View original document

The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies.

l ! Vi r-

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
FRANCES PERKINS, Secretary

WOMEN’S BUREAU
MARY ANDERSON, Director

♦

The Nonworking Time of Industrial
Women Workers
Study by Students of the
Hudson Shore Labor School
Under the Direction of Juliet Fisher
July 1940

^tes o*.

Bulletin

of the

Women’s Bureau, No. 181

UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 1940

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C.




Price 5 cents

CONTENTS

QO<ICiCnCn^COCOWfcOfcO

Letter of transmittal
v
Introduction2
How they divided their time__________________
Hours involved in work program_________
Hours of nonworking time________________
The kinds of things they did__________________
Types and extent of recreation___________
Organized recreation_____________________
Classes___________________________________
Union activity___________________________
Annual vacations______________________________
Conclusions___________________________________
Appendix—Case histories of individual students.

TABLES
I. Average total weekly work program
2
II. Time spent in various activities in the average week_________________
III. Kinds of recreational activity and number of times engaged in during
the average week
IV. Kinds of organized recreation and auspices under which they were car­
ried on
V. Kinds of classes and auspices under which they were carried on




hi

3
4
4
5

KB:!

ipii

-Vi ••
&
V..* ')

,- ■:

;r Vj

(?■£■ >/S

V_r W' .. ■

V-J

I.r'A i

i

i. < ----




I?

I

I «*

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
United States Department of Labor,
Women’s Bureau,

Washington, September 17, 1940.

I have the honor to transmit to you a brief study on a
subject of which there is but slight literature—the nonworking time
of industrial women workers. This report was prepared by the
students of the Hudson Shore Labor School in the summer of 1940,
under the direction of Juliet Fisher.
Respectfully submitted.
Madam:

Mary Anderson, Director.

Hon. Frances Perkins,




Secretary of Labor.

THE NONWORKING TIME OF INDUS­
TRIAL WOMEN WORKERS
INTRODUCTION
The shortening of the working day and the working week has long
been an important aim of workers and trade-unions. More recently
this aim has been met in part by the Federal Government in the
passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. In general, the
concern of organized workers for shorter working hours has been
closely connected with the struggle for higher wages and more em­
ployment, but increasingly workers have expressed the desire for more
leisure time for the enjoyment of their own individual and social
pleasures and satisfactions. Within the past few years another
interest in non-working-time programs has come from the need of
filling the “leisure” time of the unemployed.
The International Labor Office, with some of this new emphasis in view,
recently proposed a study of the present use of leisure time by Ameri­
can workers. The project was welcomed by the Hudson Shore Labor
School and suggested as part of the program for one of its “units” in
the summer of 1940. It was felt that the subject in itself merited
study, but it was especially welcomed by the school as an opportunity
for workers to study and interpret their own experience.
For a number of years the school has experimented with such a
method as a means of promoting understanding of workers’ prob­
lems. Under the direction of Dr. Amy Hewes, long a teacher in the
school, students have been encouraged to pool their experience for
study, and this has resulted in a series of student-worker reports.
These have dealt with such subjects as The First Job, a study in 1922
in which the circumstances surrounding the workers’ entrance into
industry were investigated. Another, made in 1924, was Women
Workers and Family Support (Women’s Bureau Bull. 49) and meas­
ured the burden of family responsibility carried by them. The results
of recent economic and legislative changes have been the subjects of
other studies. In 1932 the study made was Women Workers in the
Third Year of the Depression (Women’s Bureau Bull. 103). The
effects of the N. R. A. were studied similarly in 1934 (American Federationist, February 1935) and, in the summer of 1938, the probable
effect of the Wage and Hour Act to come into operation in October
of that year. It was, therefore, with a conviction that leisure-time
activities could best be evaluated through the actual situations with
which students have immediate contact that the present study was
undertaken.
The 43 women workers whose programs are here reported comprised
the entire student body at the Hudson Shore Labor School in 1940.
272040°—40
1




2

nonworking time of industrial women workers

The majority came from the Atlantic seaboard, but the school in­
cluded others from Chicago, Denver, Pittsburgh, Richmond, and
Washington. They represented a variety of national and cultural
backgrounds. Two workers came from Canada, and 7 were Negro
workers. Their occupations also were varied. There were dress­
makers, shirtmakers, milliners, domestic workers, spinners and weav­
ers, bakery cooks, flat-glass workers, electrical workers, a laundry
inspector, a waitress, a beauty-parlor operator, a cork worker, a glove
maker, a pocketbook worker, and several others. Thirty-two of
them, three-fourths of the total, were members of unions, affiliated
either with the American Federation of Labor or with the Congress of
Industrial Organizations.
The schedule used included a calendar made out lor an average
week” that might have occurred during the preceding fall or winter
(1939-40). The information gathered was concerned with the ways
in which the workers generally used their nonworking time, a picture
supplemented by descriptions of less frequent activities and the annual
vacation period. A committee of students drafted the schedules,
and all the students in the unit took part in the interviews in
which the schedules were filled and assisted in the tabulation and its
interpretation.
HOW THEY DIVIDED THEIR TIME
Hours involved in work program.
Four-fifths (34) of the workers had an average workweek of 40
hours or more (see table I). The end of the actual hours spent in the
mill or factory did not, however, find the worker free to follow her
own inclinations. For some of these workers traveling time to and
from the place of employment was of long duration, and many of them
felt that for the purposes of this study it should be calculated as part
of the working time. Many of the women also found housework
waiting to be done when they got home or had certain duties to per­
form before leaving for work in the morning. When this combination
of job, transportation, and housework was added up it made a heavy
program for some workers. In the case of 8 of these women it made a
workweek of 55 but under 65 hours, for 10 a week of 50 and under 60
hours, and for 10 others a week of 45 and under 55 hours. It should be
noted’ that some of the household duties were performed on Saturday
and Sunday, and that 31 of the 43 workers had a 5-day week in the
shop. Three of the 8 whose factory hours were 45 or more had
additional work hours of 15 and under 20, but the total cannot be
determined.
Table I.—Average total weekly work -program
Number of shop hours worked
in week

Total
number
of
workers

Total.................................

43




1
8
26
8

Number of workers whose housework and traveling time
totaled in the week—
Under 6
hours
7
1
3
3

5, under 10, under 15, under 20, under Indefinite
hours
10 hours 15 hours 20 hours 25 hours
11
1
9
1

9
1
1
7

12

3

3
6
3

2
1

1

1

3

HOW THEY DIVIDE THEIR TIME

Hours of nonworking time.
The most important subdivisions of the nonworking time were found
to be the time used for classes, recreation, union activity, and shopping.
Table II shows the comparative importance of these various types of
activity in the workers’ lives in an average week. Recreation, which
included such things as movies, “dates,” sports, club activities, parties,
and other forms of amusement, took the greatest number of hours of
the nonworking period for most workers. Two-tliirds of the workers
(29) spent 20 or more hours a week in some form of recreation, 12 of
these devoting 30 hours or more to having a good time.
.
Three-fifths of the workers (26) were engaged in some form of union
activity during this average week, the majority of them giving to it
between 1 and 10 hours. One worker wdio devoted 20 hours to union
work had only 8 hours for recreation, but another who gave 22 hours
managed to squeeze in 15 hours of recreation. Only 4 union members
did not list any weekly union activity.
A majority of these students at the Hudson Shore Labor School had
already participated in various kinds of classes in the year before they
came to the school. About half (21) of the students spent from 1 to 3
hours a week in classes, 3 spent 4 or 5 hours, and 7 spent more than 5.
Table II.— Time spent in various activities in the average week
Number of workers
engaged in—

Number of workers
engaged in—
Number of hours a week

Number of hours a week
Union
activity
Total.......... .................. -

Classes

Recreation

43

43

17
9

7

62
2

3
2
9
9
8
12

Total
None----- -----------------1_________ ____ _______
2.___________ ____ ____
3..........................................
4.____________________
5_.__________ _________
Over 5_______ ________

Shopping

43

43

12
1
11
9
2
1
7

2
4
12
6
14
2
3

THE KINDS OF THINGS THEY DID
Types and extent of recreation.
In general, these 43 workers did not differ markedly in the ways in
which they found their recreation, though the emphasis varied some­
what. Twenty-one went to the movies once a week, 2 went twice a
week (see table III), and a good many others went to the movies as
part of a “date.” Five workers did not include a movie in their
weekly program.
...
As a means of recreation, “dates” and visiting ranked next to the
movies in popularity. About half the women enjoyed these pastimes,
many of them more than once a week, “dates” being the more fre­
quent. Visiting friends and relatives was done once a week by 10
women, twice or more by 12. For 16 of the workers, social and indus­
trial clubs, usually sponsored by the Y. W. C. A. or church, furnished
recreation at least once a week; for 9 of them, more than once a week.
Sports did not occur very frequently in the average week’s program,
partly, perhaps, because the week was selected from the fall and
winter months.



4

NON WORKING TIME OF INDUSTRIAL WOMEN WORKERS

Eleven workers carried on other recreational activities, such as
automobile riding, knitting, bridge-playing. One girl worked with
puppets once a week, another attended camp meetings every Satur­
day night, and another worked twice a week on a newspaper published
by the Y. W. C. A. Only 28 workers of the 43 considered reading
important enough to enter it on the weekly schedule at least once,
and often it was combined with listening to the radio and with
conversation.
Table III.—Kinds of recreational activity and number of times engaged in during

the average week

Kinds of recreational activity

Total i
number of
cases (43
workers)

Movies_______
Visiting___________
“Dates”........... .........
Clubs________
Sports.......................
Dancing..................
Parties_______ ________
Music; theater. ...............
Reading........................
Other...................................

Number of workers who engaged in specified activity
during week—
Once

11

Twice

21
10
7
7
7
8
3
2

2
11
7
5

7

2

3 times

Over 3
times

1
6
3
2

2
1

1

Indefinite
times

2

1 Most workers engaged in several kinds of activity.

Organized recreation.
About three-quarters of these workers found some part of their
recreation under the auspices of an organization—generally the
Y. W. C. A. or the union (see table IV). Club activities and partici­
pation m sports were most usually carried on in this fashion. It is of
interest that the two Canadian workers found a large proportion of
their recreation through the Workers’ Education Association, to
which the United States has nothing quite comparable. Only ’one
worker indicated membership in an organized nationality group and
only one participated in athletics provided by her factory. ’ The
recreation found individually or with a few friends was, however the
most important, since movies, visiting, and “dates” generally are of
this individual character.
Table IV.—Kinds of organized recreation and auspices under which they were

carried on
Number of instances under the auspices of—
Total num­
Kinds of organized recreation ber of in­
City
stances
Y.W.C.A.
Union
Church
(board of
Other
education)
Total...... ......................
Sports____________
Parties___ _________
Dancing...................




46

16

18
18
3
7

10
5
1

15
7
2
6

5
3
1
1

3

7

3

5
2

5

THE KINDS OF THINGS THEY DID

Classes.
All the classes in which 31 workers participated in the winter pre­
ceding this study were under the auspices of an organization, for the
most part the Y. W. C. A., the union, and the city board of education
(see table V). The most popular subject was current events, which
often seemed to emphasize economic and social subjects, followed by
economics and dramatics, with equal numbers. English, which
included parliamentary procedure and public speaking, ranked next.
The category “other” included classes in photography, sculpture,
music, languages, career planning, culinary hints, and psychology.
One worker attended forums on topics of current interest 9 hours
each week at the Jewish People’s Institute in her city and was a mem­
ber of a group that listened every Thursday night to the radio program
“Town Hall of the Air” and discussed the debates afterward. An­
other worker attended a class in economics sponsored by her union
and was chosen union representative to attend the weekly classes in
economics and union problems held by the Affiliated Schools in
New York.
The majority of these workers apparently took advantage of
whatever classes their unions had to offer. Only five indicated classes
given by their union in which they did not participate. Four of them
were attending other classes and did not have time to study additional
subjects. The fifth had finished the course m public speaking offered
by her union.
Table V.—Kinds of classes and auspices under which they were carried on
Number of classes under the auspices of—
Kinds of classes

Total........ ............. ...
Economics...... ...................... -

Total number of
classes (31
workers) Y.W.C.A.

50

15

9
7
7
6
4
2
2
13

6
1
3
1

Union

13
1
3
5

City (board
Church
of educa­
tion)

W. P. A.

3

2

6

2
1

1
1

1

11
2
1
3

1

5

4

2
2
4

Other

Union activity.
For some of these workers the weekly figure for union activity did
not really represent the amount of time given to this work, which tends
to be greater at some periods than at others. For example, one indi­
vidual listed 7 hours of union activity a week, which included an ex­
ecutive board meeting and a shop meeting. In addition she had a
membership meeting every third Friday and shop stewards’ meetings
and committee meetings twice a month. Another worker who listed
only 2 hours of union work a week was a member of the grievance com­
mittee in her factory, which met with the employer at least once a
month and sometimes more often. A third worker who also gave only
2 hours a week regularly to her union gave whole weeks to organizing
and house-to-house visiting in times of strike or lock-out. In general,




6

NON WORKING TIME OF INDUSTRIAL WOMEN WORKERS

the union activity included shop and union meetings, executive board
meetings, and organizing work.
Mention should be made of several persons who did not belong to a
union but devoted a great deal of time to organizational activity.
One worker belonged to the Women’s Auxiliary of the United Trans­
port and Service Employees of America, the Women’s Trade Union
League, the Negro Youth Federation, and attended meetings of all
three of these organizations each week. Another, a member of the
executive board of the American Youth Congress, also attended weekly
meetings of the Christian Youth Council, of the Y. W. C. A. Industrial
Club, and the Metropolitan Y. W. C. A. Council of New York.
I he students were asked also to indicate activities which they carried
on less frequently than once a week but several times during the year.
More than half (25) attended concerts during the year—3 of these
went as frequently as once a month, 6 went from 4 to 6 times a year,
while 14 attended perhaps 1 or 2 concerts a year. Plays, often ama­
teur productions, were attended by 32 workers during the year, vary­
ing from 1 play a year to 1 a month. Several attended the theater
only during the summer.
ANNUAL VACATIONS
Annual vacations with pay have only recently begun to be extended
to the workers in mills and factories. Of the 43 students at the Hud­
son Shore Labor School somewhat less than one-third (14) were given
such vacations, 5 getting 2 weeks, the others only 1. In all but 3
instances the worker received a paid vacation of at least 1 week if she
had been with the company for 1 or more years; in several cases a 2weeks’ vacation was given after 5 years of employment. In 3 cases
(2 domestic workers and 1 bakery worker) a week’s paid vacation was
given through individual arrangement with the employer. Only 8
of these 14 workers wore union members, but in each case the paid
vacation was part of the collective agreement with the employer.
Six had no choice as to the time of vacation.
Of the remaining 29 workers who did not receive an annual vacation
with pay, only 10 had no vacation of any kind in the year preceding
the study; the others either took a vacation without pay or were given
an enforced one by plant shut-downs in slack seasons. Of the total
number of workers studied, only 3 participated in a vacation savings
plan. One used a savings-bank plan; the second, a plan operated by
the Federal Credit Union, a union undertaking; and the third used
a plan “operated by the timekeeper, planned for the girls’ own good,
purely voluntary—may deposit any amount desired.”
There seemed to be no difference in the way in which workers with
paid vacations and those without spent their vacation time. The
largest group, 12 in number, went to a resort or on an automobile
trip, 5 visited New York and the World’s Fair. Several visited rela­
tives, and a few stayed at home. Three workers used Unity House
belonging to the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union—the
only instance of the use of union facilities for the vacation. Others
went to Y. W. C. A. camps. The two Canadian workers spent
some time at the Workers’ Education Association Summer School.
Two workers used their vacations for organizational work for their
union.




ANNUAL VACATIONS

7

Twenty-two workers listed the total cost of vacations, which appar­
ently was borne by the individuals concerned. Several others noted
that their vacation expenses had been met by various organizations
or by relatives. The cost of vacations varied from $7 for a week at a
lake with a girls’ club to $100 for 2 weeks at the New York World’s
Fair. Six workers’ vacations cost $15—the most usual amount
reported.
CONCLUSIONS
The shorter workweek prevailing today has given the use of socalled leisure time new importance. The 2-day week end, now en­
joyed by many workers, has brought an opportunity to go further
afield in search of recreation or education and makes more practicable
a planned program of non-working-time activities. One result of the
study was the students’ realization of possibilities in better planning
of the use of leisure time.
It is chiefly in her nonworking time that the individual worker finds
the opportunity for self-expression and development of her creative
powers. The activities she engages in then affect her health and so­
cial relations; they include most of her efforts to build her trade-union
and other workers’ organizations; they have a contribution to her
role in a democratic society. This study by the workers of their
actual experiences persuaded many of them that the subject of non­
working-time activities should be given more serious study than it
has yet received.




Appendix.—CASE HISTORIES OF INDIVIDUAL STUDENTS
No. 1: I work in a ladies’ blouse factory in Connecticut. I work
35 hours a week. I don’t like my work. When I sit at that machine
hour after hour I feel that I am not making good use of that time.
My mind is not occupied. But I find that working 7 hours a day,
getting through at 4 o’clock, and having no work on Saturdays is very
convenient. Because I had to leave school at 15 to go to work, I
have been trying to make up my education during my leisure time by
reading, belonging to a current-events class at the Y. W. C. A., and
attending evening classes provided by the city board of education,
2 nights a week. These classes give me an opportunity to get my
high-school diploma, and later I expect to take an evening course in
college. My union has not provided any workers’ education, but I
expect to get a class started when I get home.
I have a girl-scout troop once a week. On Wednesday night I go
to an Italian girls’ club. It really started out to be a recreation club.
We did everything from games to basketball, swimming, hiking, and
bicycling. Last summer we went to a lake for 7 days. This last year
we started an educational program combined with the recreational
one. We started having speakers once a month. One was the execu­
tive secretary of the Visiting Nurses Association, and she in turn took
us to her building and guided us through it. We even arranged to
have Dr. B. of New York speak to us on marriage. A member of the
club spoke to us on child psychology. We went to plays in New York
and to the opera once. The girls were a little uneasy about changing
from one kind of thing to another. I don’t know what they are doing
while I am away.
Most of the girls at the Italian club are personal friends of mine
and we play cards together and visit together—mostly on Friday night
and Saturday. I have only a few friends in town whom I like to visit.
I live more than a mile away from town. When I go to town there
is a woman I go to see who has a book store, and we talk for hours
and I enjoy it very much. I also have a friend who owns a beauty
parlor and we also talk for hours. I very rarely go to the movies—
only about once a month. I don’t care for the radio much except for
music. I never listen to skits. I visit with my girl friend when I
have nothing else to do. On Sunday afternoon I always try to take
a walk, especially when I have been reading for a long time. I like
biographies. I also like psychology. It appeals to me and sometimes
I see something interesting at the library and pick it up. That is how
I got interested in child psychology.
No. 2: I have worked in the laundry industry in Brooklyn since
1931. When I was in high school I worked there during the summer
and when I came out I went in there and worked full time. I work
43 hours a week, on 4 days from 7:30 to 6, on Friday until 4, and I
have Saturdays off. During my lunch hour I sell stockings, cosmetics,




A

and underwear to the girls in the shop. I sell it to them on time and
they pay me on Saturday.
1 continued to work and to go to school in the evening college
course at Brooklyn College, which takes about 6 years to get a degree;
but after I joined the union I could not go to classes as many nights
as before. The boss did not allow me as many privileges. He used
to allow me to get out an hour early in order to get to my classes.
We did not have a minimum wage either before I joined the union,
and so I had to work extra hours on Saturday in order to make up
for the hours I took off to go to school. He said I did not have any
reason to join the union because I was doing all right without it.
But I didn’t see it that way.
I started in high school in February 1935, and have been going all
the time since except for half a term. I did a very foolish thing and
wasted a lot of time. I had read a lot of books in some of the artistic
subjects and was going to major in philosophy. Then I changed my
mind and wanted to go into law, but last year I finally decided that I
wanted to study labor and economics. I took a course in anthro­
pology. I liked it very much and I had an excellent teacher who made
out a program for me to follow.
When I wasn’t allowed to get out early from work I had to cut
evening school down to 3 nights a week. Before that I had been going
5 nights but not the same hours every night—6:30 to 10:30 on 3 nights,
the other nights I had to go only an hour. Now on the nights that I
don’t go to school I go to the union to do some work. I have an
executive board meeting on one night and my joint board meeting is
on the other night.
On Saturday morning another girl and I have little children come in
for tutoring. We usually have about four or five. There are a lot of
children, some are children of union members and some are not. We
help them get through their classes in grade school and high school.
We had one Chinese, one Jewish girl, and three colored girls.
I am secretary of our local and on Saturday I am at the union office
from about 3:30 to 5, and then I usually go out with people around the
office. We go somewhere for dinner and then usually go to Harlem.
I get home about 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning, and then I spend most
of Sunday sleeping. Sometimes I go to the movies on Sunday.
I get a vacation each summer. Usually I spend it at Asbury Park
but I often take out other weeks when I am working for my final
examination.
No. 3: I am a winder in a textile mill in Massachusetts. I have a
40-hour week with no work on Saturday. I go to work at 7 and am
finished at 4. In my work at the mill I stand up the whole 8 hours,
and after that I don’t feel like doing anything. I have an hour for
lunch and I eat at home, and it takes all my hour to go home and eat
and get back to work. Once a week after work and after supper (I
always have to help with household duties after supper) I go to a
meeting of the executive board of the union. That meeting usually
takes up most of the night. I am the recording secretary. Some­
times we have a general union meeting on Saturday.
Once or twice a week I go to the movies, generally on a date. I have
no money of my own because I give it all to the house, and so I never
go to the movies when I have to spend my own money. Between




10

NON WORKING TIME OF INDUSTRIAL WOMEN WORKERS

.
.
times I read and listen
to the radio.
I read fiction and nonfiction—'
mostly best sellers in fiction. I get most of the books from the library
and a few from a 2-cent-a-day rental library.
If the union meeting is in the morning on Saturday, it will last any­
where from 10 to 2, and then I go home or else get something to eat
and go shopping with friends. We get back about 6 o’clock, have
supper between 6 and 7, and generally on Saturday nights I have a
date. Sometimes we go to the movies, once in a while we go into
Boston, but a great part of the time we visit mutual friends and sit
around and talk and have something to eat. It’s nothing very excit­
ing. I wish we had some place to go.
I wish we had some classes. There are night classes in Boston,
but the expense would be considerable going in and out, and you
know when you come out of work you are rather tired. When I
graduated from high school I was rather interested in writing. I had
an English teacher who was interested in my writing in school and
helped me a lot, and if I had been able to do it I would have liked to
take a course in short-story writing. But I had to go to work right
away. I had two younger brothers and the family needed my
money.
I have never had a vacation since I have been working, outside
of the enforced ones in slack season, but sometimes these are 3 months
long. There is not very much to do at this time. I stay around
home and help my mother with the housework and sometimes go
out and help a friend with her housework.
No. 4: I assemble lamps in an electrical-equipment factory in
Connecticut. I work 40 hours a week, with Saturdays off. I start
work at 7 and finish at 3.30, with half an hour off for lunch. When
I’m through I have a good time. I like to do everything. I like
all kinds of sports, but swimming is my favorite. When there is no
swimming I go ice skating. 1 spend quite a lot of time at the
Y. W. C. A., where we have a basketball floor and a roller-skating
rink. We also have classes there, such as public speaking, drama,
and current events.
The Y. W. C. A. has a camp, and on Saturdays I go up there if a
gang is going. I like to dance, and I go out on dates about three
times a week. I stay home about two nights a week in order to get
some sleep. On dates we go roller-skating, or to the movies, or to
dine-and-dance places. On Sunday I stay in bed until 11 and then
I spend some time cleaning up my room and getting my clothes
ready for work the following week. Then I read the paper and
usually go riding around with my brother. Then it’s about time for
dinner. And practically every Sunday evening I go roller-skating.
I get a 2-weeks vacation with pay. Last year I went to Phila­
delphia and stayed with my cousin. I spent a week there and then
I spent 10 days (I took a few extra days off) on Long Island with a
girl friend. We went down to Jones Beach and saw the sights and
generally had a good time.




o