Full text of Summary: The Effects of Labor Legislation on the Employment Opportunities of Women : Women's Bureau Bulletin, No. 68

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

U3.3'^8
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

BULLETIN OF THE WOMEN’S BUREAU, No. 68

SUMMARY
THE EFFECTS OF LABOR LEGISLATION
ON THE EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
OF WOMEN
REPRINT OF CHAPTER II OF BULLETIN 65, SHOWING SCOPE, METHOD, AND
CONCLUSIONS OF THE INVESTIGATION OF THE WOMEN’S BUREAU OF THE
EFFECTS OF LABOR LEGISLATION ON THE EMPLOYMENT
OPPORTUNITIES OF WOMEN




[Public—No.

259—66th

Congress]

[H. R. 13229]
An Act To establish in the Department of Labor a bureau to be known as the
Women’s Bureau

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be
established in the Department of Labor a bureau to be known as
the Women’s Bureau.
Sec. 2. That the said bureau shall be in charge of a director, a
woman, to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate, who shall receive an annual compensation of
$5,000. It shall be the duty of said bureau to formulate standards
and policies which shall promote the welfare of wage-earning women,
improve their working conditions, increase their efficiency, and ad­
vance their opportunities for profitable employment. The said
bureau shall have authority to investigate and report to the said de­
partment upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of women in
industry. The director of said bureau may from time to time publish
the results of these investigations in such a manner and to such
extent as the Secretary of Labor may prescribe.
Sec. 3. That there shall be in said bureau an assistant director,
to be appointed by the Secretary of Labor, who shall receive an
annual compensation of $3,500 and shall perform such duties as
shall be prescribed by the director and approved by the Secretary
of Labor.
Sec. 4. That there is hereby authorized to be employed by said
bureau a chief clerk and such special agents, assistants, clerks, and
other employees at such rates of compensation and in such numbers
as Congress may from time to time provide by appropriations.
Sec. 5. That the Secretary of Labor is hereby directed to furnish
sufficient quarters, office furniture, and equipment for the work of
this bureau.
Sec. 6. That this act shall take effect and be in force from and
after its passage.
Approved, June 5, 1920.




U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
JAMES J. DAVIS, Secretary

WOMEN’S BUREAU
MARY ANDERSON, Director

BULLETIN

OF

THE

WOMEN’S

BUREAU,

No. 68

SUMMARY
THE EFFECTS OF LABOR LEGISLATION
ON THE EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
OF WOMEN

Reprint of Chapter II of Bulletin 65, showing scope,
method, and conclusions of the investigation of the
Women’s Bureau of the effects of labor legislation
on the employment opportunities of women




*eNT oT?

UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON
1928




ADDITIONAL COPIES
OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM
THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS
U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON, D. C.
AT

10 CENTS PER COPY

CONTENTS
Letter of transmittal
v
Foreword
vn
The investigation___________
The problem outlined
Methods of measurement
Method of investigation
Scope of investigation________________________________________
Conclusions~
Regulatory legislation
Hour laws in manufacturing industries__________________
Night-work laws in manufacturing industries____________
Laws regulating working conditions in manufacturing indus­
tries
Hour legislation in stores
Hour and night-work legislation for women waitresses____
Legislation applying to special occupations______________
Elevator operators
Street-car conductors and ticket agents_____________
Women in the printing trades
20
Pharmacists______________________ _______________
Prohibitory legislation
21
Grinding, polishing, and buffingI_
21
Electric and acetylene welding
Taxicab driving
21
Gas and electric meter reading
22
Summary
22
Table 1.

Scope of the investigation,




by

subject,______ ________ . ..
hi

j
1

2
3
7

n
13

13
15
15
16

17
18
lg
18
20

21

8




LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL 1
United States Department oe Labor,
Women’s Bureau,

Washington, May 89, 1988.

There is submitted herewith a report on the effects of labor
legislation on the employment opportunities of women. This study
was made in response to a request for such information from the
second Women’s Industrial Conference, held under the auspices of
the Women’s Bureau in Washington in January, 192G. The data
upon which the report is based were collected during the period
from March to December, 1926.
In planning and carrying on the study the Women’s Bureau was
fortunate in securing the services of several experts in the field of
industrial investigating, who acted as a technical advisory committee
and whose judgment and experience were of the greatest value as
guides to the best method of collecting and presenting the material.
The chairman of this committee was Miss Mary van Kleeck,
director of the department of industrial studies of the Russell Sage
Foundation. Miss van Kleeck has had many years of experience in
making industrial investigations and has published a number of
reports of great social significance. She served as a member of the
President’s Conference on Unemployment, in 1921; she was a mem­
ber of the Committee on Unemployment and Business Cycles,
1922-23; and she was the first director of the Women’s Bureau
(then the Woman in Industry Service) and therefore was especially
equipped to understand the policies and functions of the work in
hand.
Another member of the committee was Dr. Charles P. Neill,
manager of the bureau of information of the Southeastern Railways.
Doctor Neill was United States Commissioner of Labor from 1905 to
1913 and conducted the monumental investigation of the condition
of woman and child wage earners in the United States which was
made during that period. He has served as president of the Ameri­
can Statistical Association, was a member of the United States
Immigration Commission in 1907-1910, and a member of the United
States Coal Commission in 1922 and 1923.
The third member of the committee was Dr. Lillian M. Gilbreth,
who, as psychologist and as consulting engineer in management, has
made practical studies of industrial fatigue. She is a member of
the Taylor Society and an honorary member of the Society of Indus­
trial Engineers, and is the author of several books on time and motion
studies in industry.
This committee was most generous in devoting time and attention
to the problems which arose during the course of the investigation
and its counsel is gratefully acknowledged.
Sir:

i This letter accompanies the unabridged bulletin, No. 65; its form has not been changed for this
summary—Editor.




VI

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

Similar acknowledgment is made of the services of many persons
whose cooperation made it possible to get the information desired.
Especially gratifying was the generous attitude of the employers,
without whose help it would have been impossible to make the study
and who cooperated freely in giving information and in opening
their records for such inspection as was necessary. The State de­
partments of labor in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin,
Illinois, Indiana, and California also were of the greatest assistance,
advising as to local problems for investigation, securing information,
in some cases providing office accommodations and checking the
accuracy of certain of the information compiled, and in two cases
making special studies which have been incorporated in the report.
These two studies are of the employment of women as proof readers,
linotypists, and monotypists in newspaper offices in New York State,
made under the direction of Miss Nelle Swartz, director of the bureau
of women in industry of the New York State Department of Labor,
and the personnel policies of Pennsylvania department stores, made
under the direction of Miss Charlotte Carr, head of the bureau of
women and children of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor.
Trade-union organizations, social and civic groups, and women’s
organizations, in all the States included in the study, gave valuable
assistance.
The investigation was conducted and the report prepared under the
direction of Mary N. Winslow. The field work was in charge of
Ethel L. Best, Caroline Manning, and Agnes L. Peterson.
Kespectfully submitted.
Mary Anderson, Director.
Hon. James J. Davis,
Secretary of Labo:




FOREWORD
How labor legislation which applies to women onlj affects the
opportunities of women in industry is the question which the in­
vestigation here reported upon was designed to answer. . Because
of the controversial character of the question it was especially im­
portant to employ such methods of investigation as would insure
beyond the shadow of a doubt the sifting of facts from opinions and
lead to a statement of conditions characterized by objective validity
uninfluenced by prejudice.
...
.
The Women’s Bureau is not charged with the administration of
any labor legislation, that function being reserved for the States,
leaving to a Federal agency like the bureau the task of investigation
for the purpose of enlisting public support for raising standards.
Therefore the Women’s Bureau does not have a vested interest in
labor laws. It's purposes can be achieved through the voluntary
action of employers, through action by trade unions, and through
labor legislation, and it should be able to view all methods ob­
jectively.
Its purpose, as stated in the bill establishing it, is
“ to formulate standards and policies which shall promote the wel­
fare of wage-earning women, improve their working conditions,
increase their efficiency, and advance their opportunities for
profitable employment.” In the fulfillment of this last purpose,
a study of the effects of labor laws upon women’s opportunities
is highly important. Defense of labor laws, if indeed they inter­
fere with women’s opportunities, would place the Women’s Bureau
in an anomalous position. The bureau therefore, while nonpartisan
in relation to labor legislation, is distinctly obligated to learn the
truth without prejudgment.
The investigation grew out of controversy. This was revealed at
the Women’s Industrial Conference called by the bureau, January
18-21, 1926. One group participating reiterated the position taken
by their organization against labor legislation applicable to women
only, the ground of their opposition being that it handicapped
women in securing and retaining employment. They urged that the
Women’s Bureau undertake a study. All members of the confer­
ence, those opposed and those in favor of such legislation, were in
accord with this recommendation, believing that the facts should be
secured. The controversy concerning the subject has, however, made
it profoundly important that the procedure of investigation should
be planned in order to insure objective conclusions.
One means of insuring this objectivity in procedure was to ap­
point two committees, one an advisory committee to give technical
advice, composed of persons having experience in carrying forward
industrial investigations. The second was composed of representa­
tives of organizations advocating special legislation for women and
representatives of a national organization opposing it. This was an
idea taken over from the recommendations of the United States Com­




VII

rai

FOREWORD

mission on Industrial Relations, particularly the minority report
presented by Prof. John R. Commons, urging that in the adminis­
tration of labor legislation controversial issues should be met by
hawing both sides represented in advisory committees. These com­
mittees could be kept informed constantly of the progress of in­
vestigations and administration of labor laws and would be free
to express their assent or dissent when reports were published.
Unfortunately, this idea of an advisory committee proved impos­
sible to carry out in this study by the Women’s Bureau, Those
opposed to special labor laws for women urged that the investigation
be conducted from the beginning mainly through public hearings.
The advocates of special labor legislation, the majority of whom
were themselves women in industry, representing organizations of
women in industry, were opposed to public hearings on the ground
that testimony given on such occasions by working women might
jeopardize their positions and could not be relied upon to bring out
all the facts. When their opponents on the committee, in their efforts
to secure the adoption of their recommendation on procedure in
making the study, induced their members in the States to write letters
to Congressmen designed to discredit the investigation before it was
begun and to bring charges of prejudice and unfair dealing against
the Women’s Bureau, the representatives of industrial organizations
and those favoring special labor legislation withdrew from the advis­
ory committee, holding that it was not fulfilling its proper functions,
that they could not agree with the recommendations for public hear­
ings, and that no useful purpose could be served by the agitation
resulting from this disagreement in the preliminary planning of the
study. The advisory committee, therefore, lacking representation of
advocates of special legislation for women, was automatically
dissolved.
In the working out of the plan several surrounding circumstances,
as will be outlined in Chapter II of the report, had to be taken into
consideration. These were (1) the large numbers of women em­
ployed in industry; (2) variety in the occupations in which they
were engaged; (3) varying conditions not only in different industries
but in different localities and in different establishments in the same
industry and the same community; (4) changes in industrial equip­
ment, in machinery, and in the development of the country from
agricultural to industrial pursuits, which have been coincident with
labor legislation and with many other changing factors influencing
the employment of women; (5) different backgrounds in public
opinion in the different States, as shown in the history of labor laws
in Massachusetts, New York, and California; (6) the controversial
character of the problem as already described; and (7) the range of
possible effects of labor laws which could be set down as hypotheses
in the beginning and would require examination.
In approaching the subject, it was granted at once that one result
of labor legislation was the establishment of certain standards of
employment, socially beneficial. This was not the point at issue, and
it was not made the center of investigation, since, broadly speaking,
the social effects of labor legislation would be a different subject.
Moreover, the effect on industry itself, whether labor laws cause
movement from one State to another, restrict or enlarge production,




FOREWORD

IX

and in general how labor laws affect industrial efficiency, was not
included in the inquiry. This, again, is another subject.
The point of interest upon which to focus attention was evidently
the possible curtailment of opportunities for women through the sub­
stitution of men, due to labor lawTs applying to women only. This
became the real subject of the inquiry.
The first step was an experimental investigation lasting one month,
with four investigators working in two States—Ohio and Illinois.
The economy of an experimental approach is obvious. This plan was
adopted through the advice of the technical committee, particularly
Dr. Charles P. Neill, whose work as Commissioner of Labor in the
United States had revealed the saving of time and money resulting
from the testing out of plans in the field before their final adoption.
It proved to be an economy in this instance.
When the investigators were sent out, the question which they
sought to answer was this: What have been the actual changes in the
proportion of men and women as measurable statistically from plant
records over a series of years during which labor legislation was
being enacted, as compared with changes in the same industry in a
State not having similar legislation? The technique planned was
to review the pay-roll records to get from them the dates and the
measure of change in the proportion of men and women employed
and then to interview employers and workers to learn what have been
the factors in these changes.
This technique had to be radically altered because plant records
were lacking in precision, in that they did not give the information
for specified occupations and often did not give it separately for
men and women. It would have been possible to secure these records
for a few plants, but these were likely to be the better managed and
not typical of general conditions. In order to get a more inclusive
picture of many occupations in different States it was necessary to
change the technique. Instead of a statistical study supplemented
by interviews the inquiry had to be made by means of interviews
supplemented by statistics.
The problem, as set after full knowledge of the kinds of records
available, was to find out what actually happened in a selected num­
ber of industries in different States before and after the enactment
of laws in those States which had them, compared with what actu­
ally happened in the same industries in States not having the same
laws. In addition, because of the controversial character of the sub­
ject, certain occupations which had been the subject of conflicting
opinions were included, though in some instances the small numbers
involved and the absence of any general significance would not other­
wise have warranted their inclusion. A sample is the reading of
gas meters, which is prohibited for women in Ohio and Pennsylvania
and is practically nonexistent anywhere. As this had been cited,
however, by opponents of special labor legislation for women as
illustrating handicaps upon their work, it was desirable to include it.
Certain situations did not seem susceptible of inquiry, such as the
prohibition of employment of women in mines and in* quarries and
in saloons (which continue to be named in legislation). No one has
seriously suggested that employment in mines should be open to
18739—28------2




X

FOREWORD

women, and hence it has not emerged as a subject for investigation in
this study, it being assumed that the changed practice of the mining
industry with respect to the employment of women which is now
universal in the United States is generally acceptable.
The technique of studying prohibited occupations resolved itself
into a study of these occupations in those places where they are not
prohibited, in order to discover whether their prohibition deprives
women of an advantageous opportunity for employment. It should
be pointed out at once that labor legislation divides broadly into two
parts—(1) laws definitely prohibiting employment of women; (2)
laws regulating their employment. The laws which regulate their
employment may become prohibitory in their actual effects. There
are two different problems of investigation involved in studying these
two types of legislation.
In planning the interviews, objective material was sought, rather
than opinions, unless these opinions could be substantiated by show­
ing their basis in actual experience. For instance, in interviewing
women regarding the effects of labor laws upon their employment,
only those women were included who had actually worked at the
time of the passage of the law under inquiry, and the facts sought
from them were what actually happened to them.
Many of the women were interviewed in their work places; but as
the subject of inquiry related to past happenings rather than pres­
ent conditions, their statements were not subject to distortion
through the atmosphere of the factory and the fear of losing their
jobs, as might have been the danger had they been questioned about
present conditions. The questionnaire method was used only spar­
ingly and chiefly for the pharmacists, who were too few in any one
State for adequate information and who therefore were circularized
in 3 States, while figures showing the extent of their employment
were secured through questionnaires sent to some 38 States.
As a background for the study, every effort was made to secure
the participation of representatives of all organizations having any
direct relation to the given situation, including the local representa­
tives of organizations of women.
Closely connected with the efforts to secure objectivity through
the techniques of procedure in the field work is the method of pre­
senting the material. Certain source material regarding the five
industries stressed in the investigation is published in full in an
appendix, thus enabling the readers and students to get the facts for
themselves and to draw their own conclusions. The publication of
these original data puts the reader in a position to appraise the
conclusions drawn by the investigators.
In the industries and occupations studied, establishments employ­
ing in all more than 650,000 men and women were covered. The
base for the facts was therefore broad.
As to conclusions, the report itself must be read for them. The
total number of women in the United States whose working hours
are regulated by labor legislation amounts to about two and threequarter millions, only one-third of the eight and one-half million
gainfully employed. Business and professional women, those in
supervisory positions and in general in the higher ranks of oppor­
tunity are not generally covered by labor laws. These laws have




FOREWORD

XI

been directed toward the control of conditions in industrial, mer­
cantile, and factory occupations. When applied to certain occupa­
tions which differ from those for which they were drawn, such as
street cars, labor laws have proved to be a handicap in a few
instances. But the findings seem to show that the instances of
handicap, which have been diligently sought by the investigators,
are only instances and should be dealt with as such, without allow­
ing them to interfere with the development of the main body of
legislation.
The first caution in the reading of the report, which is demon­
strated again and again in the material, is the impossibility of
generalization, the necessity for recognizing differences in different
occupations, different industries, and different localities. As to
night work, laws prohibiting it were found to be “ chiefly a reflection
of the usual attitude of employers regarding such practice, but
occasionally they result in a limitation of women’s employment.
When applied indiscriminately to special occupations that are pro­
fessional or semiprofessional in type, night-work prohibition or regu­
lation has resulted in restrictions of women’s employment.”
In general, however, the report concludes that regulatory hour
laws as applied to women engaged in manufacturing processes do
not handicap them, but “ serve to regulate employment and to estab­
lish the accepted standards of modern efficient industrial manage­
ment.”
Very important in any consideration of enlargement of women’s
opportunities is the conclusion of the report, that “ In almost every
kind of employment the real forces that influence women’s oppor­
tunity are far removed from legislative restriction of their hours
or conditions of work. In manufacturing, the type of product, the
division and simplification of manufacturing processes, the de­
velopment of machinery and mechanical aids to production, the
labor supply and its costs, and the general psychology of the
times, all have played important parts in determining the position
of women. * * *
“ Tn other occupations other influences have been dominant in deter­
mining the extent of women’s employment. In stores a more liberal
attitude and successful experimentation with women on new jobs; in
restaurants the development of public opinion as to the type of serv­
ice most suitable for women; in pharmacy a gradually increasing con­
fidence in women’s ability on the part of the public; in the metal
trades a breaking down of the prejudices against 'women’s employ­
ment on the part of employers and of male employees, and demon­
stration of women’s ability along certain lines—these are the sig­
nificant forces that have influenced and will continue to determine
women’s place among wage earners. Such forces have not been
deflected by the enforcement of legislative standards and they will
play the dominant part in assuring to women an equal chance in
those occupations for which their abilities and aptitudes fit them.”
The value of this study, however, lies not in its conclusions so
much as in its portrayal of conditions in such detail that the reader
may see and judge for himself. The setting up of the problem,
which is the essence of method, and the technique of procedure, seem




XII

FOREWORD

to the advisory committee to have been designed to safeguard the
objective character of the results. It is unnecessary for the com­
mittee to prove this point, since again the reader can judge for him­
self by studying the report itself. All that the committee seeks to
do is to bring together in brief compass what seem to its members to
be the outstanding characteristics of the method adopted. It is with
satisfaction that we have participated in the carrying forward of
this investigation, because it represents an effort to approach a con­
troversial issue by the objective method and spirit of science and
as such it should be a safe guide for action in the public interest.




Mary van Kleeck, Chairman..
Lillian M. Gilbreth.
Charles P. Neill.

SUMMARY: THE EFFECTS OF LABOR LEGISLA­
TION ON THE EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
OF WOMEN
THE INVESTIGATION1
The problem outlined—Method and scope of the investigation—Conclusions
THE PROBLEM OUTLINED

Laws limiting hours of work apply to about one-third of the eight
and a half million women who are gainfully occupied in the United
States, and laws limiting or prohibiting night work are an additional
regulation applying to slightly more than two-fifths of those whose
hours are restricted. Laws prohibiting certain occupations are in
force for very small numbers of women, while laws requiring cer­
tain working conditions and sanitary facilities for women are more
general in their application. The women to whom these laws apply
are engaged in many forms of activity throughout the United States,
and it has been the object of this study to discover what effects such
legislative regulations have had on their opportunities and con­
ditions of employment.
On the face of it this subject gives no evidence of the countless
qualifications and limitations that must be made before any con­
clusions can be reached. Women’s position in wage-earning pursuits
to-day is the result of generations of necessities, prejudices, and
experiences. An adequate study of the effects of any one thing on
this position must cover a very broad field and include a great variety
of other factors that also, in one way or another, may have been
influential. The subjects for study and measurement are both in­
tangible and inconstant, and they must be considered for historical,
actual, and potential values.
The vast number of women who are employed; the great variety
of their occupations; the conditions under which they work, vary­
ing with locality, with industry, and even with individual establish­
ment ; the changes and developments in their opportunities that have
been coincident with the enactment of legislation and with many
other occurrences as well; legislative enactments of all kinds and
descriptions, applying here to one group of women and there to
another; the almost infinite range of the possible results of such
legislation, which results may be similar to those due to other in­
fluences—-these are only some of the qualifications inherent in the
subject reported upon in the following pages of this volume.
With such complications, the difficulties of outlining and carrying
out a satisfactory investigation were enormous. Perhaps the chief
problem grew out of the subject itself—the legislation that was
under discussion.
Legislation regulating employment of women in industry has been
enacted in every State of the Union except Florida. The laws differ
widely in extent, in requirements, and in application. Their pos­
sible effects are almost countless and can not be measured completely
1 Reprint of Chapter II of Bull. 65 of the Women’s Bureau, showing scope, method, and conclusions of
the investigation.




1

2

summary: effects of labor legislation

at any one time nor in any one aspect. In some cases the results
may be progressive, becoming more important and more tangible
as the years go by. In other cases certain results may immediately
follow the enactment of a law but may be modified or offset by
subsequent developments.
The first delimitation of the subject was, therefore, the type of
effect that was to be looked for. The most obvious result of legisla­
tion, and the one permitting of the most exact measurement, prob­
ably is the establishment of the standard stipulated by the law, with
the social benefits resulting from such improved standard. For
example, so far as a law limiting women’s hours to 48 a week estab­
lishes this standard in the industries of a State, its effects are not
kept within the confines of these industries. Instead, they will be
reflected in community and social standards. Better health, larger
opportunities for education and recreation, a keener civic responsi­
bility may be part of the law’s result. These would have a definite
and pronounced effect on women, but because so much material
already had been gathered along these lines, and also because this
aspect of the situation was not under dispute, they were not included
within the plan of study.
Another result that might follow legislative enactment is a slack­
ening or a stimulation of industry. Some opponents of legislation
hold that one of its effects is so to hamper industry as to cause shut­
downs, underemployment, and general “ hard times ”; on the other
hand, its advocates hold that the enforcement of fair standards
through legislation eliminates the competition of establishments
having low standards and stimulates more efficient methods of man­
agement. Either of these two situations is sure to have an almost
immediate effect on women’s employment. An adequate examina­
tion of such factors, however, would involve business and commercial
studies for which the Women’s Bureau is not equipped. It was
decided, therefore, that the immediate relationship between legis­
lation and industrial prosperity should not be included in the
investigation.
A third possible result of legislation applying to women only
might be a curtailment of their opportunity through substitution of
men when it was desired to have conditions of employment other
than those required by law for women. This was the subject to
which the investigation finally was limited. In other words, the
study undertaken was the effects of legislation on women as reflected
in terms of their immediate opportunities for employment in
industry.
METHODS OF MEASUREMENT

Any adequate measurement of the effects of special legislation for
women would have to show first what changes in working conditions
sind opportunities for employment accompanied or followed the
enactment of such legislation. These changes then must be thor­
oughly examined to make sure that they are not a result of other
industrial developments that were coincident Avith or that followed
the legislation in question. The method of measurement adopted
for the main sections of the investigation was to study the conditions
>f women’s employment before and after certain laws went into




THE INVESTIGATION

3

effect and to compare present conditions in States that were regulated
by law with conditions in States that were not so regulated. In
accordance with this plan, for each industry or occupation studied
detailed information was secured from a number of establishments
in at least two States, one State having considerable legislation for
women and the other State having little or none. The information
secured included a detailed description of the conditions in each
establishment, showing production methods, employment policies,
labor supply, and vocational training. Any of these factors might
influence women’s employment and be as responsible as labor legisla­
tion for a difference in women’s status.
METHOD OF INVESTIGATION

It was necessary, of course, to adopt the sampling process in order
to secure material that would illustrate the subject adequately. In
selecting these samples the policy followed was to take certain indus­
tries that, in regard to numbers and proportions of women employed,
increases or decreases in such numbers and proportions, extent of
organization, type of work done, amount of skill required, and oppor­
tunity for competition with men, were typical of different conditions
of women’s employment.
Five manufacturing industries—boots and shoes, hosiery, paper
boxes, electrical products (including apparatus and supplies), and
clothing—-were selected as typifying representative conditions of
women’s employment in industry. It was felt that detailed study of
the employment policies for women in these five industries would
furnish adequate samples of the general influences that have played
a part in determining women’s position in industrial pursuits. To
get a more general view of the specific limitations that might be
imposed on women’s work in industry by the operation of laws limit­
ing their daily and weekly hours of work or limiting or prohibiting
their employment at night, there was planned also a survey of pos­
sible opportunities for women in industries operating longer than
the hours permitted by law for women or operating at night. In
States where there was no legal limitation of women’s hours, the
extent of women’s employment under the conditions prohibited in
other States was studied; and in States where such limitations
existed, employers were interviewed to discover what would be the
possibilities for the increased employment of women if the legal
restrictions were not in effect.
In addition to the information concerning women employed in
general manufacturing processes, data were collected regarding
women’s employment in stores and as waitresses in restaurants, as
such occupations represent important fields of work for women.
Other special lines of employment studied as illustrating problems
more concrete and individual than those of the larger industrial
groups were the work of women as core makers, street-car conductors
and ticket agents, elevator operators, and pharmacists, in printing
establishments, and in the metal trades. For these groups the effects
of any legislation regulating the employment of women were sought,
as it was not possible to foresee which laws might have been most
significant in each case; but the focus was on the legal regulation of
hours—daily, weekly, and at night.



4

summary: effects of labor legislation

For the laws that prohibit women’s employment in specific occu­
pations a different method of investigation was planned. The
occupations selected for examination in connection with these laws
were buffing, polishing, and grinding, electric and acetylene welding,
gas and electric meter reading, and taxicab driving, each of which
was prohibited for women in one or more States. The method fol­
lowed was to seek women employed in these occupations where no
prohibition existed, and, through personal interviews with them and
with their employers, to get a record of conditions of employment
and personal experience that would constitute a basis of judgment
as to whether or not prohibition of such employment in other places
had been a real handicap to women.
Preliminary to the entire jnvestigation, in order to have complete
information regarding the dates upon which the various laws be­
came effective, there was prepared a chronological account of labor
legislation for women in the various States. To throw further
light on the developments and changes in the laws, a special study
was made of the history of labor legislation for women in three
States—California, Massachusetts, and New York. This history
shows the different forces that reacted to bring about or to prevent
the enactment of labor legislation for women, and it is of the great­
est-importance in understanding and interpreting the effects of the
legislation under investigation. It appears in a succeeding volume
of this report, as does the chronological account of the laws in each
State that was used as the background for the entire study.
This was an extensive program, and, as the staff and appropria­
tion of the Women’s Bureau were limited, it was essential that the
waste motion in carrying out the study should be as little as possible.
Because the findings of the investigation were awaited eagerly by
many groups of persons interested in legislative policies, it was
important to gather the material and publish the report with as
little delay as possible, but for the same reason it was even more
important that the method followed should not be open to challenge.
To establish a satisfactory method in as short a time as possible, it
was decided to conduct for one month an experimental study in two
States, to compile and analyze the results, and from this experience
to make such changes as seemed advisable for the remainder of the
survey. This experimental study proved to be of the greatest value.
It demonstrated within a few weeks that the focus of the investi­
gation as originally outlined was not practical, and the consequent
changes made, in the type of information required and in schedule
forms, saved months of what would have been useless effort if the
original method had been continued.
The experimental study set up as the unit of measurement of
differences in status and opportunity for women in industry the
numerical and proportional distribution of men and women in the
various occupations in individual establishments. As a unit of meas­
urement of the changes that had taken place in women’s employment
over a period of years, this numerical and proportional distribution
was required for certain significant years. In addition to this infor­
mation, in each establishment an interview with the employer was
to furnish information as to the prevailing conditions of employment
and methods of manufacture and any changes that had taken’ place




THE INVESTIGATION

5

that might explain employment fluctuations at various times or the
current conditions indicated by the occupational figures.
A month’s effort on the part of four investigators in two States
showed that it was not possible to get adequate detailed occupational
figures, either for current conditions or for past years. During this
experimental study records were made for 56 establishments. In
only 36 of these plants could any records be secured concerning the
occupations of the men and women employed, and in all but 1 or 2
of the 36 the employment figures supposed to indicate occupations
gave merely the departments in which the men or women were
working. In a few large plants these departments were so subdivided
that it was possible to get a general idea of the occupations carried
on. In other plants, however, there were listed only a few depart­
ments, each of them including a great number of occupations. It
would be possible for investigators, through the cooperation of the
managers, who in most cases were very helpful in making informa­
tion available, to go through a number of plants and to list the actual
job of each man and each woman, or to get such information from
the foremen of the various sections. Such a method, however, would
be most time-consuming and could not have been adopted for the
type of survey that was being undertaken.
When it came to securing occupational records for other years it
was found that this was practically out of the question. In only
19 of the 56 plants was it possible to get back records that seemed
significant in any way. In one or two cases records of employment
in former years, by department, were available, but these cases were
so rare as to be of almost no value. In not one plant did the records
of employment in past years give any adequate idea of fluctuations
in actual occupational opportunity for women. In a few cases it
could be ascertained, in a general way, what changes in the propor­
tion of women employed had taken place during certain years, but
it was not possible from any employment records secured to learn
the details of these changes nor to verify the statements made by
managers and superintendents.
For these reasons it was decided to abandon the attempt to secure
statistical data showing changes in the status of women’s occupa­
tional opportunity, and instead to use statements of managers and
superintendents as to the past developments of women’s employment,
the current situation, and the factors that had influenced them. If
an unusual employment situation was found to exist in any estab­
lishment, or if a significant change in employment had taken place
at some time past, attempt was to be made to get occupational data
in illustration; but, with this exception, the focus of attention was
changed, after the preliminary investigation, from statistical data
supplemented by the interview to the interview supplemented by
statistical data.
.
In line with this change in focus came a corresponding change in
type of schedule used to collect the information. The original
schedule was a mimeographed set of forms, asking specific questions
and giving specific places for the answers. This type of schedule
had been used for many Women’s Bureau surveys. The preliminary
investigation disclosed, however, that a more flexible form was neces­
sary, as no schedule could be devised that would provide for all the
possible significant features to be recorded, and no two plants would
18739—28----- 3



6

summary: effects of labor legislation

offer exactly the same type of information as affecting any one aspect
of women’s employment. New schedules were evolved, therefore, to
meet the need for greater flexibility and easier emphasis of the
various data, while at the same time presenting an outline by the
use of which the data secured would be sufficiently objective to be
permissible of compilation and mass treatment. The mimeographed
forms were abandoned, and instead a detailed outline of the subjects
about which information was to be gathered was given to each
agent, with careful instructions as to the scope of the information
desired under each heading. In reporting the interview each sub­
ject was to be treated on a separate page and as fully as the cir­
cumstances required. The type and amount of information secured
varied greatly, of course, with each establishment, but the general
framework was the same, not only for the establishments within an
industry but for the various industries.
This form of schedule was used for the detailed comparative study
of women’s employment in five industries. For other sections of
the investigation, more limited in scope, a less elastic schedule was
used. For example, to get information as to the effects of the pro­
hibition of night work for women in industry, a short schedule was
provided on which to record figures of the employment of men and
women by day and of men by night, the occupations performed by
women in the daytime and carried on at night by men, the posi­
tions that would be open to women if it were not for the night-work
prohibition, and the general attitude of the employer toward night
work for women. A similar schedule was used for plants in which
men’s hours were longer than the legal hours for women.
Another part of the investigation, fully as important as the de­
tailed examination of the industrial employment of women, was the
securing, through interviews with working women themselves, of
accounts of how legislation had affected them personally. With the
exception of a group of women who were employed in occupations
or under conditions prohibited in other States by law, interviews
have not been used unless the women were employed when some
legislation went into effect. In this section of the investigation an
especially determined attempt was made to keep the material objec­
tive and to record no general opinions as to approval or disapproval
of the laws in question. This policy materially limited the group
of women who could be interviewed, as in many States the only
important laws had been passed so long ago that few women could
be located whose work history went back so far. Nevertheless, a
considerable number of women were found who could give direct
testimony of the effects on their opportunities of specific labor laws,
and this testimony has thrown much light on certain aspects of
legislation.
The foregoing account gives only a part of the outstanding illus­
trations of method in the conduct of this investigation. For a sub­
ject as many-sided as the one under discussion no one method can
be used consistently for all aspects of the problem; instead, different
means must be devised to meet different conditions. Most of the
material collected was secured through personal interviews, but when
distance and time and expense prevented any other method, ques­
tionnaires were resorted to; when figures could not be secured, state­
ments were recorded. Whichever method was used, however, objec­



THE INVESTIGATION

7

tive information was required so that it would be possible to draw
deductions from the data obtained. To make the requirements
flexible enough to get the essential facts and yet not so flexible that
the facts could not be handled was the chief problem. The next most
serious problem was that of getting frank interviews with workers
when many of these interviews had to be held in the factory, some­
times in tlie presence of the employer or the employer’s representa­
tive. Often it was necessary to hold the interview in this way because
of the difficulty in locating the worker after working hours, though
enough interview’s were made in the homes to serve as a check upon
those made under less favorable conditions in the place of employ­
ment. Most of these interviews, however, were held for the purpose
of discovering what had happened 6 or 8 or 10 years before, and the
information did not apply, except in cases of employment in occupa­
tions prohibited in other States, to the occupation in which the
woman interviewed was then engaged. It is felt, therefore, that the
data secured may be considered reliable.
The schedules used in the investigation, together with the instruc­
tions to the investigators, are given in Appendix D of Bulletin 65
(pp. 483 to 495). A more detailed description of the method fol­
lowed is given in connection with each section of the study.
As the information gathered for an industry was completed, com­
pilation of the material was started immediately, so that certain
checks might be made on method and ambiguous returns might be
corrected. In compiling this material, which was not so extensive as
to fall easily into statistical tabulation and yet was too voluminous
to be handled individually, the chief effort has been to guard against
the influence of individual sympathies and points of view. It can
not be denied that in any study conducted through the means of
personal interviews there is a strong possibility of the individual
opinion of the person interviewed or of the interviewer influencing
what may eventually come to be regarded as facts. This was recog­
nized from the beginning as a possible danger and was guarded
against, as has been pointed out, by making outlines and schedules
as objective as possible. In the compilation of the material a fur­
ther check was given by having the data coded and compiled by
trained statistical clerks, who handled each schedule on its merits as
a presentation of certain facts. These compilations then were turned
back to the agents who had made the investigation, for detailed and
critical examination. Where there was a difference of opinion be­
tween agent and statistician, all material again was thoroughly
examined and additional information was sought so that a decision
satisfactory to both might be reached.
SCOPE OF INVESTIGATION

The investigation was started in March, 1926, and the field work
was completed early in the following December. During those nine
months schedules upon which this report is based were secured from
more than 1,600 establishments, employing more than 660,000 men and
women, and personal interviews were held with more than 1,200
working women who had experienced a change in the law or who
were employed under conditions or in occupations prohibited for
women in]some other State. The tabulation following shows the




8

summary: effects of labor legislation

scope of the information secured for the various sections of the
investigation.
Table

1.—Scope of the investigation, by subject

Subject of investigation

States included

Number Number Number
of estab­ of men of women
lishments employed employed
1,661

500,223

165, 244-

312

75,947

44, 894

37
81
106

8,142
7,164
55,907

7,238
8, 942­
17,055

42

3, 801

9, 581

Electrical products............................ Indiana, Massachusetts, New
York, Ohio.
Hosiery-------- ----------- --------------- Illinois, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, Rhode Island,
Wisconsin.

46

The effect of night-work laws on
women in industry.
Special occupations:
Street-car conductors and ticket
agents.

Illinois, Massachusetts, New
York, Wisconsin.

Women in printing and publishing- Illinois, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin.
Prohibited occupations:
Grinding, polishing, and buffing. __ California, Illinois, Indiana,
Massachusetts, New York,
Wisconsin.
Welding........ ..................................... California, Illinois, Indiana,
Massachusetts, New York,
Wisconsin.
Meter reading................................
California, Illinois, New York,
Wisconsin.
Taxi driving......................... ......... . Illinois (Chicago), Massachusetts (Boston), New York,
Ohio, Pennsylvania (Phila­
delphia).

13, 374

2, 537
90,748

2, 361
24, 453

7
301

3,616
217,421

2,114
71,141

335
7

1,608
(>)
(!)

12
15
89

3 198
101,797
1,158

121
5,146
257

43

«

* 526

19

0)

2,078

5,193

198
233

California, Illinois, Indiana,
Massachusetts, New York,
Ohio, Wisconsin.

933

54

Stores......................................................... California, Indiana, Massachusetts.
Restaurants (waitresses)........................ California, Illinois, New York..
Long-hour industries..................... .......... California, Indiana, Massachusetts, New York, Wisconsin.

«

* 126

*16
*20

(>)
«

691

5 None.
w

e 40

1 The pharmacy study was made chiefly by questionnaire to individual women pharmacists. Hospitals
that employed or might employ women pharmacists were communicated with through questionnaire,
and personal interviews were held with a few drug-store managers. The information secured in this way
can not be classified statistically in the form required by this table. The details are given in the pharmacy
report, ch. XIII, pp. 287 to 307, of Bulletin 65.
2 The report on women street-car conductors and ticket agents was compiled from three sources: A
study made in 1919 by the Women’s Bureau of the U. S. Department of Labor, a study made in 1919 by the
Bureau of Women in Industry of the New York State Department of Labor, and information gathered
in 1926 by the Women’s Bureau of the L'. S. Department of Labor. Information giving total numbers of
men and women employed therefore would not be indicative of the situation at any one time andjhas been
omitted for that reason.
3 The study of women core makers was concerned only with the effect of one specific regulation in!Massachusetts. For that reason total numbers of men and women employed in the establishments studied were
not significant and the only employment figures recorded were those of the core makers.
* In studying the occupations of grinding, buffing, polishing, and welding no attempt was made to^record
the total numbers employed nor the number of men employed on the specific occupations. The only
numbers recorded were the totals for the women on each occupation.
6Information regarding gas and electric meter reading as an occupation for women was secured from 16
establishments, not one of which employed any women. Some of these companies at one time had a few
women on this work; others had never employed them. As the investigation was concerned only with
the possibilities of such work for women it was not considered necessary to include figures showing men’s
employment.
6 Though 20 establishments were visited to secure figures regarding the employment of women as taxi
chauffeurs, only one of them (in Philadelphia) employed any women. The number of men employed
was not recorded, as it seemed to have no special bearing on women’s employment.

In addition to the definite schedules secured from the establish­
ments listed in this table, the investigation included a large amount
of general information gathered during the course of many inter­
views with individuals and representatives of organizations in the




THE INVESTIGATION

9

various States studied. There is no way of estimating the general
significance and value of the informational background secured in
this way. Many of such interviews served only to establish contacts
and to suggest means of securing information. Others served to
illuminate puzzling situations and to indicate important subjects for
examination. Something over 350 such interviews were recorded in
Ohio, Wisconsin, California, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, and
New York. The persons interviewed included employers; representa­
tives of organizations of employers, of social and civic groups, and of
workers; State labor officials; members of women’s organizations;
and individuals known to be in touch with some phase of the subject
under investigation.
In an attempt to secure information regarding women’s employ­
ment as affected by legislation from the standpoint of the placement
official, the Women’s Bureau was fortunate in securing the coopera­
tion of the State employment offices cooperating with the United
States Employment Service. In a number of States the officials
of local employment offices filled out questionnaires reporting on
demands and placements for men and women in certain occupations
and the effects of legislative regulation of women’s employment on
their opportunities. A total of 44 employment offices returned ques­
tionnaires containing significant information that has been used in
connection with several different sections of this report.
Questionnaires were sent also to a group of women workers attend­
ing the summer school at Bryn Mawr College. These question­
naires sought information regarding the effects of legislation on
women’s employment opportunities as reported by a group of women
from many different States. Unfortunately, the information elicited
proved to be not especially pertinent and it has played no part in
the findings of the investigation.
To get exact information regarding the relative employment of
men and women as pharmacists it was necessary to communicate by
letter with all the State boards of pharmacy; and to discover the
exact application of the law to women in this work, questionnaires
were sent to the departments of labor in 32 States where there was
need for interpretation of this matter.
Information was secured also from the Industrial Survey Com­
mission of the State of New York. This commission, appointed to
investigate the need of labor legislation in that State, conducted its
investigation largely by means of public hearings, at which inter­
ested persons reported their experiences and recommendations con­
cerning the various laws under consideration. A considerable part
of the testimony presented to the commission was in regard to a pro­
posed 48-hour law for women. After the hearings were over and
1 lie recommendations of the commission had been made to the legis­
lature, the Women’s Bureau was given access to the transcript of
the testimony presented to the commission and secured copies of
those sections that were pertinent to this investigation of the effects
of special legislation.
In two instances the information secured by the Women’s Bureau
has been supplemented by investigations made by State labor offi­
cials. In New York State the bureau of women in industry of the
department of labor made a survey of the number of women em­
ployed at night in newspaper offices that has been used in this report



10

SUMMARY: EFFECTS OF LABOR LEGISLATION

in the section on night-work legislation; and in Pennsylvania the
bureau of women and children of the department of labor and indus­
try made a study of the mercantile establishments of that State and
furnished an abstract of the study for inclusion in this report.
The number of States in which the study was carried on, includ­
ing those from which questionnaires were secured, was very great.
Omitting those States in which actual investigation was not made
by the bureau’s agents, the territory covered still is wide and repre­
sentative of conditions in many sections of the country. In each
State in which actual investigation was carried on, very complete
information was secured from all localities. The States, cities, and
towns in which was collected by the Women’s Bureau agents the
information presented in this report are the following:
California.—Inglewood, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, Pasadena, San
Diego, San Francisco, and San Mateo.
Illinois.—Aurora, Charleston, Chester, Chicago, Danville, East St. Louis,
Elgin, Evanston, Joliet, Kankakee, Mount Vernon, Pontiac, Quincy, Rockford,
Springfield, and Waukegan.
Indiana.—Anderson, East Chicago, Elkhart, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Gary,
Hammond, Hartford City, Indianapolis, Indiana Harbor, Kokomo, La Fayette,
Marion, Mishawaka, Muncie, Newcastle, Richmond, South Bend, and Terre
Haute.
Massachusetts.—Amesbury, Andover, Ashland, Athol, Beverly, Boston, Brock­
ton, Cambridge, Canton, Chelsea, Chicopee Falls, Clinton, Danvers, Dedham,
East Brookfield, Easthampton, East Walpole, Fall River, Florence, Framingham,
Franklin, Gloucester, Greenfield, Haverhill, Hnydenville, Holden, Holyoke,
Housatonic, Hudson, Huntington, Hyde Park, Indian Orchard, Ipswich,
Lawrence, Lee, Lowell, Ludlow, Lynn, Malden, Medway, Methuen, Mittineague,
Monson, Needham Heights, New Bedford, Newton, North Adams, North Andover,
North Attleboro, North Billerica, North Chelmsford, Northampton, North
Wilbraham, Norwood, Palmer, Peabody, Pittsfield, Plymouth, Readville, Russell,
Salem, South Ashburnham, South Hadley Falls, South Walpole, Springfield,
Stoughton, Taunton, Turners Falls, Uxbridge, Waltham, Warren, Westfield,
West Springfield, Whitinsville, Winchendon, Worcester, and Woronoco.
Michigan.—Dearborn, Detroit, Flint, Hamtramck, Jackson, and Saginaw.
New Hampshire.—Belmont, Franklin, Laconia, and Lakeport.
New York.—Binghamton, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Corning, Elmira, Garden City,
Jamaica, Johnson City, Little Falls, Long Island City, Mount Vernon, New York,
Niagara Falls, Oswego, Rochester, Rome, Schenectady, Syracuse, Utica, Water­
town, and Yonkers.
Ohio.—Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Fostoria,
Fremont, Lancaster, Lockland, Mansfield, Portsmouth, Reading, Springfield,
Toledo, Warren, and Youngstown.
Pennsylvania.—Philadelphia.
Rhode Island.—Providence.
Wisconsin.—Appleton, Beloit, Fort Atkinson, Kenosha, Manitowoc, Milwaukee,
Neenah, Racine, and Sheboygan.

In planning the investigation a carefully considered choice was
made between a detailed statistical study of conditions in a few
establishments in a limited area and the collection of information
through individual interviews covering large groups in many States
and occupations. It was felt that the latter method would yield
the most significant results, because, provided the findings were ac­
ceptable from a scientific point of view, the field from which they
were drawn would be broad enough and sufficiently varied to be
conclusive.
The data secured have evolved into an outline of the many factors
that influence the position of women in various occupations. The
validity of the method is illustrated somewhat by the findings for
different types of work.



CONCLUSIONS
With each decade women have formed an increasing proportion
of the persons gainfully employed in the main branches of occupa­
tions to which labor legislation applies. Except in some States, most
of which are in the South, the increases among women have been
more rapid than those among men. With the passage of years and
a more settled industrial development such greater increases among
women probably will not continue, but in the great majority of the
States they still are occurring.
1
Even more significant than the numerical and proportional in­
creases among gainfully occupied women is the great development
in the kinds of work open to them. In all fields women’s occupa­
tions constantly are becoming more numerous and their opportuni­
ties broaden with each year. Such developments as have taken place,
however, necessarily have not been the same in all localities nor in
all types of work. Different economic conditions and different
industrial needs naturally have resulted in varying demands for
women’s employment, and women’s status as wage earners is not the
same in any two occupations. Nor have occupational developments
for women anywhere been responsive to exactly the same stimulants
or the same handicaps.
On the whole, however, in spite of these differences, women in
gainful occupations are assuming steadily a more important position
in economic and industrial fields.
This development of gainful employment for women has been
accompanied by extensive increases in the labor legislation apply­
ing to women; and just as the growth of women’s opportunities has
shown different trends in different places, so has the legislative regu­
lation of their work. In some States there is very complete legal
regulation of most phases of women’s employment in industry; in
other States there is practically no regulation whatsoever. In some
States the laws in question cover a large proportion of the women who
are at work; in other States they apply to only a small group. Even
the most comprehensive of them, however, does not apply to many
women in business and professional occupations, to women who work
independently, nor to women in supervisory positions, so the sum
total of women in the United States whose working hours are regu­
lated by special labor legislation amounts to only about one-third of
the eight and a half million women who are gainfully occupied.
The industrial codes that are now in operation are due to the
experiences and efforts of many different groups, some of which have
been dominant in one locality and some in another. In Massachu­
setts, for example, as women became more and more numerous in the
textile factories the textile unions became more persistent in their
efforts to regulate competition by securing the enactment of legal
minimum standards for women’s employment. In New York as




11

12

summary: effects of labor legislation

women increased in most manufacturing processes factual investiga­
tions disclosed the low standards of their hours and working condi­
tions, and State officials, civic organizations, and trade-unions com­
bined to improve these standards through legislation. In California
the progressive spirit of a pioneering community anticipated its in­
dustrial development by the enactment of laws setting up minimum
standards for women’s employment. These laws were secured some­
times with and sometimes without the indorsement and support of
employers and workers.
Thus even the psychology underlying the development of legisla­
tion has differed in each State. This psychology has affected matters
of legal interpretation and, later, enforcement, and it is another
qualifying influence of the effect of legal enactments.
With such fundamental differences in the opportunities and extent
of employment for women and in the legislation regulating their
employment, it seems hardly necessary to state that equally important
differences are apparent in the effects of this legislation.
There are two distinct types of legislation applying to women’s
employment—laws that regulate and laws that prohibit. Sometimes
the line between the two is very faint, occasionally it is obliterated;
but the distinction must be kept in mind, as their immediate purposes
are very different.
The effect of a law1 that prohibits women’s employment in a certain
type of occupation presents a comparatively simple problem. Its
measurement must show what the actual prohibition amounts to, how
extensively women might be employed in the occupation if it were
not for the prohibition, and what would be the hazards and the
rewards of such employment.
With the regulatory law, hovTever, it is a different matter. The
point of interest here is whether the regulation in actual application
is such as to become prohibition. For if a regulatory law places
impracticable restrictions or requirements on women’s work it may
result in the elimination of women as completely as if it had been
designed for that purpose.
Law makers have met this condition by many qualifications and
exemptions to the statutes. The chronology of labor legislation for
women in a succeeding volume of this report and studies of certain
special occupations in the following pages of this volume show that
different regulatory laws have been devised to meet different situations
and that exceptions have been made to these laws, either at the time
of enactment or subsequently, for certain occupations or industries
whose requirements were not consistent with the regulatory standard.
In actual practice, experimentation with the maintenance of a
proper balance between the two kinds of laws is carried even further,
and the judgment and practical experience of enforcing officials
often have permitted compromises with the letter of a law whose
strict interpretation might defeat its own ends. In estimating the
effect of any legislation, therefore, it must be remembered that a
law is not an effective instrument unless it is enforced, and that
policies and methods of enforcement differ widely.
This investigation has sampled many different types of women’s
employment. Some of the occupations studied may be considered
typical of a wider field; others are unique in their requirements




THE INVESTIGATION

13

and correspondingly individual in the effects of legislative regulation.
The variety of occupations and industries covered, however, is suffi­
ciently wide to indicate the most obvious benefits and pitfalls that
may result from different kinds of legislation covering the out­
standing occupations of women.
Because of the many variables upon which they are founded, con­
clusions regarding the effects of legislation must be drawn with
great caution. In many cases the findings must be confined to very
limited numbers of women. In fact, the only generalizations that
may be permitted are those regarding laws of a similar type applying
to a homogeneous group of workers. Only within such limits may
carefully qualified conclusions be drawn.
REGULATORY LEGISLATION

Considering first the women in manufacturing industries, who
are a fairly homogeneous group in regard to the requirements of their
employment and the possibilities of adjustment to the standards
set by legislation, there are three types of legislation applying to
women only, the effects of which have been considered: First, daily
and weekly hour limitations; second, prohibition or regulation of
night work; and, third, the requirement of special working con­
ditions.
Hour laws in manufacturing industries.
As regards the application of hour laws to the women in five im­
portant woman-employing industries, this investigation has shown
‘that such legal limitations of women’s hours of work have not
brought about any degree of substitution of men for women. Two
minor isolated cases in hosiery plants, where men had been substi­
tuted for women because the women Could not work more than nine
hours a day, were the sum total of bona fide instances found of
decreased employment for women resulting from the enforcement of
hour legislation in these five industries. From the many interviews
held with employers it was apparent that they engaged women for
certain work because they wanted women for that work, and the
legal limitation of women’s hours did not prevent their doing so.
Nor was it the legal limitation of hours that kept women from being
promoted to supervisory positions. Very few women supervisors
were found in the States where legislation restricted their hours,
but there were equally few in the States where legislative standards
were so liberal as to be practically nonexistent.
In another group of manufacturing establishments—those em­
ploying men longer hours than were permitted for women—a slightly
different situation had resulted from the legislation limiting women’s
hours of work. Here, also, there was no evidence of any decrease
in women’s employment because they could not work so long as
could men, but in a comparatively small number of cases there might,
be additional jobs open to women if they could work longer hours.
These jobs, however, bore no evidence of especially valuable occupa­
tional opportunity.
Without the limitations of the hour laws some women undoubtedly
would be employed much longer hours, but in most of the establish­




14

SUMMARY: EFFECTS OF LABOR LEGISLATION

ments operating longer hours for men than were legally permitted
for women the women’s work was so adjusted that it could be per­
formed during a shorter period, and there was no need of their
extended employment. In some cases it was customary to put men
on women’s work for the overtime hours necessary. This did not
involve a replacement of women but was merely an adjustment to
prevent their working longer hours. Most significant of all is the
fact that more than half the employers who required of men longer
hours than were legal for women stated that they would not employ
women for such hours even did the law permit it.
On the whole, legislative hour restrictions of women’s work play
a very minor part in influencing their position and opportunities in
manufacturing industries. Employers have very generally accepted
the fact that long hours do not make for efficient production. Com­
petition between firms often leads to decreased hours so that a better
type of labor may be attracted, and cases even wen: reported of a
reduction in hours to lessen the competition for labor resulting from
a legal standard of short hours for women in a neighboring State.
It is not unusual for manufacturing establishments to reduce
hours, and such reductions, from whatever cause, commonly are not
looked upon as handicaps to employees. In States with 48 or 50
hour laws for women these laws have been the main factors in caus­
ing reductions of hours in woman-employing industries; but they
were not by any means the only factors, and many reductions in
hours have occurred as part of the normal development of industrial
standards without producing any serious upheaval in employment
policies.
'
‘
•
Not only have there been practically no instances of actual de­
creases in women’s employment as a result of hour legislation, but
the general status of their opportunity seems not to have been lim­
ited by this type of law. Women were employed as extensively in
California as in Indiana, in Massachusetts as in New York. In fact,
because in certain States women can not work overtime, the result in
some cases has been not a restriction of their employment but in­
creased opportunity for them. This is due to the fact that, in States
where women’s hours are so limited that they can not work overtime,
it is not unusual for establishments to employ additional women
when there is extra work or else to carry a larger force of women
the year around in order to be prepared for the rush seasons. In
States where there is little or no legal regulation of women’s hours
the establishment may, instead of employing extra women for these
rush periods, keep the women already on the rolls for very much
longer hours. One of the most important effects of hour legislation
on women’s opportunities is, therefore, to increase the number of
jobs available for them.
Further illustration of the fact that hour laws have not limited
Avomen’s opportunities in industry was given by the actual experi­
ences of working women who had been employed at the time ivlien
some hour legislation ivent into effect. Not one Avoman had found
that such legislation had handicapped her or limited her opportunity
in industry. As a result, of the Iuavs, hours had been decreased for
the majority of women, but this Avas the only result experienced
generally enough to be significant.




THE INVESTIGATION

15

Night-work laws in manufacturing industries.
So much for the daily and weekly hour laws applying to women
in industry. Night-work laws have a different story. If a plant
carries on women’s occupations during hours when women may not
be employed, the alternative is to put men on these occupations.
However, the important fact about this situation is that such substi­
tution occurs in less than half the plants that operate at night. It is
much more usual to find that the plant that operates a night shift
does not run at night the occupations on which women normally are
employed. There is an astonishingly strong feeling among employers
in industry against the employment of women at night, irrespective
of legal regulation. Night work, considered undesirable for men, is
considered very much more undesirable for women.
There are, of course, an appreciable number of employers who
would like to use women when the night shift includes women’s
occupations. In most of such establishments, however, the fact that
this can not be done does not decrease the day work of women.
Instead, women are employed as fully as possible during the day­
time, and the substitution of men on women’s jobs at night is the
extent of the restriction of women’s employment resulting from the
night-work prohibition.
Though this is true in by far the greater number of plants running
women’s occupations at night, sometimes the fact that women can not
be employed at night reduces or eliminates their employment during
the daytime. However, this occurs not alone under the legal prohibi­
tion of night work; one of the most striking examples found of such
a situation was in a State where there is no night-work law for
women. In some plants that run on a three-shift system it is cus­
tomary for the employees on the different shifts to change from one
to another at stated intervals, in this way each taking a turn at the
day, the evening, and the night shifts. Where the law prohibits
women’s work on the night shift their employment in such plants
may be limited on the day shift also because of the necessity for
rotating shifts.
On the whole, in most localities and industries night work for
either men or women is frowned upon and is decreasing. The major­
ity of employers in industry consider night work to be even more
undesirable for women than for men and they would not employ
women at night even if the law permitted. But in some establish­
ments women would be employed at night if the law permitted, and
in an even smaller number of cases increased numbers of women
might be employed in the daytime if they could work at night. To
this extent the night-work laws restrict women’s opportunity.
Laws regulating working conditions in manufacturing industries.
In addition to the legal limitation of hours and night work for
women in industry there are regulations that stipulate certain work­
ing conditions and sanitary arrangements where women are em­
ployed. This type of legislation is almost entirely a reflection of
the standards of efficient management, and as such its effects in
terms of women’s employment are extremely difficult to measure.
It is not likely that many establishments will be found that refuse
to employ women because they must have a separate lavatory or
service facilities. The provision of chairs is another minor matter




16

SUMMARY: EFFECTS OF LABOR LEGISLATION

so closely allied to efficiency and production that it can not be meas­
ured easily in terms of possible discrimination against women.
There is one type of working-condition requirement, however, that
has caused considerable discussion and that it has been possible to
investigate. This is the legal stipulation that special partitions
and ventilating devices shall be provided when women are employed
in core rooms. It has been claimed that the requirement of such
devices and the restriction of the weight that women may lift have
resulted in the elimination of women from this occupation. In the
State of Massachusetts such regulations went into effect in 1917, but
there is no evidence that any plant dismissed women or curtailed
their employment because of the requirement of partitions and
special ventilation. There were plants that had cut down the number
of women core makers for other reasons, but the regulation in ques­
tion so obviously was the standard accepted by the industry that it
had little effect on women’s employment. The regulation requiring
that women should not be allowed to carry a core and core box whose
combined weight was more than 25 pounds perhaps had proved a
slight handicap in one or two cases, though in the majority of
establishments women were working on such small cores that this
regulation had no effect on the work they were doing. In one or
two establishments the employer stated that he would have tried
women on larger cores had it not been for the need to watch weights
carefully lest they infringe the law. It does not seem likely, how­
ever, that this can be a serious handicap to women, as in the very
large majority of core rooms they were found to be working on
small cores requiring the delicate touch of light fingers. Such work
commonly is accepted as the type on which women are most success­
fully employed.
Hour legislation in stores.
Legislation applying to women in stores is somewhat different in
its effect from that applying to women in manufacturing industries.
Undoubtedly it eliminates excessive hours for store employees on
Saturdays. The effect on general daily hours probably is not so
marked as in industry, for in custom the prevailing store hours are
comparatively short. But the most important part played by hour
legislation in stores is the elimination of competition in the matter
of hours among individual establishments in a community. The
hours during which a store remains open are peculiarly subject to
the standard set by competing establishments, and the enforcement
of a legal maximum for women has made possible standardized hours
that are freely indorsed by the store managers.
The problems of adjusting women’s hours in stores to the require­
ments of the law are less numerous and difficult than those in indus­
try, chiefly because of the difference in the overtime requirements of
the two types of work. In stores overtime is only occasional, for cer­
tain definite periods that are known well in advance. At times it is
possible to handle certain of the overtime requirements by rearrange­
ment of schedules, letting off some employees for part of the day so
that they may remain on duty later. For other emergencies it is
possible to take on extra workers. A very considerable group of
stores have so arranged their work that they never need overtime,
while others operate under hours so well within the law that some
I




THE INVESTIGATION

17

overtime for tlie women employees is legal. For these reasons hour
legislation has not been a factor in limiting women’s opportunity in
the general run of store positions.
In buying and supervisory positions, also, the status of women
generally is not influenced by such legislation, but in a very few cases
it is possible that legislation has had a part in closing to women cer­
tain of such positions. This occurred in a total of 4 of the 54 stores
studied. Even in these cases, however, it was evident that legislation
was not the only cause of this condition.
Hour and night-work legislation for women waitresses.
The application of hour legislation to women employed as wait­
resses in restaurants presents certain problems that are more or less
peculiar to this type of occupation. The average restaurant must be
open much longer than the hours permitted for women under most
legal codes. In fact, many restaurants give 24-hour service. Night
work often is necessary, and many restaurants are open seven days
a week.
With such requirements restaurants must resort to the employ­
ment of more than one shift of workers. The principle of adjusting
employees’ hours to certain standards, therefore, has of necessity
been accepted already in these establishments, and the problem of
enfoi cement of hour legislation for women in such employment is to
see that the adjustments required do not conflict with the needs of
the work so as to handicap the employment of women.
Daily and weekly hour limitations for waitresses have not placed
them at a disadvantage in getting employment. The legal standard
for waitresses in restaurants is very largely accepted by employers
for waiters also.
J
With the night-work law the situation seems to be somewhat dif­
ferent. In States where there is no night-work law waitresses are
employed at night, though the extent of such employment varies with
locality and type of restaurant.
The actual value of the opportunity closed to waitresses by nightvyork laws is more open to question than is the fact that such laws
shut women out of a certain number of jobs. On the whole, women
usually are not employed in the type of restaurant where employ­
ment after 10 o’clock at night would be especially desirable. The
restaurant that gives formal service, where the waiters get hi»h tips
that runs special suppers after the theater, usually is not one that
employs women for waiting at table. There is a very general feel­
ing among managers of what might be called first-class restaurants
that the public desires men for the type of service expected in such
places. In the less elaborate type of restaurant, where there is a
combination of counter and table service, waitresses are likely to
lorm a considerable proportion of the persons employed. In such
restaurants, however, service during the night hours can hardly be
considered especially desirable. The restaurant where the largest
group of women are employed, and where they are employed almost
exclusively, is the lunch or tea room type of establishment. Women
are especially desired here because it is felt that they give a homelike
touch to the service and that they are neater and daintier in their
work and appearance. Such establishments rarely are open as late
as 10 o’clock at night.



18

summary: effects of labor legislation

Occasionally the more expensive and exclusive restaurants employ
waitresses, and in some of these women might be employed at night
if it were not prohibited by law. The indications are, however, that
such opportunities would not be very widespread and that the
restriction of the night-work law as it applies to waitresses in res­
taurants is not the main factor that prevents their being employed
in the places where “ the tips are highest and the work is lightest.”
Legislation applying to special occupations.
In addition to the work of women in factories, stores, and res­
taurants, many special occupations have been affected one way or
another by legislative restrictions. These occupations can not be
grouped, as they present very distinct requirements, and the effects
upon them of the laws are not alike. Individually they illustrate,
however, some of the most important factors that should be consid­
ered in estimating the effects of legislation.
Elevator operators.

Elevator operating is an occupation of minor importance in ques­
tions of opportunity and advancement of women, and yet it provides
an interesting illustration of the effect of legislation on women’s
employment in an occupation that only recently has been opened to
them and in which they are in direct competition with men.
Daily and weekly hour limitations and night-work prohibitions
have not handicapped women’s employment as elevator operators.
The average building superintendent does not want to employ women
for this work at night, and only in rare cases, even where there is no
legal standard, does he require of women operators daily or weekly
hours longer than those usually permitted by law.
Laws prohibiting the employment of women on freight elevators
and requiring for women operators of passenger elevators one day
of rest in every seven and the provision of seats have in a very few
cases played a small part in limiting women’s employment.
On the whole, however, in this work there are well-defined lines
between the types of service required of men and of women operators
and between the types of service at which the two sexes excel. It is
this fact that determines opportunity for women elevator operators,
and not legislative regulations applying to their work.
Street-car conductors and ticket agents.

The occupations that perhaps have been most prominently cited as
examples of the effects of legislation on women’s employment are
those of street-car conductor, guard, and ticket agent. In the various
States several different types of legislative regulation have been ap­
plied to such work for women. These include the limitation of daily
and weekly hours, the prohibition of work after 10 p. m., and re­
quirements that the working hours be consecutive and that certain
sanitary and service facilities be furnished. The requirement last
mentioned may be dismissed as not especially significant; in most
cases of women’s employment such facilities are furnished as a
matter of course and probably would not influence seriously an em­
ployer’s selection of women for any occupation.
The effect of the other types of laws is by no means clear. It is
certain that in some cases their enforcement has been followed by
wholesale dismissal of women conductors and ticket agents. On the



THE INVESTIGATION

19

other hand, many other influences were acting to bring about the dis­
missal of women street-car conductors, while women ticket agents
still are being successfully employed in other localities under con­
ditions better than those required by the laws that appear to have
been the cause of women’s dismissal.
It is true that certain requirements peculiar to the work evidently
were not allowed for in drawing up some of the legislation applying
to women employed in transportation. Such employment offers un­
usual problems. It must be adjusted to cope with the rush periods
that come at widely separated hours of the day, for a transportation
company usually must have its maximum number of employees on
duty at two peaks of traffic 10 or 12 hours apart. If women’s em­
ployment is subject to a legal requirement that hours of work must
be consecutive, it is obvious that it will be difficult, if not impossible,
to adjust their schedules to meet the law and at the same time provide
for the necessary number at hours of congestion.
The prohibition of night work for women also offers serious prob­
lems of adjustment in transportation work where one of the require­
ments is to give continuous service. To meet this requirement em­
ployees of transportation companies work on different shifts, some
of which are desirable and others of which are not. To adjust the
allocation of employees to these shifts it has been necessary to resort
to a scheme of seniority rights by which the person with the great­
est seniority may choose his or her shift. If women are not allowed
to be employed during the period at night when certain of the shifts
occur, and if women are the most recent comers and therefore have
the lowest seniority rights, they can not fit into the scheme of sen­
iority choice and their employment becomes more complicated.
On the face of it, therefore, it would seem that such legal require­
ments effectually would prevent women’s employment in transpor­
tation. This apparently has been the case in some companies. The
accuracy of this conclusion is impaired somewhat, however, by the
knowledge that, while one company was laying off its women con­
ductors because it could not meet the requirements of the law, an­
other company in the same city, operating over a State line and
therefore not under the law, stopped employing the women con­
ductors who had been taken on during the war simply because this
had been merely emergency work for women and there was no
intention of keeping them on after the men returned. The latter
company also employs women ticket agents for not more than 9
hours a day, and it employs no women after the hour of 10 p. m.
It is apparent, therefore, that a transportation company can make
a certain amount of adjustment to meet modern standards for
women’s employment, and that, in the instances studied, legislation
was by no means the sole influence determining the conditions under
which women would or would not be employed.
The entire situation with regard to the effects of legislation on
women’s employment in transportation is so complicated and sub­
ject to so .many exceptions that it can not be summarized briefly.
Investigations of the many different phases of the subject have
shown, however, that the part played by legislation in bringing
about the dismissal of women street-car conductors and ticket agents
has been by no means so important nor so far-reaching as was indi­
cated by the agitations. at the time they occurred, and that what­



20

summary: effects of labor legislation

ever the part legislation may have played in connection with
women’s employment in transportation it can not possibly be in­
terpreted as typical of its effects on any other occupations of women.
Women in the printing trades.

The effect of hour limitations and night-work prohibitions on the
employment of women in printing and publishing is another phase
of legislative regulation that has aroused much controversy. These
women are working in a trade that is highly organized and for which
short daily and weekly hours are customary. Therefore, laws limit­
ing the number of daily and weekly hours that women may work
have had little effect, because their usual hours are shorter than, or
at least as short as, those stipulated by law.
On the other hand, for some women in the printing trades nightwork prohibition has proved to be a handicap. A large part of the
publication of morning papers and some of the work on afternoon
papers necessarily is night work. For many occupations in such
establishments it is customary to allocate employees to the various
shifts by their seniority rights, a system similar to that in force in
transportation companies. If women can not take their turn on the
night shifts they can not enter the trades nor use their seniority
rights on an equal basis with men, and their employment is made
much more difficult. The night-work law that was enforced at one
time for women in newspaper offices in New York State undoubtedly
proved a handicap to some women. The effect of this law, however,
was not extensive, because comparatively few women were employed
in the occupations and under the conditions regulated. In fact, a
study made in New York five years after the exemption of these
women from the provisions of the law showed that only 40 of 150
women, employed on 77 newspapers, were working at night. Never­
theless, among the women employed at night in printing establish­
ments there are some who are highly skilled, well paid, and
thoroughly satisfied with their work, and the prohibition of such
employment would be a decided handicap to them.
Pharmacists.

Employment in pharmacy is one of the few semiprofessional occu­
pations to which hour and night-work laws for women have been
applied. In this case the result has been some handicap to women’s
employment. Though the evidence collected was neither extensive
nor very definite, it indicated that legislation has been one factor in
limiting employment opportunities for a few women pharmacists.
It is important to recognize, however, that as far as concerns the
actual position of women pharmacists the removal of such legisla­
tion would have very little effect. At present, public opinion does
not place a woman on a par with a man pharmacist. Neither the
employer nor the public feels the same confidence in the woman as in
the man. Furthermore, there are certain drawbacks to the employ­
ment of women in pharmacy that will serve as a more or less perma­
nent handicap. These drawbacks relate to the physical require­
ments of the work, such as handling heavy carboys and packages of
drugs. In the future such requirements may be eliminated, But at
present they seem to be one of the chief reasons why women are not
more extensively employed. The small number of women qualified
for pharmacy, prejudice against women, lack of confidence in them.



THE INVESTIGATION

21

and the physical requirements of the work are the main things that
at present are holding women back in this occupation. Legislation
has had its effect, but it has been of minor importance.
PROHIBITORY LEGISLATION

All the legislation discussed in the foregoing paragraphs is regula­
tory in type. Occasionally, as in the case of the women printers and
some of the women in transportation, this legislation has become pro­
hibitory in its result. On the whole, however, its purpose, and its
accomplishment, has been to regulate but not to eliminate the women
employed in various occupations or industries. The effects of the
laws prohibiting employment in certain occupations are very dif­
ferent from those of the regulatory laws. Prohibitory laws have
really only one effect—the elimination of women from the occupa­
tions covered. The importance or significance of this elimination is
the one necessary qualification in a measurement of the effect.
The occupations prohibited for women by the laws of one or more
States are limited in number. Many of these laws are insignificant
in their possible effect on women, but certain of them deserve very
careful consideration. The prohibited occupations studied in the
course of this investigation are grinding, polishing, and buffing,
acetylene and electric welding, taxicab driving, and gas and electric
meter reading.
Grinding, polishing, and buffing.

The prohibition of grinding, polishing, and buffing occurs in Ohio
and New York.2 Tn other States women are successfully employed
on these operations, the employers are satisfied with their work, and
the women are enthusiastic about both the job and the pay. The laws
prohibiting work on such operations originated as safety measures at
a time when modern safeguards and improvements of machinery had
not been installed. Under present conditions, however, the prohibi­
tion of such work—sometimes highly skilled but in many cases purely
automatic and often done under excellent conditions—seems to be a
restriction of women’s opportunity. Of course there are many types
of these operations that are not suitable and probably can not be
made suitable for women. This is not sufficient justification, how­
ever, for prohibiting all such employment for women.
Electric and acetylene welding.

The same thing seems to be true of electric and acetylene welding.
Though women acetylene welders are not employed in any great
numbers they occasionally are employed with very great success,
while some processes of electric welding employ successfully con­
siderable numbers of women on work that is practically automatic
and involves almost no hazards.
Taxicab driving.

Until recently, women in Ohio could not be employed as taxicab
drivers and yet in New York and California and Massachusetts and
Pennsylvania a few women are doing this work with perfect success
and satisfaction. In fact, in Pennsylvania one company inaugu­
rated a fleet of cabs driven by women chauffeurs, and it was reported
that the women were most satisfactory in every way.3
3 In the case of New York, wet grinding may he done under certain conditions.




22

summary: effects of labor legislation

Gas and electric meter reading.

The effects of legislation prohibiting gas and electric meter read­
ing by women are unimportant, because practically no women are
engaged in these occupations though the work is prohibited for
women in only two States. A number of public-utilities companies
tried women at this work during the war but they found it not very
successful and transferred the women to other departments.
SUMMARY

It is a difficult thing to measure what the prohibitory laws may
have done to women’s opportunities in the States where they are in
effect. However, from the fact that women are successfully em­
ployed elsewhere in many of the prohibited occupations, it appears
that the prohibition must be something of a restriction where it
exists. This restriction affords the outstanding example of possible
discrimination against women resulting from labor legislation.
In general, the regulatory hour laws as applied to women engaged
in the manufacturing processes of industry do not handicap the
women but serve to regulate employment and to establish the accepted
standards of modern efficient industrial management. When applied
to specific occupations, not entirely akin to the industrial work for
which the laws were drawn, this regulatory legislation in a few
instances has been a handicap to women.
Laws prohibiting night work for women in industry are chiefly a
reflection of the usual attitude of employers regarding such practice,
but occasionally they result in a limitation of women’s employment.
When applied indiscriminately to special occupations that are pro­
fessional or semiprofessional in type, night-work prohibition or regu­
lation has resulted in restrictions of women’s employment.
In almost every kind of employment the real forces that influence
women’s opportunity are far removed from legislative restriction of
their hours or conditions of work. In manufacturing, the type of
product, the division and simplification of manufacturing processes,
the development of machinery and mechanical aids to production,
the labor supply and its costs, and the general psychology of the
times, all have played important parts in determining the position of
women. These factors have varied with the different industries and
localities, but everywhere they have been far more significant in their
influence than has any law regulating women’s hours of work.
In other occupations other influences have been dominant in deter­
mining the extent of women’s employment. In stores a more liberal
attitude and successful experimentation with women on new jobs; in
restaurants the development of public opinion as to the type of serv­
ice most suitable for women; in pharmacy a gradually increasing
confidence in women’s ability on the part of the public; in the metal
trades a breaking down of "the prejudices against women’s employ­
ment on the part of employers and of male employees, and demon­
stration of women’s ability along certain lines—these are the signifi­
cant forces that have influenced and will continue to determine
women’s place among wage earners. Such forces have not been
deflected by the enforcement of legislative standards and they will
play the dominant part in assuring to women an equal chance in
those occupations for which their abilities and aptitudes fit them.




o

PUBLICATIONS OF THE WOMEN’S BUREAU
[Any of these bulletins still available will be sent free of charge upon request]
No. 1. Proposed Employment of Women During the War in the Industries of Niagara Falls, N. Y. 1ft
pp. 1918.
Labor Laws for Women in Industry in Indiana. 29 pp. 1919.
Standards for the Employment of Women in Industry. 8 pp. Third ed., 1921.
Wages of Candy Makers in Philadelphia in 1919. 40 pp. 1919.
The Eight-Hour Day in Federal and State Legislation. 19 pp. 1919.
The Employment of Women in Hazardous Industries in the United States. 8 pp. 1921.
Night-Work Laws in the United States. (1919.) 4 pp. 1920.
Women in the Government Service. 37 pp. 1920.
Home Work in Bridgeport, Conn. 35 pp. 1920.
Hours and Conditions of Work for Women in Industry in Virginia. 32 pp. 1920.
Women Street Car Conductors and Ticket Agents. 90 pp. 1921.
The New Position of Women in American Industry. 158 pp. 1920.
Industrial Opportunities and Training for Women and Girls. 48 pp. 1921.
A Physiological Basis for the Shorter Working Day for Women. 20 pp. 1921.
Some Effects of Legislation Limiting Hours of Work for Women. 20 pp. 1921.
See Bulletin 63.
Women’s Wages in Kansas. 104 pp. 1921.
Health Problems of Women in Industry. 11pp. 1921.
Iowa Women in Industry. 73 pp. 1922.
Negro Women in Industry. 05 pp. 1922.
Women in Rhode Island Industries. 73 pp. 1922.
Women in Georgia Industries. 89 pp. 1922.
The Family Status of Breadwlnning Women. 43 pp. 1922.
Women in Maryland Industries, 96 pp. 1922.
Women in the Candy Industry m Chicago and St. Louis. 72 pp. 1923.
Women in Arkansas Industries. 86 pp. 1923.
The Occupational Progress of Women. 37 pp. 1922.
Women’s Contributions in the Field of Invention. 51 pp. 1923.
Women in Kentucky Industries. 114 pp. 1923.
The Share of Wage-Earning Women in Family Support. 170 pp. 1923.
What Industry Means to Women Workers. 10 pp. 1923.
Women in South Carolina Industries. 128 pp. 1923.
Proceedings of the Women’s Industrial Conference. 190 pp. 1923.
Women in Alabama Industries, 86 pp. 1924.
Women in Missouri Industries. 127 pp. 1924.
Radio Talks on Women in Industry. 34 pp. 1924.
Women in New Jersey Industries. 99 pp. 1924.
Married Women in Industry. 8 pp. 1921.
Domestic Workers and their Employment Relations. 87 pp. 1924.
See Bulletin 63.
Family Status of Breadwinning Women in Four Selected Cities. 145 pp. 1925.
List of References on Minimum Wage for Women in the United States and Canada. 42 pp. 1925.
Standard and Scheduled Hours of Work for Women in Industry. 68 pp. 1925.
Women in Ohio Industries. 137 pp. 1925.
Home Environment and Employment Opportunities of Women in Coal-Mine Workers’ Families.
61 pp. 1925.
No. 46. Facts about Working Women—A Graphic Presentation Based on Census Statistics. 64 pp. 1925.
No. 47. Women in the Fruit-Growing and Canning Industries in the State of Washington. 223 pp. 1926.
•No. 48. Women in Oklahoma Industries. 118 pp. 1926.
No. 49. Women Workers and Family Support. 10 pp. 1925.
No. 50. Effects of Applied Research upon the Employment Opportunities of American Women. 54 pp,
1926.
•No. 51. Women in Illinois Industries. 108 pp. 1926.
No. 52. Lost Time and Labor Turnover in Cotton Mills. 203 pp. 1926.
No. 53. The Status of Women in the Government Service in 1925. 103 pp. 1926.
No. 54. Changing Jobs. 12 pp. 1926.
No. 55. Women in Mississippi Industries. 89 pp. 1926.
No. 56. Women in Tennessee Industries. 120 pp. 1927.
No. 57. Women Workers and Industrial Poisons. 5 pp. 1926.
No. 58. Women in Delaware Industries. 156 pp. 1927.
No. 59. Short Talks About Working Women. 24 pp. 1927.
No. 60. Industrial Accidents to Women in New Jersey. Ohio, and Wisconsin. 316 pp. 1927.
No. 61. The Development of Minimum-Wage Laws in the United States, 1912 to 1927. 610 pp. (and
index). 1928.
No. 62. Women’s Employment in Vegetable Canneries in Delaware. 47 pp. 1927.
No. 63. State Laws Affecting Working Women. 51 pp. 1927. (Revision of Bulletins 16 and 40.)
No. 64. The Employment of Women at Night. 86 pp. 1928.
No. 65. The Effects of Labor Legislation on the Employment Opportunities of Women. 498 pp. 1928.
No. 66. History of Labor Legislation for Women in Three States; Chronological Development of Labor
Legislation for Women in the United States. (In press.)
No. 67. Women Workers in Flint, Mich. (In press.)
No. 68. Summary: The Effects of Labor Legislation on the Employment Opportunities of Women.
(Reprint of Ch. II of Bulletin 65.) 22 pp. 1928.
Annual Reports of the Director, 1919*, 1920,* 1921/ 1922, 1923, 1924/ 1925, 1926, 1927/ 1928.

No. 2.
No. 3.
No. 4.
•No. 5.
No. 6.
No. 7.
•No. 8.
•No. 9.
•No. 10.
No. 11.
No. 12.
No. 13.
•No. 14.
No. 15.
No. 10.
No. 17.
No. 18.
No. 19.
•No. 20.
No. 21.
•No. 22.
No. 23.
No. 24.
No. 25.
No. 26.
No. 27.
No. 28.
No. 29.
No. 30.
No. 31.
No. 32.
No. 33.
No. 34.
No. 35.
No. 36.
No. 37.
No. 38.
No. 39.
No. 40.
No. 41.
No. 42.
No. 43.
No. 44.
No. 45.

Supply exhausted.