for this lies in the fact that very
few women took degrees in the field of men's highest earnings, which
attracted considerable proportions of the men—engineering sciences—
and only small proportions of women were in the two fields of women's
highest earnings—health and natural sciences. Moreover, in social
sciences and the humanities, in which a third of the women's and a
fifth of the men's degrees were taken, men's median earnings were
respectively $800 and $600 above women's.
M E D I A N A N N U A L INCOME OF EMPLOYED GRADUATES BY A R E A OF SPECIALIZATION
(In first year after receiving degree)
Women with—
Bachelor's
degree
All areas
Education
Humanities, arts
Social sciences
Applied biological fields
Natural sciences
Business, commerce
Health fields
Engineering sciences
1
$2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
3,
P)
700
800
600
600
700
900
700
100
Master's
degree
$3, 700
3, 900
3, 300
0
0)
P)
m
0)
0)
Men with—
Bachelor's
degree
$3,
3,
3,
3,
3,
3,
3,
700
200
200
400
600
700
700
«.
4, 400
Master's
degree
$4,
3,
3,
3,
200
900
600
900
w
4, 600
4, 500
0)
5, 400
Too few cases reported to show median.
Source: National Science Foundation.
of employed recipients of degrees in 1951.
Scientific Manpower Bulletin.
March 1954.
Income in 1952
While the bachelor's degree thus was considerably less productive
for women than for men, the advance after receiving a master's degree
was greater for women—$1,000 for women but only $500 for men.
In education, men with the bachelor's degree received $400 more than
women, but the median for those with the master's degree was the same
for both sexes. In the important major fields for men—engineering
sciences, natural sciences, and business and commerce—not only did
men with the bachelor's degree have higher median incomes than in
other fields, but increases after receiving a master's degree were
greater than in other fields.
The median income of all women with the master's degree was the
same as that of men with the bachelor's degree, while men with mas-
42
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
ter's degrees had a median $500 higher. In the two fields in which
largest proportions of women's degrees were granted—education and
humanities and arts—their median increased with the master's degree
by $1,000 and $700 respectively, increases considerably greater than
for men.
Women in Federal Vocational Courses
Almost iy 2 million women and girls were enrolled in federally
aided vocational courses in 1952-53, according to provisional figures
of the Office of Education, as shown in the summary following.
This does not include persons in agricultural courses, for which data
on women are not available.
W O M E N AND GIRLS IN FEDERALLY AIDED VOCATIONAL TRAINING, FISCAL
YEAR
1952-53 1
Women and girls in
part-time and
evening classes
All women and girls
Number
Percent Percent
of all
distristudents bution
Number
Percent
of all
women
Three programs
1, 491, 921
64
100
700, 310
47
Home economics
Distributive
Trade and industrial:
Trades and industries __
General continuation
1, 277, 609
112, 385
96
54
86
7
520, 177
112, 385
41
100
86, 089
15, 838
13
54
6
1
51, 910
15, 838
60
100
* Provisional figures. Agricultural training not included, a,s data not available by sex
Source: U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, Division of Vocational
Education.
The vocational training includes education in trade and industrial,
home economic, and distributive occupations. It is designed to meet
the needs of persons 14 or over, either those who have left school and
wish to prepare for a trade, or those who are employed and desire to
extend their skill and knowledge in their work. It is based in the first
instance on the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 (39 Stat. 929), with later
acts and modifications of the program as needed, especially by the
Vocational Education Act of 1946, also known as the George-Barden
Act (60 Stat. 775).
The great importance of this training program to the Nation's girls
and women scarcely can be overestimated, since for the most part they
do not benefit from publicly supported training programs open to
veterans or those given to men and boys in the military services. It
will be seen from the summary that the great majority of the women
and girls benefiting from federally aided vocational training are in
43
EDUCATION AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING
W O M E N ENROLLED IN T R A D E S AND INDUSTRIES CLASSES, Y E A R E N D E D J U N E 3 0 ,
1953
Enrollment of
women
Total
Total
Personal service trades
1
All-day
classes
86, 089
34, 179
33,770
14,630
Nursing:
Practical
Other
Cosmetology
Household service
Janitor service
Dental assistants
Garment and textile trades
351
350
215
246
560
503
24, 550
286
13, 053
Dressmaking
Power sewing-machine operation
Tailoring..
Textiles
Millinery
Food trades
12, 177
7, 019
1,562
884
842
10, 896
8, 660
2, 447
743
9
407
2, 352
Food handler
Waitress
Cooking
Food service
Baker, cake decorator
Aircraft manufacturing and maintenance trades
Airplane assembly and riveting
Printing and publishing trades
Commercial artist
Electrical trades
Telegraphy and telephony
Metal trades
Machine shop
Mechanical service and hand trades
Building and construction trades
Miscellaneous trades.
Handicrafts for independent wage earning
Foreman, supervisor
Drafting
Transportation
19,
1,
9,
2,
4,
2,
1,
1,
514
171
647
444
673
2, 497
1, 319
2, 559
1, 842
2, 094
1, 126
1,214
511
472
377
7,660
2, 827
1, 458
726
650
5, 972
100
7, 594
394
__
1,
1,
1,
1,
169
875
845
150
161
067
597
232
353
124
266
87
154
34
579
48
112
— — -
' In all subheads, total exceeds details, as details are shown only for courses enrolling 500 or more women.
Source: U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, Division of Vocational Education. Federally aided classes in which women were enrolled, excluding enrollments in
general continuation classes.
44
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
home-economics classes, a field for which the demand runs far above
the supply of workers. Teaching of home economics is limited by
law to 20 percent of the funds allotted to a State for vocational purposes. The second largest group of women and girls are in courses for
distributive occupations, a branch of work added by the act of 1946.
Women and girls are over half the students in these courses, which
deal with buying and selling trades and merchandising activities.
In agricultural classes the numbers of women are not recorded separately, but they are thought to be only a very small proportion, probably about 1 to 2 percent. However, in some short-unit intensive
courses, especially those on certain subjects, for example, horticulture
or poultry raising, the proportions may be higher.
Trades and industries classes enrolled over 85,000 women. This
training has a vitally important place in preparing some of the women
who are so much needed in this country's production and development
programs. For example, large groups are learning practical nursing,
power sewing-machine operation, food handling, airplane assembly,
dressmaking, work as waitress, and numerous other skills much in
demand. The chief types of courses taken are shown in the list that
follows.
Of all women in these courses, about 40 percent are learning operations in garment, textile, or food trades, another 40 percent in personal
services. In these fields, smaller groups of women not shown in the
list below are training in laundry work, upholstery, interior decorating, and as assistants to doctors. Among small groups not shown in
other fields are women taking courses on printing, radio operation and
repair, sheet metal and welding and flame cutting, shoemaking and
repair.
About 60 percent of the women and girls in trades and industries
courses are enrolled in part-time or evening classes, as are about 40
percent of those in home economics courses. The law provides that at
least a third of the funds allotted a State must be used for part-time
classes, which may be held by day or may include evening classes for
workers 16 or over. Instruction must be supplementary to employment, broadly construed so that it may include some instruction in
such aspects, for example, as training in safety, socio-economic problems, or labor law, as related to the workers' occupations.
Some courses are organized especially to provide alternate periods
of work and class attendance. If used in connection with industrialplant training these must be under public supervision to assure that
actual vocational training is being given; those who take them are
referred to as "student-learners" to distinguish them from the learners
under plant supervision, whose minimum wage and learning time are
specified by the United States Department of Labor.
EDUCATION AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING
45
Women Aided by Vocational Rehabilitation Programs
Under Federal and State vocational rehabilitation programs,
22,044 women were given service in the fiscal year ending June 30,
1953. Women were 36 percent of the total number of persons thus
aided in this period. A major objective of these programs is to assure
gainful employment to persons otherwise unable to work because of
disability, injury, or disease. Besides training and job placement
based on individual requirements, the programs include medical or
physical treatment and also furnish equipment where needed by the
individual, such as hearing aids, braces, and the like. According to
reports prepared by the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation in the
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the number of
women aided in 1953 represented an increase of about 6 percent over
1951.
4
STANDARDS FOR EMPLOYMENT
OF WOMEN
Need for Standards for Women Workers
Great changes in women's work have been developing for about a
century and a half. These result primarily from the transfer of
industry from the home to the factory, but other influences have contributed. Two world wars have speeded up the process. Women
have become an important part of the Nation's labor force. In large
and gradually increasing numbers they are employed either in manufacturing goods or performing services for the public—working in
factories, offices, schools, stores, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, and
laundries. Many thousands of women also are employed by the
Federal, State, and local governments; other thousands work in
private households.
The Nation's best interests demand good labor standards for women,
many of whom are mothers and homemakers as well as wage earners.
In many instances, employers have established high standards of
employment. In other cases, adequate standards have been adopted
through collective bargaining between employers and trade unions.
But when standards depend wholly on voluntary action, they often do
not apply to all workers in an industry; and they may vary in adequacy from firm to firm. For this reason the States quite generally
have set up standards for women's employment, governing wages,
hours, and other conditions of work in a large number of occupations
and industries.
Development of Standards
Labor standards are not stationary but are influenced by continuously changing conditions. They change as a result of advancing
scientific knowledge and as a result of growing recognition by both
workers and employers of the importance of good working conditions.
Minimum-wage standards have been adjusted as prices rise and as
new items come into the accepted minimum standard of living. Historically, hours of work have been reduced as factory processes have
been mechanized and also as fatigue has come to be recognized as
detrimental to the worker's health and efficiency. The development
46
STANDARDS FOR EMPLOYMENT
47
of industrial hygiene provides a basis for regulating the use of
industrial materials or processes that endanger the health of workers.
Labor standards are developed through many channels—employers, unions, governmental and private agencies. The enactment in
many States of laws establishing adequate standards governing wages,
hours, and working conditions for women often has stimulated the
adoption by employers of better standards for men also.
Outlined in the following pages are basic recommended standards
to safeguard health and efficiency of women employees. These apply
mainly to industrial and office workers. They do not attempt to deal
with details, but indicate the direction in which good standards should
move.
In matters such as training, seniority, and promotion women workers often are in a particularly vulnerable situation which requires
special attention. These ordinarily are not governed by law, and
fair adjustments require methods other than legislation. Women
frequently are hired for beginning jobs on an equal basis with men but
do not get equal consideration for promotion. Frequently they do
not have the same training opportunities, and even if trained, are not
given a chance at better jobs. The opportunity to secure an equal
rate of pay or equal seniority in their jobs is sometimes lacking.
Wage Standards
Adequate basic wages serve to sustain the Nation's economic stability by maintaining a secure and healthy level of living for individual
workers. To aid in accomplishing these objectives, Federal and State
governments to some extent are providing by law for a floor to wages
as well as a ceiling to hours. Since earnings determine standards
of living, workers should be assured a minimum wage adequate to
meet the cost of living. To be adequate the wage should continue
throughout the year, since standard of living depends not merely on
the adequacy of the wage rate but also on regularity of earnings.
Wage standards should include the following:
1. The principle of "equal pay": Wage rate based on the job, and
not on the sex of the worker, nor on other factors not related to ability
to perform the job.
2. A comprehensive minimum-wage system established through
legislation and geared to living costs.
3. Provision that protective clothing, other safety equipment, and
uniforms be furnished and maintained by the employer as part of
the cost of production.
4. Wage-payment laws requiring regular payment of wages in full,
on a weekly or semimonthly basis, and on a fixed day, with provision
for the appropriate Government agency to help collect unpaid wages.
48
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
Hours and Leave Standards
Standards which provide workers with adequate rest for health and
welfare, and time for other responsibilities and for leisure, are important to both workers and employers. Experience has shown that
maximum production can be maintained over a prolonged period only
under working conditions that sustain the health and efficiency of
the workers and strengthen their morale. The 5-day, 40-hour workweek, which allows employees sufficient time for rest, for educational
and recreational activities, and for civic and home responsibilities,
is a growing practice in many industries.
Hours and leave standards should include :
1. Not more than 8 hours of work a day, and not more than 48
a week; worktime over 40 hours to be paid for at time and one-half
the worker's regular rate.
2. At least 1 day of rest in 7.
3. Meal periods of at least 30 minutes. No work period of more
than 5 hours without a break for meal or rest.
4. A rest period of at least 10 minutes in the middle of each halfday work period, to be given in addition to the lunch period and without lengthening the workday.
5. Some vacation with pay after 6 months on the job; a longer vacation after longer service.
6. Sick leave and maternity leave without loss of job or seniority
rights; maternity leave to cover a minimum of 6 weeks before and
2 months after confinement, with extension of either period on advice
of the worker's physician.
7. Time off with pay on legal holidays.
8. Nightwork, except in continuous-process industries and essential
services, kept to a minimum; a guarantee of an uninterrupted rest
period for women of 11 consecutive hours, including an absolute
"barred period" of 7 hours between 12 midnight and 7 a. m.
Health and Safety Standards
Standards adequate to insure safe and healthful working conditions
are essential in all workplaces. The standards should include:
For Health
1. Working environment: Adequate ventilation, lighting, and
heating, to preserve health and reduce strain and fatigue.
2. Plant facilities: Washrooms, toilets, rest rooms and dressing
rooms, and drinking water, to be convenient and available to all
workers; lunchrooms with nourishing food at reasonable prices to
be provided where the size of the plant makes it practicable; facilities
to conform to high standards of health and sanitation.
STANDARDS FOR EMPLOYMENT
49
3. Medical services in the plant commensurate with needs of the
workers.
4. A program of industrial hygiene to discover and protect against
occupational hazards arising from the use of dangerous substances
or processes.
5. Provision for mechanical aids in lifting weights, and elimination
of undue physical strain wherever possible.
6. Suitable seats, in adequate numbers; workers to be free to use
them at all times if the nature of the job permits, and in any event
during periods when not actively engaged in performance of duties
that require a standing position.
For Safety
1. Equipment and machinery in good working condition, with adequate guards against injury.
2. Safety equipment and clothing, such as goggles, safety shoes,
protective gloves, as needed, maintained in good condition.
3. Safe and uncrowded work space; stairways, floors, halls, rooms,
and passageways kept in good condition and adequately lighted.
4. A continuing safety program and training in safety on the job
for all workers.
Industrial Homework
Efforts to abolish industrial homework, with its long and irregular
hours, low earnings, and child labor, should be continued. Strict
regulation of hours, wages, and working conditions in industries
where homework exists is recommended until prohibitory laws can
be passed.
4
STATE LABOR LAWS FOR WOMEN
as of April 1, 1954
Basic Standards
Each of the 48 States, the District of Columbia, Alaska, Hawaii,
and Puerto Rico has on its statute books laws establishing standards
for the employment of women. Principal subjects of regulation are
(1) wages, including minimum wages and equal pay; (2) hours of
work, including maximum daily and weekly hours, day of rest, meal
and rest periods, and night work; (3) industrial homework; (4)
certain hazardous or unhealthful types or conditions of employment;
(5) plant facilities; and (6) employment before and after childbirth.
In most such laws the coverage is expressly limited to women or to
women and minors. Not every State has enacted legislation on each
of these subjects, and the standards established vary widely from
State to State.
During three-quarters of a century of development, the field of
labor legislation for women has seen a tremendous increase in the
number of laws and a notable improvement in standards they establish. Highest State standards in effect April 1, 1954, in one
or more industries in the major fields of minimum wage, equal pay,
and hours of work and in miscellaneous other fields are shown in the
following pages; standards in effect for wages and hours of household
employees are also shown. More detailed information on State
minimum-wage and hours legislation is available in two other
Women's Bureau publications: Bulletin 247, State Minimum-Wage
Laws and Orders, and Bulletin 250, State Hour Laws for Women.
Minimum Wage
Minimum-wage legislation is on the statute books in 26 States, District of Columbia, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Most of the
laws are applicable to women workers in all occupations or industries
except agriculture and domestic service. The Maine law, however,
applies only to fish packing.
Originally, State minimum-wage legislation was designed for the
protection of women and minors and did much to raise the extremely
inadequate wages in both the manufacturing and the trade and service
occupations. The first State minimum-wage law for women wTas
enacted by Massachusetts in 1912. In the decade that preceded and
50
STATE LABOR LAWS
51
followed World War I, laws were enacted in approximately 14 States,
the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. In the succeeding decade,
a decision of the United States Supreme Court holding unconstitutional the District of Columbia law (Adkins case, 1923) temporarily
interrupted the advance of new legislation. However, a number of
States continued to administer existing laws. In the depression of
the 1930's, stimulated by the force of public opinion, 12 more States
enacted laws. The United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Washington State law (Parrish case) in 1937,
expressly reversing its prior decision on the District of Columbia law.
In 1941, Hawaii enacted a law and Puerto Rico a second law,
applicable to all persons, in which provision was made for setting
minimum-wage rates by wage-board procedure. Since 1941, existing
laws have been extended and considerably strengthened in many States.
Methods of establishing minimum wages differ. In some States,
minimum wages are fixed in the statute itself; in others they are established by minimum-wage orders issued by the State labor commissioner ; and in others by both statutory rate and wage order. In most
of the 26 States and in the District of Columbia, minimum wages are
not in effect until wage orders are issued in an individual industry
or occupation by the commissioner of labor. However, in nine jurisdictions, rates are set by statute or by statute and wage order.
In seven jurisdictions—Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico—minimumwage laws are applicable to adult males as well as to women and
minors.
Arizona.
* Arkansas (females).
California.
Colorado.
* Connecticut (all persons).
District of Columbia.
Illinois.
Kansas.
Kentucky.
Louisiana (women and girls).
Maine.
^^Massachusetts (any person).
Minnesota.
*Nevada (women and girls).
**New Hampshire (any employee).
New Jersey.
New York (women; minors; men).
North Dakota.
Ohio.
Oklahoma (adult women).
Oregon.
Pennsylvania.
Rhode Island (women; minors;
men).
* South Dakota (women and girls).
Utah.
Washington.
Wisconsin.
* Alaska (women).
*Hawaii (men; women; minors).
**Puerto Rico :
(1) (women and girls).
(2) (any person).
Note : Unless otherwise specified law applies to women and minors.
* Statutory rates established in original laws.
** State wage-board laws amended to include statutory rates. Puerto Rico has two
laws ; one provides for establishment of minimum wages by statute and another sets rates
by wage-board procedure.
52
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
The Federal Fair Labor Standards Act, originally enacted in 1938,
gives the majority of workers in manufacturing and other interstate
industries broad Federal protection. However, local trade and service
industries in which large numbers of women are employed are not
covered by the Federal Act. Wage orders issued under the State laws
apply largely to workers in the intrastate industries, although some
States also continue to set minimum wages for manufacturing.
Equal Pay
Laws applicable to private employment which establish the equalpay principle—i. e., a wage rate based on the job and not on the sex
of the worker—are in effect in 13 States and 1 Territory:
California.
Connecticut.
Illinois.
Maine.
Massachusetts.
Michigan.
Montana.
New Hampshire.
New Jersey.
New York.
Pennsylvania.
Rhode Island.
Washington.
Alaska.
These 13 States account for almost half of all employed women in
the United States. The Montana equal-pay law has the most complete employee coverage; it applies to public as well as to private
employment. In all but two of the other States, the laws apply to
most types of private employment; those of Illinois and Michigan
are applicable only to manufacturing.
Establishment of equal pay for women helps to safeguard wage
levels of all workers and to sustain consumer purchasing power.
Public attention was first sharply focused on equal pay for women
during World War I when large numbers of women were employed
in emergency war industries on the same jobs as men, and the National War Labor Board enforced the policy of "no wage discrimination against women on the grounds of sex." In 1919, two States—
Michigan and Montana—enacted equal-pay laws.
Greater gains came during World War II when additional large
numbers of women entered the labor force, many of them in jobs
previously held by men. Government agencies, employers, unions,
women's organizations, and the general public were concerned with
the removal of wage differentials as a means of furthering the war
effort. During the period 1943-45, equal-pay legislation was enacted
in four States—Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington;
and in the 4 years following, in six more States—California, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Ehode Island.
Alaska in 1949 became the first Territory to take such action. New
Jersey enacted its equal-pay law in 1952.
STATE LABOR LAWS
53
Hours of Work
Today 45 States, the District of Columbia, Alaska, and Puerto
Rico have laws regulating the hours of employment of women. Such
State legislation includes laws establishing maximum daily and
weekly hours and governing day of rest, meal and rest periods, and
nightwork.
Maximum
Daily and Weekly
Hours
Maximum hour laws were the first standards to be adopted regulating women's employment. As early as 1852, Ohio adopted a 10hour law for women, but the first enforceable law was adopted by
Massachusetts in 1879. The constitutionality of maximum hours for
women was established in 1908 by a United States Supreme Court
decision upholding the Oregon 10-hour law (Mutter case).
Today 43 States, the District of Columbia, and Alaska have laws
setting a legal limit to hours of employment in one or more industries.
Five States—Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, and West Virginia—
do not have such laws. The laws of Hawaii and Puerto Rico set no
maximum but require payment of premium rates for time worked
beyond specified daily and/or weekly hours.
One-half of the States (24) and the District of Columbia, have
set maximums of 8 hours a day and/or 48 hours a week or less: 1
Arizona
Arkansas1
California
Colorado
Connecticut
District of Columbia
Illinois
Kansas
Louisiana
Massachusetts
Montana3
Nevada
New Hampshire—
8-48
8
8-48
8^(2)
8-48
8-48
8-48
8-48
8-48
9-48
8
8-48
10-48
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Utah
Virginia
Washington
Wyoming
8-48
8-48
9-48
8%-48
8-48
8-44
10-48
9-48
8-48
9-48
8
8-48
1 Statute provides that no female may be employed for more than 8 hours a day in described occupations but provides also that 9 hours may be worked if overtime compensation is paid at
times the employee's regular rate. For overtime of a permanent nature
beyond 9 hours a day, a permit must be obtained from the commissioner of labor, in addition to the payment of overtime rates.
2 Day-of-rest law provides, in effect, for a 48-hour week.
3 Various statutory provisions also require that 8 hours shall constitute a day's work for
persons (men and women) employed in specified industries and occupations, including retail stores, restaurants, and others.
Some provide also that 48 hours shall constitute a
week's work.
1 If a State has set different legal maximum hour standards for different industries, the
law establishing the highest standards, i. e., the lowest maximum hours, is shown.
54
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
Nine States have set a maximum 9-hour day for women; all but
Idaho have a weekly maximum of 50 or 54 hours:
IdahoMaine
Michigan
Missouri
Nebraska
9
9-50
9-54
9-54
9-54
Oklahoma
Texas
Vermont
Wisconsin
9-54
9-54
9-50
9-50
Nine States have set a maximum day of 10 hours and a week of from
50 to 60 hours :
Delaware
Georgia (men and women)
Kentucky
Maryland
Mississippi
10-55
10-60
10-60
10-60
1(M60
New Jersey
10-54
South Carolina (men and women) 1
10-55
South Dakota
10-54
Tennessee
10-50
1 A 1949 amendment to the previous 8- and 40-hour law for workers in textile mills
provides that work in excess of 8 and 40 hours shall be permissible when provisions of the
Federal Fair Labor Standards Act are complied with.
Minnesota has fixed no daily limit in its statute, having only a
54-hour weekly limitation for manufacturing and several other
industries.
Alaska has set 60 hours as the maximum week for household or
domestic employees.
Day of Rest
Nearly half the States (22) and the District of Columbia establish
a 6-day week for women in some or all the industries; in 7 of these,
both men and women are covered:
Arizona.
Arkansas.
^California.
Colorado.
^Connecticut.
Delaware.
District of Columbia.
*Illinois.
Kansas.
Louisiana.
*Massachusetts.
Nevada.
*New Hampshire.
New Jersey.
*New York.
North Carolina.
North Dakota.
Ohio.
Oregon.
Pennsylvania.
South Carolina.
Utah.
^Wisconsin.
* Covers both men and women.
In addition, Puerto Rico has a law which provides for a day of rest
but permits work during such day on payment of double the employee's regular rate. Also, Rhode Island has a law, enforced by the
Department of Labor, prohibiting employment on Sundays and holidays except to perform work absolutely necessary. Kentucky has a
law requiring payment of time and one-half for work on the 7th
consecutive day. Other State Sunday or blue laws do not regulate
employment and, therefore, are not noted.
55
STATE LABOR LAWS
Meal Periods
Over half the States (27), and the District of Columbia and Puerto
Eico have provided that meal periods varying from y 3 to 1 hour
must be allowed to women in some or all industries; in 4, both men
and women are covered:
Arkansas.
California.
Colorado.
Delaware.
District of Columbia.
Illinois.
* Indiana.
Kansas.
Kentucky.
Louisiana.
Maine.
Maryland.
Massachusetts.
^Nebraska.
Nevada.
*New Jersey.
New Mexico.
*New York.
North Carolina.
North Dakota.
Ohio.
Oregon.
Pennsylvania.
Rhode Island.
Utah.
Washington.
West Virginia.
Wisconsin.
Puerto Rico.
* Covers both men and
Rest Periods
Rest periods are provided for in eight States. Two—Nevada and
Wyoming—provide rest periods for a variety of industries by statute,
and 6—Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon, Utah, and Washington—provide rest periods for one or more industries by minimumwage order. Most provisions are for a 10-minute rest period within
the half-day's work.
Nightwork
Nineteen States and Puerto Eico place some limitation on the hours
adult women may be employed at night. Four other States and the
District of Columbia limit nightwork of persons 18 to 21 only.2
Although there is considerable variation in the hours covered by nightwork restrictions, the period between midnight and 6 a. m. is almost
always covered.
In 12 States and Puerto Eico nightwork for adult women is prohibited in certain industries or occupations. In North Dakota and
Washington the prohibition applies only to elevator operators.
Connecticut.
Delaware.
Indiana (suspended until
1961).
Kansas.
North Dakota.
Massachusetts.
Nebraska (except on per- South Carolina.
Washington.
mit).
Wisconsin.
New Jersey.
Puerto Rico.
New York.
2 In District of Columbia, Arizona, and Rhode Island, nightwork is prohibited for persons under 21 in messenger service ; in Virginia, for girls under 21.
Ohio prohibits nightwork in a number of establishments for girls under 21, but an emergency relaxation measure suspends nightwork prohibitions until Sept. 1, 1955, except for those under 18.
56
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
In 7 additional States not having prohibitory provisions (as well
as in several States already listed), the employment of adult women
at night is regulated either by maximum-hour provisions or by the
establishment of specific working-conditions standards.
California.
Maryland.
New Hampshire.
New Mexico.
Oregon.
Pennsylvania.
Utah.
Other Labor Legislation
Weight Lifting
Ten States and Alaska have some regulation regarding the lifting
or carrying of heavy weights by women :
Minnesota (core rooms Oregon,
California.
M a r y l a n d (foundries
only).
Utah.
New York (core rooms Washington.
only).
only).
Alaska.
Massachusetts.
Ohio.
Michigan.
Seating
Forty-six States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have
seating laws, all but one of them applying exclusively to women.
Florida's law applies to both males and females. Illinois and Mississippi have no seating laws.
Occupational Limitations
Occupations to which most of the prohibitory laws for adult women
apply are mining and work in establishments serving liquor. Of 24
States having such laws, 17 prohibit women's employment in mines
(several permit clerical work in mines, some permit work in quarries
or smelters). Nine prohibit 3 mixing, selling, or dispensing alcoholic
liquors for on-premises consumption. Eight States have legislation
prohibiting other employment considered hazardous or injurious to
health and safety. (List does not include safety laws and codes regulating various aspects of working conditions and applicable to both
sexes.)
Mines
Alabama.
Arizona.
Arkansas.
Colorado.
Barrooms
California.
Connecticut.
Illinois.
Indiana.
Other places and occupations
Colorado—Coke ovens.
Louisiana—Cleaning moving machinery.
Michigan—Operating polishing wheels,
belts.1
i Attorney General opinions differ as to whether or not Michigan law applies only to employment
underground.
3 Illinois State law authorizes city and county governments to prohibit.
57
STATE LABOR LAWS
Mines—Con.
Illinois.
Indiana.
Maryland.
Missouri
New York.
Ohio.
Oklahoma.
Pennsylvania
Utah.
Virginia.
Washington.
Wisconsin.
Wyoming.
Barrooms—Con.
Kentucky.
Michigan.
Ohio.
Pennsylvania.
Rhode Island.
Other places and occupations—Con.
Minnesota—
Core rooms.
Cleaning moving machinery.
Missouri—Cleaning or working between
moving machinery.
New York—Coremaking, or in connection with coremaking, in a room in
which the oven is also in operation.
Ohio—Other prohibitions include: Baggage handling, freight handling and
trucking of any kind; bellhop; in blast
furnaces; pinsetter in bowling alleys;
crossing watchman; delivery service;
express or jitney driver; meterreader
(gas or electric); metalmolder; operating freight or baggage elevators; in
poolrooms; section hand; in shoe
shining parlor; as taxi driver;2 operating wheels, belts.
Pennsylvania—Dangerous or injurious
occupations.
2 Until Sept. 1, 1955, an emergency relaxation measure in Ohio permits taxi driving except between
9 p. m. and 6 a. m.
Industrial
Homework
Twenty States and Puerto Rico have industrial homework laws or
regulations. In all but 3—Colorado, Oregon, and Utah—the law
applies to all persons; in these 3 jurisdictions the law applies to women
and minors only.
Michigan.
Missouri.
New Jersey.
New York.
Ohio.
Oregon.
Pennsylvania.
California.
Colorado.
Connecticut.
Illinois.
Indiana.
Maryland.
Massachusetts.
Employment
Before and After
Rhode Island.
Tennessee.
Texas.
Utah.
West Virginia.
Wisconsin.
Puerto Rico.
Childbirth
Six States and Puerto Rico have laws prohibiting the employment
of women immediately before and after childbirth. State provisions
are limited to prohibiting employment. Puerto Rico, in addition,
requires the employer to pay to the working mother during an 8-week
period one-half of her regular salary or wage and provides for job
58
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
security during the required absence.
which women may not be employed.
Connecticut
Massachusetts
Missouri
New York
Vermont
4
4
3
4
2
f4
j4
Washington
Puerto Rico
List shows periods during
weeks before and 4 weeks after.
weeks before and 4 weeks after.
weeks before and 3 weeks after.
weeks after.
weeks before and 4 weeks after.
months before and 6 weeks after.1
weekg before and 4 weekg after 2
4 weeks before and 4 weeks after.
1 In minimum-wage and welfare orders for manufacturing, food processing industry,
and fresh fruit and vegetable packing industry ; prohibition may be waived by special
permit.
2 In order for laundry, dry-cleaning and dyeworks industry.
Rhode Island's Temporary Disability Insurance Act expressly provides that employed women who are pregnant are entitled to cash
benefits for 6 weeks before and 6 weeks after childbirth.
Laws Affecting Household Employees
Household employment in private homes is one of the major occupations for women. It employs about a tenth of all women workers, and is an occupation in which practically all the workers are
women. On the whole, legislation has tended to exclude this group.
However, a major gain was made in recent years through amendment
of the Federal Old Age and Survivors Insurance provisions of the
Social Security Act to cover a large proportion of household workers.
The following material shows the limited extent of minimum-wage
and maximum-hour legislation for this large group of women workers.
Minimum-Wage
Laws
Only Wisconsin and Alaska have minimum-wage rates applicable
to domestic workers. A 1947 Wisconsin minimum-wage order for
domestic service establishes weekly minimum-wage rates for women
and minors working 45 hours or more per week, according to size of
community and whether or not board only, or board and lodging,
are furnished; it sets hourly part-time rates. The Alaska minimumwage law sets a statutory weekly rate for a 6-day, 48-hour workweek
and a minimum hourly rate for part-time work.
Maximum-Hour
Laws
State maximum-hour laws of general coverage in effect in 43 States
do not cover domestic workers. However, the State of Washington
and Alaska have maximum-hour laws applicable to domestic workers
only, on-call time being included as employed time. Washington's
law covers both males and females.
2
POLITICAL AND CIVIL
STATUS OF WOMEN
as of January 1, 1953
Political Status
Nationality
Citizenship in the United States is acquired in the same way by
men and women; that is, by birth within the domain, by birth abroad
of a parent who is a citizen, or by being naturalized. Mothers, as
well as fathers, confer citizenship on their minor children. A married
woman's citizenship does not automatically follow that of her husband. An alien wife may become a citizen whether or not her alien
husband desires or qualifies for that privilege. If a woman citizen
marries an alien, she retains her citizenship until she renounces it by
declaring allegiance to another government.
Voting and Public Office
Federal.—Any woman who has the qualifications required for voting
in the State of her residence has full right of suffrage in the election
of National Government officials and on proposals for change in the
Federal Constitution.
Likewise, any woman who meets the established qualifications for
official positions in the National Government is eligible either for
election or appointment to posts in the executive and legislative
branches or for appointment to the judiciary.
State.—Any woman who meets the general qualifications established
for voting in the State in which she has legal residence has full right
of suffrage in the election of State and local officials and in determination of public issues within the State.
Also, any woman who has the qualifications required for elected
officials of State and local governments is eligible for election to these
positions.
Civil service positions.—Appointive positions in both Federal and
State civil service are open generally to qualified women. Appointing
agencies for the Federal Government may designate whether men or
women employees are preferred when requesting a list of eligibles
59
60
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
from the Civil Service Commission. Some States by statute specify
the sex of appointees for certain positions, such as superintendents,
wardens, matrons, or attendants in institutions.
Courts—Jury service.—Women are eligible by law to serve on juries
in 43 States, the District of Columbia, and all Territories. There are
only five States remaining in which women cannot serve on juries—
Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia.
Georgia enacted a jury-service law for women in 1953, and Texas
adopted a resolution providing for a jury-service referendum to be
held in November 1954. The last two Territories which barred women
from juries, Puerto Rico and Hawaii, removed the ban in 1952.
There are two types of jury-service legislation: Compulsory, which
requires jury duty from all qualified persons, subject to grounds for
exemption or release by the presiding judge; and voluntary, or optional service laws, which permit a woman to be excused solely on
the basis of sex. Twenty-three States and 2 Territories have compulsory-type laws 1 and 20 States, the District of Columbia and 3
Territories have voluntary-type laws.2
Domicile
Private domicile of a married woman generally depends on that
of her husband. The rule is that when the interests of husband and
wife are hostile and result in dissolution of the marriage, an aggrieved wife may establish a separate domicile. Separate existence,
interests, and rights are recognized in these cases.
Public domicile.—Most States limit husband and wife to the same
marital domicile during marriage for voting, jury service, and holding
of public office. However, at least 12 States3 permit a married
woman to establish a separate domicile for voting; five 4 permit separate domicile for eligibility to public office; and three 5 recognize
separate domicile for personal property tax obligation.
Civil Status—Family Relations
Marriage
The marriage laws of the various States generally do not distinguish between the sexes, except in establishing minimum ages.
1 Arizona,
California, Canal Zone, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois,
Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico,
North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming.
2 Alaska, Arkansas, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas,
Kentucky,
Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North
Dakota, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington,
Wisconsin.
3 California, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North
Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin.
4 Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York.
•Nevada, New Jersey, Virginia.
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATUS
61
Most States set a lower age for women. The same minimum age
applies to both sexes in 6 States6 when parental consent is required
and in 16 States 7 when parental consent is not required. A premarital
health examination is required for both applicants for a marriage
license in 35 States; 8 two States (Louisiana and Texas) require such
examination for men only.
Divorce
All States permit either husband or wife to secure a divorce on at
least one ground. The grounds are generally the same for either husband or wife, although some States recognize nonsupport as a ground
for granting the wife a decree. The most usual grounds for divorce
in State laws are adultery, desertion, cruelty, alcoholism, impotency,
felony conviction, insanity, and neglect to provide. Other grounds
which appear frequently in State laws are drug addiction, pregnancy
at marriage, imprisonment, violence against the other party, and commission of an infamous crime.
All States give the court discretionary power to grant alimony to
the wife on divorce because of the fault of the husband, and in addition 11 States9 authorize the court to grant a husband alimony when
the need is established and the wife is at fault.
Parent and Child
Thirty-four States10 give both parents the same rights of natural
guardianship. Fourteen States11 and the District of Columbia prefer
the father as natural guardian during the marriage, giving him the
first right to custody of his minor child's person, services, and earnings.
If the marriage is broken by divorce or legal separation, neither
parent has any legal advantage over the other as to custody of a minor
child. The best interests of the child guide the court's disposition
of his custody.
Seven States12 and the District of Columbia by statute prefer the
father when a guardian of property is to be appointed for his child.
Connecticut, Idaho, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee.
Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina,
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia,
Wyoming.
8 Alabama,
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,
Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New
Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma,
Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia,
West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.
9 California,
Illinois, Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma,
Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont.
10 Arizona,
Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois,
Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska,
Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin.
" A l a b a m a , Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota,
New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Vermont, Virginia, Wyoming.
33 Alabama, Colorado, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas.
6
7
62
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
Unmarried parents.—The mother is considered the natural guardian
entitled to the custody of the child. The father becomes the natural
guardian only if he legally acknowledges his relationship to the
child.
Inheritance by parents from children.—No distinction exists between the rights of the father and mother to inherit from legitimate
children. Most States allow the unmarried mother to inherit from her
child.
Family Support
In all States the husband and father is primarily liable for family
support; the responsibility devolves on the mother if the father is
dead or otherwise incapable of furnishing such support. Under
community-property law (see footnote 14) the common estate of
husband and wife is liable for family support; in the remaining
States and the District of Columbia the property of the husband is
primarily liable for family necessaries. In 36 of these States13 the
wife and mother is declared by law to be liable for the support of the
family if the husband and father is dead or unable to provide support.
Unmarried parents.—The mother is primarily liable for support of
her child born out of wedlock. Most States have legal procedures for
establishing paternity if satisfactory proof is submitted. Until paternity is established or voluntarily assumed, the father has no legal
obligation to support the child, or to contribute to the expenses of
the mother at childbirth.
Civil Status—Contract and Property Law
Power to Make Contracts
All States recognize a married woman's legal capacity to contract
her personal services in employment outside her home, and to collect
her earnings from such work without the formal consent of her
husband.
The eight14 community-property States do not ordinarily empower
a wife to contract alone concerning the common marital property,
though the husband has extensive powers of sole contract, particularly
over the personal property owned in common.
Ownership, Control, and Use of Property
General.—In property management and control, inheritance, and
freedom of enjoyment of earnings, there is no distinction between the
13 Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa,
Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana,
Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma,
Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia,
Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.
14 Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington.
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATUS
63
rights of unmarried women and unmarried men. In most States,
married women and married men have the same degree of control
over their separate property.
Personal earnings of married women are made their separate property by specific statute in most of the States not under the communityproperty regime. Five States15 have statutes, under which court
sanction, and in some cases the husband's consent, is required for
a wife's legal venture into an independent business, if she is to keep
the profits for her own account.
Property acquired by joint efforts after marriage.—Eight States
(see footnote 14) have the community-property system of ownership
between husband and wife applied to property acquired by their joint
efforts during the marriage. In these States the husband has principal
control of most of the communal property while the spouses live
together. Two of the community-property States16 give the wife
control over her earnings, even as part of the communal estate.
In the 40 States17 and the District of Columbia where the commonlaw background exists as distinguished from the civil-law tradition,
the property accumulated during the marriage by the cooperative
efforts of both husband and wife is generally under the control of the
husband subject to certain restrictions, and except as the effect of this
rule may be overcome by private agreement between the parties.
Three States18 and the District of Columbia retain the form of
property ownership called "estate by entirety," applicable only to
husband and wife. Under it, the wife has only a contingent interest
in the property unless she survives her husband, no matter what
amount she has contributed to the estate. The husband controls the
property and receives the income during marriage.
Disposition of property after death.—Married women may dispose
of their separate property by will as freely as married men may. Two
of the community-property States, Nevada and New Mexico, limit a
wife's testamentary rights over her half of the community estate.
In the absence of a will, a widow or a widower inherits similar portions from the deceased spouse in most States.
Practically all the States require maintenance for the widow from
the husband's estate during the settlement period. At least one-third
of them provide support from solvent estates under administration
for either spouse who survives.
California, Florida, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Texas.
Idaho, Nevada.
Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North
Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South
Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin,
Wyoming.
18 Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina.
15
16
17
2
WOMEN'S NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Following is a list of women's national organizations grouped according to fields of interest. Membership is noted if recent figures
are available. Individual national and international unions, collegiate and collegiate alumnae associations, and women's organizations
affiliated with fraternal orders have been omitted.
Organizations Having Social, Civic, or Religious Purposes
American Women's Voluntary Services, Inc., 500 Park Avenue, New York 22,
N. Y. Founded in 1940. Its purpose is to make available to all women of
America the opportunity to work actively on a voluntary basis for their country
through constructive service to their community, and to instruct and guide
these volunteers toward the achievement of this end. Membership: 27,100.
Association of the Junior Leagues of America, Inc., The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel,
New York 22, N. Y. Founded in 1901. Its purpose is to foster interest among
its members in the social, economic, educational, cultural, and civic conditions
of the community, and to make efficient their volunteer service. Membership: 183 Leagues in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Hawaii, with
approximately 62,000 members.
General Federation of Women's Clubs, 1734 N Street NW., Washington 6, D. C.
Established in 1890. Its objective is to unite women's clubs and like organizations throughout the world for the purpose of mutual benefit and for the
promotion of their common interest in education, philanthropy, public welfare,
moral values, civics, and fine arts. Membership: 11,000,000 through combined
membership with affiliated groups in 42 countries, territories, and possessions
(815,000 per capita paying members).
League of Women Voters of the United States, 1026 17th Street NW., Washington
6, D. C. Founded in 1920. Its purpose is to promote political responsibility
through informed and active participation of citizens in government. Membership: 122,000 in 917 local Leagues organized in 48 States, the District of
Columbia, Hawaii, and Alaska.
National Association of Colored Women, Inc., 1114 O Street NW., Washington 5,
D. C. The organization was founded in 1896 for the purpose of raising to the
highest plane the home life, moral standards, and civic life of the race.
Membership: 50,000.
National Consumers League for Fair Labor Standards, 348 Engineers' Building,
Cleveland 14, Ohio. Established in 1899. Its purpose is "to awaken consumers' interest in their responsibility for conditions under which goods are
made and distributed; and through investigation, education, and legislation,
to promote fair labor standards. Its legislative program includes minimum
wage, child labor, hours of work, and social security. It is currently concentrating its efforts on improvement of the conditions of migrant workers in
agriculture. There are six State branches and individual members in every
State of the Union. (Not restricted to women.)
64
ORGANIZATIONS
65
National Council of Catholic Women, 1312 Massachusetts Avenue NW., Washington 5, D. C. Established in 1920. Its purpose is to federate existing organizations of Catholic women in order that they may speak and act as a unit
when the welfare of the church or the country demands such expression.
Through special committees, it endeavors to stimulate interest in the welfare
of all workers. Affiliated with the World Union of Catholic Women's Organizations. Membership: 8,000,000 (approximately) through more than 9,000
National, State, diocesan, and local affiliated groups.
National Council of Jewish Women, Inc., 1 West 47th Street, New York 36, N. Y.
Established in 1893. Its purpose is to afford its members an opportunity to
assume a constructive role in the American community through its programs
of social legislation, contemporary Jewish affairs, international understanding
for peace, service to foreign born, community welfare; and to help in reconstruction of Jewish communities overseas through providing training in educational and social welfare fields, and sending material aid. Membership:
Over 100,000.
National Council of Negro Women, Inc., 1318 Vermont Avenue NW., Washington
5, D. C. Organized in 1935. The Council seeks the cooperation and membership of all races and works for the integration of Negroes into the economic,
social, cultural, civic, and political life of every community. There are 20
national organizations and 80 local councils reaching 800,000 women.
National Council of Women of the United States, Inc., 345 East 46th Street,
New York 17, N. Y. Organized in 1888. Its purpose is to achieve, through the
unity of women, world peace, security, and equal opportunity for all. Foundermember of the International Council of Women. Membership: 5,000,000 (approximately) through combined membership of affiliated groups.
National Jewish Welfare Board, 145 East 32d Street, New York 16, N. Y.
Founded in 1917. It is the national association of Young Women's Hebrew
Associations as well as Young Men's Hebrew Associations and Jewish Community Centers. It is also the recognized Jewish community agency for meeting the religious, welfare, and moral needs of Jewish personnel in the Armed
Forces, and is a constituent agency of the United Service Organizations (USO).
The Women's Organizations' Division of the National Jewish Welfare Board
coordinates the work of eight national Jewish women's organizations united
for services to hospitalized veterans, military personnel in army camps, and
chaplains.
National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 1730 Chicago Avenue, Evanston,
111. Established in 1874. Its purpose is to unite the Christian women of the
United States for the education of the public to a standard of total abstinence
from alcoholic beverages and abolition of liquor traffic; for youth training in
habits of total abstinence and sobriety; and for the promotion of good citizenship, peace, and the general welfare.
National Woman's Forum, Inc., 266 Fulton Avenue, Hempstead, N. Y. Founded
in 1944. Under the motto "For a United Community—For a Stronger Democracy," it serves as a clearinghouse of organizations (primarily women's)
on the local level, coordinating their activities in common projects, for the
betterment of the community and the strengthening of democracy at the
grassroots.
United Church Women (Protestant), 156 Fifth Avenue, New York 10, N. Y.
Organized in December 1941. It is a General Department of the National
Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Its purpose is to unite church women in their allegiance to their Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ, through a program looking to their integration in the total life
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HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
and work of the church and the building of a world Christian community.
Membership: 10,000^000 and 2,200 local councils of church women.
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Administrative Headquarters United States Section, 2006 Walnut Street, Philadelphia 3, Pa.; legislative office, 214 2d Street NE., Washington 2, D. C. Established in 1915 in
The Hague. Its purpose is to unite those in all countries who oppose every
kind of war, exploitation, and oppression, and who want to work for the
peaceful solution of conflicts by establishment of justice for all, without distinction as to sex, race, class, or creed.
Young Women's Christian Association of the United States of America, 600 Lexington Avenue, New York 22, N. Y. Founded in 1858. Its purpose is "to
build a fellowship of women and girls devoted to the task of realizing in our
common life those ideals of personal and social living to which we are committed by our faith as Christians. . . ." It works to advance the mental, physical, and spiritual growth of young women. Affiliated with the World's YWCA.
Membership: 3,000,000.
Professional and Business Organizations
National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc., 1790
Broadway, New York 19, N. Y. Established in 1919. Its purpose is to elevate the standards and promote the interests of business and professional
women; to extend opportunities to business and professional women through
education along lines of industrial, scientific, and vocational activities. Affiliated with the International Federation of Business and Professional Women's
Clubs. Membership: 165,000 in 2,900 Clubs in United States, Alaska, and
Hawaii.
National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc.,
4723 South State Street, Chicago 9, 111. Founded in 1935. Its purpose is to
promote and protect the interest of Negro business and professional women and
create good fellowship among them; to direct their interests toward united
action for improved social and civic conditions; to encourage the training and
development of women; to aid business in general by patronage; and to inspire and train young women for leadership. Membership: 5,000.
National Secretaries Association, 25 East 12th Street, Kansas City, Mo. Organized in 1942. Its purpose is to elevate the standards of the secretarial profession by uniting for their mutual benefit women who are or have been engaged in secretarial work, by means of social and educational activities.
Membership: 13,000 members in 300 chapters.
Accountancy
American Society of Women Accountants, 327 South La Salle Street, Chicago 4,
111. Founded in 1938. Its purpose is to offer technical and educational programs to improve the efficiency of its members, to provide opportunity for
exchange of ideas, and to encourage its members to become certified public
accountants. Membership: 1,900.
American Woman's Society of Certified Public Accountants, 327 South La Salle
Street, Chicago 4, 111. Founded in 1933. Its purpose is to advance the professional interest of women certified public accountants and to promote a
greater interest among women in the higher attainments of the accounting
profession. Membership: 300.
ORGANIZATIONS
67
Banking
Association of Bank Women, 60 East 42d Street, New York 17, N. Y. Founded
in 1921. Its purpose is to bring together women executives engaged in the
profession of banking for exchange of ideas and experiences for their mutual
benefit; to promote the interests of its members; and to further the interests
of all women in the banking profession. It is the only national organization
of women in banking, with members from national, State, and savings banks,
and trust companies. Membership: 1,900.
Engineering
Society of Women Engineers, 4 Washington Square North, New York 3, N. Y.
Established in 1950. Its purpose is to contribute to the professional advancement of women engineers ; to inform industry and the public of the availability
of qualified women for engineering positions; to encourage young women with
suitable aptitudes to enter the engineering profession. Membership: 400.
Fashion
The Fashion Group, Inc., 9 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20, N. Y. Founded in
1931. It is a noncommercial association of women engaged in fashion work,
formed to advance the principles of applied art in industry and to foster good
taste in fashion; to encourage the cooperation of those engaged in conceiving,
designing, and executing fashions; and to inspire a keener interest in fashion
industries so that those engaged in the field of fashion may better serve
themselves and the public. Membership: 2,510.
Finance
Federation of Women Shareholders in American Business, Inc., 247 Lexington
Avenue, New York 16, N. Y. Founded in 1947. Its purpose is to educate women
on the importance of their vote as stockholders and their responsibilities as
employers of management and labor. Also to give women financial education.
It stands for equal pay for equal work and for equal opportunity in business.
Geography
The Society of Woman Geographers, 1216 Connecticut Avenue NW., Washington
6, D. C. Founded in 1925. Its purpose is to form a medium of contact between
traveled women engaged in geographical work and allied arts and sciences;
to further geographical work in all its branches; to spread geographical knowledge ; and to encourage geographical research. Membership: 350.
Health
Services
American Association of Industrial Nurses, Inc., 654 Madison Avenue, Room 909,
New York 21, N. Y. Founded in 1942. The professional association of nurses
engaged in the practice of industrial nursing. Its purpose is to maintain the
honor and character of the profession among industrial nurses ; to improve
community health by bettering nursing service to workers; to develop and
promote standards for industrial nurses and industrial nursing services; to
stimulate interest in and provide a forum for the discussion of problems in
the field of industrial nursing. Membership: 4,000.
American Association of Medical Record Librarians, 510 North Dearborn Street,
Chicago 10, 111. Founded in 1928. Its purpose is to improve the quality and
efficiency of medical records in hospitals, clinics, and other health and medical
institutions; to establish standards and criteria of competency; to develop
68
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
and improve the teaching and practice of medical record library science so
that it may be of greater service to the science of medicine and public health.
Membership: 3,330. (Not restricted to women, but membership is primarily
women.)
American Association of Medical Social Workers, 1834 K Street NW., Washington 6, D. C. Founded in 1918. Its purpose is to improve and strengthen professional standards for social case work in medical settings, including educational standards, teaching materials and practice. Membership: 2,500. (Not
restricted to women, but membership is primarily women.)
American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, 116 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago 3, 111. Founded in 1931. Its purpose is to develop educational standards
and techniques in the administration of anesthetics; to facilitate cooperation
between nurse anesthetists and the medical profession; to promote an educational program on the importance of the proper administration of anesthetics. Membership: 7,200.
American Dental Assistants Association, Inc., 410 First National Bank Building, LaPorte, Ind. Established in 1924. Its purpose is to encourage women
employed as dental assistants to form societies through which they can obtain
the educational advantages of lectures, clinical demonstrations, discussions,
and instruction in the details of their duties; to inspire its members to render
more efficient service; to promote fellowship, cooperation, and a desire for
mutual improvement among its members. Membership: 7,200.
American Dental Hygienists' Association, Inc., 1735 Eye Street NW., Washington
6, D. C. Established in 1923. Its purpose is to elevate and sustain the
professional character and education of dental hygienists; to promote among
them mutual improvement, social intercourse, and good will; to inform and
direct public opinion in relation to dental hygiene and the promotion of
pertinent legislation; and to represent and safeguard the common interests
of members of the profession. Membership: Approximately 3,000.
American Medical Women's Association, Znc., 1790 Broadway, New York 19,
N. Y. Founded in 1915. Its purpose is to encourage social and cooperative
relations inside and outside the profession; to further relief work; and to
assist women medical students and women physicians in their undergraduate
and postgraduate work, respectively. Affiliated with the Medical Women's
International Association.
American Nurses' Association, Inc., 2 Park Avenue, New York 16, N. Y. Organized in 1896 as the Nurses' Associated Alumnae of the United States and
Canada. The American Nurses' Association is an organization of and for
registered professional nurses. Its overall purposes are to foster high standards of nurse practice and to promote the welfare of nurses to the end that
all people may have better nursing care. Affiliated with the International
Council of Nurses. Membership: 173,390.
American Occupational Therapy Association, 33 West 42d Street, New York 36,
N. Y. Founded 1917. Its objectives are to promote the use of occupational
therapy; to advance standards of education and training in this field; to
conduct a national registration examination; to maintain a registry of qualified occupational therapists; to promote research; and to engage in other activities advantageous to the profession and its members. Membership: 4,100.
(Not restricted to women, but membership is primarily women.)
American Physical Therapy Association, 1790 Broadway, New York 19, N. Y.
Founded in 1921. The object of this organization is to foster the development and improvement of physical therapy service and physical therapy
education through the coordinated action of physical therapists, allied pro-
ORGANIZATIONS
69
fessional groups, citizens, agencies and schools to the end that the physical
therapy needs of the people will be met. Membership: 5,778. Approximately
92 percent are women. In addition there are 594 student members.
American Society of Medical Technologists, Suite 25, Hermann Professional
Building, Houston 25, Tex. Founded in 1933. Its purpose is to promote
higher standards in clinical laboratory methods and research, and to raise
the status of those specializing in medical laboratory technique. Membership:
5,800. (Not restricted to women, but membership is primarily women.)
American Society of X-Ray Technicians, % Genevieve J. Eilert, Executive Secretary, 16 14th Street, Fond du Lac, Wis. Founded in 1920. Its purpose is
to promote the science and art of radiography; to assist in establishing approved standards of training and recognized qualifications for those engaged
in technical work in radiological departments. Membership: 4,100. (Not
restricted to women, but membership primarily women.)
Association of American Women Dentists, % Dr. Bertha L. Eastwood, President,
5334 Greene Street, Philadelphia 44, Pa. Founded in 1921. Objectives are
to promote good fellowship and cooperation among its members and aid in
the advancement of women in dentistry. Membership: Approximately 250.
National Federation of Licensed Practical Nurses, Inc., 250 West 57th Street,
New York 19, N. Y. Organized in 1949. Its major objectives are to associate
all licensed practical nurses and to protect their welfare; to further the highest ethical principles; to interpret the standards of licensed practical nursing
and to promote the most effective use of their services. Membership: 18,000.
National League for Nursing, 2 Park Avenue, New York 16, N. Y. Organized in
1952. Its purpose is to foster the development of hospital, industrial, public
health, and other organized nursing services and of nursing education through
the coordinated action of nurses, allied professional groups, citizens, agencies,
and schools to the end that the nursing needs of the people will be met. Membership : 20,000 individuals and 550 member agencies.
Home
Economics
American Dietetic Association, 620 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago 11, 111.
Founded in 1917. The objective of this Association is to improve the nutritional status of human beings and advance the science of dietetics and education in this field. Membership: 11,000. (Not restricted to women, but
membership is primarily women.)
American Home Economics Association, 1600 20th Street NW., Washington 9,
D. C. Established in 1908. Its purpose is to promote standards of home living beneficial to the individual and to society. Membership: 20,519 individual
members; 19,805 affiliated through college clubs; approximately 1,800 affiliated
through homemakers, groups. Three foreign home economics associations are
affiliated with American Home Economics Association.
(Not restricted to
women, but membership is primarily women.)
Insurance
Women Underwriters, The National Association of Life Underwriters, % Mrs.
Alberta Light, National Chairman, 1320 United Artists Building, Detroit 26,
Mich. Founded in 1934. Its purposes are to develop and extend the contributions of women underwriters to life insurance; to encourage wider participation on the part of women in the Association's affairs; to stimulate professional interest and growth; to develop cooperative effort and understanding
among women of the same profession. Membership: 1,500.
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HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
Law
National Association of Women Lawyers, % Dorothea Blender, President, 214
North Michigan Avenue, Chicago 1, 111. Founded in 1899. Its purpose is to
promote the welfare and interests of women lawyers; to maintain the honor
and integrity of the profession; to aid in the enactment of legislation for the
common good and in the administration of justice; and to undertake actively
whatever is necessary to promote and advance the purposes of the Association.
Membership: 1,200.
Library
Science
American Library Association, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago 11, 111. Founded
in 1876. Its objective is to increase the usefulness of books and reading as
a working educational force in American life, through improvement and extension of library services easily accessible to all the people. Membership:
20,000.
(Not restricted to women, but personal membership is primarily
women.)
Special Libraries Association, 31 East 10th Street, New York 3, N. Y. Organized
in 1909. Its purpose is to promote the collection, organization, and dissemination of information in specialized fields and to improve the usefulness of
special libraries and information services. Membership: 5,000. (Not restricted
to women, but membership is largely women.)
M usic
National Federation of Music Clubs, 445 West 23d Street, New York 11, N. Y.
Founded in 1898. Its purpose is to bring into working relation musical organizations and individuals associated with musical activity, for the purpose of
aiding and encouraging musical education and developing and maintaining
high musical standards throughout America and other countries. Membership : 500,000. (Not restricted to women but membership is primarily women.)
Radio and
Television
American Women in Radio and Television, Inc., 70 East 45th Street, New York
17, N. Y. Established in 1951. Its objectives are to provide a medium of
exchange of ideas that will help women to become greater commercial assets
to their stations, networks, and employers; to encourage greater cooperation
among women in radio and television and those in closely allied fields; to
increase women's opportunities to be of service to the broadcasting industry
as a whole. Membership: 925.
Real Estate
National Association of Real Estate Boards, Women's Council, 22 West Monroe
Street, Chicago 3, 111. Established in 1939. Its purpose is to promote women's
active participation in local Board activities and to present programs to all
women realtors within local and State groups which offer an opportunity for
leadership, education, and fellowship. Membership : 1,100.
Teaching
See Educational Organizations.
Writing
American Newspaper Women's Club, Inc., 1604 20th Street NW., Washington 9,
D. C. Founded in 1932. Its purpose is to maintain a meeting place for members ; to promote professional pursuits and good fellowship among the mem-
ORGANIZATIONS
71
bers; and to encourage friendly understanding between the members and those
whom they must contact in their profession. Membership: 228 professional, 122
associate members.
National League of American Pen Women, Inc., 1300 17th Street NW., Washington 6, D. C. Founded in 1897. Its purpose is to conduct and promote among
its members creative and educational activities in art, letters, and music.
Membership: 5,000.
Women's National Press Club, 1367 National Press Building, Washington 4, D. C.
Founded in 1919. Its purpose is to promote good fellowship among women
engaged professionally in gathering and disseminating news; to promote the
welfare of its members; and to foster the ethical standards of the profession.
Membership: 360.
General Service Organizations
of Business and Professional
Women
Altrusa International, Inc., 332 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago 4, 111. Established in 1917. Pioneer of women's service clubs. It channels its service
work through four committees: International Relations, Public Affairs, Vocational Information, and Altrusa Information; it also helps women establish
themselves successfully in suitable occupations. Membership: 11,600.
Pilot Club International, 514-520 Persons Building, Macon, Ga. Organized in
1921. Its objectives are to develop friendship as a means of encouraging and
promoting international peace and cultural relations; to inculcate the ideal
of service as the basis of all worthy enterprises; to encourage high ethical
standards among business and professional women; to promote active participation in any movement that will tend to improve the civic, social, industrial, and commercial welfare of the community. Membership: 9,500.
Quota Club International, Inc., 1737 H Street NW., Washington 6, D. C. Established in 1919. A classified civic service club of women executives. Among
its objectives are service to country and community, developing good fellowship and enduring friendship, and emphasizing the worth of useful occupation.
It promotes international understanding through club programs and the
granting of an international fellowship. Membership: 8,300 in 260 clubs in 4
countries.
Boroptimist International Association, % American Federation of Soroptimist
Clubs, 1124 Land Title Building, Philadelphia 10, Pa. Founded in 1921.. Its
purpose is to promote the spirit of service; to foster high ethical standards
in business and the professions; to develop interest in community, national,
and international affairs; and to promote the economic advancement of women.
Membership: 25,000 in 900 clubs in 20 countries.
Zonta International, 59 East Van Buren Street, Chicago 5, 111. Established in
1919. Its main objectives are the encouragement of high ethical standards
in business and the professions; the improvement of the legal, political, economic, and professional status of women; and the advancement of international understanding, good will, and peace through a world fellowship of
executive women. Membership: 11,000 in 300 clubs in 13 countries.
Educational Organizations
Adult Education Association of the United States of America, (dual headquarters) 1201 16th Street NW., Washington 6, D. C. and 743 Wabash Avenue,
Chicago 11, 111. Founded May 14, 1951. Its purpose is to further the concept
of education as a process continuing throughout life by affording to educators
of adults and to other interested persons opportunities to increase their com-
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HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
petence; by encouraging organizations and agencies to develop adult educational services; by providing the balanced development of educational services needed by the adult population in the United States; and by cooperating
with adult education agencies internationally. Membership: 4,000. (Not restricted to women.)
American Association of University Women, 1634 I Street NW., Washington 6,
D. C. Founded in 1882. Its purpose is to raise standards in education generally; to enlarge opportunities for college women; and to help members extend their education and use their abilities and training in building better
communities and meeting national and international problems. Affiliated with
the International Federation of University Women.
Membership: Over
127,000.
National Association of College Women, % Mrs. Lottie Gordon, Executive Secretary, 1122 Girard Street NW., Washington 9, D. C. Founded in 1924. Its
purpose is to secure equal opportunity for women in Negro institutions; to
arouse among college women a consciousness of their responsibility in helping
to solve local and national problems; and to create an awareness of international issues that demand study by and the cooperation of all thoughtful
Americans. Membership: 1,000.
National Association of Deans of Women, 1201 16th Street NW., Washington 6,
D. G. Established in 1916. Its purpose is to increase the effectiveness of
deans, counselors, and other personnel workers, by strengthening their professional status, by formulating standards for their professional training, by
studying changing trends in education, and by research and study pertinent
to their work. It is a department of the National Education Association.
Membership: 1,550.
National Congress of Parents and Teachers, 700 North Rush Street, Chicago 11,
111. Founded in 1897. Its purpose is to promote the welfare of children and
youth in home, school, church, and community; to raise the standards of home
life; to secure adequate laws for the care and protection of children and
youth; to bring into closer relation the home and the school, that parents
and teachers may cooperate intelligently in the training of the child, and to
develop between educators and the general public such united efforts as will
secure for every child the highest advantages in physical, mental, social, and
spiritual education. Membership: 8,822,694. (Not restricted to women.)
National Council of Administrative Women in Education, % Miss Lois M. Clark,
1201 16th Street NW., Washington 6, D. C. Founded in 1915. Its purpose
is to promote the advancement of qualified women to administrative positions
in the field of education; to foster growth in educational leadership; to afford
opportunity for each member to become articulate in carrying out the broad
purposes of education. It is a department of the National Educational
Association. Membership: 1,000.
National Education Association of the United States, 1201 16th Street NW.,
Washington 6, D. C. Established in 1857 as the National Teachers Associa^
tion. Its purpose is to elevate the character and advance the interests of the
teaching profession and to promote the cause of education. Membership:
552,156 individual personal memberships and approximately 1,000,000 affiliated
through State, territorial, and local groups. (Not restricted to women, but
a majority of the members are women.)
ORGANIZATIONS
73
Political and Legislative Organizations
Democratic National Committee, Office of Women's Activities, 1001 Connecticut
Avenue, NW., Washington 6, D. C. Established in 1953, to replace the Women's
Division which had been set up in 1922. The purpose of this integration was
to place women on a completely equal footing with men in the Democratic
Party. The function of the office of women's activities is to prepare and
distribute materials which stimulate participation by both men and women
in the organization and activities of the Democratic Party; to promote the
principles and program of the Democratic Party; and to encourage citizens to
share the responsibility of democratic government through membership in the
Democratic Party.
National Federation of Republican Women, 1625 Eye Street NW., Washington 6,
D. C. Established in 1953, to replace National Federation of Women's
Republican Clubs which was founded in 1938. The objectives are to promote
an informed electorate through political education; to increase the effectiveness of women in the cause of good government through active political
participation; to facilitate cooperation among women's Republican clubs;
to foster loyalty to the Republican Party and to promote its ideals; to support
objectives and policies of the Republican National Committee and to work for
the election of the Republican Party's nominees. Membership of 500,000
women in 39 State Federations in 43 States, the Territories of Alaska and
Hawaii and the District of Columbia.
National Woman's Party, 144 Constitution Avenue NE., Washington 2, D. C.
Established in 1913 for suffrage; reorganized in 1921 for equal rights. Its
particular purpose is to secure the adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment
to the National Constitution and of the Equal Rights Treaty. It is affiliated
with the World Woman's Party.
Republican National Committee, Women's Division, 1625 Eye Street NW., Washington 6, D. C. Founded in 1918 to give women a voice in the Councils of the
Republican National Committee. Its basic objectives are to coordinate the
activities of women in the Republican Party to achieve a maximum effectiveness from their efforts; to encourage their participation in party work; and
to promote equal recognition of women with men at all levels of party
organization, to develop leadership among Republican women and to keep
women informed of party activities and current issues.
Woman's National Democratic Club, 1526 New Hampshire Avenue NW., Washington 6, D. C. Founded in 1923. Its purpose is to furnish Democratic women
with a clearinghouse for Democratic ideals and practical programs; to afford
its members an opportunity to hear and meet the Nation's lawmakers, leaders,
and men and women of international reputation. Membership: 850.
Patriotic Organizations
American Legion Auxiliary, 777 North Meridian Street, Indianapolis 7, Ind.
Established in 1921. Its purpose is to assist the American Legion in the promotion of Americanism, patriotism, and world peace; and in its program for
the benefit of veterans and their families. Membership composed of wives,
widows, mothers, daughters, and sisters of veterans of World Wars I and II
and the Korean conflict, and women veterans of said hostilities. The veteran,
if living, must be a member of the American Legion. Membership: Approximately 1,000,000.
74
HANDBOOK ON WOMEN WORKERS
Daughters of the American Revolution, 17th and D Streets NW., Washington 6,
D. C. Established in 1890. Objectives of Society are patriotic, historical, and
educational. Membership: 176,343 in 2,756 chapters.
Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War, 1861-65, 534 South Second Street,
Springfield, 111. Organized in 1885. Purpose is patriotic, historical, and educational. Membership: 30,000. (Membership restricted to women whose
ancestors sided with the North during the Civil War.)
Ladies Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, 406 West
34th Street, Kansas City 11, Mo. Founded in 1914. Its purpose is to foster
patriotism; to maintain and extend institutions of American freedom; and
to defend the United States from enemies. Membership: 375,000.
United Daughters of the Confederacy, 5330 Pershing Avenue, St. Louis 12, Mo.
Established in 1894. Purpose is historical, benevolent, educational, and
social. Membership: Approximately 36,000. (Membership restricted to women
whose ancestors sided with the South during the Civil War.)
Women's Overseas Service League, % Miss Mabel A. Clay, President, 150 Fifth
Avenue, San Francisco 18, Calif. Established in 1921. Its purpose is to maintain the ties of comradeship formed by overseas service; to inculcate a sense
of individual obligation to the community, State, and Nation; to work for the
welfare of those now in the armed services, as well as for those who were
wounded or incapacitated; to foster and promote friendship and understanding
between the United States and all the other nations of the world. Membership: 3,000.
Farm and Rural Organizations
Associated Women of the American Farm Bureau Federation, 221 North LaSalle
Street, Chicago 1, 111. The object is to assist in an active, organized way in
carrying forward the program of the American Farm Bureau Federation;
to promote, strengthen, and assist in every possible manner the development
of the business, economic, social, educational, and spiritual interests of the
farm families of the Nation; and to develop agriculture. Membership:
1,591,777.
Country Women's Council, U. S. A., % Mrs. George Apperson, Chairman, Mocksville, N. C. This Council is a coordinating group made up of the representatives
of the 5 national and some 50 regional and State societies in the United States
which are constituent members of the Associated Country Women of the World.
Its purpose is to effect a closer association among these United States groups
in carrying out the aims and programs of the Associated Country Women of
the World in furthering friendship and understanding among the country
women of the world, in improving their standard of living, and in representing
them in international councils. Membership: 2,000,000.
National Home Demonstration Council, % Miss Jennie Williams, President,
Banner, Wyo. Founded in 1936. Its purpose is to strengthen and develop
adult education in home economics through the cooperative Extension Service
of the United States Department of Agriculture and the land-grant colleges;
to provide opportunity for homemakers to pool their judgment for the improvement of home and community life; and to offer a means by which homemakers may promote extension projects important in the protection and development of the American home. Membership: Approximately 1,000,000.
ORGANIZATIONS
75
Woman's National Farm and Garden Association, Inc., % Miss Gertrude L.
Warren, President, Hotel 2400,16th Street NW., Washington 9, D. C. Founded
in 1914. Its purpose is to stimulate interest in the conservation of natural
resources and an appreciation of country life; to work for improvement of
rural conditions ; to promote good relationships between farm and city women;
to help women and girls through scholarships and expert advice to obtain
the best available training in agriculture, horticulture, and related professions,
and to develop opportunities for women so trained; to stimulate and make
available to members opportunities for the marketing of farm and garden
products; and to cooperate with national and international groups of women
with similar interests. Membership : 7,500.
Labor Organizations 1
American Federation of Women's Auxiliaries of Labor, AFL Building, 901 Massachusetts Avenue NW., Washington 1, D. C. Established in May 1938. Its
membership is composed of women from families of men who are in a trade
union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Its objective is to
encourage the formation of local auxiliaries of labor for purposes of coordinating collective bargaining and collective buying and of promoting legislation in the interests of the working population.
National G. I. O. Auxiliaries, % Bertha Perrin, Secretary-Treasurer, 2123 West
Market Street, Warren, Ohio. Established in 1941 as Congress of Women's
Auxiliaries of the CIO. The present name was adopted in 1952. Its purpose
is to further the program of the Congress of Industrial Organizations; to
unite all wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters of CIO members for their
mutual aid, protection, and improvement; to foster the organization of unorganized women and to educate them and their families to the benefits of trade
unionism; to work for the abolition of child labor; and to promote social and
cultural activities. Membership: 20,000.
1 These labor groups are strictly women's organizations.
In addition to these, many
women belong to individual trade unions having men and women members.
It has been
estimated that approximately 3 % million women are members of trade unions.
@FedFRASER