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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
BULLETIN OF THE WOMEN’S BUREAU, No. 92
\
WAGE-EARNING WOMEN
'
AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
A SURVEY OF SOUTH BEND
[Public—No. 259—66th Congresb]
[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.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
W. N. DOAK, Secretary
WOMEN’S BUREAU
MARY ANDERSON, Director
BULLETIN
OF
THE
WOMEN’S
BUREAU, NO. 92
WAGE-EARNING WOMEN
AND THE INDUSTRIAL
CONDITIONS OF 1930
A SURVEY OF SOUTH BEND
By
CAROLINE MANNING and ARCADIA N. PHILLIPS
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 1932
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C.
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Price 15 cents
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i
CONTENTS
Letter of transmittal__________________
Part I.—Introduction
Scope and method___ _______
Summary
Part II.-—Data secured by home interviews
Age-----------------------------------------------------------------Marital status
Work experience
Industries in the South Bend district_________________________
Present or latest employment
11
Employment during past five years
11
Varied industrial experience
13
Full-time workers
17
Time employed during the past year
18
Unemployment
20
Comments on irregular employment
21
Idle weeks______________________________________________ ___
Distribution through the schedule year___________________
Return to work after lay-off__ _
Short weeks
Aggregate of part-time weeks
Time of year in which short week began_________________
Type and amount of weekly decrease____________________
Unemployment following final separations, or time lost in changing
jobs-------------------------------------------------Final separations and their causes
Time lost after final separations
Figures from census of unemployment
Earnings
Reduced earnings
Causes of decreased earnings
Reduced rates of pay--______________________________
Employment in the family
46
Changes in number of wage earners
47
Regularity of employment in families
49
Sole wage earners
50
Status of employment of men
52
Comments on unemployment of husbands and fathers_________
Housing
58
Part III.—Data supplied by employers
63
Earnings and hours for a week in September, 1929, and a week in
September, 1930
Wearing apparel
63
Automobiles and automobile parts
64
Laundries
65
Three industrial groups■_____________________________________
Six manufacturing establishments
67
Fluctuation during the year
68
Employment
68
Hours
69
Earnings
71
Appendixes:
A.—General tables________________ ___________________-_________
B.—Schedule forms
80
Page
v
1
2
4
6
6
8
9
9
23
25
27
29
30
31
33
36
36
37
40
41
41
42
44
54
63
66
74
TEXT TABLES
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Age distribution of women at w ork and not at work________________
Marital status and industry in which employed____________________
Present employment status, by marital status_____________________
Industry of present or last employment
11
Time employed and number of industries in w-hich employed in past
five years
12
6. Number of industries in which employed in past five years, by industry
of present or last employment
13
in
7
8
9
IV
CONTESTS
7. Other lines of employment within past five years, by industry of
present or last employment____________________________________
8. Time employed during first and second six months of year, by present
employment status and industry of present or last employment___
9. Number of weeks idle during past year due to industrial causes, by
industry_______________________________________
10. Distribution of weeks lost for industrial causes during a 12-month
period, by time of the year
26
11. Industrial absences, by time of the year
27
12. Industrial absences or idle weeks due to industrial causes, by industry
of present or last job
28
13. Undertime and shortened work weeks during past 12 months_______
14. Aggregate of part-time weeks per woman during past 12 months, by
method of reducing time
30
15. Type of decrease in the working week, by time of year_______
31
16. Type of decrease in the working week, firms making automobiles and
automobile parts and wearing apparel, by time of year____
32
17. Duration and amount of decrease in time worked during longest
undertime period in the year, by method of reducing time________
18. Final separations during period of employment in past five years, by
cause_________________________________________________________
19. Time out of work between jobs, by cause
38
20. Time out of work between jobs for industrial causes, by time elapsed
since beginning work in past five years
39
21. Amount of reduction in earnings, by industry of present or last em
ployment
42
22. Cause of reduction in earnings, by industry of present or last employ
ment
43
23. Per cent decrease in rates of pay of women who reported earnings
reduced by such decrease
44
24. Number of families with same number of wage earners at time of
interview as earlier in year, by size of family________________ ____
25. Employment at time of interview, by size of family_______________
26. Employment of husbands or fathers and women interviewed_______
27. Employment of husband or father, by size of family_______________
28. Earnings and hours of women in certain establishments making
wearing apparel—one week in September, 1929, and one in Sep
tember, 1930
29. Earnings and hours of women in certain establishments making
automobiles and automobile parts—one week in September, 1929,
and one in September, 1930
30. Earnings and hours of women in certain laundries—one w'eek in
September, 1929, and one in September, 1930___________________
31. Earnings and hours of women in certain establishments in three indus
tries—one week in September, 1929, and one in September, 1930-32. Distribution of hours worked by women in six establishments—one
week in September, 1929, and one in September, 1930____________
33. Distribution of earnings of women in six establishments—one week in
September, 1929, and one in September, 1930___________________
Page
14
19
23
29
34
36
49
50
52
53
63
64
65
66
67
68
APPENDIX TABLES
I. Number and causes of final separations during past five years______
II. Time out of work between jobs for industrial and personal causes—
III. Number of wage earners in family earlier in the year and at time of
interview, by size of family
76
IV. Number of wage earners in family at time of interview and number
employed steadily, by size of family
78
74
75
ILLUSTRATIONS
General location of sections canvassed in South Bend and Mishawaka
Map_Proportion of families with specified number of wage earners earlier in the
year and at time of interview—2,755 familiesChart-Earnings and hours of women in one week in September, 1929, and one in
September, 1930—nine identical establishmentsChart--
48
62
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
United States Department of Labor,
Women’s Bureau,
Washington, September 22, 1931.
I have the honor to submit the report of this bureau’s survey
of employment conditions among the wage-earning women of South
Bend, Ind., in the late summer of 1930.
Originally intended to be a study of women’s recent industrial
histories, to serve as a background for special analyses of the effects
on women of industrial changes, the survey was made in the South
Bend district on the advice of a consulting committee composed of
Miss Mary van Kleeck, director of industrial studies of the Russell
Sage Foundation, Dr. Lillian M. Gilbreth, consulting engineer, and
Mr. Lawrence W. Wallace, engineer, a member of the committee on
technological employment.
When the field work had begun, it became apparent that business
in the community was experiencing much more of a depression than
had been realized, and the house-to-house canvass, instead of placing
emphasis on the women’s industrial histories over a period of years,
resolved itself into a study of part-time employment—in many cases
complete unemployment—in a time of economic depression.
The 3,245 women interviewed, besides supplying information on
then- own employment status, answered questions on the changed
status of the wage earners in nearly 2,700 families, the whole con
stituting a body of information not easily duplicated and undoubtedly
of great value in the endeavor to control and alleviate the social con
sequences of such economic upheavals as the one through which the
country is passing.
The cordial response of the women interviewed in their homes, the
courteous cooperation of employers and other persons and agencies,
the kindness of the Bureau of the Census in supplying advance figures,
all are gratefully acknowledged.
The field work was directed by Caroline Manning, industrial super
visor, and the report has been written by Miss Manning and Arcadia
N. Phillips, statistician.
Respectively submitted.
Mary Anderson, Director.
Hon. W. N. Doak,
Secretary of Labor.
Sir :
v
General
location of sections canvassed in
South Bend
and
Mishawaka
South Bend
Mishawaka
'4u
WAGE-EARNING WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL
CONDITIONS OF 1930: A SURVEY OF SOUTH
BEND
PART I.—INTRODUCTION
This community survey was intended originally to serve as a back
ground for more specialized studies of the effects of the modern
trends in industry upon employment of women, that is, to what extent
human waste results from new and improved mechanical equipment
or from the consolidations and migrations constantly occurring in
industry. But as soon as the field work began, in August, 1930, it
became apparent that business already was far below normal, and
the survey quickly resolved itself into a study of unemployment in a
period of depression, that gained in momentum as the field work
progressed. Relief agencies were beginning to feel the strain, but
their load was nothing in comparison with what it became in the
winter months following, 1930-31. This report, then, pictures the
extent and effects of unemployment and part-time employment among
industrial workers and their families in an admittedly subnormal busi
ness period, yet before the worst of the depression. In some respects
it was possible to compare steadiness of employment in the present
year with a few preceding years when business was normal, or, during
much of the time, far above normal. And again, comparisons were
made of the first six months and the last six months of the current
year, showing the increasing burden of unemployment as the year
progressed, especially in the irregularity of work and part-time
employment.
The advice of a consulting committee, consisting of Miss Mary van
Kleeck, director of industrial studies, Russell Sage Foundation, Dr.
Lillian M. Gilbreth, consulting engineer, and Mr. Lawrence W.
Wallace, engineer, a member of the committee on technological
employment, was sought in selecting the locality, one that should
be small enough to make the survey practicable, one that should be
fairly isolated so that interchange of labor with other communities
would not be customary, one that should offer many and diversified
opportunities of employment for women, and one that should reflect
fairly steady or normal employment conditions. After careful con
sideration, South Bend, Ind., and its close neighbor Mishawaka were
selected for this community survey. Together, these constitute one
of the most important of the smaller industrial communities in the
Middle West and one long a woman-employing district. It was not
too large to cover and, most important of all considerations, up to
midsummer 1930 business organizations reported that unemploy
ment had not been acute here and business had been holding its own
much better than in most other manufacturing districts.
That South Bend has been a thriving and rapidly developing city
is confirmed by the figures of the United States census. In 1920 it
had a population of 70,983, and in 1930 it had 104,193, an increase
of 46.8 per cent; the number of gainfully employed persons increased
1
2
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
from 29,979 in 1920 to 44,446 in 1930. With the exception of Detroit
and Flint, its rate of population increase surpassed that of all cities
of 100,000 population north of the Mason and Dixon line.
The combined population of South Bend and Mishawaka, which
are industrially one center, was 132,823 in 1930, and the number of
gainfully employed women in the two cities combined was 14,155, or
about one-fourth of all females 10 years of age or over. About onefourth of the working population of these cities is wage-earning
women. The percentage of gainfully employed women in South Bend
alone (figures for Mishawaka are not available for 1920) gained by 1.6
points in the census decade 1920-1930, while the percentage of men
gainfully employed decreased by 3.4 points.
Scope and method.
With the emphasis always upon changes in condition of employ
ment of women workers, the investigation approached the subject
from two angles: First, interviews with the employees in their homes;
and second, interviews with employers, who in many instances fur
nished pay-roll and other plant records that served as the best pos
sible check upon the findings that resulted from the interviews.
Only those women were interviewed who were at least 18 years old
and had had some regular employment during the past 12 months
and since reaching their eighteenth birthday. Women in the profes
sions, the self-employed, household workers, those with only irregu
lar and intermittent employment during the 12 months, and those
who were doing work in their own homes for others were not sched
uled. On this basis, several nurses, teachers, and librarians were
omitted, as were many who were busy in neighborhood stores con
ducted by their own families or were running small beauty parlors;
agents, those who were sewing at home, caring for children in their
own homes, or women like the one who “turned the house into a
hand laundry” when her husband was laid off, were not scheduled.
Probably the largest group of wage earners thus eliminated from the
survey were the girls under 18, many of whom had minor jobs in
clothing and other small factories. In one family a girl of 17 was the
only one employed; another was working while her two brothers had
been laid off and her father worked very irregularly. Not all the
young girls had employment, for many under 18 were desperate for
work.
Next in number to the young girls who were not interviewed were
the women whose work had been intermittent, perhaps an occasional
Saturday in a store, perhaps a day or so a week in the spring house
cleaning season, or as an “extra” now and then in a restaurant “when
they sent for me.”
Only at rare intervals did the women seem to resent the questions
or hesitate to give the desired information. Unemployment was a
common experience and a common topic of conversation with neigh
bors and fellow workers, so that the purpose of the questionnaire was
quickly comprehended and made the interview comparatively easy.
In more than one home the entire family joined in the conversation,
for it was a family affair when men also were out of work not only
because of the economic depression but because of other conditions
that seemed to have developed simultaneously with the unprece
dented “bad spell” in business. Skilled rubber-shoe makers were
INTRODUCTION
3
despondent over having lost their trade; machines that were revolu
tionizing the jobs had been introduced recently, and with this improved
equipment they had seen women hired in their places at greatly
decreased rates of pay. “Women were getting jobs that had always
belonged to the men.” Older men in the families said they were
having greater difficulties than the younger men in finding work, but
new machines and equipment, together with new and complicated
ways of figuring wages, seemed to be the chief causes for grievance.
It was impracticable to canvass the entire community in an effort
to find the homes of working women; so, guided by the advice of
industrial leaders, school authorities, and census supervisors, a few
districts were selected for a house-to-house canvass where the residents
were predominantly industrial workers. (See frontispiece.)
During the two months in which the field work was in progress,
11,966 houses—3,413 in Mishawaka and 8,553 in South Bend—were
canvassed, and on an average an interview with a wage-earning woman
was obtained in 1 in every 3 or 4 houses. Vacant houses averaged
about 1 in every 17 houses visited.
During the house-to-house canvass, 22.9 per cent of the total
number of gainfully employed women as enumerated in the 1930
census were visited by agents of the Women’s Bureau. In manu
facturing lines the percentages were considerably higher. In total
manufacturing, 33 per cent were scheduled; in wearing apparel,
inclusive of a shoe and rubber factory, 40.6 per cent; and in the
manufacture of automobiles and parts, 35.8 per cent. There was a
slight difference in the designation of the automobile industry, the
census including automobile factories and repair shops, and the
Women’s Bureau only factories making automobiles or parts.
The more than 800 women interviewed in Mishawaka lived in
districts north and south of the river. The heart of the city gave the
impression of an old, well-established settlement where the women
lived in substantially built homes in good repair. Only one tenement
was noted; 1-family dwellings were the rule. On the outer fringes of
the city, the larger 2-story dwellings gave way to smaller bungalows,
and civic pride was justified in the clean streets and well-kept lawns
and gardens that prevailed in all but one small region toward the city
limits on the west. In comparison with the rest of the city, this
limited area seemed particularly desolate, with weeds, wild grass,
and dust. The houses were very small, mere makeshifts erected at
the rear of the deep lots, ultimately to become garages. It was a
very new and cheap development and many houses were devoid of
plumbing and dependent upon yard pumps.
In South Bend the district that yielded the most schedules was
what is called the west end. In this section the houses of the workers
were in the immediate neighborhood of many of the city’s leading
industrial establishments; in some cases their frame cottages sur
rounded the plant, reaching up to the factory fence, and most of the
homes were within easy walking distance of the place of work. There
was a close dependence of the firms upon the neighborhood for labor
and of the neighborhood upon the factories for employment. Much of
this district was conspicuously foreign, chiefly Polish and Hungarian,
but literally hundreds of young daughters from these families had
been born in this country and constituted a dependable American
element in the labor force of these industries.
4
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
The canvass of the central part of South Bend, an old section of the
city that used to be an exclusive residential district, disclosed many
houses deteriorating by degrees into furnished rooms and tenements.
For the most part the residents were English speaking, with a fringe
of colored and a few Italian families. In this district were women
living alone and many transient families who had been attracted from
their homes in other sections of the country, south, west, and east, by
glowing accounts of opportunities for high wages. Naturally, they
were not home buyers, and a few of the houses seemed gradually
approaching a state of dilapidation.
The eastern end of South Bend, adjoining Mishawaka, also fur
nished a good area for this survey. This section is practically a
development within the past 10 years and is predominantly American,
with many young couples, the husband and wife both working in
an effort to pay for their home.
There was much unemployment in homes visited by the investi
gators but not scheduled because they included no wage-earning
women. In case after case the husband or father had not worked for
months and the outlook was serious. Savings had disappeared in
the months of unemployment and they were worrying about the
winter’s coal supply. Also in many homes where there were no
wage-earning women to interview, married women who had never
worked before were eager for information as to where they might
find jobs. Many others who had worked in years gone by were
anxious to work again but had looked for jobs in vain. Not only had
mature women failed to find work, but schoolgirls 16 and 17 years
old, keen to help their families, were having the same trouble. In one
household where the father had lost his job, the mother and 16-yearold daughter were out looking for work. In one case a young son
who had a paper route was the only one contributing to the family
support. Although this small boy had work, young people 16 to 21
years old were out of work in large numbers.
In every neighborhood canvassed, young office girls just through
school were finding it particularly difficult to get positions, and the
starting wage was said to be lower than formerly. Some experienced
clerical workers reported time off without pay where in former years
they had had vacations with pay, and others had missed the usual
salary increase this year.
Some of the more important facts derived from the study are
summarized below:
SUMMARY
Date of survey-------------------------------------------------- August and September, 1930.
Place--------------------------------------------------------- South Bend and Mishawaka, Ind.
House-to-house canvass
Number of women interviewed in their homes
Age (3,215 reporting):
Under 20_____________________________
20 and under 25_______________________
25 and under 40_______________________
40 and over___________________________
Marital status (3,243 reporting):
Single_________________________________
Married_______________________________
Widowed, separated, or divorced_______
3, 245
Per cent
16. 6
31. 9
39. 0
12. 6
46. 1
43. 7
10. 2
5
INTRODUCTION
Industry of present or last employment (3,245 reporting):
Per cent
Automobiles and automobile parts 10. 4
Wearing apparel, including footwear 43. 9
Machinery and electrical products
5. 9
Paper products
2. 1
Other manufacturing
2. 2
Clerical and telephone 19. 2
Domestic and personal service 10. 7
Sales
5. 5
Employment status earlier in the year (3,245 reporting): Employed100. 0
Employment status at time of interview (3,243 reporting):
Employed__________________
78.6
Unemployed 21. 4
Number
Total weeks lost through industrial causes in past year by 2,053 -women__ 13, 445
Average per woman
6. 5
Aggregate of part-time weeks worked in past year (1,826 reporting):
Percent
Less than 2 months 25. 8
2 and less than 4 months____
23. 5
4 and less than 8 months 26. 7
8 and less than 12 months 11. 8
12 months"
12’ 3
Per cent decrease in earnings during year (1,314 reporting):
Less than 20 per cent decrease..” 15. 1
20 and less than 40 per cent decrease
43. 2
40 and less than 60 per cent decrease
32! 4
60 per cent or more decrease_____
9' 3
Per cent of fam
ilies
Wage earners in family earlier in year and at time of interview Earlier oAntef(2,755 families):
in year view
No wage earner
0. 0
3. 9
1 wage earner...------ ----------------------------------------------------2 wage earners __1
14. 6
57. 9
33!8
44.5
3 wage earners 17.
6
13.2
4 to 10 wage earners
9.
9
4’6
Number of wage earners employed earlier in the year (2,755 families)___ 6, 237
Number of wage earners employed at time of interview4, 988
Per cent having steady jobs among those employed at time of interview.. 38. 0
Employment of husband or father at time of interview (2,031 families):
Employed 87. 4
Not employed12^6
Per cent having steady jobs among those employed 33. 3
Pay-roll information
Women reported in one week in September, 1929 (2,746), and in
one week in September, 1930 (2,483)—largely wearing apparel
(see pp. 9-10):
Working under 36 hours 16. 6 38. 4
Working 48 hours and over 34 6 20. 2
Earning under $10
Earning $20 and over 36. 6
Percent
In 1929 in 1930
9. 9
23. 9
14 4
Average change in the 12 months: A loss of 5.9 hours in time and of $4.45 in
earnings.
PART II.—DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
Although the primary interest in these women lies in the fact that
they were wage earners (only women ordinarily wage earning were
selected for interview), society is interested in knowing what responsi
bilities the women had toward their families as well as ascertaining,
if possible, what the obligations of the community may be to these
women, members of society as well as wage earners. From answers
to a few personal questions it developed that they were largely a
young group; about two-fifths (39.2 per cent) bore the relationship of
daughters to the heads of the families, and more than two-fifths
(43.7 per cent) were married and carrying the double burden of wage
earning and domestic cares.
Soinewhat less than half (44.4 per cent) of the married women had
no children, but there were over 200 widows with children to support.
Almost another 200 women (183) were adrift; that is, living alone. A
considerable group (150) bore distinct relationships to the families
with whom they lived, as sister, niece, or granddaughter.
As a whole, the wage-earning women were quite a homogeneous
group of native Americans; with the exception of a few Belgians and
Italians and some Hungarians and Slavs, all were English speaking.
Of the 3,235 reporting, only 491 (15.2 per cent) were foreign-born
women, who lor the most part had found work in factories or as janitresses and office cleaners. But, although the percentage of foreign
born is low, a great many were the daughters of foreign-born parents.
As between native and foreign bom, there was not much difference in
the proportions of those not working at the time of the interview, as
24.6 per cent of the foreign born and 20.8 per cent of the native whites
were not employed.
Only 18 colored women—restaurant workers or charwomen—
could be scheduled, but many colored families were living in the area
canvassed, especially west of the business center of South Bend.
Their homes bore marked evidences of poverty, and repeatedly they
expressed a desire for work. Many with “house-cleaning places”
four or five days a week in former years had been reduced to one or
two days now, and this irregularly, work too spasmodic and inter
mittent to insure a living wage. They were in more straitened
circumstances now, some said, because white men and women thrown
out of their own jobs in the present emergency were competing for
“negro jobs.”
Age.
As stated before, as a group the women interviewed were young,
for almost one-half (48.4 per cent) were not yet 25 years old; close on
one-third (31.9 per cent) were 20 and under 25, and only one-eighth
(12.6 per cent) were as much as 40.
As is. usually the case, the clerical workers and saleswomen were
predominantly young, while in manufacturing industries 55.9 per
cent of the workers were 25 years old or more. Furthermore, one6
.
7
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
seventh of the women employed in the manufacture of wearing apparel
were at least 40; and, as usual, the proportion of older women was
highest in the domestic and personal service group.
Table 1.—Age distribution of women at work and not at work
3,245 women employed at some time during past 12 months reporting on
employment at time ot interview
Not at work
Age
Total
At work
Reason for leaving last
job
Total
Number
Total
Not reporting.........................
18 and under 20 years___
20 and under 25 years___
25 and under 30 years___
30 and under 40 years___
40 and under 50 years___
50 and under 60 years___
60 years and over
Per
cent
Number
Per
cent
Number
3,245
2,551
694
30
26
4
Per
cent
Personal
Industrial ported
234
458
3,215
100.0
2,525
100.0
690
100.0
233
155
2
533
1,024
569
685
308
82
14
16.6
31.9
17.7
21.3
9.6
2.6
.4
425
798
437
542
240
69
14
16.8
31.6
17.3
21.5
9.5
2.7
.6
108
226
132
143
68
13
15.7
32.8
19.1
20.7
9.9
1.9
23
82
57
52
18
1
84
144
75
90
50
12
1
1
That the proportions of those employed and not employed varied
but little within any one age group is shown in the accompanying
table. In the largest division, those 20 and under 25 years old, were
31.6 per cent of all at work and 32.8 per cent of all not at work, and
the same close similarity in the proportions of those at work and not at
work occurs in each age subdivision, the variation in no group being
as much as 2 points; 48.4 per cent of those at work and 48.4 per cent
of those not at work were under 25 years, and 12.8 per cent of those
at work and 11.7 per cent of those not at work were 40 or more. Al
though the numbers in the two highest age groups are very small, it
is worth noting that all the women of 60 or more and most of those of
50 and under 60 had work.
A subdivision of the unemployed into those who had left their jobs
for purely personal or family reasons and those who had lost them
through industrial causes indicates that in the years between 20 and
40 a larger proportion of the women had become unemployed
through personal reasons than was true of the youngest and oldest
groups combined, who were out of work more often because of indus
trial reasons. In this connection the statement may be made that
no small number of the women who had left their jobs for personal
reasons found themselves unable to reenter the ranks of the employed
because of industrial reasons.
There is no evidence of a tendency to remove the older rather than
the younger employees; but when it came to luring a new force of
labor, employment managers and superintendents interviewed later
occasionally expressed a pronounced preference for young girls in
such phrases as these: “As long as they are young and lively, it
doesn't matter much if they haven’t a lot of sense. We usually hire
8
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
with a rush and take what are in line. Often they don’t last long.”
“They are all young here. I hope 1 haven’t a girl over 25 in the
plant.” In these two cases the type of work was simple and classed
as labor, but in another plant, where much of the work was skilled,
the employer also boasted that he had been able to build up a force
65 per cent of whom were 18 to 22 years old. There were not many
as old as 30 or 35, and these few had had long experience in the trade.
The policy of hiring the younger girls had been particularly marked
in two or three plants recently established in the South Bend district.
Marital status.
There were almost as many married women as single women, there
being 43.7 per cent married to 46.1 per cent single, while the widowed,
separated, and divorced constituted about one-tenth of the entire
group.
Table 2.—Marital status and industry in which employed
3,245 women employed at some time during past
12 months
Total reporting Per cent reporting mar
marital status
ital status as—
Industry of present or last employment
Total
Num
ber
Per
cent
Single
Mar
ried
Not
report
Wid
ing
owed, mari
tal
sepa
rated, status
or di
vorced
Total________________
3,245
3,243
100.0
46.1
43.7
10.2
2
Manufacturing......................... .
Clerical, including telephone...
Domestic and personal service.
Sales........ ................................ .
2, 095
624
347
179
2, 094
624
346
179
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
40.5
71.5
30.1
53.1
48.9
22.4
52.9
39.7
10.6
6.1
17.1
7.3
1
1
From this table it is apparent that the married women outnum
bered the single women in manufacturing lines and in domestic and
personal-service jobs, but that the single women predominated among
clerical workers and to a less extent in the sales group. The largest
number of widowed, separated, or divorced women were in the gar
ment industry (which far outdistances all other industries in point of
total numbers employed), but their proportion is higher in auto
mobile plants and in domestic and personal service, being 13.9 per
cent of all employed during the year in the former and 17.1 per cent
of all employed during the year in the latter.
Since so much interest attaches to the employment of married
women, the next tabulation is significant because it shows a greater
falling off recently in the employment of married than of single
women.
9
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
Table 3.—Present employment status, by marital status
3,245 women employed at some time during past 12 months
reporting on employment at time of interview
Marital status
Total
At work
Not at work
Number Per cent Number Per cent Number Per cent
Total....................................................
3,245
100.0
2,551
78.6
2
694
21.4
2
Total reporting____________ _____ _____
3,243
100.0
2, 551
78.7
692
21.3
Single..................... .................................
Married____
Widowed, separated, or divorced____
1,494
1,417
332
100.0
100.0
100. 0
1,286
990
275
86.1
69.9
82.8
208
427
57
13.9
30.1
17.2
In actual numbers, twice as many married women as single women
were not working at time of interview; and as regards proportion,
only 13.9 per cent of the single women, in contrast to 30.1 per cent of
the married women, were not working. It is surprising to discover
that over one-sixth of the widows were not at work, a larger percent
age than that of single women.
In some instances, women with husbands, embarrassed by the
popular sentiment against the employment of married women, had
voluntarily relinquished their jobs, but undoubtedly the greatest
number of removals of married women from industry was due to the
avowed policy in two or three manufacturing establishments during
the depression of first laying off the married women who had other
means of support. In most cases there was little questioning as to
whether or not this support was adequate. Although efficiency of
the worker was also a determining factor, when faced with the neces
sity of reducing the force, the inefficient married woman was laid off
before the inefficient single girl. Altogether, more than 200 married
women formerly employed in manufacturing establishments were
unemployed at time of interview through industrial causes.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Industries in the South Bend district.
Located in this industrial community were not over 10 factories,
engaged in the manufacture of various products, that were employing
more than 100 women in usual seasons. One factory of long standing
in the community engaged in the manufacture of men’s shirts, under
wear, hosiery, and neckwear, and another making shoes and rubbers,
had employed over 1,800 women each, and an automobile plant had
employed somewhat less than 1,000 women at its peak. Beside these
three firms, the others fade into insignificance in respect to numbers
of women employed. Three factories making overalls and shirts,
automobile brakes, and sewing machines had an enrollment ranging
from about 200 to 300 women, while four making clothing, carburetors,
and radios had an enrollment ranging roughly from 100 to 200
women.
A unique and very large establishment whose products are a mis
cellaneous line of footwear, including leather, canvas, and rubber
10
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
boots and shoes, as well as heavy woolen socks and lumbermen’s felt
boots, has been included with the garment and clothing factories in
an industrial group called “wearing apparel” to avoid the identifi
cation of firms. Two firms in the wearing-apparel group are so con
spicuously large, each having in recent busy seasons employed about
1,800 women, that this group “wearing apparel” far overbalances
the numbers employed in the other industries. Included in the
wearing-apparel division are five small firms manufacturing various
articles of clothing—shirts, overalls, uniforms, underwear, and
corsets and supporters. The enrollment of women in these various
factories ranged roughly from 30 to about 300.
In plants making automobiles and automobile parts, machinery,
and electrical products, women are engaged for the most part in small
assembly operations, finishing, and inspection work, and although
the automobile industry employs overwhelmingly large numbers
of men, women have worked here for years, especially in sewing
operations. The products of these factories range from automobiles
and farm machinery to sewing machines, automobile brakes, car
buretors, lighting equipment, transformers, and radios.
Most of the laundry workers interviewed were employed in five
establishments that averaged about 50 employees per plant. Laun
dries as well as other lines of industry were feeling the depression and
were operating shorter hours, and some had been forced to reduce their
labor force by laying off as many as one-fifth or one-fourth or more of
their employees. Other women interviewed were employed in scat
tered restaurants or hotels or as office cleaners and janitresses in
various establishments too numerous to classify. Together with the
laundry employees they compose the broad division called domestic
and personal service.
Not only was there no concentration of the interviewed women in
the domestic and personal service group, but few of the saleswomen
were working in any one store. There were a few in various specialty
shops, a few in each of two or three department stores, one or two in
each of several chain stores; others were working in remote neighbor
hood stores in various sections of the city. In like manner the many
clerical workers were widely scattered in various kinds of offices, with
possibly the one exception of those employed in the offices of the auto
mobile industry.
The number of women in retail trade who were interviewed was
comparatively small, probably due to the fact that the canvass was
concentrated in sections where industrial workers predominated.
In the families in these sections many factory employees were inter
viewed and also many young clerical workers, daughters who had had
the advantage of a business education; but there were few saleswomen.
The miscellaneous group covers 29 plants, few employing as many as
10 women. Some had had very seasonal work, such as one making
fishing tackle and another making perfume, which was in great de
mand especially for the holiday trade. Throughout most of the report
the three small factories making paper products, such as boxes, cal
endars, cards, and catalogues, have been classed in miscellaneous
manufacturing.
The questionnaire used in the interviews with the wage-earning
women called for information on their industrial experience during
only the past five years. The data on work histories were limited to
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
11
this brief period because it seemed that these few years would furnish
ample material for a general occupational background in a study of
recent trends in industry. While work experience was traced back
five years, special emphasis was placed upon the 12 months immedi
ately preceding the interview, stressing changes in operations, varia
tions in wages and hours, lay-offs both permanent and temporary, and
part-time employment that had occurred within this year.
Present or latest employment.
The following table shows in a broad classification in what industries
the women were employed or had been last employed. As stated
before, only those women were interviewed who, if not at present
employed, had worked at some time during the year, and as a matter
of fact nearly four-fifths had jobs when scheduled.
Table 4.—Industry of present or last employment
3,245 women employed at some time during past 12
months reporting on employment at time of interview
Industry of present or last employment
Total
At work
Not at work
Number Per cent Number Per cent Number Per cent
Total_______ ______
Manufacturing:
Automobiles and automobile parts.
Wearing apparel_______ _
Machinery and electrical products.
Paper products_____
Miscellaneous manufacturing
Clerical, including telephone 1
Domestic and personal service.
Sales__________
3,245
100.0
2,551
78.6
694
21.4
338
1,426
192
69
70
624
347
179
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
268
1,132
87
51
39
558
280
136
79.3
79.4
45.3
73.9
55.7
89.4
80.7
76.0
70
294
105
18
31
66
67
43
20.7
20.6
54.6
26.1
44.3
10.6
19.3
24.0
1 Includes 23 telephone operators.
By far the largest group were workers in establishments making
wearing apparel, including various kinds of garments and footwear.
The next were clerical workers, and other representative numbers
worked m automobile plants and in domestic and personal service
(charwomen, laundry w orkers, or employees in hotels and restaurants),
the saleswomen, although a comparatively small group, were em
ployed m 66 mercantile establishments, wdiile the large group of
garment workers were employed in only 8. There is nothing dis
tinctive in the miscellaneous manufacturing classification. One or
two women worked in one place, perhaps half a dozen in another
and altogether the 70 women were scattered in 29 plants. In most
of the industry divisions over three-fourths were still at work, but
only about 45 per cent of those in machinery and electrical products
and 55 per cent of those in miscellaneous manufacturing plants were
employed, m contrast to about 90 per cent of the clerical workers.
Employment during past five years.
Looking back over five years there was little evidence of shifting
from one industry to another. The limited number of womanemploying industries in the South Bend district may account in part
81765°—32----- 2
12
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
for this fact. But whatever the cause may have been, four-fifths
(77.9 per cent) of the women had worked in only one industry during
the past five years; 586 women, or less than one-fifth, had had ex
perience in two industries, and only 4 per cent had been in three or
more industries. The percentage who had worked in two or more
industries is greater among those not employed at time of interview
than among those then at work, 28.9 per cent in the former and 20.3
per cent in the latter case.
Table 5.— Time employed and number of industries in which employed in past
5 years
3,245 women employed at some time in past 12 months
Reporting time employed in past 5 years
Number of industries in which employed
Not re
port
ing
Total Total Less 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and
time
less
less
less
less
report than than
than than em
ing 1 year 2 years 3 than
years 4 years 5 years ployed
Total:
Number......................... ................... 3, 245
3,169
100.0
379
12.0
521
16.4
510
16.1
484
15.3
1,275
40.2
7
Total reporting:
Number __________________ _______
3,238
1 industry—
Number----------------------- -------------- 2,522
76
7
3,169
100.0
379
12.0
521
16.4
510
16.1
484
15.3
1,275
40.2
69
2, 490
100.0
328
13.2
402
16.1
372
14.9
337
13.5
1,051
42.2
32
2 industries—
Number, _________________ ____
586
557
100.0
42
7.5
103
18.5
110
19.7
113
20.3
189
33.9
29
3 or more industries—
Number________________________
130
122
100.0
9
7.4
16
13.1
28
23.0
34
27.9
35
28. 7
8
Table 5 not only emphasizes stability in one industry but shows
that a conspicuously large proportion had worked four to five years
during the past five; 40.2 per cent, or slightly more than two-fifths,
had worked throughout much or all of this period. All in all, about
one-third of the women (1,051) were outstandingly steady workers,
having been employed four to five years in only one line of work.
Women had changed about in some lines of work more than in
others, and from the next table it is apparent that the least shifting
from industry to industry occurred among women employed in the
wearing-apparel and clerical groups. At the other extreme in the
numerically important divisions is the automobile trade; almost
one-half (46.4 per cent) of the women reporting this as their latest
industry had done other kinds of work.
13
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
Table 6.—Number of industries in which employed in past 5 years, by industry
of present or last employment
3,245 women employed at some time during past 12 months
Total report Per cent reporting number of in
ing number
dustries in which employed in
of industries
past 5 years
1 industry
Industry of present or last employment
Total
Reporting
time em
ployed
Num Per
ber
cent
Not re
porting
num
ber of
2 in 3 or indus
dus more tries
tries indus
tries
Less
4 to 5 than
4
years years1
Total............................................ .
3,245
3,238
100.0
77.9
32.5
45.4
18.1
4.0
7
Manufacturing:
Automobiles and automobile parts.
338
Wearing apparel......... ..................
1,426
Machinery and electrical products.. ' 192
Paper products... _____ ____ ____
69
Miscellaneous manufacturing____
70
Clerical, including telephone.
._
624
Domestic and personal service. ...........
347
Sales. _____ _______ _______
179
336
1,426
192
69
70
623
346
176
100.0
100. 0
100.0
100. 0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
53.6
85.4
62.0
29.0
62.9
90.9
71.1
73.3
17.0
37. 9
22.9
1. 4
34. 3
41.3
24.0
25.0
36.7
47.5
39.1
27.5
28.6
49.6
47.1
48.3
38.4
13.0
27.1
43.5
27.1
8.5
23.7
20.5
8.0
1.6
10.9
27.5
10.0
.6
5.2
6.3
2
1
1
3
1 Includes the not reported, only 32 women.
In the division called paper products, over seven-tenths (71 per
cent) of the women had worked in other trades. This group included
plants engaged in manufacturing boxes, greeting cards, calendars,
and novelties, and, although very few women were employed, these
few illustrate a condition common in this highly seasonal trade that
depends largely upon unskilled female labor, especially in peak loads
of business.
A further analysis of that important number of women who had
worked as much as four or five years in one trade may be made from
the table. Again the wearing apparel and clerical divisions lead in
having the highest proportions working four to five years; the auto
mobile trade is next to the bottom of the list, with only 17 per cent of
the women working four to five years. Only 1.4 per cent of those
whose sole experience had been in paper products had worked as
much as four to five years in this trade.
Varied industrial experience.
The varied work histories of the 716 women who had changed from
one industry to another during the five years necessarily were limited
by the industries represented in the community.
Almost three-fifths (59.4 per cent) of the industries in which the
women had worked previously were in manufacturing lines, another
fifth (22 per cent) were in domestic and personal service, and the rest
were chiefly in retail trade, although a few were clerical jobs.
The next table shows the kinds of work in which the 716 women—
512 factory workers, 100 domestic and personal service workers, and
104 in other lines—had engaged formerly. For the most part the
women in factory work had gone from one line of manufacturing to
another, yet 66 had at some time within five years been saleswomen,
Table 7.—Other lines of employment within past 5 years, by industry of present or last employment
A.—PRESENT OR LAST EMPLOYMENT IN MANUFACTURING—512 WOMEN
Industry of present or last employment
Manufacturing: Total ______________
Per cent discribution________ _________
Automobiles and automobile parts..
Machinery and electrical products___
Other manufacturing
Number
of women
Manufacturing
Total of
other lines
of employ
ment
Automo
biles and
automobile Garments
parts
Total
Footwear
Machinery
and elec
trical
products
Domestic
and per
sonal
service
Sales
Other
Clerical,
telephone,
and other
512
631
100.0
385
61.0
51
8.1
156
24.7
26
4.1
55
8.7
97
15.4
66
10.5
148
23.5
32
5.1
156
128
80
45
103
190
141
92
58
150
126
68
50
41
100
21
8
9
13
52
29
23
52
11
13
37
7
2
26
27
11
8
25
13
20
13
2
18
45
44
21
13
25
6
9
8
2
7
1
1
9
B.—PRESENT OR LAST EMPLOYMENT IN DOMESTIC AND PERSONAL SERVICE—100 WOMEN
Other lines of employment within past 5 years
Industry of present or last employment
Domestic and personal service: Total
Per cent distribution______________ ...
Other domestic and personal service..
Number
of women
Domestic and personal service
Total of
other lines
of employ
ment
Manufac
turing
100
125
100.0
83
66.4
7
5.6
30
24.0
8
6.4
31
34
18
17
38
40
24
23
21
29
16
17
1
3
2
1
12
8
6
4
4
3
1
Sales
Total
Laundries
Hotels
Char
women
Housework
Clerical,
telephone,
and other
Other
6
4.8
5
4.0
9
7.2
2
1.6
5
4.0
3
4
1
3
3
2
1
2
4
1
2
1
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
Other lines of employment within past 5 years
L
C—PRESENT OR LAST EMPLOYMENT IN CLERICAL, TELEPHONE, OR SALES—104 WOMEN
Other lines of employment within past 5 years
Number
of women
Industry of present or last employment
Clerical______ ________
Telephone ___________
Sales"________ ______________ .
5-and-10-cent stores.________
General mercantile and other stores__
Manufac
turing
104
124
100.0
55
44.4
30
24.2
11
8.9
19
15.3
16
12.9
55
59
2
63
21
42
23
23
1
9
14
1
6
4
2
2
2
___
47
13
34
32
10
22
General
5-and-10- mercantile
cent stores and other
stores
Total
Domestic
and per
sonal
service
7
Clerical
14
11.3
10
Telephone
Other
industries
5.6
1.6
5
2
1
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
Clerical, telephone, sales: Total________ _
Per cent distribution______ _
Sales
Total of
other lines
of employ
ment
l—i
Or
16
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
32 clerical or telephone workers, and 148 in domestic and personal
service. About half the former jobs of the garment workers had
been in automobile plants, in shoe factories, in machinery or electrical
plants, and in various other kinds of factories. In 44 instances their
former work had been in laundries, hotels, or housework and the like,
and 20 women who had had sales experience and 9 who had done cleri
cal work were in garment factories in the year of the survey.
The previous experience of women in the automobile group was
most heavily in garment factories and in plants manufacturing ma
chinery or electrical products. Like the garment workers, several of
them had done housework or been employed in hotels or laundries
and in a few instances they had worked in stores and offices.
The garment industry stands out above all other manufacturing
lines as the one in which the most women had had employment. But
besides garment factories, domestic and personal service had offered
many opportunities for work in the past; of 148 women in manu
facturing who had been in domestic and personal service, 66 had done
housework, 42 had worked in hotels or restaurants and 25 in laundries,
and 15 had been office cleaners and workers in miscellaneous similar
lines.
Another section of the table indicates roughly the various kinds of
work done in the past five years by 100 women whose present or
latest occupation was in domestic and personal service, largely as
waitresses or kitchen helpers, laundresses, and office cleaners. There
had been some interchange of jobs within the domestic and personal
service group, that is, former workers in hotels were now in laundries
and those who worked formerly in laundries were now in hotels, but
by far the major part of the shifting (two-thirds of the cases reported)
had been from manufacturing industries to these various domestic
and personal service lines. Altogether, 83 moves had been made from
factory work, including 50 from garment and automobile plants, to
work as kitchen helpers, laundresses, or office cleaners, or other jobs
customarily heavy and unskilled. In a very few instances, women
with experience in stores and offices now found themselves employed
in hotels or laundries and as charwomen.
Besides the women in the two groups described there were 104
saleswomen and clerical workers who had been employed in more
than one industry. A very few had done housework previously, but
a much larger proportion had changed from some kind of factory
work to their present occupations.
Women who previously had been garment workers now had employ
ment in all other manufacturing lines, in all branches of domestic and
personal service listed, as well as in stores and in offices; also those
who had been clerical workers or saleswomen were now working in
factories and occasionally in domestic and personal service jobs.
For the most part the tabulations show no definite trend from one
industry to another; for example, those who now were garment work
ers had had experience in all the industries listed and the same diffu
sion is noted in all other groups. Probably the most definite change
had been a movement away from housework, for all the 83 who had
been so employed at some time during the 5-year period had found
other kinds of work. However, no sweeping conclusions can be made
from this limited group of women, as the house-to-house canvass was
confined to those wards where industrial workers lived chiefly and
17
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
did not extend to the sections where the employers of household
workers and professional people resided, and none who then were
household workers were interviewed.
Stability of employment is shown by the few' changes the women
had made from job to job as well as from industry to industry.
Almost two-thirds of the women had had only one job during the
five years under consideration, and slightly less than one-fourth had
worked in two jobs only.
It is natural that those who began work less than a year ago had
changed from job to job less than those who began five years ago, but
the fact is worth commenting upon that as many as 70 per cent of
the women who began work at least five years ago had never changed
jobs.
Full-time workers.
While slightly less than one-tenth of the women had begun wmrk
within the last year or else had returned to work after an absence
from the wage-earning status covering at least the other four years,
about one-third (34.4 per cent) had begun work five or more years
ago. But more important than the time that had elapsed since
they began working is the amount of time actually spent as wage
earners, for it does not follow necessarily that all the women who
began work five years ago had been wage earners during the whole
of that time.. The following summary shows within broad limits
what proportion of the women had been fairly steadily employed
since they began work.
3,245 women employed at some
time during past 12 months
Time elapsed since beginning work within past 5 years
Total
Women employed prac
tically the entire time
since beginning work
within the past 6
years
Number
Total________________________
Not reporting_______
Total reporting_____
................................ __ .
...____ _____________ _ .
Less than 3 months_______________
3 and less than 6 months___ ______
8 and loss than 9 months____________
9 months and less than 1 year. _____________ _.
1 and less than 2 years_________ _________________
2 and less than 3 years______________ __________
3 and less than 4 years_____ ______________ ______
4 and less than 5 years.. ____________ ______
Per cent
3,245
127
3,118
2,327
74.6
41
77
81
100
482
451
406
407
1,073
41
69
61
62
412
385
333
303
661
100.0
89.6
75.3
62.0
85.5
85.4
82.0
74.4
61.6
The figures are more telling in the longer-time periods, where in
the largest, the 5-year group, over three-fifths had worked practically
all the time. About three-fourths who began work four and under
five years ago had worked practically all the time that had elapsed
since then.
The claim is not made that these 2,327 women had been full-time
w'orkers, although many had been, but the correlation does indicate
18
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
that a large majority had been in the wage-earning status much of,
if not all, the time that had elapsed since they began work, and the
numbers are large enough to establish the fact that the women inter
viewed were not as a group intermittent workers or floaters in
industry.
Time employed during the past year.
It was not a part of the original plan to survey employment con
ditions during a period of acute business depression; but there was
no doubt, as the field work progressed, that unemployment grew
steadily more severe. It seemed to be the consensus of opinion
among residents of the community that although employment was
far above normal during much of 1929 it had not got below par, or
it was only slightly so, before the spring of 1930, so the 12 months
preceding the interviews were divided into two periods of 6 months
each in order to present two pictures of employment, one in a fairly
normal and the other in a subnormal period. A few more women
reported definitely upon the duration of employment in the second
6 months than in the first, but approximately 3,000 reported in each.
Per cent of women em
ployed specified time in—
Time employed during 6-month
period
First 6
months
3.0
4.0
4.1
6.6
25.5
56.7
Second 6
months
3.8
4.2
6.6
9.8
43.2
32.4
In each 6-month period the per cents in the groups below five
months are comparatively small, but well over one-half (56.7 per
cent) had worked six months, or full time, in the first half of the
year, in contrast to less than one-third (32.4 per cent) who had worked
full time in the second half.
Table 8 is a further analysis showing how the numbers of women
working five or six months in each half of the year varied within
specified industries; furthermore, a separation is made to show how
employment for as much as five or six months differed in the two
groups employed and not employed when interviewed. It should be
added that some of those included in the tabulation who were not
working at time of interview were at home from choice and not
because of the industrial situation.
19
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
Table 8.—Time employed during first and second six months oj year, by present
employment status and industry of present or last employment
3,245 women employed at some time in past 12 months 1
Total
Reporting present status as—
Reporting time em
ployed as specified
Time employed
First 6
months
Second 6
months
At work
Not at work
Reporting time em
ployed as specified
Reporting time em
ployed as specified
First 6
months
First 6
months
Second 6
months
Second 6
months
Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per
ber cent ber cent ber cent ber cent ber cent ber cent
ALL INDUSTRIES
Total reporting........ 2,952 100.0 3,018 100.0 2,330 100.0 2,475 100.0
Less than 5 months
6 and less than 6 months.. _
525
752
1,675
17.8
734
25.5 1,305
56.7
979
24.3
333
43.2
563
32.4 1,434
14.3
305
24.2 1,191
61.5
979
12.3
48.1
39.6
622 100.0
543
100.0
192
189
241
30.9
30.4
38.7
429
114
79.0
21.0
60 100.0
59
100.0
30
12
18
50.0
20.0
30.0
52
7
88.1
11.9
275 100.0
228
100.0
73
112
90
26.5
40.7
32.7
177
51
77.6
22.4
135 100.0
AUTOMOBILES AND AUTOMOBILE PARTS
Total reporting
Less than 5 months---------5 and less than 6 months
277 100.0
306 100.0
119
84
74
114
101
91
43.0
30.3
26.7
217 100.0
37.3
33.0
29.7
89
72
56
247 100.0
41.0
33.2
25.8
62
94
91
25.1
38.1
36.8
WEARING APPAREL
Total reporting.......... 1,361 100.0 1,332 100.0 1,086 100.0 1,104 100.0
Less than 5 months
5 and less than 6 months...
190
494
677
14.0
36.3
49.7
251
950
131
18.8
71.3
9.8
117
382
587
10.8
35.2
54.1
74
899
131
6.7
81.4
11.9
OTHER MANUFACTURING
Total reporting..........
Less than 5 months
5 and less than 6 months - _.
280 100.0
290 100.0
81
100
99
157
80
53
28.9
35.7
35.4
145 100.0
54.1
27.6
18.3
.
i
42
53
50
29.0
36.6
34.5
172 100.0
63
56
53
36.6
32.6
30.8
39
47
49
118
100.0
28.9
34.8
36.3
94
24
79.7
20.3
CLERICAL (INCLUDING TELEPHONE)
Total reporting..........
Less than 5 months
5 and less than 6 months...
6 months___ ____________
577 100.0
603 100.0
516 100.0
550 100.0
61 100.0
53
100.0
51
28
498
86
85
432
33
23
460
48
70
432
18
5
38
38
15
71.7
28.3
8.8
4.9
86.3
14.3
14.1
71.6
6.4
4.5
89.1
8.7
12.7
78.5
29.5
8.2
62.3
DOMESTIC AND PERSONAL SERVICE
Total reporting..........
Less than 5 months
5 and less than 6 months...
6 months
302 100.0
324 100.0
247 100.0
271 100.0
55 100.0
53
100.0
62
31
209
85
65
174
40
24
183
41
56
174
15.1
20.7
64.2
22
7
26
44
9
83.0
17.0
131 100.0
36
20.5
10.3
69.2
26.2
20.1
53.7
16.2
9.7
74.1
40.0
12.7
47.3
SALES
Total reporting..........
Less than 5 months.... ........
5 and less than 6 months__
6 months__ ____________
155 100.0
22
15
118
14.2
9.7
76.1
163 100.0
41
24
98
25.2
14.7
60.1
119 100.0
12
9
98
10.1
7.6
82.4
17
16
98
|
13.0
12.2
74.8
1 97 women did not report whether employed during first or last 6 months.
2 Per cent not computed; base less than 50.
10
6
20
32
(2)
(2
24
8
(>)
(!)
20
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
Table 8 shows that among the total now employed about threefifths had worked six months, the equivalent of full-time employment,
during the first half of the year, but only two-fifths had worked full
time in the second half of the year. Furthermore, in each of the in
dustry classifications, except the manufacture of automobiles, larger
proportions worked full time in the first half of the year than in the
second. The exception in the case of automobiles was due un
doubtedly to the usual seasonal decline in the industry, which fell in
the earlier period. The difference in amount of full-time work is
particularly striking in the case of the wearing-apparel group, in
which 54.1 per cent reported full time in the earlier period and only
11.9 per cent in the latter. The seasonal character of the work un
doubtedly had an effect here.
As for the total number now employed who had worked five and less
than six months, there were over twice as many in the second half of
the year as in the first half, and again the most outstanding difference
is found in the clothing industry.
The distribution by industry of those not employed is too scattering
to mean much. As a whole, however, almost two-fifths worked full
time during the first half of the year, whereas naturally none worked
full time during the second period. Furthermore, the proportion that
had worked as much as five and under six months was much larger in
the first half of the year than in the second, and this holds true not
only for the total of all industry groups but for each of the manufac
turing classes. It is interesting to note that in clerical work, an oc
cupation regarded as fairly steady, less than two-thirds (62.3 per cent)
of the small number now unemployed had had full-time work during
the first half of the year, and among those still employed about onetenth had failed to work full time in the first six months and over onefifth in the second six months. In conclusion, in practically all com
parisons work was steadier in the first six months than in the second
six.
Continuing the comparison of those employed and those not em
ployed, it is apparent from the table that in the first half of the year
61.5 per cent of the total now employed had full-time work, whereas
only 38.7 per cent of those now not employed were so fortunate. In
the separate industries with numbers sufficiently large to warrant
comparisons, the wearing-apparel group shows the most distinct con
trast, as in the first half of the year only 32.7 per cent of the women
now unemployed had full-time work as against 54.1 per cent of those
now employed. Also, among those working five to six months in the
second half of .the year, the advantage is with those now employed
rather than with the unemployed. On the whole, it appears from
this table not only that employment was better in the first than in
the second period but that those now employed had fared better in
even the first half of the year than had those now unemployed.
UNEMPLOYMENT
In each interview the investigators made a special effort to get
detailed accounts of employment conditions throughout the past year,
stressing particularly the extent of employment, unemployment,
and part-time employment, and in the last named not only the extent
but a description of the variation of the shortened work hours in order
to j udge the better of its severity.
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
21
Three types of unemployment prevailed among the women wage
earners in South Bend during the year:
(1) No job at all—the women who had been without any place of
employment because either permanently laid off or, having quit for
personal reasons, unable to find work when later they desired it.
(2) Temporary lay-off—the women who, while they had jobs, had
experienced temporary lay-offs of a week or more, after which they
returned to the same place of employment. Such lay-offs were due
to a definite shutdown of the plant or department for a specified period,
or, instead of a complete shutdown, in some firms it was the policy
to stagger the lay-offs, that is, to rotate them among employees, some
one week and others the next.
(3) Part-time employment—the women who had jobs but were
working part time from day to day during the week, being unable to
get full-time work because of a reduction in the number of days per
week or the number of hours per day. Sometimes the work was
curtailed by having both days and hours cut. Occasionally the de
crease was a definite change in scheduled weekly hours, but more
often the hours varied from day to day in a way too irregular to
describe.
The first condition described may be strictly called unemploy
ment, while the second and third illustrate unemployment within
employment, or lost time, irregular employment, undertime.
In the next few pages unemployment is considered under two head
ings: Idleness continuing for at least a week, which includes weeks
out of work between jobs and also within a job; and part-time weeks,
that is, a curtailment of the week’s regular scheduled work period.
Only 1 in 3 of the women (1,046) were so fortunate as to be able to
report that they had lost absolutely no time during the year, that
work had been regular and steady. As might be expected, they
were for the most part clerical workers, saleswomen, or domestic and
personal service workers; only one-fifth (20.4 per cent) of them were
in manufacturing industries.
Comparatively few women (295) had experienced any overtime
during the year, and what little there had been was spasmodic, of
short duration, and chiefly before the summer of 1930. For the most
part, it had been confined to establishments making automobile
parts, shoes, and radios, and to a few small plants in the miscellaneous
manufacturing group. Naturally, undertime employment had far
outweighed the overtime.
Over two-thirds of the women, 2,173 (67.4 per cent), had experi
enced some kind of unemployment at some time during the year—definite lay-offs of at least a week’s duration, or short time during the
week, or both idle weeks and short weeks. A large majority (1,548)
had been affected by both short weeks and idle weeks, while 407
women had had short weeks only and 218 had had idle weeks only.
Comments on irregular employment.
How closely the fluctuations in hours paralleled the rush in orders
and the quick falling off was described by a young woman who said
she never could plan on her earnings, sometimes the pay envelope
having $20, at others only $10. For short periods they had speeded
all day, evenings, and Sunday to keep up with orders, and then there
had been what seemed like interminable days with no work. In the
22
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
spring there was excessive overtime and again in June. The over
time in April was followed by a 4-day and a 5-day week, and that in
June by 3 days and 4 days, with many short, days. Then in August
came a shutdown of two weeks; she did not call it a vacation. In the
current week she had a full day Monday, there was no work after
noon on Tuesday, and on Wednesday and Thursday the work lasted
until the middle of the afternoon.
Others described the effects of business fluctuations in such phrases
as—
“We work to death part of the year—starve and loaf the rest.”
“We don’t get tired now. We ain’t got work enough.”
An experienced power-sewing-machine operator had seen things go
from bad to worse. Throughout the fall of 1929 there was no more
work on hand than enough to keep her busy three or four days a week.
In November it dropped to two days, with frequently no work during
an entire week, and in February, not earning enough to pay for car
fares, she quit the place where she had been employed for three years.
She was more fortunate than she realized at the time in soon finding
a new job, but here also work was slack—having on an average only
six or seven hours a day on four or five days a week. When visited
she was encouraged, for she had just had two full weeks, the first in
a year.
Another clothing worker had benefited from steady work only from
March to July. Previous to that the plant operated only from three
to five days a week and afterward from one to four days. Even in
normal years she did not count on continuous 8-hour days, except in
the four busiest months in the spring. However, it was unusually
slack in the summer of 1930—“14 hours last week, 3J4 days the week
before last, 14 hours so far this week, but we may have work again
Friday,” she said.
Occasionally, after a spell of undertime, business would take a
temporary spurt and the worker would be on full time again. But
when this was over, undertime sometimes more severe than in the
first instance would follow. Illustrative of such ups and downs are
the working hours of a woman who in April was reduced from five
and one-half to four days a week, the days varying in length anywhere
from four to eight hours; in July an increase in orders provided regular
full-time work in her department for a few weeks, but September
found her back on a 4-day week. Another woman reported work for
only two or three days a week throughout the fall of 1929; the early
part of 1930 reflected the customary seasonal pick-up, but after
Easter they fell back to a 4-day week, working usually 5, 6, or 7 hours
and rarely a full day of 8 hours; in the late summer the schedule
improved to a week of 5 days of 9 hours each, but still they were not
consistently working the full schedule. This girl had been laid off
during the year also—six weeks in the winter and one week in July.
“Work been getting slack all the year. Came home at 2 o’clock
to-day. Last fall made $20 to $22 a week, now $12 to $14 a week,”
said one worker.
In describing changing hours, one operator said she worked during
the early half of the year from 7 a. m. to 2 or 3 p. m., in March work
was normal, but at the time of the survey there wasn’t work to keep
her busy later than 11 or 12 or 1 o’clock. Furthermore, the week
had recently been cut to five days.
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
23
Others referred to hours as going down steadily all the year or as
so irregular that on some days only two hours were worked. Others
reported the workday as six or seven hours long now, some days less.
Worker has had 11 years’ experience and when working full time could make
$16 a week, but since January, 1930, she spends most of her time waiting for work
and can make only $6 or $7. In April she was reduced from five and one-half
to four days a week. Father’s work is not steady.
After 20 years’ experience worker was able to make $17 to $18 a week, but in
April she was reduced from five and one-half to four days a week, and then had
to wait around for work, and though she spent nine hours a day in the factory
she had only five or six hours’ work and earned less than $12.
Worker of three years’ experience reported work slack for past year. Work
not steady, and had to sit around two or three hours at a time waiting for work.
Father is working four hours a day. A brother has been out of work 11 months.
Sister is working a little. A younger brother and mother never were employed.
Worker has three years’ experience. Since October, 1929, much time lost
waiting around for work. Has to be on hand in case special orders come in.
Idle weeks.
As stated before, the number of weeks idle or out of employment
during the year, due to conditions in industry, includes the two dis
tinct types of lay-offs reported by the women, the one due to a perma
nent separation from the job and the other only a temporary con
dition followed by another period of employment at the same job.
In the first case the woman was left jobless, but in the second she
had been able to return to the same place of employment.
Table 9.—Number of weeks idle during past year due to industrial causes, by
industry
3,245 women employed at some time during past 12 months; reporting
industry in which absences occurred
Number of weeks idle during past
year due to industrial causes
Total
Num
ber
Total-.................. .................
Per
cent
Auto
mobiles Wear Other Clerical Domes
and
tic and
ing
manu and tele personal
auto
mobile apparel facturing phone service
parts
Sales
3,245
338
1,426
331
624
347
179
1,121
64
166
72
482
210
127
Not reporting as to number of
71
Total reporting weeks idle.........__
1 week........... ............
2 weeks_____________ ____
3 weeks___
___
4 weeks________________
5 weeks____ ____ ______
6 weeks___
___ _
7 weeks
8 weeks____ _ __
9 to 13 weeks_____ ...
14 to 26 weeks____ ___
27 to 46 weeks
2, 053
100.0
256
1,235
248
140
127
47
122
708
308
193
60
82
50
80
177
190
83
5.9
34.5
15.0
9.4
2.9
4.0
2.4
3.9
8.6
9.3
4.0
25
25
31
33
13
19
10
11
32
43
14
41
580
237
114
30
39
28
31
70
54
11
13
36
16
18
8
14
9
20
41
45
28
23
39
10
13
2
2
1
7
14
15
14
15
20
10
10
6
6
1
8
12
25
14
5
8
4
5
1
2
1
3
8
8
2
4.3
11.3
8.5
10.8
9.1
Total weeks idle............................. 13,445
Average weeks idle per woman...
6.5
2,299
9.0
The data secured show not only how many women had been idle
a week or more at a time but the aggregate weeks lost throughout
24
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1030
the year, based on the total number of weeks out of work at various
seasons by each woman. Lost time consisting of only a day or so—•
in fact, anything less than a full week—is not included here.
About one-third of the women (35.3 per cent) reported no weeks
lost because of industrial conditions, but the other two-thirds—
2,053—had lost altogether 13,400 weeks, or an average of G}-> weeks
per woman.
Comments from schedules.—Employees have been taking every third week off
in rotation since April. “We took turns at laying off. I’ve lost eight weeks
altogether this spring and summer.”
Shut down two weeks in May and two in July.
“We work a day or two, then we are off a week or more. Lost six weeks
between November and March.”
Off one week in December, then off two weeks in July while they took inven
tory, and also laid off four weeks because work was slack.
In manufacturing, the vast majority of the women reported idle
wreeks, but the opposite is true in domestic and personal service,
clerical work, and sales lines. Yet, although their numbers are
comparatively small, the average number of weeks lost per woman
is higher in these latter industry groups than in manufacturing.
A very large proportion of the women in the wearing-apparel
group—1,235 of 1,401 reporting, more than in any of the other
classifications—had been out of work as much as a week or more
at a time during the year, but their average of four weeks per woman
is the lowest of all the industiy classifications. This is surprising,
as the garment industry is admittedly seasonal and has much under
employment, but the group called wearing apparel in this report
includes more than the traditional garment lines. It includes a
very large shoe factory in which only the usual shutdown of two
weeks, in July, had occurred, lay-offs due to reorganization or the
economic depression having been staved off.
Over 250 women in the manufacture of automobiles and parts
had been totally unemployed for an average of nine weeks, or as
much as two months of the year. The average, also, in the miscel
laneous manufacturing group may be attributed to the very seasonal
character of the work in some firms represented here. But it is
more surprising to find such extended idleness among saleswomen,
clerks, or restaurant and laundry workers, for whom the average
number of idle weeks amounted to two months or more.
The type of the lay-off varied as between manufacturing and the
other lines of employment. While in manufacturing it was more
intermittent, off and on, in the others the lay-off was likely to be
final and followed by many weeks of idleness before there was a
readjustment in another job, if such readjustment came at all.
Not all these idle weeks were spent in persistently looking for work
day after day; but it is fair to assume that if conditions in industry
had not been the initial cause of unemployment and if new jobs
had been available, the women would have secured work and these
weeks that should have been productive would not have been spent
in idleness, a loss to the employee herself, to industry, and to the
entire community.
Table 9 discloses the extent of the time without work. Although
the average for the group is 6.5 weeks, two-fifths of the women lost
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
25
only 1 or 2 weeks and another significantly large number (about
one-fourth) had been out of work 3 or 4 weeks during the year.
The numbers of those who lost 5, 6, 7, or more weeks are noticeably
smaller than those who were out of work less than a month, yet the
protracted unemployment as shown in their cases is one of the worst
features of the business depression. More than 350 women (17.9
per cent) had been idle from 2 to 6 months and 83 women had worked
less than half of the year.
From the industry subdivisions it is apparent that the wearingapparel group is responsible for the majority of those who were idle
2, 3, or 4 weeks, while in the automobile industry and in other manu
facturing over one-third and somewhat less than one-half, respec
tively, had been idle more than two months of the year. Passing
from the manufacturing classifications to clerical workers, waitresses
and laundresses, and saleswomen, it is not surprising to find large
proportions who had lost only 1 or 2 weeks, but at the other extreme
are large proportions who had been out of work several months, a
few even half of the year. It is the women with records showing
months of idleness who bring the average for the whole group up
to six and one-half weeks.
Distribution through the schedule year.—More than one-half (51.5
per cent) of the women who had been affected by lay-offs of a week
or more had had such lay-offs only within the past six months;
about one-tenth (9.6 per cent) had had lay-offs in the first six months
only, and about two-fifths (39 per cent) reported weeks out of work
in both the first and the second half of the year.
The next table shows the distribution through the various months
of the year of the total weeks lost. Before making any analysis of the
data, it is necessary to explain what constituted the year in this case.
For each woman the year was the 12 months immediately preceding
the interview. Some who were visited early in August, 1930, dated
their experience back to the corresponding date in 1929, while those
interviewed in September, 1930, dated their year from September in
the previous year. Since the time in which interviews were made
covered about two months, August and September in 1930, the annual
period covers various months for different women, from August to
August for some, from September to September for others. A mov
able date was used in reckoning the year because of the quicker reac
tion and more reliable data possible in the interview. In this way
many calculations were eliminated that would have been necessary if
a uniform date had been used for all women. Because of this variable
12-month period, data applying altogether to 14 months were in
cluded and the records are incomplete for the first two and the last
two of these.
It was impossible for a few of the women interviewed to specify the
exact month in which their lost time fell. Many could be no more
specific than to say it came “in the spring” or “in the summer,” and
all such replies are classed as “indefinite” in the table, but most of
the women knew exactly when they had been out of work and were
definite in their replies.
26
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OP 1930
Table 10.—Distribution of weeks lost for industrial causes during a 12-month period,
by time of the year
Weeks lost in 12-month period for industrial causes reported by
2,053 women
Industry of present or last job
Time of year
Total
Total
Auto
mobiles
Clerical Domes
and Wearing Other
and
tic and
manu
auto apparel facturing
tele personal
mobile
phone service
parts
13,445
Time not reported---------------------------Total reported:
Number. ______________ ____
Per cent1____________ __________
Sales
2,299
5,344
2,814
1,184
1,377
427
33
49
66
6
45
7
13,239
100.0
2,266
100.0
5, 295
100.0
2.748
100.0
1.178
100.0
1,332
100.0
420
100.0
0.5
1.6
3.3
3.9
10.7
0.8
3.9
10.8
10.1
10.6
0.4
.8
1.0
1.3
14.1
0.5
.9
1.9
3.1
9.5
0.3
2.3
3.5
4.9
5.4
0 6
2.0
3.5
5.0
6.5
0.5
1.9
2.9
4.8
4.8
4.5
4.8
5.4
6.0
8.5
24.1
13.9
4.6
6.7
6.0
7.0
7.0
5.4
4.9
9.3
8.6
3.5
2.8
1.8
2.0
3.0
3.8
7.2
39.3
14.4
4.0
6.3
6.7
6.7
7.2
8.6
10.3
15.1
15.6
5.7
5.8
6.5
5.2
7.4
8.4
12.1
17.1
14.9
4.9
6.2
6.2
7.2
6.8
7.0
11.0
16.4
15.5
5.2
4.5
5.0
7.6
5.0
10.7
14.8
16.7
16.0
8.6
3.2
5.4
4.0
2.0
1.4
1.0
1.2
206 .
1929:
September...____ ______ ___
October ______________________
November________ .
December. _____ ____ _________
1930:
January ____________________
February... ... ___ .
March
April___ ______
May_____
June
July
August ...
September
Indefinite ...
.......
* See conclusion of paragraph next but one preceding.
Every month of the 14 had its share of idle weeks, but in the total for
all industries there is a marked increase from 3.9 per cent in November
to 10.7 per cent in December, and again in the summer there is a sharp
rise from 8.5 per cent in June to 24.1 per cent in July. This banking
of numbers in December and again in July is due in part to the policy
of closing plants for a week or more at the Christmas holiday season
or around the Fourth of July, called by some “inventory periods” and
by others “vacations.” The very few vacations with pay reported
are excluded from this tabulation, which represents only full weeks
without earnings.
However, not all the idle weeks in the summer of 1930 were due to
inventory or vacations without pay. The 1,397 women who were out
of work in July and the 650 in August undoubtedly were idle largely
on account of the growing economic depression.
Striking as is the amount of lost time in December, 1929, and again
in the summer of 1930, the intervening months have a heavy record
of idle weeks, fairly evenly distributed through the winter and spring.
Employment in the making of automobiles and parts follows the
fluctuation usual in this industry except that employment having
remained much below the usual peak in winter and spring there was
less of a decline in the summer. It departs from the curves in this
report found in other industries, and over 30 per cent of the idle weeks
in this manufacturing group are about evenly distributed in October,
27
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
November, and December. On the other hand, except for the peak
of lost time in December, there is only a slight increase of unemploy
ment in nearly every case in each of the other industries from month
to month until the summer of 1930. It is a fairly even distribution,
characteristic of conditions in a fairly usual business period.
The force of the economic depression is strikingly reflected by each
industry group except automobiles in the summer of 1930, beginning
among the saleswomen in May and increasing in the next few months.
The increase is noticeable in the miscellaneous manufacturing group,
clerical work, and domestic and personal service by June and is out
standingly marked in the wearing-apparel group by July. In all
industry groups except automobiles, from about two-fifths to threefifths of all the weeks lost throughout the year are crowded into the
summer months.
Yet conditions were bad enough through the earlier months of 1930,
in which only 4, 5, or 6 per cent of the idleness occurred, when one
considers that even in these months anywhere from almost 200 to 250
women had been out of work a week or more, or that the same women
who had lost time in September or October, for example, may have
been idle again at this later period.
Return to work after lay-off.-—That some of the women had more
than one absence of a week or longer for industrial reasons is apparent
from the next table, which shows over 3,000 periods of absence dis
tributed among 2,038 women.
Table 11.—Industrial absences, by time of the year
Industrial absences of 1 week or longer during past 12
months reported by 2,038 women
Followed by—
Time of the year
Total
Total
No return to Return to
work with
work
another firm
Return to *
work with
same firm
Num
ber
Per
cent
3,179
100.0
4.55
14.3
259
8.1
2,465
2,038
3,179
100.0
455
14.3
259
8.1
2,465
195
1,049
794
212
1,203
1, 764
100.0
100.0
100.0
19.5
12.5
38
48
173
3,245
Not reporting___________ ________
Total
Num Per Num Per Num Per
ber cent ber cent ber cent
77.5
86
At no time_________________ ____ ____ 1,121
Total reporting_____ ____ ___
Tn first 6 months_____
In second 6 months. _____
In both periods
_____
234
221
4! 0
9.8
921
1,370
77.5
82.1
77.7
From Table 11 it appeal's that following 14.3 per cent of the ter
minations of jobs the women had been unable to find work again and
were not employed when visited. However, in the vast majority
(85.7 per cent) of the cases the women had found work again and
usually (77.5 per cent) with the same firm.
Changes to new firms were more frequent in the first than in the
second half of the year and also none of the women laid off only in
the first half of the year had been unable to get work again.
81765°—32----- 3
28
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
As far as various industries are concerned, the average number of
absences for industrial reasons per employee was much greater in
each manufacturing group than among sales, clerical, or domestic
and personal service employees.
Table
12.—Industrial absences or idle weeks due to industrial causes, by industry
of ■present or last job
Industrial absences of 1 week or
longer during past 12 months
reported by 2,038 women
Women
Industry of present or last job
Total
Re Wom
en
Re port not
port ing
re
pro
ing
Total
ced port
no
ing Num Per
ure
ab
after pro
ber
cent
sences ab
ced
sences ure
Per cent reporting—
No
re
turn
to
work
Re
turn
to
work
with
an
other
firm
Re
turn
to
work
with
same
firm
Total............................................. 3,245
1,121
2,038
86
3,179
100.0
14.3
8.1
77.5
Automobiles and automobile parts—
338
"Wearing apparel.. -------- ------ --------- 1,426
Machinery and electrical products---192
Other manufacturing
139
Clerical and telephone_____ ____ ___
624
Domestic and personal service---------347
179
Sales------------------ -----------------------
64
166
27
45
482
210
127
254
1,229
162
83
137
125
48
20
31
3
11
5
12
4
460
1, 880
283
143
164
176
73
100.0
100.0
100. 0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
8.7
9.9
31.8
23.8
23.8
25.0
30.1
10.9
2.0
7.4
35.0
25.0
21.6
30.1
80.4
88. 1
60.8
41.3
51.2
53.4
39.7
A greater proportion of idle periods in the manufacture of automo
biles and parts and wearing apparel than in the other industry groups
were followed by a return to work for the same firm, and a smaller
proportion of idle periods in these two important industries continued
permanently, that is, without success in finding work again, all of
which illustrates the seasonal character of work in automobile and
garment factories, the on-and-off condition with returns to the same
job rather than a lay-off accompanied by the complete loss of a job.
The 455 cases where no work was found after the termination of a
job represent the women still unemployed and reporting time of
becoming unemployed. The proportion of such permanent lay-offs
was small in automobile and wearing-apparel groups, but was much
higher among all the others. Very roughly, about one-fourth of the
lay-offs had been permanent separations in these other industries.
In all of these, except machinery and electrical products, the percent
age of shifts to other firms also is comparatively high; for, quite
naturally, as the opportunities of returning to work for the same
firm decrease, it becomes more urgent to find work elsewhere if
possible.
Included in the group designated as machinery and electrical
products are two firms that undoubtedly are responsible for the high
percentage of permanent lay-offs in this industry; the one closed its
branch in South Bend and the other established the policy of laying
off married women, a group that was experiencing increasing difficul
ties in making readjustments in industry.
It is interesting to note in this connection how long those now
unemployed for industrial reasons have been out of work. Included
in the 488 now out of work are 69 women who, although they quit
29
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
their jobs earlier in the year for personal reasons, now are very anxious
for jobs but are unable to get back into industry, their condition
being one of unemployment for industrial causes.
_
..
.
_
Duration of present
unemployment
Number
uiuuui of
vi women
vr vine 11
out of work for
industrial causes
Total..................................... .......... .......... ........ .......... .............. 488
Not reported
1
Total reporting487
Less than 1 month 98
1 and less than 2 months 117
2 and less than 3 months 89
3 and less than 4 months 50
4 and less than 5 months 39
5 and less than 6 months 25
6 and less than 7 months 18
7 and less than 8 months 14
8 and less than 9 months 20
9 and less than 10 months
4
10 and less than 11 months
7
11 and less than 12 months
6
One-fifth of the women had been idle less than a month, but more
than two-fifths had lost one or two months and about one-seventh
had been out of work at least six months.
Short weeks.
Almost as many women (1,955) had lost time during the week as
had been idle a week or more at a stretch. A few (131) had had only
the number of hours cut, as, for example, from 9 to 8 a day; many
more (701) had been reduced in number of days worked per week,
sometimes from 5K to 4; but by far the largest number, much more
than half, had had both hours per day and days per week curtailed.
Furthermore, in most instances the cut in hours and days had been
at the same time. Not only had the working time for the week been
shortened for these women, but almost four-fifths of them had had
weeks with absolutely no work at some other period during the 12
months.
Table 13.— Undertime and shortened work weeks during past 12 months
1,955 women whose work week had been shortened
Reporting short weeks due to decrease in—
Undertime
Both days and hours
Total
Days
only
Hours
only
Not
Simulta
simul
neous
taneous
Type Of
decrease
not
reported
Total....................................................
1,955
701
131
1,053
55
15
Undertime due to short weeks only........ .
Undertime due to both short and idle
weeks___________ _________________
407
154
70
170
4
9
1,548
547
61
883
51
6
Rarely did the pendulum swing back and forth between normal
and undertime employment in the individual cases. Moreover, time
30
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
and again decrease succeeded decrease, the condition going from bad
to worse. For example, the original change from normal time may
have been from five and one-half to five days a week, then there may
have been a cut in daily hours from nine to eight, and these in turn
may have been followed by a third reduction from five to four
days or less.
_ Aggregate of part-time weeks.—Table 14 shows to what total part
time weeks had amounted during the year. The duration of this
undertime is based upon the aggregate of short weeks during the
year and does not necessarily represent consecutive weeks or months.
Undertime weeks that had totaled less than a month had affected
only about one-tenth (9.9 per cent) of the women, but over 700 women
had had part-time weeks amounting to 1, 2, or 3 months.
Table 14.—Aggregate of part-time weeks per woman during past 12 months, by
method of reducing time
1,955 women whose work week had been shortened
Reporting short weeks due
to decrease in—
Aggregate of part-time weeks
Total
Total_________________
Hours
only
Days
only
Type of
decrease
Both
not
days and reported
hours
1,955
131
701
1,108
15
Not reporting number of weeks.
129
21
33
67
8
Total reporting;
Number_________________
Per cent_________________
1,826
100.0
110
100.0
668
100.0
1,041
100.0
7
0)
Less than 1 month________
1 and less than 2 months__
2 and less than 3 months__
3 and less than 4 months__
4 and less than 5 months__
5 and less than 6 months__
G and less than 7 months__
7 and less than 8 months__
8 and less than 9 months__
9 and less than 10 months...
10 and less than 11 months..
11 and less than 12 months..
12 months..............................
9.9
15.9
10.8
12.7
7.8
7.4
7.6
3.9
4.1
3.1
2.2
2.4
12.3
14.5
20.0
11.8
10.0
8.2
5.5
10.9
2.7
2.7
1.8
1.8
16.2
21.6
13.2
15.4
6.0
2.8
5.4
3.0
4.6
2.4
1.5
2.2
5.8
5.4
11.9
9.0
11.0
9.0
10.6
8.6
4.6
3.9
3.7
2.8
2. 7
16.7
10.0
1 Per cent not computed; base less than 50.
For an appreciable majority the part-time weeks had amounted to
less than 6 months, yet the part-time employment that had affected
over 600 women for at least half a year, and 224 of these for all the
year, was one of the most serious situations revealed by the survey.
More than 15 per cent of the 1,826 women reporting had been on
part time from 6 to 8 months of the year and 20 per cent had been
on part time from 9 to 12 months; in short, almost one-sixth (15.6
per cent) had had full-tune work for only about one-third to one-half
of the year, and almost one-eighth (12.3 per cent) had not had one
full-time week in the entire year.
Another serious phase of this undertime employment is the manner
of curtailing the work period: 6.8 per cent of the women had experi
enced a cut in hours only and 36.1 per cent had had only the number
of days reduced, for example, from a customary 6 or 5K days to 5 days
or less. Well over half the women (57.1 per cent) had suffered a cut
in both hours and days, in the vast majority of cases simultaneously.
31
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
Of the women reporting both kind and extent of shortened time, 174
(9.6 per cent) not only had experienced a decrease in both hours
and days but had failed to have a full week’s work during the entire
year.
The shortening of the week by reducing both the number of days
and the number of hours had been more far-reaching than the reduc
tion in number of days only. The weeks affected amounted to at
least nine months to more than twice the extent in the first men
tioned as in the second mentioned.
The type and extent of the undertime differed somewhat in the
various industries. In the miscellaneous manufacturing group and
in the nonmanufacturing trades a reduction in number of days had
been resorted to most frequently, while in the two major manufac
turing industries, wearing apparel and automobiles and automobile
parts, respectively 60.5 per cent and 76.3 per cent of the employees
had experienced a decrease in both hours and days. Almost onethird (32.9 per cent) of the employees in the automobile trade had
not had a full-time week for a year, whereas only 8.5 per cent of
those in wearing-apparel plants, only 4.5 in other manufacturing,
and only 11.9 per cent in industries other than manufacturing had
had such extended part-time employment. While more than onehalf of the women in all the other industry groups had had less than
four months of this underemployment, not much more than one-fifth
of those in automobile plants had been so fortunate.
Time of year in which short week began—Table 15 shows in what
month or season of the year the reductions in the length of the work
ing week were made first, and whether the curtailment was a definite
decrease in effect week after week or was comprised of irregular
changes, varying from day to day or week to week. The table is
based upon all decreases reported for each individual. For example,
if a woman’s hours were reduced at three different times, the three
separate changes are included in the tabulation.
Table
15.— Type of decrease in the working week, by time of year
Decreases in the working week during past 12 months
Time of year
Due to reduced number of
hours
Total
Total:
Number_________________
Percent........ ................ ................
Regular Irregular
schedule schedule
Due to reduced number of
days
Regular Irregular
schedule schedule
Total
826
100.0
175
21.2
651
78.8
2,062
100.0
1,468
71.2
594
28.8
In 1929......... ................................
176
15
161
331
113
218
In 1930:
January............ .................. ................
February __________ .. _
March_____________
April____ _________
May___________
June. ... ___
July____________ ______
August........................ ..................
September to date of interview___
38
18
45
145
43
36
212
67
14
7
3
12
19
7
9
55
31
11
31
15
33
126
36
27
157
36
3
116
41
333
128
105
560
245
36
43
20
49
289
96
72
490
213
29
73
21
36
44
32
33
70
32
7
2
23
7
1
2
3
1
21
4
23
6
37
11
14
12
Indefinite:
Winter.____ _______
Spring______ _________
Summer ______ _ _
J all and winter_________
7
32
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
Reductions in hours were irregular in nearly four-fifths (78.8 per
cent) of the cases, while decreases in the number of days were for the
most part regular (71.2 per cent). Irregular decreases in hours pre
dominated throughout the year, but the situation changed during the
year in the case of decreases in days. In the earlier months the
decreases in days were somewhat haphazard and irregular, but as the
year wore on, noticeably in April, July, and August, they became con
spicuously regular. More than half (53.7 per cent) of the reductions
in the length of the working week occurred in the three months speci
fied. The marked trend toward regularity in the last of the 12-month
period in the matter of reducing days was due to a definite reduction
in the work schedules of two prominent firms, one of which changed
from a 6-day to a 5-day week and the other from a standard 5/(-day to
a 5-day week. These two changes alone affected hundreds of women
in the group manufacturing wearing apparel. At the time it did not
seem probable that they would ever return to their longer schedules.
The two pronounced peaks for cuts in days as well as in hours and
for regular as well as irregular changes fell in the spring and mid
summer. There were almost as many reductions in the one month
of April, 1930, as throughout the last four or five months in 1929,
and there were decidedly more in July.
What happened before 1930 and in the months before the depres
sion became severe in South Bend is quite as important as what hap
pened in the summer of 1930. Previous to January, 1930, there had
been about 500 cuts in the work week; more than one-fifth of the
changes to shorter hours and almost one-sixth of the decreases in
number of workdays per week had occurred in the last few months
of 1929; and they had been decidedly irregular, not conforming to
any definite program or schedule. The automobile industry was
responsible for most of the changes during these earlier months, and
the figures for 1929 undoubtedly are illustrative of the type and
extent of undertime that characterizes the seasonal slump that has
occurred autumn after autumn in this industry.
Table 16.— Type of decrease in the working week, firms making automobiles and
automobile parts and wearing apparel, by time of year
Decreases in the working week in firms
manufacturing—
Time of year
Total_______________________________ ___________
In 1929-.-______ ____ _______ ________________
In 1930:
Automobiles and
automobile parts
Wearing apparel
Hours
Hours
Days
173
320
551
1, 424
81
135
66
127
16
5
9
11
15
10
8
12
1
26
12
22
25
23
19
18
20
9
15
8
28
125
20
16
193
52
5
66
20
51
273
86
58
462
205
18
4
1
1
5
4
1
1
18
4
6
42
10
Indefinite:
Days
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
33
Decreases in days predominated in both industry groups, and in the
automobile group three-fourths of the changes were irregular.
Although in the first months of 1930 irregular changes predominated
also in the wearing-apparel group, in April there is a marked shift
from a variable number of days to a fixed reduction in days in this
industry.
Another striking difference in the two industries is the time of year
in which the reduction banked most heavily. In the automobile
industry 46.8 per cent of the decreases in hours and 42.2 per cent of
the decreases in days had occurred before January, but not until
April is there any bulking of numbers in the wearing-apparel group
and much the greatest number of reductions occurred in midsummer.
Of 79 reductions in the work week reported by saleswomen and
clerical workers, 67 were regular and 58 of these were decreases in
number of days worked per week.
Type and amount of weekly decrease.—In the next table emphasis is
laid on the daily or weekly amount of the decrease in working time
during the longest undertime period, as well as whether or not the
change was a regularly recurring one. Reference here to the duration
of undertime denotes the longest undertime period in the year and
not the aggregate of several such periods occurring at various times
within the 12 months.
Of the 1,723 women who reported a decrease in days per week,
seven-tenths had had definite and regular changes in their working
schedules; but of the 650 who reported a reduction in hours per day,
more than three-fourths indicated irregular decreases, liable to change
from day to day or week to week.
Two or three large concerns were responsible for the bulk of regular
reductions in days per week. For example, the change from 6 to 5
days reported by 438 women, and the change from 5% to 5 days
reported by 140 women and that from 5K to 4 days reported by 430,
affected practically whole establishments, or entire departments
within those establishments. The 5-day week had been customary in
one plant for several years, and in this case the regular reduction
reported by women employed here usually was to a 4-day week. As
a result of definite and regular decreases in days per week 578 of the
1,215 reporting were reduced to a 5-day week, 542 to a 4-day week,
and 86 to a week of 1, 2, or 3 days. In the decreases from the 6-day
to the 5-day week, the most extended undertime period had not been
long in the majority of cases; three-eighths had been less than a month
and another such proportion from 1 to 2 months. But a larger pro
portion of the changes from 5% to 4 days had been of long standing,
more than half having continued from 3 to 4 months.
decreases
from
customary
of of
6, the
5%, situation.
or 5 days
areThe
too irregular
varied and
scattering
to the
present
a clear week
picture
Not half so many women reported these variable shifts in days as
reported the regular changes in working schedules noted above.
There was nothing standard in the number of workdays per week;
some weeks the women might be employed only one day and the next
week they might work four days and the next two days. All was
uncertainty; at night the foreman was as likely to say “We won’t work
any more this week, girls” as “We have work O. K. for tomorrow.”
It was part-time employment, but whether, on the whole, they were
working more or less than three-fourths or one-half of the time it was
34
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
impossible to reckon with any degree of accuracy, and it was especi
ally difficult where such irregularity had continued over a considerable
period of time.
One hundred and thirty-seven women whose customary schedule
had been 5}i days had worked irregularly sometimes as little as 3 days
a week; 186 had been down as low as 2 days a week and 45 had ranged
all the way from 1 to 5)£ days. Of the total 508 who reported varying
changes in the number of days worked per week, 52 reported a range
whose minimum was 1 workday a week, 222 have a minimum of 2
days a week, and 165 a minimum of 3 days; in other words, somewhat
less than nine-tenths had had weeks with as few as 1, 2, or 3 days of
work, although at other times the weeks may have been as long as
4, 5, or 6 days. This irregularity in workdays was not a recent devel
opment, as it had persisted throughout the year for about one-fifth
of these women, who normally should have been employed 5, 5%, or
6 days a week.
Table 17.—Duration and amount of decrease in lime worked during longest under
time period in the year, by method of reducing time
A.—DECREASE IN DAILY HOURS
1,239 women who reported decrease in hours worked
Total______________ ______ 1,239
than 1
month
1 and less than
2 months
2 and less than
3 months
3 and less than
4 months
4 and less than
5 months
5 and less than
6 months
6 and less than
9 months
9 and less than
12 months
Total
Decrease in daily hours
Less
Total reporting
Reporting duration of longest undertime period
s
=3
TJ
.9bfi
1
a
IM
o
£
"o
1,137
96
153
115
214
95
68
182
97
117
102
Not reporting type of decrease........
589
510
47
78
46
72
44
37
103
37
46
79
Total reporting_________ ____ _ ..
650
627
49
75
69
142
51
31
79
60
71
23
Regular decrease________ _____
From 10 or 11 hours to—
7 and iy2..................... ..........
150
144
29
31
19
14
13
8
16
9
5
6
8
9
8
8
1
1
4
5
1
33
24
14
31
23
14
7
4
6
4
1
5
2
5
3
4
3
3
3
1
2
1
2
22
11
22
21
10
22
4
3
5
2
1
4
1
1
1
1
500
483
20
51
66
17
22
13
22
13
3
1
35
42
41
46
44
33
41
41
43
41
6
11
19
11
3
3
86
46
74
23
28
84
44
72
22
27
3
2
2
2
2
1
1
From 9 or 9y2 hours to—
8______ ____ ____________
From 8 or sy hours to—
7 and 7H
Irregular decrease------- --------------From 10 or 11 hours to—
From 9 or 9y hours to—
6 and more
4 and more______________
Other .
From 8 or 9 hours to—
6 and more______________
5 and more
Other__________________
5
4
4
1
2
1
1
3
4
1
2
3
4
2
3
2
1
3
44
50
128
10
4
7
4
3
6
5
2
4
2
4
3
3
2
4
1
3
11
5
6
2
1
2
2
1
1
1
8
2
1
2
1
2
1
1
2
4
38
23
63
1
1
3
1
2
1
7
7
3
3
5
5
2
2
5
1
2
3
1
2
9
3
5
6
6
4
3
5
3
4
38
16
39
6
8
6
6
2
4
1
4
3
3
1
2
7
7
10
4
10
4
3
1
3
8
1
35
RATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
Table
17.—Duration and amount of decrease in time worked during longest under
time period in the year, by method of reducing time—Continued
B.-DECREASE IN DAYS WORKED
1,809 women who reported decrease in days worked
Reporting duration of longest undertime period
S3
237
287
193
86
66
2
3
4
1,723
1, 665
235
284
189
1,215
Regular decrease
From 6 days to—
438
5___________ ___________
89
From ty/i days to—
430
4
Other _
__
202
From 5 days to—
4
40
16
1,181
221
248
430
88
161
32
417
191
Total reporting
Irregular decrease
From 6 days to—
From 5J4 days to—
3 and more_________ ____
2 and more_____________
Other......................... .........
From 5 days to—
1
1
1
„a
331
3
SO
3
'O
12 months
1,731
Total_____________ ______
§3
and less than
2 months
2 and less than
3 months
3 and less than
4 months
4 and less than
5 months
5 and less than
6 months
6 and less than
9 months
9 and less than
12 months
Total reporting
i
Total
1,809
Decrease in daj^s a week
t-»o
a
tHo
o
z
133
75
224
103
148
78
5
6
21
9
16
20
331
128
69
203
94
132
58
156
272
84
39
94
34
33
34
162
34
49
8
13
3
8
4
5
3
19
2
7
2
6
8
1
4
18
19
18
61
24
215
36
54
14
17
14
29
36
9
14
9
17
13
11
39
16
4
2
12
3
12
2
3
2
3
1
4
4
2
1
I
508
484
14
36
33
59
44
30
109
60
99
24
16
15
16
13
3
2
7
4
1
1
1
1
1
4
3
1
137
186
94
130
177
89
1
3
2
6
9
3
6
7
5
18
24
9
15
14
9
13
8
6
21
35
28
18
26
11
23
30
22
30
7
2
1
5
2
4
7
0
4
3
1
2
3
1
4
10
4
4
2
32
51
16
7
9
5
1
A fixed change in the daily schedule of hours had affected compara
tively very few women; 78 who had been on a 9-hour or QH-hour day
found themselves, for the most part, down to a 6, 7, or 8 hour day,
while 55 who had customarily worked an 8-hour or 8 H-hour day were
reduced for the most part to a regular schedule of 4, 5, 6, or 7 hours a
day. Altogether, of the 150 who reported a definite decrease in hours
per day, 41 were on an 8-hour or 8H-hour day, 54 on a 7-hour or 712hour day, 28 on a 6-hour or 6H-hour day, and 25 on a day of 3, 4, 5, or
5% hours. These longest periods of definite decreases in daily hours
had been most frequently less than a month, or 1 and under 2 months.
It was much easier to describe a regular change that was in effect
day after day and week after week than to explain irregularities that
varied from day to day. Because of the lack of any regularity in
daily work hours, it was hardly to be wondered at that nearly 600
women did not attempt to describe even vaguely within certain limits
how their hours had been shortened. Many recalled specific instances
of going to the factory in the morning and having the allotment of
work finished in two hours, while others told of waiting an hour or
more before any work reached them. On the next day there might
be a steady. flow of work that kept the department busy full time.
Many described the daily uncertainty, for although they went to the
shop regularly, day after day, they never knew how soon they might
36
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
be at home again; and the phrase “waiting for work” was common
in the community.
The irregularities most frequently cited were variations from a
fixed 9-hour or 9K-hour day to minimum days of 4, 5, 6, or 7 hours
with maximum days of 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 hours, for a group of 164 women,
and the reductions cited by 206 women who had received a cut from
definite hours of 8 and under 9 to minimum days of only 4, 5, or 6
hours, with as much as 7 or 8 hours on other days. Considering the
total, 500 who reported a constantly-changing number of hours
worked per day, 409 had had days whose minimum was from 2 to 6
hours, 188 of them reporting workdays whose minimum was from 2
to 4 hours.
Workdays of such indefinite and various lengths had continued as
much as three to four months at a stretch for more than one-fourth
of the women and had lasted as long as a year for more than one-eighth
of them.
Two-thirds of the total decreases listed were described by garment
and shoe workers. Especially did these predominate among women
reporting a fixed decrease in days per week, being 976 of the total
1,214. But in the automobile industry far more reported irregularity
in number of days per week than definite reductions.
UNEMPLOYMENT FOLLOWING FINAL SEPARATIONS, OR TIME LOST
IN CHANGING JOBS
Up to this point the analysis of idle weeks has covered time lost
between different jobs as well as within a job, but this next is con
cerned only with time lost in changing from one place of employ
ment to another. It also differentiates between periods out of work
for industrial reasons and those idle for personal reasons. There is
in the following, therefore, some duplication of cases found in the
preceding discussion of weeks idle, so far as they occurred in chang
ing from one employment to another and were due to conditions in
industry.
Final separations and their causes.
The next table also approaches the changes made from job to job
from a slightly different angle, placing the emphasis upon the number
of jobs or separations rather than upon the number of women.
Table 18.—Final separations during period of employment in past 5 years, by cause
Cause of separations in past
12 months (915 women)
Time elapsed since beginning work in
past 5 years
Cause of separations in pre
vious 4 years (804 women)
Total sep Per cent due to— Total sep Per cent due to—
arations
arations
with
with
cause Industrial Personal
cause Industrial Personal
reported causes
causes reported causes
causes
Total:
Number____________________
Per cent__ _________________
1,070
100.0
667
62.3
403
37.7
1,046
100.0
230
22.0
816
78.0
Less than 1 year________ __________
1 and less than 2 years___ _________ ____
2 and less than 3 years__ _______
3 and less than 4 years__
4 and less than 5 years__________
5 years________ ___________
137
236
173
153
143
228
65.7
57.6
67.1
00.1
55. 9
67.1
34. 3
42.4
32,9
39.9
44.1
32.9
80
163
196
247
360
32.5
27.6
26.5
21.1
15.3
67.5
72.4
73.5
78.9
84.7
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
37
From this table it is evident that the total number of separations
for the women reporting cause had been larger in the past 12 months
than in the whole of the 4 years preceding, and that during such 4
years only something over one-fifth of the separations had been for
industrial reasons, while in the past year more than three-fifths had
been due to conditions in industry. (See Appendix Table I.) Nat
urally, the opposite is true for separations on account of personal
reasons. In the four years nearly four-fifths had been due to personal
causes, while in the last year less than two-fifths could be so classed.
Not only is this relative importance of industrial and personal causes
found in total numbers, but it holds true whether the women began
working 1, 3, or 5 years ago. In each over-all classification from less
than a year to 5 years, during the past 12 months the percentages of
separations are much greater for industrial reasons than for personal
reasons; and in the cases of over-all including more than the past
year, separations for industrial causes in the past 12 months very
greatly overbalance those in such earlier period.
Furthermore, during the four years in question the proportion of
absences for industrial causes follows a regular descending scale
according to years worked, while the proportion of absences for per
sonal causes increases correspondingly. For example, though 32.5
per cent of the separations from the job among women who began
work only one and under two years ago were due to conditions in
industry, less than half that proportion, 15.3 per cent, were for the
same cause among women who began work five years ago. In the
recent 12-month period, however, the time that has elapsed since the
women began working seems to bear no direct relation to cause of
separation. The proportion of separations for industrial causes was
as great among women who began work five years ago as among those
beginning within the past two or three years.
Time lost after final separations.
During the 5-year period, less than half the women had changed
from one place of employment to another or from one kind of occupa
tion to another; moreover, in making these new adjustments, many
had lost no time other than a day or so. It is clear from Table I in
the appendix that in changes from one job to another during all the
first four years only 214 women lost their jobs because of conditions
in industry and 715 made changes because of personal matters, some,
naturally, appearing in both these classes; but over 600 women who
had lost their jobs in the past 12 months considered such loss due to
industrial causes and only 389 attributed it to personal causes.
The following shows roughly the total amount of time lost per
woman in changing from one job to another, as well as the cause of
such unemployment, whether for personal reasons there was no
desire for a job or for industrial reasons it was impossible to get work.
The time lost between various jobs has been totaled for each woman,
for while some made no changes, others shifted from one place to
another two or three times. As in the last correlation, the past 12
months is compared with the preceding four years.
38
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTKIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
Table 19.— Time out of work between jobs, by cause
3,245 women employed at some time
during past 12 months
Total time unemployed between jobs
Reporting time lost
due to industrial
causes
Reporting time lost
due to personal
causes
preced In past In preced
J n past In ing
4
ing 4
year
year
years
years
Total:
3 years and over________________ ________ _______ ______
605
100.0
100.0
18 7
23.1
17. 9
24.8
12.4
3.1
31 9
15.9
14.1
21. 9
8. 9
5.2
268
100.0
310
100.0
12.3
4.5
6.8
6.8
15.5
11.6
4.8
18. 3
28. 7
19. 4
7.1
The contrast between the past year and the earlier period is espe
cially striking in the number who lost time through unemployment
for industrial reasons; the women with idleness on this account in the
past year far outnumbered not only those with idleness for personal
reasons in the same period but those having idle periods for any
reason, either personal or involuntary, in all the previous four years.
In the most recent year, 18.7 per cent of the women unemployed
between jobs for industrial causes had been so unemployed a total
of less than a month, but in the preceding four years 31.9 per cent
had had idle periods totaling such short period. Again, while 30 per
cent of the women had been unemployed between jobs in four pre
vious years a total of one and under three months, in the past year
41 per cent had had such idle periods.
In the per cent distribution of those losing three months or more
through industrial causes, the difference is only slightly in favor of
the earlier four years. In the past year and in previous years,
roughly two-fifths had been out of work at least 3 months because of
industrial reasons. It is surprising that, in scattering instances,
involuntary unemployment could have aggregated as much as 9 to
12 months and even more. It may be that a few workers waited for
a more advantageous opening rather than take the first job that
offered, and yet attributed the entire waiting period to industrial
conditions; but there is always the shifting, inefficient worker to be
considered, the first to be laid off and the last to get a job, so it is not
at all unlikely that in some cases such long periods without work
represent the actual experience of wage earners who needed employ
ment and honestly sought it.
While during the past year almost one-half (45.5 per cent) of the
women had absences for personal reasons between jobs aggregating
less than three months, in earlier years less than one-fifth (18.1 per
cent) of them were in these low groups. The women who reported,
for the 4-year period, voluntary absences totaling at least a year,
undoubtedly represent many temporarily obliged to give up the job
as wage earner for domestic duties and other home concerns.
39
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
In the next table is a further analysis of the amount of time unem
ployed for industrial causes after final separations, the emphasis in
this case being upon the time elapsed since the women who experienced
the unemployment had begun work.
Table 20.— Time out of work between jobs for industrial causes, by time elapsed
since beginning work in past 5 years,
Women who lost time in last year and in preceding years,
by length of work history in past 5 years
Total time unemployed between jobs
1 and less than 2 and less than 3 and less than 4 and including
2 years
3 years
4 years
5 years
Last
year
During
pre
ceding
year
Number
Per cent
131
100.0
0
Less than 1 month............... ...............
1 and less than 2 months_________
2 and less than 3 months
3 and less than 6 months.. ___...
6 and less than 9 months
9 months and less than 1 year
1 and less than 2 years__________
19.1
15.3
14.5
32.1
14.5
4.6
Total:
30
Last
year
During
pre
ceding
2 years
Last
year
During
pre
ceding
3 years
Last
year
105
100.0
55
100.0
82
100.0
54
100.0
207
100.0
129
100.0
22.9
25.7
20.0
16.2.
12.4
2.9
34.5
14.5
12.7
25.5
7.3
17.1
26.8
14.6
24.4
13.4
3.7
27.8
13.0
18.5
20.4
13.0
1.9
5.6
17.4
25.6
18.8
24.2
11.1
2.9
33.3
17.1
12.4
20.9
8.5
2.3
5.4
5.5
During
pre
ceding
4 years
1 Per cent not computed; base less than 50.
Of the women who began working two or more years ago, 394 had
lost time for industrial reasons in changing jobs within the past 12
months, while in all the previous years only 238 had lost time between
jobs for the same cause.
That the time elapsed since beginning work (within the 5-year
period) bears some relation to the extent of lost time between jobs
in the past 12 months is apparent from the comparison following: Of
the women who began work only 1 and under 2 years ago, practically
two-thirds were at least 2 months without work in the past 12 months,
almost one-third (32.1 per cent) being idle 3 and under 6 months;
of those who had begun work earlier, however, the proportions with
such loss of time were much less, from 51 to 57 per cent being at least
2 months without work and only from 16 to 24 per cent being idle 3
and under 6 months. This table emphasizes that the total numbers
losing time were much greater in the past 12 months than in the earlier
years of the period, and that in former years roughly one-third of the
women made their new adjustments within a month, but in the past
year more spent 1 to 2 months making a change than spent less than
1 month.
The overwhelming conditions of the present business depression so
overshadow other, more normal, times that it is easy to overlook the
previous years. But this table brings out the important fact that in
the 4 years when business was good, much of the time far above
normal, from one-fifth to one-fourth of the women who began working
2, 3, 4, or 5 years ago had been out of work from 3 to 6 months in
changing jobs and that a considerable number had been out of work
even longer.
40
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
Figures from census of unemployment.
Of the 14,155 female wage earners enumerated in the census returns
of April, 1930, in the South Bend and Mishawaka district, 893, or 6.3
per cent, reported that at that time they either were out of a job
entirely or were laid off temporarily without pay from a job that they
still regarded as theirs. The numbers in the two classes were not
very different.
The following tabulation, from the unemployment report of the
United States Bureau of the Census, indicates how long this idleness
had been in effect. For Class A these periods are based on replies
to the question, “For how many weeks has he been without a job?”;
for Class B, “How many weeks since he worked on the job?”
893 wo men not a work
Period of idleness
Total
Total. _____________________
Not reported_____________________
Under 1 week _ _
1 to 2 weeks- ____________ ________
3 to 4 weeks ______________ ______ 5 to 8 weeks
9 to 13 weeks
- . _. _____________
14 to 17 weeks ____
18 to 26 weeks. ...
27 to 39 weeks ______ .. _.
53 to 104 weeks
Out of a
job
(Class
A)
On lay
off
(Class
B)
893
427
466
51
364
109
90
82
57
37
59
24
11
6
3
6
24
79
72
67
52
33
53
23
11
45
340
30
18
15
5
4
6
1
4
3
2
The status of unemployment had continued less than a week for
more than two-fifths of the women reporting (43.2 per cent). Of the
478 women who reported on time unemployed and had been idle for
at least a week, four-tenths (41.6 per cent) had been out of work from
1 to 4 weeks and three-tenths (29.1 per cent) had been idle from 5 to
13 weeks. But the seriousness of the situation already existing in
April of 1930 is revealed in the extended periods of unemployment:
44 women had not worked for more than 6 months, and a few had
been out of work for over a year.
Of the 48 negro women unemployed in April, 34 had no job and
14 were on lay-off; but of the 114 foreign-born white only 22 had no
job, which seems to bear out the testimony of negro women, made
later in September, to the effect that there was almost no work left for
negro women to do.
Of all the 893 women who were unemployed, almost one-half (48.4
per cent) were not yet 25 years old; well over one-third (36.3 per cent)
were 25 and under 40, and 15.3 per cent were 40 or over. In the
youngest group, a proportion approaching three-fifths (56.7 per cent)
were in Class A, out of a job, but in the two older groups the propor
tions entirely out of work were conspicuously lower and the majority
had reason to believe then’ unemployment was only temporary.
The information on census returns introduced here can not be used
in a comparison between conditions in April when the census was
taken and the early autumn when the Women’s Bureau survey was
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
41
made. In the census of unemployment, “period of idleness” referred
to the one definite period of which “yesterday,” regarding which the
inquiry was made, formed a part, while in the bureau study “idle
weeks” covers all time out of work, whether at one or at several
dates in the 12 months. In addition to this difference in the element
of time is one of classification. While the census figure includes all
unemployed women, and two-fifths of them had been idle less than a
week, the Women’s Bureau study divides lost time into two categories,
(1) that of a week’s duration or more, and (2) that amounting to only
a fractional part of a week or made up of short weeks.
EARNINGS i
Because only 1,712 women referred to reductions in their pay, it
does not follow that others had not had the same experience. Many,
to be sure, especially those who were paid by the week, such as sales
women and office workers, had noticed no change in earnings, and a
few women (46) reported an increase in earnings during the year.
The schedule did not call for as definite data on wages as on employ
ment and unemployment. It provided only for “general comments
on wages and other conditions of work,” so if the individual being
interviewed was reticent about discussing wages or did not seem intel
ligently interested, the investigator did not pursue the topic further.
This section on earnings, then, should be regarded as descriptive of
conditions affecting only the women who talked more or less infor
mally about wages, and not in reply to set questions.
Furthermore, many made such confused statements about the suc
cession of various changes they had had during the year that it was
impossible to get anything coherent out of it, and others were too
perplexed by the intricacies of reckoning pay in the task-and-bonus
system under which they were working to attempt to describe what
had happened to their rates. However, more than half of the women
(1,712) reported definite changes, so it was possible to get some idea
from the women themselves of how much their pay had fallen off.
Reduced earnings.
Of the women reporting wage changes, less than 200 were employed
outside of manufacturing lines, but it is surprising that earnings had
been reduced at all in such employment before October, 1930. As
many as 82 saleswomen and office workers and 98 women employed
in laundries or hotels and as office cleaners reported decreases in their
pay. An effort was made to learn in terms of dollars and cents what
had been the usual full-time earnings during the year, but undoubtedly
some quoted maximum rather than normal earnings. It was not
so difficult to get a statement on the amount of present earnings. In
case a woman gave a series of definite changes—as a maximum wage
of $22, a usual wage of $16 to $18, and a minimum of $6 to $8—the
decrease was reckoned as the difference between $8 and $18.
The appalling situation revealed in the table is the extent of the de
crease in actual earnings. Summarizing the table, earnings of
three-fifths of the women reporting had decreased as much as 20 to 50
per cent; earnings of very few had been reduced by as little as 10 per
cent, and half of these were saleswomen or clerical workers. But at1
1 See also pay-roll records, p. 03.
42
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OP 1930
the other extreme, earnings of 122 women, one-eleventh of all, were
only from 10 to 40 per cent of what they had been.
Some of those in most highly skilled occupations in power-machine
sewing, weaving, or rubber-shoe manufacturing undoubtedly made
good wages when very busy. They occasionally quoted maximum
earnings as high as $30 or $35, but for the rank and file $20 was a high
wage, so little is left to the imagination in picturing what remains
after usual earnings had been reduced by 10, 20, or 50 per cent, or
even more.
The degree of the decline varied among the three inclusive industry
divisions specified in the table. Earnings of about three-fifths of the
women in manufacturing had been reduced from 20 to 50 per cent, of
three-fifths of those in domestic and personal service from 10 to 30
per cent, and of almost three-fifths of saleswomen and clerical workers
less than 20 per cent.
Table 21.—Amount of reduction in earnings, by industry of present or last
employment
1,712 women who commented on decreased earnings
Reporting industry of present or last employment
Per cent decrease in earnings
Total
Num
ber
Total
Per
cent
Manufacturing
Domestic and
personal service
Num
ber
Num
ber
1,712
1,532
398
337
Per
cent
Per
cent
98
—
39
Sales and clerical,
including tele
phone
Num
ber
Per
cent
82
___T
22
--------
1,314
100.0
1,195
100.0
59
100.0
60
100.0
Less than 10___________
10 and less than 20. ____
20 and less than 30_ ___
30 and less than 40
40 and less than .50_ _ ___
50 and less than 60. ____
60 and less than 70. ___
30
168
304
264
228
198
84
29
8
1
2.3
12.8
23.1
20. 1
17.4
15.1
6.4
2.2
.6
.1
14
134
274
243
221
190
81
29
8
1
1.2
11.2
22.9
20.3
18.5
15.9
6.8
2.4
.7
.1
1
15
21
11
5
5
1
1.7
25.4
35.6
18.6
8.5
8.5
1.7
15
19
9
10
2
3
2
25.0
31.7
15.0
16.7
3.3
5.0
3.3
Total reporting
-
About three-fifths (62 per cent) of the women in manufacturing
whose losses were due to a cut in rates, but only about one-third
whose losses were due to a reduction in hours or allotment of work,
had had their earnings cut less than 30 per cent. Conversely, less
than two-fifths whose losses were due to cuts in rates but more than
two-thirds whose losses were due to reductions in hours or allotment
of work had had their earnings cut as much as 30 per cent or more.
Causes of decreased earnings.
In discussing the decreasing wage scales the women usually had
some explanation to offer for the changes that had occurred in their
own individual cases.
43
DATA SECURED BT HOME INTERVIEWS
Table 22.—Cause of reduction in earnings, by industry of -present or last
employment
1,712 women who commented on decreased earnings
Cause of reduction in earnings
Total
Total__________ _____________
Tower rates... ______________________
.Shorter hours and lower rates- _ ____
Shorter hours or allotment of work or both .
Shorter hours, lower rate, allotment of work...
Change in method of pay_________
Miscellaneous combinations of above causes _
Manu
factur
ing
Clerical, Domestic
includ
and
ing tele personal
phone
service
Sales
1,712
1, 532
58
98
24
715
265
410
133
95
10
84
212
385
130
95
10
81
26
3
1
18
22
9
1
2
More than any other one cause that they mentioned was the
reduction in working hours, the sole reason cited by 715 women.
Two hundred and sixty-five women attributed the decrease in earn
ings solely to a definite cut in the rates of pay, either hourly or piece
rates, and 410 stated that their reductions were due to the combined
causes of a decrease in hours and a cut in wage rates.
Still other women mentioned one or both of these in conjunction
with a third explanation, closely related to the shortening of hours
and hardly to be separated from it. Repeatedly the women talked
about the “short ticket” and the limited allotment of work on hand.
The ticket indicated the amount of work assigned to each worker at
the beginning of the day and was called long or short according as
there was more or less than could be accomplished in a normal day.
Girls employed in other plants where the portions of work were not
definitely assigned from day to day as in the ticket system, com
plained of the lack of organization, of waiting for work, and of the
haphazard way in which the work came through. Only six women
ascribed their decreased earnings to the limited allotment of work
alone; more often they discussed the short ticket together with the
resulting short hours, and 82 women, in addition to lowered allot
ments of work and hours, had had a cut in rates of pay.
A few comments from schedules follow:
Used to get a ticket so she could make 38 a day, but now there are only 25 on
her ticket.
“The ticket has been cut from 400 to 100 parts now. We could get through
work now by 11.30 a. m., but the girls sit around until 1. If we stopped work
and punched out before that, we’re afraid our tickets would be cut again.”
“We’re working on amounts and get through anywhere from 11.30 a. m. to
3.00 p. m.”
Then again there was a small group that gave changes in method
of wage payments as another reason for the falling off in earnings.
In several instances, bonus payments based upon production and
attendance had been discontinued during the year. Pieceworkers
who formerly were guaranteed by one firm a straight hourly rate
when production was so low that they had to wait for work, had lost
this guarantee. Many were employed by firms that were replacing
the straight time or the individual piecework method of payment
with a group task-and-bonus system. With 10 exceptions, all those
who referred to these various changes in wage-payment schemes
81765°—32—-4
44
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
discussed other factors that also had contributed to their reduced
earnings, some having had smaller allotments of work, fewer hours,
lower rates, as well as changes in methods of payment.
Comments on effects of the group piecework method of payment.
Now work in groups instead of alone. Says she is a fast worker and made
more when she worked as an individual. The slow workers drag the fast workers
down.
If one on a team is slow it holds up the whole group and faster ones must help
the slow ones. When working alone made $22 to $25. Last pay on teamwork
was $18.90.
Changed from individual to teamwork. The net loss has been about $1 a week.
On individual work earned $17 to $19 a week. On teamwork earns $16 at most.
“If the girl behind you is fast, you have to step on it like anything.”
Rates changed several times and from individual piecework to group work.
Cuts and changes have reduced hourly earnings from 50 to 30 cents. Last
February drew $40 for a half month. Draws $18 to $19 for a half month at
present.
Before change to group work earned $26 to $27 a week—can’t earn over $20
now.
After shutdown in July, 1930, worker was put on different style of work.
Earnings went down while getting used to change. “Timekeeper stands to look
to see how fast you work, to out wage.” Present job was man’s work before the
shutdown. “Men have to stay home, I not like it. Better give the men more
money so lady can stay home.”
The group reporting cause of reduction is so overwhelmingly com
posed of factory workers that the manufacturing group follows very
closely the totals for all industries. Of the 180 who were not employed
in manufacturing, over half attributed the reason of the decrease in
earnings to reduced hours and less than one-third to a reduction in
rates. Few of them gave the double cause of both hours and rates.
Reduced rates of pay.
A separate tabulation was made of all those who mentioned de
creased rates either as the sole cause or as one of the chief contributing
causes of decreased earnings, since rates deal with fixed values and
the variable elements so often present in earnings are lacking.
Table 23.—Per cent decrease in rates of pay of women who reported earnings
reduced by such decrease
826 women who commented on reduced earnings due to
decrease in rate
Per cent decrease in rates
Reporting industry of present or
last job
Total
Clerical, Domestic
Number Per cent Manufac
including and per Sales
turing telephone
sonal
service
826
747
29
41
9
531
Total reporting per cent decrease in rate of
pay------------------- ---------- --------------------
295
100.0
227
23
37
8
Less than 10 _____________ __________
10 and less than 20.________________
20 and less than 30________________
30 and less than 40______ ____________
40 and less than 60_______ __________
50 and less than 70
28
93
137
27
6
4
9.5
31.5
46.4
9.2
2.0
1.4
16
58
122
22
6
3
9
10
4
1
22
10
2
3
1
1
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
45
The earlier table showing decreases in earnings was based on reports
of actual dollars and cents earned per week before decreases became
effective and afterward. But this one is based upon reports that
gave the rate of change and not necessarily amounts of earnings.
For example, some may have quoted a lowering of an hourly rate
from 35 to 30 cents, amounting to a decrease of 14 per cent, or the piece
rate may have changed from 15 to 12 cents a dozen, a 20 per cent cut.
During the discussion of changing conditions in the job, 826 women
referred to reductions in rates of pay. Most of them were rather
vague in describing what occurred, but 295 were definite enough in
their account of rates before and after the change so that the percent
age decrease could be reckoned. That over 2,000 women made no
reference whatever to rate reductions does not mean that rates in
their cases had remained constant, and it should not be inferred that
none except these few hundred women had experienced a decrease in
either piecework or hourly rates. The women were much more
inclined to discuss earnings, for that was a tangible experience. They
had learned what amount to expect in the pay envelope, and when it
was less they felt it. That so few referred to rates and that still fewer
gave information full enough upon which to base comparisons is
easily understood when it is realized that in some cases work changed
from one size to another or one style to another or one quality to
another several times a day, and that with each change in size or style
or quality the piece rate also varied. They might quote the rate for
one size, but rates for other sizes on which perhaps they worked less
frequently were forgotten. Needless to say, the workers found it
very difficult to explain the various changes in rates to the uninitiated.
The women who gave complete and intelligent data on rate changes
were employed for the greater part in manufacturing industries, as
would be expected. But 79 clerical workers, saleswomen, and domes
tic and personal service workers had also had a cut in the rate per
hour or per day or per week.
Nor had these cuts been slight. About one-third of the women in
all industries had had rates reduced 10 to 20 per cent, and almost onehalf had experienced as much as a 20 to 30 per cent cut in rates. The
number who had had a cut of less than 10 per cent is negligible,
about 10 per cent, but at the other extreme one-eighth had a cut of at
least as much as 30 per cent. In manufacturing lines more than half
of the women had received a reduction amounting to from 20 to 30
per cent of the normal rates, and for a large majority of the few
domestic and personal service workers cuts ranged from 10 to 30 per
cent. The few clerical workers had fared best, as none of these had
had cuts of as much as 30 per cent.
Employers’ comments upon wage changes.
Our few salary cuts are considered departmental changes and are not part of a
wage-cutting policy.
We used this occasion for correcting inequalities in jobs that might have been
overrated or underrated. We made these individual adjustments in addition to
the general reduction.
We’ve been merely adjusting rates.
We’ve been changing piece rates to attain a better equilibrium in costs.
As it is necessary to keep a balance in production costs, piece rates based upon
the efficiency operation of the group have been lowered. Base rates or the
hourly standard rate have remained unchanged.
46
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
Comments of employees upon changes in rates and hours.
For about two years had got 4 cents an order and could average $16, $17, and
$18 a week. Two weeks ago rate wTas cut from 4 cents to 2% cents. Last week,
-which was not full time, she made $5.80. Rate cut too recently to figure full
time earnings since.
Rate cut from 40 cents to 28 cents an hour. Week’s wages changed from $18
full time to about $8 part time now.
Wage rates cut from 3 cents to 2 cents a dozen. Former full time $15 to $16.
Now $10 to $11 for full week.
Was working on a grade that paid 18 cents a dozen. Then was transferred to
cheaper grade that paid 16 cents, and later that rate was cut to 12 cents.
Wages $20 a week when work was good. When it got slack, they cut rates
from 45 cents to 30 cents an hour. Earnings now about $5 to $6 a week.
Rate cut 50 cents to 40 cents a thousand. Formerly on full time earned $15
to $16. Then on part time reduced to $10 to $12; and now since rate cut, to $8.
Other extracts from schedules illustrating reduced earnings and hours.
Last pay was $3. I -was ashamed to bring it home. Frill time I made $10 to
$11 a week. When on four days I earned $6 to $8.
In November was making around $20 a week. Sometimes as low as $5 to $6
a week now.
•
Full time earned $15 to $16 a week. Now on three days; earns $8 to $10.
One week dropped down to $2.
Made $20 a week quite regularly until about December, 1929. Since then
hours increasingly shorter and makes $12 to $14 a week.
October, November, and December, work was good and made $20 to $21 for
a 5-day week. After that, things began to get slow. Sometimes worked one,
two, or three days a week. Last wage was $3 for two days’ work.
Has been taken off piecework because work too varied for piece rates. On
piecework normally—5-day week—made $16 to $17 a week. Rate now 35 cents
an hour; earnings full time would be $14.
At times has drawn $35 to $40 for half month. Drew $19 last pay check.
Said she had worked 13 or 14 days of this period but many days did not work
more than a half day.
EMPLOYMENT IN THE FAMILY
This picture of unemployment obviously would have been incom
plete if facts had been ascertained only in regard to the wage-earning
women without reference to other persons of the family, both those
normally employed and those unemployed, for besides being wage
earners the women were fundamentally members of family units and
on that account were carrying double burdens in the business
depression.
Although emphasis throughout was placed upon the work histories
of the women interviewed, it was not possible to disassociate them
from the household groups. For this reason, included in the schedule
were questions having to do with the family, classified as to minors
and adults; the number of .wage earners—employed, out of work, or
having part-time jobs—and the number of non wage earners. The
answers to these questions are summarized in the following.
_ In 393 households more than one wage-earning woman was inter
viewed, so the 3,245 women represented 2,852 families, comprising a
total of 11,500 persons. The 182 women who lived alone also are
regarded as family units in this section. About two-thirds of the
entire number were adults and four-fifths of the adults ordinarily
47
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
were wage earners. No one in the family was regarded as a wage
earner who had not worked during the past year. " Almost one-fifth
of the wage earners were not employed at the time of the interview,
and almost one-half did not have steady work.
From this discussion it is clear that the wage earners considerably
overbalanced the non wage earners (54.3 and 45.7 per cent, respect
ively) and that over 70 per cent of the non wage earners were children.
About one-eighth of the non wage-earning children were more than 16
years of age, tad in many households these older children bemoaned
the fact that they could not find work when their assistance was so
much needed. It was not from choice that they were still in school
or were loafing at home. Less than 1,500 of the adults (19.3 per
cent of 7,727 reported) had not worked during the year; or, on an
average, in only about half the families was there an adult who was
not ordinarily a wage earner. The average family for the group
consisted of 4 members (4.03), slightly more than '2 wage earners
(2.19) and just under 2 nonwage earners (1.84), the non wage earners
including, on the average, something over 1 child (1.4) per family.
At the time of the interview the status of employment among the
6,237 wage earners, both men and women, is the startling condition
in this picture, for less than one-third had steady employment, almost
one-half were working irregularly, and about one-fifth had no work
whatsoever.
Changes in number of wage earners.
The following summaries and chart show what happens in wage
earning families when business collapses. Of the 273 families that
had four or more wage earners during the year, not much more than
one-third reported all wage earners occupied at date of interview.
Less than three-fifths of the families that usually had three wage
earners reported all wage earners employed now, and only about twothirds that usually had two wage earners reported both employed
now. Furthermore, though they had jobs it does not mean that they
had steady or full-time work.
Number in family employed at some time during year
Number
of fami
lies re
porting
Families with same
number employ
ed at time of in
terview
Number Per cent
Total____ __________________
1________________
2_______________________
3_________________________
4 to 10__________________________
2,755
1,766
64.1
401
1, 596
485
273
347
1,040
282
97
86.5
65.2
58.1
35.5
Throughout the community there was a decided decrease in the
number of families that now had 2, 3, 4, 5, or more wage earners
compared with the situation in normal times. Whereas in the dis
trict canvassed about 400 families had only 1 wage earner in normal
times, 928 families now were depending upon only 1 working member
and in 108 families visited all wage earners were unemploved. (See
Tables III and IV in Appendix.)
48
WOMEN" AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
Number of wage earners in
family
Families reporting
number of per
sons specified em
ployed at some
time during year
Families reporting
number of per
sons specified em
ployed at time of
interview
2,755
2, 747
401
1, 596
485
273
108
928
1, 223
363
125
Total
1
2
3__________ __________
4 to 10
Number of wage earners in
family
1 or
2 or
3 or
4 or
5 or
more____ _____________
more____
more.- ________________
more.
more__________________
Families with
wage earners
specified at
some time dur
ing year
2,755
2, 354
758
273
73
’
Families with
wage earners
specified at time
of interview
Number Per cent
2,639
1,711
488
125
19
95.8
72.7
64.4
45.8
26.0
Not three-fourths as many families now as formerly had 2 or
more wage earners, less than two-thirds as many now had 3 or
more wage earners, less than one-half as many had 4 or more, and
only about one-fourth as many had 5 or more wage earners.
PROPORTION OF FAMILIES WITH SPECIFIED NUMBER OF WAGE EARNERS
EARLIER IN THE YEAR AND AT TIME OF INTERVIEW- 2,755 FAMILIESI
I
1 EARLIER IN YEAR
■■ AT TIME OF INTERVIEW
NO WAGE EARNER
2
WAGE EARNERS
>No {ami L/ without a
earner- earLier in yeetp
The size of the families in which there had been a change in the
number of wage earners ranged from 1 to more than 10 persons, and
the next table indicates the number of families of various sizes that
had the same number of wage earners at time of interview as before.
49
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
Table 24.—Number oj families with same number of wage earners at time
as earlier in year, by size of family
of interview
2,755 families reporting number of wage earners and size of family
All families
1 person
6 persons
2 persons 3 persons 4 persons 5 persons and
more
Number of wage earners
in family
Total.
4 to 10.
All wage earners were still at work in less than two-thirds of the
families, but as the size of the family increases from one to six or more
persons the proportion with all wage earners at work steadily declines
from 90 per cent in families of one person to 53 per cent in families of
six or more persons; that is to say, almost half of these very large
families, in contrast to about one-third of the smaller families con
sisting of 2, 3, or 4 persons, had unemployed wage earners. However,
that one-tenth of the families of one person (composed of women
adrift and living independently) had no one at work possibly caused
as difficult a condition as that in larger families in which there often
are more potential wage earners.
It is evident, further, that in more than one-fifth (21.3 per cent) of
the families with four or five members and dependent upon only one
wage earner, that wage earner was out of work.
Regularity of employment in families.
Considering the family as a unit, it is apparent from the table next
presented that while a number of women lived alone (182) and while
in other households there were as many as 7 to 14 people, the majorityof the families (56.5 per cent) consisted of 2, 3, or 4 members, and
families of 2 were the most common. As the size of the family in
creases, the number of families consistently decreases, from 575 of
2 persons to 66 of 9 persons. In 108 of the families there was no one
working, even part time, and in 1,214 (45 per cent), although there
was someone at work, no one had a steady job. In only about half of
the families (51 per cent) were there any members working regularly.
Since families having 2, 3, 4, or 5 members constituted over twothirds of those reporting, it is natural that the massing of unemploy
ment and irregular employment occurred in families of these sizes;
or, in other words, that 7i.3 per cent of the families with no one at
work and 69.4 per cent of those with wage earners only irregularly
employed were families of 2 to 5 persons. The most serious situation
50
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
is that in 275 (41.5 per cent) of the families of 6 or more persons no
one had a steady job.
From other data it appears that regardless of the size of the family,
whether it had 2 members or 10, there was little variation in the
proportions with all wage earners out of work or in the proportions
with none working full time.
Analysis of the 1,378 families that were fortunate enough to have
persons regularly employed shows that in 968 (70.2 per cent) there
was only one steady wage earner. In less than one-fourth (23.7 per
cent) were there two persons with regular employment, and the 83
families boasting three or more full-time workers constituted only 6
per cent of the group. Undoubtedly, in some of the households where
there were one or more steady workers there were others employed
irregularly or part time. Those steadily employed constituted 38 per
cent of the wage earners still having employment.
Table 25.—Employment
at time of interview, by size of family
Families of 3,245 women employed at some time during past 12 months
Total
Reporting on employment in family at time of interview
Per
cent
Hav
Total ing no
wage
re
port earn None
ers
ing
em stead
ployed ily
Total
2, 758
100.0
2,700
1, 214
182
575
513
470
344
260
158
109
6.6
20.8
182
558
502
455
340
254
157
107
64
81
96
271
Num
ber
Total-.
Not re
port
ing if
em
Steadily
ployed
or if
stead
2
3
4 to 6 ily em
1
ployed
wage wage wage wage
earn- earn earn earn
ers
ers
ers
Having wage earners employed
Number of persons
in family
i 2,852
Not reporting--.
Total reporting.
8____
9_____
10 to 14-
66
81
18.6
17.0
12.5
9.4
5.7
4.0
2.4
2.9
222
202
148
113
57
45
29
31
1,378
264
253
237
181
138
95
61
35
47
968
67
201
183
163
108
96
58
40
22
327
64
19
58
17
11
15
4
6
1
2
2
30
1 In 393 cases more than one woman in the same family was interviewed.
Sole wage earners.
Earlier in the year there had been only 219 families of two or more
members dependent upon one wage earner, but at the time of the
interview there were 765 families in which only one person was work
ing, about three and one-half times as many as usual. At the date of
the interview there were almost as many women as men who were sole
wage earners in their families. The family relationship of the sole wage
earner and the size of family where a woman only was employed are
shown in the statements following. The reader is reminded that only
households wTere visited that at some time earlier in the year had had
one or more women wage earners.
51
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
Sole wage earner a man
Sole wage earner a woman
Total families392
Total families 1 368
Husband 120
Husband and father 197
Father 54
Son
8
Brother
8
Other
5
Wife______________ _____ _______ 57
Wife and mother 77
Mother 94
Daughter________ _____________ 120
Sister 18
Other
2
Family relationship
Number in families of—
Women
who were
sole wage
earners
2 persons
3 persons
4 persons
368
126
93
51
98
57
77
94
120
18
2
50
4
22
37
27
3
3
20
10
16
2
35
20
42
27
35
12
2
5 or more
persons
1
In this connection the word wife designates a married woman
without children, a wife and mother is a woman with husband and
children, and a mother is one with children but no husband. Men
are designated as husbands where there is a wife but no children, as
husbands and fathers where there are wife and children, as fathers
where the interviewed person was a daughter in the family, as sons
where the interviewed person was a mother.
In 134 families where the husband was not employed the wife was
the sole wage earner; in 94 families where there was no father the
mother was the only one at work; and in 138 cases a sister or daughter
was the sole wage earner. In striking contrast to this, only 16 sons
or brothers were sole wage earners in their families. All the 16
families where the brother or son was the sole wTage earner employed
had a potential woman wage earner, but it is possible that not all
the 138 families with a daughter or sister as the sole wage earner
employed had a brother or son. However, in the large majority of
cases the men also had the responsibility of children or additional
members of the family.
As regards the size of the families in which men or women were
sole wage earners, there was little difference. While about one-third
of the women had families consisting of twTo persons, slightly less
than one-third of the men had families of that size. Roughly, about
one-fourth of the women as well as of the men were the only indi
viduals employed in families of five or more, and in each case there
were a few families with as many as 8, 9, and 10 or more members.
It is clear that where women were the only persons employed, the
burden of the larger families fell most heavily upon the daughters or
the wife and mother. In 98 cases a woman was the only person
working in a family of five or more persons.
Even more serious was the situation in the 10S families where no
one had a job. In almost half of these cases there were children in
the family where both parents were living but neither was employed,
Exclusive of women adrift.
52
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
but more often than not the mother was a widow. Women adrift
were without work also, and daughters were visited in whose families
no wage earner had work.
Status of employment of men.
How unemployment and irregular employment had affected the
women interviewed has been discussed in previous pages. How these
same conditions had affected the husbands and fathers was reported
in less detail in over 2,000 families.
In the case of 634 women there was no father or husband to share
in the family support, and in 141 other cases he who normally would
have been the chief male wage earner had been unemployed during
the past 12 months. However, in more than 2,000 families there
were husbands or fathers chief wage earners who had worked at
some time during the past year. Yet less than three-tenths of
these had steady employment; almost six-tenths were working irreg
ularly, and the remainder—1 in 8—were without a job of any kind.
The depression accounted for most of their intermittent or irregular
work; only in 21 cases were personal reasons, chiefly illness, given as
the cause of present total unemployment. There was distressing
monotony in the repetition of the phrases used to describe the industrial
situation—“slack,” “laid off,” “no work,” “fired.” The following
table contrasts briefly the status of the women and those men who
under usual conditions would be considered the chief male wage
earners in their families.
Table 26.—Employment of husbands or fathers and women interviewed
Husbands or fathers
Women interviewed
Number
Number
Employment status
Total reporting on employment-
.
Employed but not reporting on steadiness......................
Per cent
2,031
Per cent
1 2, 852
__
27
Total reporting on steadiness of employment-____ ______
2,004
100. 0
2,849
100.0
256
1,166
582
12.8
58.2
29.0
639
1, 280
930
22.4
44.9
32.6
Out of work ________________________ ____ _
Not steadily employed--.
__
Steadily employed. _________________ _________
3
1 In 393 cases more than 1 woman in the same family was interviewed, but onlv 1 woman is considered
here.
Briefly summarized, this shows that a decidedly larger proportion
of all the women (22.4 per cent) than of all the men (12.6 per cent)
were entirely out of work. Of those reporting steadiness of employ
ment similar proportions were out of work. Among the persons
employed, the women were favored with more regular employment
than were their husbands or fathers, one-third of the employed men,
in contrast to two-fifths of the employed women, having steady jobs.
In other words, while total unemployment was greater among the
women than among the men in these families, short days or weeks,
undertime of all descriptions, was more prevalent among the men
than among the women.
The next table is a correlation of the status of employment of these
husbands or fathers with the size of family.
53
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
Table
27.—Employment of husband or father, by size of family
Husband or father
Employed
Number of persons in family
Total
Total___
Not em
ployed
Steadiness
not re
ported
Not
steadily
Steadily
2,031
256
582
1,166
27
Not reporting...
21
5
5
9
2
Total reporting:
Number__
Per cent___
2, 010
100.0
251
100.0
577
100.0
1,157
100.0
25
22.4
19.1
18.2
13.4
26.9
20.7
16.7
17.5
12.0
33.1
25.6
21.3
18.2
12.7
22.2
20.7
18.6
18.2
14.3
28.3
2______
3
_________
45______
_________
6 to 14____
One-third of the families in which the men were unemployed con
sisted of 6 to 14 persons, where there was, of course, a strong chance
of there being other wage earners in the family; but one-fifth of the
husbands or fathers who were out of work had small families, only two
people, and this means that if anyone had a job at the time of the
interview it was a wife or daughter who was the wage earner.
This table also shows that while 577 husbands or fathers had steady
work, twice that number were employed irregularly or part time.
As a whole, there is little variation in proportions between those
employed steadily and those employed not steadily in families of 2 to
5 persons, but just as a larger amount of total unemployment occurred
in the families of 6 to 14 members, so part-time employment increases
slightly as the families increase in size. In contrast to this, the largest
percentage of full-time steady employment is found among those
families consisting of only 2 persons.
The status of employment of the husband or father was reported
in 439 families consisting of but 2 people. In this group only 148
had steady employment, while more than half (54.4 per cent) were
working irregularly, and practically 1 in 8 had no employment.
This is illustrative of a small family where each of the 2 members, the
woman interviewed as well as her husband or father, were wage
earners. But an even worse condition is true of the larger families;
for example, in 195 families consisting of 6 members about two-thirds
of the husbands or fathers had irregular employment and almost 1
in 7 had no work at all.
Extracts from the schedules add nothing new to what is already
common knowledge about the tragedies resulting from the longcontinued unemployment of the business depression of 1930 in South
Bend. A few score comments, however, are added here out of the
hundreds that might have been given, since they seem to make the
preceding statistics about unemployed men more human.
The following excerpts selected at random are from interviews with
wage-earning daughters and mothers. It is no wonder there was dis
couragement in the tone of the daughter who said, “We just finished
paying last year’s coal bill,” or of the mother of two children who,
54
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
after explaining that her husband’s wages barely covered the rent,
added: “If I lose my job, we shall have to quit eating.”
A few belonged in small families where most of the members were
normally wage earners and others came from larger families where
there were many to feed, but all reflect in one way or another the
calamity that befalls the household when they can no longer be
economically dependent upon the chief breadwinner. A widow with
3 dependents was-not shirking her load, but in spite of the fact that
she was the only worker in her family and had been out of work 3
weeks in December and 2 weeks in August, she was struggling to
meet the payments upon the home that carried heavy encumbrances
when her husband died. A daughter carrying the entire load in a
family of 8 was facing the grim truth that they all could not get
along on her $13 a week. Her old father worked intermittently at
odd jobs during the summer; others, a sister and 2 brothers, were out
of work temporarily, at least they hoped it was temporarily. In
another family, of 10 persons, the husband and father had only part
time work—but in addition his wife and 2 daughters also were em
ployed irregularly. When all were working full time, it was all they
could do to support the 4 school children and 2 younger grandchil
dren. Quite naturally they now had much to say about “hard
times.” Many others referred to definite problems in connection
with the children, rents, or food.
COMMENTS ON UNEMPLOYMENT OF HUSBANDS AND FATHERS
Two in family.
Husband was laid off three weeks ago from a good position as an inspector,
wnen the firm moved its plant to another city. His foreman gave him a half
promise of a similar job in the new plant, but when he arrived there he found
there was no chance of his being taken on.
Husband out of work a month. They are falling behind in payment of all
bills and have been obliged to borrow from relatives.
Husband has had only 6 weeks’ work in past 3 months. He was peddling
watermelons the day of the interview. Wife is supporting them.
Three in family.
Father is out of work, mother is ill, daughter is only wage earner.
Father worked 16 hours in 2 weeks; parents depend on daughter’s wages.
Husband had not worked for four months until he got work on a truck last
Monday. His wife fears this job won’t last. She is glad she has only one child.
Husband works 2, 3, to 4 days a week. They have sent their son to the coun
try so that they can room and live less expensively; otherwise they “could not
get by.”
Husband has not worked since April 21. His wife commented, “I must work
or we’ll starve.”
Husband’s work is not steady and his rate has been cut. He wishes men
could make enough so their wives wouldn’t have to work.
Husband’s earnings not much more than his wife’s. They are paying $35 a
month plus taxes on their home and can’t get along unless both work.
Husband was laid off. His wife -was obliged to look for work and went where
her husband had been employed. She was offered his job at half as much per
hour. She asked why they didn’t give it to him, and was told they wouldn’t at
the new rate, so she felt forced to take the job. (This policy was confirmed
later by an official of the company.)
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
55
Husband worked at carpenter’s trade about five months last year. Picking
up junk at present. “ It is hard to get along because stores will not trust colored
people.”
Husband has not worked since May. He was a driver for a firm that failed
and can’t find another job.
Husband has not had steady work for eight months. He is a window cleaner
and since his last lay-off has not earned over $10. “ No one seems to want him,”
his wife adds.
Husband is working part time. “ He is getting old and they don’t want him.”
Husband has been out of work eight months. They had saved some money
but have spent it all now.
Four in family.
Father has had no steady work since a year ago last winter; odd jobs only.
Daughter doesn’t know what family is going to do. ‘‘Starve, I guess.”
Father sells coal on commission, but people can not buy coal when they have
no money.
Husband didn’t work 10 months last year. Had to move recently because
they couldn’t pay rent. The electricity is turned off, and they use lamps.
Sometimes the family hasn’t enough left to buy food after paying rent.
Husband was laid off June 5 and no one in family is working now. They have
this month’s rent; “after that we’re at the end.”
Husband has had only odd jobs in the past year. Borrowed $300 on house in
the spring and can’t pay it back.
Husband unemployed. Family can’t get credit for food because storekeepers
know both husband and wife are now unemployed. Wife will have to return
with her children to her parents to live. Husband has gone to another town to
look for work.
Husband has worked irregularly for two years, two or three days a week; a
few hours a day; three weeks ago he was off all week. Wife wouldn’t have gone
to work, but didn’t want children to starve.
Husband worked for a construction company and was unemployed all winter.
Could not send children to high school if wife did not work.
Husband out of work five months. Wife’s brother helping family.
Husband has only one or two days’ work a week—house is very bare—only
stove, chair, table, and bed.
Five in family.
Father has been home six months. A brother worked six weeks during the
past year. “ Hard times is our second name; we save a little money, then comes
winter and the money is gone.”
Father draws only $15-$16 a week, because of short time. The family can’t
keep up with bills on the present income and is falling behind with payments on
groceries and the rent.
Father not steadily employed. They want to continue to send sister (15) to
school, but if this keeps up they will not be able to do it.
Father works five days but fears he’ll be laid off because he hasn’t his second
citizenship papers.
Father had not worked for five months till lately. Mother is sick. Girl wishes
her sister (16) could get a job.
Father out of work nine weeks. “He was laid off without a minute’s notice
after working there seven years.” Two sisters keep up home.
Father laid off six weeks in June and July, and two weeks now. Brother
works two days a week. The daughter said, “ I am just about the support of the
family.”
Father no work since May. Daughter’s $9 not much for familv of five to get
along on.
56
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
Husband can’t pay on house and buy food for family of five on $13 to $14 a
week. “What we do this winter?”
Husband only working part-time jobs at anything he can get to do. There are
three small children and wife is pregnant. She says she has to work as long as
she can stand, as her husband is only making $2 and $3 a week.
“The two of us this week made $20.” Wages mostly going for food-—“you
don’t get credit for groceries like you used to, if you don’t pay they won’t give
you any.” Husband earns less than wife.
Husband has very irregular employment now. After working for same firm
10 years, he recently was laid off for three weeks. Can not depend on his wages
to cover barest necessities.
Husband and wife made $26 together last week, and with that they can’t
afford more than bread, potatoes, and meat.
Husband is out of work. Wife is paying installments on the furniture and
also the rent. The only income is her wages. They keep her husband’s sister
and her child in return for the care of their baby.
Six in family.
Father does not work steadily. “I don’t know how we are going to get by;
we sure are behind.”
Husband is out of work. He was patching the children’s shoes day of visit.
Can’t buy new ones.
Husband has worked three and four days a week for the past six months“One person just can’t make the living for four youngsters; the bigger they get>
the more they need.”
Father works only every other week. Daughter worrying about having no
coal and the need of clothes for winter.
Father laid off three months ago. His company took him back a week ago
and he is now working four days a week. No source of income for family except
daughter’s and father’s wages.
Husband has not steady work. They buy only barest necessities. “Kids are
always hungry, everything goes for food.”
Father was laid off July 1. Daughter had $12 for last pay. Family owes
rent and $50 store bill. Afraid the grocer would claim the $12. He had refused
her mother a loaf of bread and a bottle of milk, so she doesn’t know whether to
apply it on their debt to the grocer, or keep it to live on.
Father laid off. Daughter doesn’t know what they’ll do. Have to get along
without clothes, food costs so much. The family had to borrow money for taxes.
Husband is not working now. His wife says, “Every day $2 eat; $25 a month
rent; winter no come yet.”
Husband not working—returned to his mother’s home and wife to her mother’s
home.
•
Seven in family.
Husband is working very irregularly. “Debts, that’s all we got.”
Father is working two to three days a week. Mother says, “This is my
baddest time in 24 years. Eight to the table.” The wage-earning daughter
adds, “It’s awful on my mother’s nerves.”
Father works 2}4, 3, or 4 days a week—“We’re getting way back in our rent
and are afraid we’ll get put out.”
Husband has worked three days a week most of the year. The wage-earning
wife fears that the children will have to be placed in an orphanage if work
does not improve.
Husband’s job not steady. “Times are so hard w-e don’t know wrhat we are
going to do.”
Husband has no work. If wife didn’t have work they couldn’t buy food, and
she’s afraid they will lose their home.
57
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
Eight in family.
Father was laid off in June. He still has no work except occasionally he
washes automobiles. Five children are in school and one young daughter is the
only wage earner.
“No coal in the bin.” Father has been out of work for seven months.
Mother and daughter are the only ones at work now. If someone else doesn’t
get a job soon, they can not meet the payments on the house they are buying.
Husband has had slack work for about seven months. Now he works two days
a week. Last week he got $10.56; 15-year-old daughter said, “It wasn’t so bad
when mother was earning something.” “No bread to-night.”
“Father worked only one day this week. He has earned only about $8 a
week for the last eight months.”
Wife says they have five months’ rent unpaid and large grocery bills due and
can t get more credit.
Nine in family.
Father out of work one year (not classed as a wage earner).
hire men 50 years old.”
“They don’t
Twelve in family.
Father is working only two or three days a week.
as there is no coal for winter.
Mother is terribly worried
’
The questionnaire did not cover items on sources of income other
than wages of the interviewed person, but in cases where the wage
earning woman or other member of the family was out of worker
at best employed only part time, conversation naturally turned to
the ways and means of “getting along.” They were not chronic
charity cases, but self-respecting and managing “to get along” as
best they could without asking for help.
The various expressions used in describing their present dependence
upon others are used as a basis for the following classification
descriptive of the way in which they were living.
Number of unemployed women
Living status
Total
Total..............................
Not reporting.......................
Total reporting.. ____
Living at home______
Living with other relatives.........
Dependent upon children
Renting rooms, taking boarders__
Living on savings__________ _
Supported entirely or in part bv friends or charity
Single
Married
692
'
15
677
9
57
--------------47
568
12
Widowed,
separated,
or divorced
16
3
14
6
------ ----------------------------------------
The vast majority were fortunate in having homes to live in, but
it does not necessarily mean that they were living comfortably and
easily. An idea of how families were doubling up to save expenses
may be gained from the 53 married women who had taken their fami
lies and gone to live with other relatives. Furthermore, the husbands
of 19 of these who had found it necessary to go to live with other
relatives also were out of work. The comment of one young woman
was, “We’ve all moved home and are living off the old folks,” and
58
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
another explained that when they lost the home they were buying
it was absolutely necessary to turn to relatives for shelter.
Twelve widows were dependent upon their children. A few women
had resorted to taking boarders, which now was not regarded as a
lucrative business, since so few were earning enough to pay for board
and room. Others still had savings, and a feiv volunteered the fact
that they were receiving outside aid, some in the form of rent, which
they hoped to pay when they could find a job.
Not all the women who were out of work were eager for jobs, and
few of those who had quit voluntarily seemed anxious for work. For
the most part they were busy at home; some were not physically
able to work, and others frankly admitted it was not absolutely
necessary to work, as others in the family still had steady jobs.
But it was quite a different story with the majority who were laid
off through industrial causes. Most of them were stiff looking about,
a few had not given up hope of being “called back”—even after
weeks and months of idleness—and a goodly number, completely
discouraged, felt it was a wild-goose chase to hunt for a job where
there were none. Most of these women lived in the heart of the
industrial center and undoubtedly knew what the chances for work
were without making inquiries at the factories.
Women looking for toork and not looking for work, by cause of unemployment
Cause of unemploy
ment
Status
Industrial
Personal
Total women......................... .
481
200
Looking for work________________
Expect to look for work, just laid off
Not looking for work because—
Unable to work______ ____ ___
Home duties and busy________
Work not necessary__________
Hoping to be called back______
No use, no work in town______
Not reported________________
355
7
10
1
1
120
34
89
7
2
68
61
9
7
9
Some of the reasons advanced for not actively hunting for work
were—
“No job to look for.”
“ No use to hunt.”
“No work to be found.”
.
“I haven’t even tried to find work. I know better.”
“Companies aren’t hiring, they are laying off.”
“No use wasting shoe leather hunting work.”
“Hardly worth while to go up town to look for work and spend the car fare.”
“No work for colored people.”
“You can’t buy a job in South Bend.”
HOUSING
The high cost of shelter was uppermost in the minds of so many
women that it was almost impossible to complete an interview without
reference being made to rent, mortgages, or taxes. Home buying
seemed particularly the custom in the west end of South Bend;
everyone seemed bent on owning a home. Eeal-estate developments
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
59
had made it alluring and some of the newer 1-family cottages or
bungalows and more pretentious houses were most attractive. The
householders justly took pride in their homes, but at the time of the
survey there was great anxiety to know how they were to keep up
installments on homes, many of which were valued at from $4,500 to
$7,000. The “For sale” signs nailed to some of the houses told the
story of the struggle. It was a question which was having the
greater struggle, the family caught in the clutches of installment
payments and terrified lest they lose the house and all they had put
into it, or the family that was renting and had no choice between
paying the monthly rental or being put on the street.
During the visits, definite data concerning home ownership were
volunteered in 1,145 families. Over one-fifth (22 per cent) owned
their homes, one-third (33.5 per cent) were buying, slightly less than
one-third (30.7 per cent) were renting, and about one-eighth (13.8
per cent) were boarding or rooming.
Famili&s of women who commented on housing
Per cent of families that in
normal times had—
Number
of
families
Housing status
Total__ ____ __________
2 wage
earners
3 or
more wage
earners
1,145
Home owned ___ _
Buying home___________
Home rented____________
Room and board _____ _
■----------- -—■-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 wage
earner
252
384
351
158
17.5
8.1
10.5
79.1
62.4
72.4
72.4
15.2
30.2
19.5
19.5
5.7
-----------
From this correlation the inference is that in families with one wage
earner (and in these cases the one wage earner was always the woman
interviewed) it was customary to board or room, as rarely did
families with but one wage earner assume the responsibility of meeting
monthly payments for simple rental or for installments looking toward
the ultimate ownership of the home. Two wage earners predomi
nated in families that were renting or buying houses, and there were
as many as three or more wage earners in a larger proportion of
families that already owned their homes than in families boarding or
renting.
When it is noted to what extent employment had fallen below
normal in these families, it is no wonder that in two-fifths of the homes
visited conversation turned most naturally to the housing problem.
In over one-eighth (13.1 per cent) of those where they had formerly
depended upon one wage earner, there was no one employed now; in
about three-eighths where formerly there had been two wage earners,
they were now dependent upon one wage earner or none; and over half
(52.7 per cent) of those formerly having three or more wage earners
had also suffered a reduction in numbers employed.
81765°—32----- 5
60
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1030
Difference in number of wage earners per family under normal conditions and at
present, in families reporting on housing
Number of wage earners
Same number wage earners now.
Fewer now:
Number______________________________ ______
Per cent___________ —.......... ..........
............
One wage earner normally......... .......................—
Fewer nowPer cent____________________ ___________
Two wage earners normally..................................
Same now---- -------------- ---------- ----- -------Fewer now—
Three or more wage earners normally.. ....... ............. - - Fewer now—
Number of
families
1,145
747
898
34. 8
237
206
31
13.1
688
437
251
36.5
220
104
116
52.7
How families had been combining so as to reduce the item of rent
is illustrated in the following excerpts from the home-visit schedules:
Married daughter and family now live with her mother to cut down the rent.
Gave up own home and moved in with sister.
Two families are renting a 1-family house together.
“We are all living off the old folks.”
Both wife and husband are out of work. They now live with her parents,
because they couldn’t pay their rent. Her father is working two days a week,
and is trying to buy his home.
Husband hasn’t had a day’s work since May. There is no work. The family
had to move to home of husband’s father.
Husband was laid off last March after working for one firm for 17 years, and
has not been able to get anv steady work since. Eight in family. Three families
are living together in this, one house in order to cut down on rent during slack
times.
When times had been prosperous real-estate salesmen in this indus
trial center had had little difficulty in putting across an “own-yourhome” campaign. Surrounding the factories were comfortable
modern cottages, both old and new style of construction, some more
pretentious than others, a few better built than the others, but all could
boast of lawns or well-tended gardens. Their appeal was especially
strong to those who had a steady job near by and who never dreamed
that a home could be a lodestone anchoring the family in a location
that would offer decreasing industrial opportunities. How burden
some these homes might become is suggested by some quotations
from the home-visit schedules. They reflect anxiety and in most
cases fear of what may happen in the future rather than regret over
the actual loss of the home.
Woman without any family has been paying $26.50 a month for four years on
a small frame dwelling. Mortgage is now $1,100.
Afraid will lose home because husband or wife can’t meet payments on $2,500
mortgage. Husband out of work for months, and wife’s wages reduced to about
$12 a week now.
DATA SECURED BY HOME INTERVIEWS
61
Paid four years on a house and lost it. Now renting a house without modern
conveniences at $25 a month. Large family, and husband a barber.
Never expects to pay off mortgage on very small frame cottage.
Wage-earning widow of 56 reckons it will take at least three more years to
complete payments on her home.
“When I was earning $20 a week, we could make the payments.”
Daughter, chief wage earner, is in arrears several months in payments on
widowed mother’s home. Installments $39 a month.
Daughter of a widowed mother doesn’t know where taxes are coming from.
Two younger brothers are out of work and all she can do is to keep the table
going.
A daughter, at present the only wage earner in a family of four, in referring to
the rent of $32 a month said, “we managed to get along on mv pay before the
cut, but I don’t know what will happen now.”
Began buying their house about a year ago, valued at $4,500. Paid $600 down
as initial payment and $35 a month. “Never thought it would be like this.”
Now they are 3 months behind on payments. Husband’s work has been slack all
the year, 1, 2, 3 days a week; he has been laid off several weeks also. Wife, who
is 43 years old and foreign-born, is working now but not steadily.
When the chief male breadwinner suffers a cut in wages or loses
his job, or at best has work only part of the time, home buying
becomes next to impossible, as evidenced by references on some of
the schedules.
Three in the family.
Husband has had a 20 per cent cut in wage rate recently. “We put all our
money-m our home, but when you ain’t got the money to put in it, what are you
going to do?”
Husband works two days a week. “We don’t want to lose our home and they
will clean us out if we don’t pay. I’ve been in the United States 14 years and
it s every year worse.
Husband now works irregularly, two or three days a week. Could not meet
payments on home if wife did not work also.
Husband was laid off 15 months ago. Wife is glad they have not tried to
buy a home, because if they had they would have lost it.
Five in the family.
Father out of work several weeks; brother not working for several months,
the family is running into debt, and although they own an old house thev expect
to lose it through sale for taxes.
J
^
It has been six months since the father worked. The daughter’s wages are
all that is coming m. Parents are trying to buy home.
“The last six months have been terrible.” Husband’s wage is so small thev
have barely enough to eat. If wife didn’t work, the county would have to keep
them. They are buying their home but haven’t been able to pav a cent on it
for last five months.
.
1 J
Eight or more in the family.
Husband makes about $15 a week. They are buying their home but are
afraid they will lose it They also owe the grocer $98 and are afraid he will
refuse more credit. They buy stale bread that costs only 5 cents a loaf and
hardly any milk.
The wife says they can’t make the payments on the house, they haven’t even
paid the taxes, and adds I don t. know what they will do to us.” Thev are
afraid they may lose the house. They also have other debts. The wife has to
turn her pay check over to the grocer.
62
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
EARNINGS AND HOURS OF WOMEN IN ONE WEEK IN SEPT EMBER.I929
AND ONE IN SEPTEMBER 1930 — 9 IDENTICAL ESTABLISHMENTS
I11929
(ip if £
women)
<1,4
65
>
1930
/otnfi.'n)
Per cent
of women
EARNINGS °
LESS THAN $!0
$10 AND LESS
THAN $15
$15 AND LESS
THAN $20
$20 AND LESS
THAN $25
$25 AND LESS
THAN $30
$30 AND MORE
Per cent of worn SB
HOURS
LESS,THAN 30
30 AND LESS
THAN 36
36 AND LESS
THAN 42
42 AND LESS
THAN 48
.
'
. .
48 AND LESS
THAN 54
54AND LESS
THAN 60
60 AND MORE
V. S, Del*, of Labor
woweH’5 aui'eau
PART III.—DATA SUPPLIED BY EMPLOYERS
On the completion of the house-to-house canvass in the industrial
wards selected, visits were made to representative establishments in
which numbers of the interviewed women were or had been employed.
The purpose was to secure pay-roll data showing changes in number
of employees and in their hours and earnings in the period corre
sponding to the 12 months covered by the detailed inquiry among
the women. In a few plants, earnings were taken off only for the
women interviewed. Questions of policy also were discussed with
the employers.
EARNINGS AND HOURS FOR A WEEK IN SEPTEMBER, 1929, AND
A WEEK IN SEPTEMBER, 1930
Wearing apparel.
The pay rolls of several establishments making clothing and foot
wear were copied for a week in September, 1929, and a week in
September, 1930. For each firm the records show reductions in hours,
earnings, and number of workers employed between these dates.
For the week chosen in September,' 1929, the records of 2,315
women for whom hours and earnings were available were secured;
for September, 1930, the number was 2,036. The table following
shows the week’s earnings at both dates as associated with the hours
worked.
Table
28.—Earnings and h-ours of women in certain establishments making wearing
apparel—one week in September, 1929, and one in September, 1930
A.—A WEEK IN THE MIDDLE OF SEPTEMBER, 1920—2,315 WOMEN REPORTED
Women
reported
Week’s earnings
Total:
Number.............................
Per cent.............................
Less than $5_______ ______
$5 and less than $10_____ _______
$10 and less than $15._..............
$15 and less than $20.......................
$20 and less than $25.....................
$25 and less than $30...................
$30 and more_________ ____
Hours worked during the week
and 36 and 42 and 48 and 54 and
Less 30less
less
less
less
less 60 and
than than
than than than than over
30
36
42
48
54
60
Num
ber
Per
cent
2,315
100.0
100.0
161
7.0
152
6.6
382
16.5
751
32.4
447
19.3
337
14.6
85
3.7
36
192
480
701
675
186
45
1.6
8.3
20.7
30.3
29.2
8.0
1.9
32
66
47
11
4
1
3
34
57
39
14
3
2
1
44
103
166
47
15
6
46
148
235
241
65
16
2
69
131
206
35
4
41
104
135
50
7
15
15
28
17
10
Median of the hours, 4o.7. Median of the earnings, $18.21.
B.—A WEEK IN THE MIDDLE OF SEPTEMBER, 1930—2,036 WOMEN REPORTED
Total:
Number.......................... .
2,036
Per cent............................... . 100.0
Less than $5_______ ____
$5 and less than $10.................
$10 and less than $15. .........
$15 and less than $20___ _____
$20 and less than $25....... .............
$25 and less than $30..........
$30 and more.........
44
433
833
478
212
33
3
100.0
513
25.2
268
13.2
450
22.1
394
19.4
172
8.4
147
7.2
92
4.6
2.2
21.3
40.9
23.5
10.4
1.6
.1
43
271
162
34
3
1
73
158
29
3
2
2
47
282
95
15
10
1
34
192
143
22
3
2
24
95
49
2
2
10
52
71
12
5
30
49
Median ol the hours, 39.2. Median of the earnings, $13.25.
63
4
4
64
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
The hours worked in September, 1930, were very much less than
those in September, 1929. The 13.5 per cent of the women reported
whose weekly hours were less than 36 in September, 1929, had become
38.4 per cent with those hours in September, 1930.
In September, 1929, three-tenths of the women (30.3 per cent)
received $15 and under $20 and almost as many (29.2 per cent)
received $20 and under $25, but by September, 1930, the majority
groups were $5 lower in the wage scale, two-fifths of the total (40.9
per cent) receiving $10 and under $15 and 23.5 per cent receiving $15
and under $20. The per cent receiving $20 and less than $25 had fallen
from 29.2 to 10.4; the per cent receiving less than $10, formerly 9.8,
had become 23.4.
A comparison of the medians shows that the reductions averaged
6/( hours in time and $4.96 in earnings.
Automobiles and automobile parts.
For a few hundred women in plants making automobiles and auto
mobile parts, individual records of hours and earnings in a week in
September, 1929, and a week in September, 1930, are next presented.
Table 29.—Earnings and hours of women in certain establishments making auto
mobiles and automobile parts—one week in September, 1929, and one in Septem
ber, 1980
A—A WEEK IN THE MIDDLE OF SEPTEMBER, 1929-320 WOMEN REPORTED
Women re
ported
Week's earnings
Total:
Number
Per oent_----- ----------------$10 and less than $15........................... .
$15 and less than $20
$20 and less than $25...........................
$26 and less than $30..........................
Hours worked during the week
and 36 and. 42 and 48 and 54 and
Less 30less
less
less
less
less 60 and
than than
than than than than over
30
42
48
54
60
36
Num
ber
Per
cent
320
100.0
100. 0
74
23.1
52
16.3
72
22.5
79
24.7
36
11.3
6
1.9
1
0.3
12
20
79
115
59
31
4
3.8
6.3
24.7
35.9
18.4
9.7
1. 3
12
20
28
13
1
23
25
4
8
40
21
2
1
17
21
20
19
2
3
15
12
5
1
1
1
4
1
Median of the hours, 38.8. Median of the earnings, $17.13.
B.—A WEEK IN THE MIDDLE OF SEPTEMBER, 1930-366 WOMEN REPORTED
Number.
Per cent.
Less than $5_______
$6 and less than $10..
$10 and less than $15.
$15 and less than $20.
$20 and less than $25.
$25 and less than $30.
$30 and more.............
Median of the hours, 39.0. Median of the earnings, $15.63.
This industrial group differs from the others in that the depression
in trade appeared in the autumn of 1929, the proportions of women
working less than 36 hours being about the same at the two dates.
Earnings, however, show a disproportionate decline. At both dates
DATA SUPPLIED BY EMPLOYERS
65
about the same proportion of the women (70.6 per cent and 69.7 per
cent, respectively) received less than $20, but in the fall of 1930
24.7 per cent were paid less than $10, in contrast to 10 per cent with
these low earnings in the fall of 1929.
_ A comparison of the medians shows that the changes averaged an
increase of one-fifth hour in time and a reduction of $1.50 in earnings.
When this group is divided according to product, however, it ap
pears that the making of cars shows decidedly better conditions in
September, 1930, than inSeptember, 1929—the medians being higher
at the later date by 8.4 in hours and $2.86 in earnings. The making
of parts was more in conformity with other industries described.
Laundries.
From the pay rolls of three laundries, hours and earnings figures for
a week in September, 1929, and another in September, 1930, are
contrasted in the table following.
Table 30.—Earnings and hours of women in certain laundries—one week in Sep
tember, 1929, and one in September, 1930
A.—A WEEK IN THE MIDDLE OF SEPTEMBER, 1929—111 WOMEN REPORTED
Women
reported
Hours worked during the week
Num Per
ber
cent
and 36 and 42 and 48 and 54 and
Less 30less
less
less
less
less
than than
than than than than
30
36
42
48
54
60
Week’s earnings
Total:
Number......................................
Per cent...................................
Less than $5............ .........................
$5 and less than $10________
$10 and less than $15..................
$15 and less than $20_____
$20 and less than $25........ ...
$25 and less than $30......................
$30 and more............................ ...............
111
100.0
100.0
10
9.0
4
9
70
24
3
1
3.6
8.1
63.1
21.6
2.7
.9
4
6
6
5.4
20
18.0
37
33.3
31
27.9
2
3
1
1
18
1
35
2
14
16
1
7
6.3
4
2
1
Median of the hours, 45.2. Median of the earnings, $13.04.
B.—A WEEK IN THE MIDDLE OF SEPTEMBER, 1930—91 WOMEN REPORTED
Total:
Number.......................................... .
Per cent........................................
Less than $5-..___ _____________ .
$5 and less than $10.........................
$10 and less than $15____
$15 and less than $20.................
$20 and less than $25..................
Median of the hours, 39.7.
91
100. 0
100.0
1
28
52
8
2
1.1
30.8
57.1
8.8
2.2
7.7
23
25.3
25
27.6
26
28.6
1
5
1
18
5
19
23
8
8.8
272
Median of the earnings, $11.59.
In the week in September, 1929, more than three-fifths of the
women (63.1 per cent) received $10 and under $15, the next group
in size being the 21.6 per cent who received $15 and under $20; but
by September, 1930, a shifting in wages had taken place, and though
57.1 per cent of the women still received $10 and under $15, as many
as 31.9 per cent received less than $10.
The hours show greater change. In September, 1929, more than
three-fifths of the women (61.3 per cent) were in the hour groups that
together were 42 and under 54 hours, but a year later 60.4 per cent
of the women had hours of less than 42.
66
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
A comparison of the medians shows that the reductions averaged
5% hours in time and $1.45 in earnings.
Not all the five laundries visited furnished records of the number of
hours worked per week, but there is no reason for inferring that the
decline in hours throughout the year as noted above was not typical
of the industry as a whole.
None of the laundries employed more than 75 persons, and in each
there had been a decrease in number of employees. As a whole, the
average monthly decrease in the number of women employed, from
September, 1929, to September, 1930, was 0.8 per cent. This decrease
in numbers is much less than that in manufacturing industries in
the community.
For the entire group of women laundry workers, irrespective of
hours worked, the average weekly earnings had a range of only 67
cents—from $14.02 to $14.69—in the period September, 1929, to
May, 1930, but in June the average earnings dropped to $13.06 and
by September they were $12.26. The decline in earnings undoubtedly
was due not only to a decrease in hours but to a 10 per cent cut in
wage rates that was effective in a few laundries.
Three industrial groups.
By combining the figures in the tables just discussed, that is, for
the manufacture of wearing apparel and automobiles and parts and for
laundries, it is possible to summarize hours and earnings for a week in
September, 1929, and one in September, 1930, the women at the
earlier date numbering nearly 2,800. (See chart on page 62.) The
tabulation follows:
Tablb 31.—Earnings and hours of women in certain establishments in three indus
tries—one week in September, 1929, and one in September, 1930
A—A WEEK IN THE MIDDLE OF SEPTEMBER, 1929—2,7411 WOMEN REPORTED
Total
reporting
Week’s earnings
Reporting hours during week nearest middle of
September as —
and 36 and 42 and 48 and 54 and
Less 30less
less
less
less
less
than than
than than than than
30
36
42
48
54
60
60
and
over
Num
ber
Per
cent
2,746
Per cent................................. 100.0
100.0
245
8.9
210
,7.6
474
17.3
867
31.6
614
18.7
350
12.7
86
3.1
52
221
629
840
737
218
49
1.9
8.0
22.9
30.6
26.8
7.9
1.8
48
92
76
24
5
1
3
36
83
65
IS
3
2
1
45
129
207
68
17
7
46
200
258
261
84.
18
2
86
162
219
40
5
41
109
138
55
7
15
15
28
18
10
Total:
Median of the hours, 45.1. Median of the earnings, $17.80.
B— A WEEK IN THE MIDDLE OF SEPTEMBER, 1930—2,483 WOMEN REPORTED
Total:
Number................................. 2, 483
Per cent................................. 100.0
100.0
618
24.9
335
13.5
546
22.0
482
19.4
244
9.8
166
6.7
92
3.7
63
531
965
566
284
67
7
2. 5
21.4
38.9
22.8
11.4
2.7
.3
62
338
180
35
3
1
98
188
41
3
2
2
53
325
125
31
11
1
34
229
176
35
8
1
2
28
103
87
21
3
2
10
67
76
21
4
6
30
49
4
$5 and less than $10....... .................... - $10 and less than $15............................$16 and less than $20.............................
$20 and less than $25— ----------------
Median of the hours, 39.2. Median of the earnings, $13.35.
67
DATA SUPPLIED BY EMPLOYERS
In the week in September, 1929, three-tenths (30.6 per cent) of
the women received $16 and under $20 and as many as 26.8 per cent
were in the next higher group; but, as shown in the tables for the
various industries, there was a decline of several dollars within the
following 12 months and by September, 1930, almost 40 per cent
(38.9) of the women were in the earnings group $10 and under $15.
The 9.9 per cent that received under $10 at the earlier date had
become 23.9 per cent with such earnings in September, 1930.
Hours declined seriously. In the fall of 1929 only 16.6 per cent of
the women worked less than 36 hours in the week, but in 1930 the
per cent w ith such hours was 38.4.
The medians show that the changes averaged a loss of 5.9 hours in
time and $4.45 in earnings.
Six manufacturing establishments.
The two tables next presented are based on the detailed records
of six of the more important manufacturing firms included in the
study. With the exception of establishment No. 1, all show shorter
hours worked and lower earnings in September, 1930, than in Sep
tember, 1929. There was an improvement in hours and earnings in
establishment No. 1, but this was accompanied by a considerable
decline in numbers employed.
Table 32.-—Distribution of hours worked by women in six establishments—one week
in September, 19H9, and one in September, 1930
Establishment
No. I:
1929____ _______ _____ ____________
1930-.......................... .............................
No. 2:
1929_______________ _______ ______
1930......................................................... .
No. 3:
1929_____________ ____ _...
1930___ ___________ ____________
No. 4:
1929_______ ______________________
1930..................... ...................................
No. 5:
1929....... ..................................................
1930.......................................................
No. 6:
1929............ ...................... ...................
1930......... ........................... .....................
Per cent of women who worked—
All wom
en (per
36 and
42 and
48 and
cent) Less than less
than less than less than 54 hours
36 hours 42 hours
48 hours 54 hours and over
100.0
100.0
37.8
9.4
22. 4
20.1
39. 2
21. 5
0. 7
40.9
8.1
100. 0
100. 0
6.9
31. 4
12. 1
22.8
24.9
15. 5
27.7
12.7
28.4
17.6
100.0
100. 0
17.3
20. 5
22.6
23.4
48.0
56.1
10.8
1.3
100.0
100. 0
31.2
81. 7
21.6
18. 3
46.6
.3
.3
100. 0
100. 0
35. 0
75. 3
30.6
16.5
33.8
8. 2
100.0
100. 0
40. 7
61.8
22.6
19.8
13.0
14.5
20.3
1.4
3.4
2.4
68
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
Table 33.—Distribution of earnings of women in six establishments—one week in
September, 1929, and one in September, 1930
Per cent of women who earnedEstablishment
No. 1:
1929..................... ..................... ...............
1930.........................................................
No. 2:
1929........................ ...... ...........................
1930....................... ....................................
No. 3:
1929.............. .................. .................... .
1930............................ ...............................
No. 4:
1929_____________ ________________
1930____________ _________________
No. 6:
1929_ -_____ ______________________
1930_................................ ........................
No. 6:
1929..........................................................
1930..................... ........ ........ ...................
All wom
en (per
$10 and $15 and $20 and
cent) Less than less
than less than less than $25 and
$10
over
$16
$20
$25
100.0
100.0
4.2
2.0
20.3
4.7
32.9
30.2
26.6
37.6
16.1
25.5
100.0
100.0
4.4
17.8
16.3
41.0
37.0
25.6
35.3
14.1
8.0
1.6
100.0
100.0
13.9
21. 5
29.4
63.8
28.9
22.8
17.6
1.9
10.2
100.0
100.0
14.7
38.9
25.0
30.7
20.4
18.9
17.9
5.9
2L4
5.6
100.0
100.0
44.4
64.9
36.0
24.7
16.9
7.2
2.1
1.0
100.0
100.0
14.7
41.1
28.2
35.3
38.4
16.9
11.9
6.8
6.8
FLUCTUATION DURING THE YEAR
Employment.
Three important establishments, that together had 2,759 women
employees in September, 1929, supplied employment figures for the
year. Taking the numbers of women in September, 1929, as the
base (100) and computing relatives on these, the fluctuation through
out the year and the great differences among the firms are made
clear. For interest in comparison, the establishments are given the
same numbers as in Tables 32 and 33. The figures are shown for
every third month as follows:
Establishment
No. 1
December, 1929-________ _________ _________
June, 1930______________ _________ _____ ________________ ____
100.0
69.3
81.7
77.3
72.4
No. 2
100.0
102.6
103.0
87.1
82.0
No. 6
100.0
62.6
121. 5
131.8
116.9
For the first two of these establishments figures by sex were available
as far back as 1928. No. 1 shows an upward swing from November,
1928, to March, 1929, and with slight exception a continuous down
ward swing thereafter. Actual measurement of the trend in employ
ment of the women on the pay rolls shows that from September, 1929,
to September, 1930, there was an average monthly decrease of 1.4
per cent in the number of women employed.
In this establishment individual records, as distinct from the average
of a group, were obtained for a considerable number of women for
each of the 52 weeks from September, 1929, to September, 1930.
Practically none of the women employed during the first three months
of the period worked in each of the 13 weeks, but almost three-fourths
69
DATA SUPPLIED BY EMPLOYEES
worked in 10 weeks or more.' In the second 3 months no woman was
employed in each week, but about half were employed in 12 of the 13
weeks. In the 3 spring months about 80 per cent worked in 13 weeks;
in the last quarter, slightly fewer, about 75 per cent, worked in each
week.
The second firm that supplied 1928 figures had an average monthly
decrease in number of women employed, from January to October,
1930, of 3.7 per cent. For both men and women the numbers in
creased quite steadily from the late spring of 1929 up to and including
January, 1930, so the latter was a peak month and the 22 per cent
decrease in total number employed in the 10 months from January to
October measures the maximum decline. In fact, upon examination
of the number of women employed each month after January, 1928,
it is seen that January, 1930, is the peak month for the entire period
January, 1928, to October, 1930, inclusive.
In establishment No. 6 the low point in women’s employment was
reached in December, 1929, followed by a sharp rise during the spring
that much more than doubled the December minimum and a steady
decline thereafter. Notwithstanding this decline, in September, 1930,
there were more women employed than in the same month of 1929.
Hours.
It has been shown that reductions in daily hours were common.
One firm reduced its hours by 40 per cent in February of 1930.
For two of the firms supplying employment figures and two others
it is possible to show corresponding relatives for average weekly hours
actually worked, September, 1929, again constituting the base.
Establishment
No. 1
December, 1929________ ____ _______________ ____________
100.0
108.0
87.4
93.5
116.1
No. 2
100.0
109.3
97.5
88.8
86.3
No. 4
100.0
75.2
62.3
60.9
61.2
No. 5
100.0
61.9
112.0
105.6
78.4
In establishment No. 1 the hours worked averaged a higher figure at
the end of the year than at the beginning. In November, 1928,
neither sex in this plant averaged more than 37 hours, the women
workers averaging considerably fewer hours than the men. During
the 12-month period studied in detail, females averaged as much as
40 hours only in December, 1929, and in May and September, 1930.
On the whole, the year shows an increase averaging 0.5 per cent per
month in the hours worked by women.
Another comparison was made of the hours of the women who were
employed in September of both years. The average number of hours
worked during the whole of September, 1929, was 123 per woman;
in the corresponding period in 1930, 119 per woman, a 3.2 per cent
decrease. More than half of the women (55.7 per cent) worked fewer
hours in September, 1930.1
1 This does not mean full time. It means only that the name appeared on the week’s pay roll.
70
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
Another interesting comparison of conditions in this firm may be
made for a somewhat larger number of women. During the week
ending June 21, 1930, 53.8 per cent of the women for whom employ
ment was reported lost no half days for industrial reasons, whereas
in the previous fall months the nearest approach to this regularity of
employment was in the week of November 23, when 41.6 per cent lost
no half days for industrial reasons. In the winter months the best
record was made in the week of February 1, when 43.1 per cent lost
no half days; and in the spring months the steadiest employment was
in the week of May 24, though at that time only 17.1 per cent lost no
half days for industrial reasons. No record was obtained of absences
of less than a half day.
During the week ending April 5, 1930, all but two women lost at
least one half day for industrial reasons, and in the week of August 16
the figures are much the same. An improvement in conditions, how
ever, appears in the fact that at the later date 56.4 per cent of the
women lost three half days as compared with 67.1 per cent in the week
of April 5 who lost five half days. During the weeks of November 2,
1929, and January 4, 1930, over 90 per cent of the women were laid
off for the entire week. During the spring and summer months less
than 10 per cent of the women were laid off for the entire week at any
one time.
In establishment No. 2 the average hours per week reached a maxi
mum of 52.8 in December, 1929, rising from 48.3 in September.
After December there was a steady decline, and by August, 1930, the
average was 39.5. The rise to an average of 41.6 hours in September
is significant, and possibly indicates the beginning of the usual sea
sonal activity in the autumn. For the entire period, September, 1929,
to September, 1930, the rate of decrease in number of hours worked
averaged 1.9 per cent a month, though from September to December,
1929, there was an average monthly increase of 2.6 per cent. Meas
ured from December, 1929, to September, 1930, the decrease averaged
2.9 per cent a month.
In September, 1929, 81 per cent of the women in this establish
ment worked 42 hours and longer dining the week reported, while
in September, 1930, only 45.8 per cent of them worked so long. At
the earlier date the most usual hours worked were 48 and less than 54,
and the next most usual were 42 and less than 48, while another con
siderable group of women worked 54 and less than 60 hours. In
September, 1930, the most common hours had become 36 and less
than 42, with less than 30 hours the next most common.
For establishment No. 4 the average rate of decrease in weekly
hours from September, 1929, to September, 1930, was 4 per cent a
month. In the fall of 1929 the women with hours worked reported
averaged 37 hours a week; in the winter the average dropped to 27.6;
a further drop to 23.2 hours was reported in the spring; and the aver
age was 22.4 hours weekly for the. summer months. This establish
ment made an especial effort to divide the work among the employees
instead of resorting to discharges.
In establishment No. 5 the average weekly hours were 37.5 in
September, 1929, and 29.4 in September, 1930, the latter following
an abrupt decline from 40.2 hours in July. For the entire period,
however, there was an increase averaging 0.5 per cent a month. The
minimum of 23,2 hours was in December, followed by the September
DATA SUPPLIED BY EMPLOYERS
figure quoted, and the maximum oi' 42 hours was in March. In other
months the average hours ranged from 33.4 to 40.2.
In this establishment the women employed at the close of the
12-month period constituted only about 60 per cent of those in Sep
tember, 1929.
Earnings.
For the same four firms for which relatives were computed to show
the fluctuation in hours it is possible to show the fluctuation in week’s
earnings. The figures follow:
Establishment
No. 1
September, 1929___
December, 1929- _ - _______________________ _ __
March, 1930___________ ______
___
September, 1930___ -------___ ___
________________
100.0
102.7
84.8
89.fi
114.2
No. 2
100.0
109.4
95.8
85. 9
80.6
No. 4
100.0
80.0
08. 7
02. 6
71.6
No. 5
100.0
62.0
107.9
105.1
83.2
In establishment No. 1 appears the uncommon condition of higher
average earnings in the week reported in September, 1930, than in
any month of the preceding year. It will be recalled that this im
provement was true also of hours worked. In each case the mini
mum was in April, when the women at work averaged only 28.7
hours of work. In September there were fewer women, but the hours
averaged almost half as much again and earnings increased by about
52 per cent.
Apparently there was greater activity at the middle of the month,
when the week in question was reported, than during the remainder
of the 30 days, since a month’s hours and earnings taken for Sep
tember, 1929, and September, 1930, for the women employed in both
months, show a reduction of 3.2 per cent in hours and of 14.5 per cent
in earnings at the later date.
In establishment No. 2 average earnings rose 9.4 per cent from
September to December, 1929. In August, 1930, the average de
clined to less than 70 per cent of the December figure, but an im
provement was shown in September, when it became 73.5 per cent.
The rate of decrease in earnings from September, 1929, to September,
1930, was 2.6 per cent a month. The upward trend noted from
September to December, 1929, averaged 2.7 per cent a month, fol
lowed by a rate of decrease that averaged 3.7 per cent a month from
December, 1929, to September, 1930.
Decided difference was shown also in the week’s earnings in Sep
tember, 1929, and in September, 1930. At the earlier date 43.3 per
cent of the women earned $20 and more as compared with only 15.7
per cent of the women who earned this amount in 1930. In fact, in
September, 1930, over half the women reported had earnings of
less than $14 a week.
In establishment No. 4 average earnings decreased during the year
at a rate of 3.2 per cent a month. The earnings for women employed
in the fall were averaged for the 3-month period. With the decided
drop in weeks and hours worked in the winter, the 3 months’ earnings
dropped to 55.2 per cent of the autumn average. In spite of shorter
72
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
hours in the spring, regular employment (three-fourths working in
13 weeks) raised the average a few points, to 62.8 per cent, but a
slight decrease, to 61.1 per cent, occurred in the summer. The rate of
decrease in weekly earnings merely reflected the decrease in average
weekly hours worked, as there was no decrease in rates. But the 40
per cent decrease in total earnings from fall to summer was a serious
condition.
In the remaining establishment, No. 5, earnings followed the course
of hours but with a slightly greater rate of increase, the average being
0.9 per cent a month. As in the case of hours, there was a considerable
drop in December, probably seasonal; the minimum earnings were in
that month, September of 1930, more than one-third higher, ranking
next. The maximum, in July, 1930, was 77.6 per cent above the
minimum; it was followed by the abrupt decline of $3 to the Sep
tember figure.
APPENDIXES
APPENDIX A—GENERAL TABLES
APPENDIX B—SCHEDULE FORMS
T
T
Appendix A.—General Tables
-a
Table I.—Number and causes of final separations during past five years
Women leaving
jobs
Total
Reporting jobs left
a >»
Jobs left in past 12 months
a
23
182
22
148
27
663
27
35
49
120
116
130
95
120
84
130
103
427
278
35
49
112
20
86
51
84
78
63
56
72 77
51
64
67 94
51
81
214 295
8
27
35
49
112
86
84
63
72
51
67
51
214
8
8
30
27
37
35
62
49
133 112
103
86
103
84
70
63
88
72
65
51
77
66
67
51
231 211
8
30
37
62
133
103
103
70
88
65
76
67
228
1
1
3
3
193
230 673 816
20
51
78
56
77
64
94
81
295
10
12
24
19
17
24
19
22
46
10 11 12
16 39 42
25 57
20 45 54
23 65 76
29 51 68
19 81 101
33
55 258 j305
22 20
58 51
89 78
74 56
99 77
97 64
122 93
131 78
374 287
22
58
89
74
99
97
120
127
360
Jobs
816 1,066 804 1, 046
Women
Women
4
Jobs
4
Indus
trial
Jobs
4
10
17
16
65
35
31
26
26
35
31
32
75
j
4
10
17
16
61
34
28
25
24
32
28
27
70
4
20
20
46
68
68
72
44
62
30
45
35
153
Women
4
18
20
38
59
57
66
39
51
27
41
30
148
Jobs
403
j
376
m
■§
Women
598 667
Women
Jobs
915 1,070
a1
£
Total re
ported
sons 0
a
not re a
Personal por ted i 1
o
*
©
Women
202
8
919 1,074
a
<o
Reasons for leaving jobs
Total
number
of—
Jobs
33
50
46
51
176
70
816
■O
©
Jobs
Less than 3 months....................
41
1.3
3 and less than 6 months______
77
2.5
2.6
6 and less than 9 months______
81
9 and less than 12 months_____ 100
3.2
1 and less than 13^ years......... .
296
9.4
V/v and less than 2 years............ 186 5.9
2 and less than 2% years............ 333 10.6
'2y* and less than 3 years............. 118 3.8
3 and less than 3>£ years............ 302
9.6
3J4 and less than 4 years............. 106
3.4
4 and less than 4J^j years.............I 279
8.9
4M and less than 5 years.............j 130
4.1
5 years..................... ................... 1,091
34.7
919
I
tS
Women
3,140 100.0 1,693 1,444
a
Jobs
O'N
Reasons for leaving jobs
Reasons
Total num
not re
ber of—
Total re Indus
Personal ported i
ported
trial
Women
si
g3
Preceding years
II
Past 12 months
ac
Total3...................... .
tJO
Jobs left in preceding years
H
a
Time elapsed since beginning
work in past 5 years
12
20
£
3
1
1
2
8
14
1 Included in this column are those who report unemployment periods but do not report reasons for all periods,
a
who rePu rt ? J’fst 12 months but do n°t report number of jobs left in preceding years or those who report on jobs left in one period and not on other, etc.
3 Details aggregate more than totals, as some women were in more than one class.
*
£2§
1
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
3,245 women employed at some time during past 12 months
75
GENERAL TABLES
Table II.—Time out of work between jobs for industrial and personal causes
Women reporting date and reason for unemployment between jobs
Past 12 months
Preceding 4 years
Total time unemployed
between jobs
Industrial
Personal
Industrial
Personal
Number Per cent Number Per cent Number Per cent Number Per cent
Total...............................
605
100.0
268
100.0
270
100.0
310
100.0
Less than 1 month..................
1 and less than 2 months
2 and less than 3 months........
3 and less than 4 months........
4 and less than 5 months
5 and less than 6 months........
6 and less than 7 months........
7 and less than 8 months
8 and less than 9 months........
9 and less than 10 months___
10 and less than 11 months. __
11 and less than 12 months...
1 and less than 1 y2 years........
1 Yi and less than 2 years____
2 and less than 2J^ years........
2y2 and less than 3 years........
3 and less than 3^ years____
3H and less than 4 years____
4 years_____________ ____
113
140
108
60
46
44
34
18
23
8
5
6
18.7
23.1
17.9
9.9
7.6
7.3
5.6
3.0
3.8
1.3
.8
1.0
33
40
49
29
26
22
24
12
16
8
12.3
14.9
18.3
10.8
9.7
8.2
9.0
4.5
6.0
3.0
2.6
.7
86
43
38
32
19
8
16
4
4
3
2
1
31.9
15.9
14.1
11.9
7.0
3.0
5.9
1.5
1.5
1.1
.7
.4
14
21
21
24
11
13
20
8
8
6
5
4
4. 5
3
1.1
81765°—32----- 6
2
3
7 7
3 5
4 2
6 5
2. 6
2. 6
1 3
.6
Table III.—Number of wage earners in family earlier in the year and at time of interview, by size of family
05
Number of families that had had during the year—
Total
2,747
401
347
1.............. ..............
182
571
511
468
343
258
158
109
182
92
61
26
163
79
50
9
5
16
9
4
2_____
3________
4________
56_____
_____
7________
8_____
9—....... .
10________ ..
11_____________
_____
13_______
14_ ......... .
12
66
32
28
10
7
4
21
2
21
2
510
479
404
304
173
110
59
35
15
7
164
131
97
42
34
18
14
4
2
6
3
1
1
137
305
257
198
127
75
38
21
11
5
3
46
123
91
79
58
37
27
9
7
2
4
282
67
81
6
24
24
11
6
3
4
2
1
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
Number of persons in family
Total
1 wage earner2 wage earners—
3 wage earners4 wage earners—
report
ing
And
at
time
wage
And at time of
And at time of interview
of interview
earn
And at time of interview had—
interview had—
had—
had—
ers at
inter
Total
Total
Total
view Total
No
No 1 wage 2 wage
No 1 wage 2 wage 3 wage
No
2 wage 3 wage 4 wage
1 wage
wage earner
wage earner earn
wage earner earn earn
wage 1 wage earn earn- earn
earner
ers
earner
earner
ers
ers
earner earner ers
ers
Number of families that had had during the year—Continued
Number of persons in family
And at time
of interview
had—
And at
And at
time of
time of
inter
inter
view Total view
Total
Total had
Total
Total
had 7
5
2 wage 5 wage
No 2 wage 3 wage 4 wage 6 wage
wage
wage
No 1 wage 2 wage 3 wage 4 wage Swage
earn
earn
earn
earn
wage earn earn earn earn
earn earn earn earn
wage
ers
ers
ers
ers
ers
ers
earner ers
ers
ers
ers
ers
earner earner ers
And at time of interview had—
And at time of interview had—
56
8
2
3
1
1
1
8
12
22
12
12
4
2
1
1
1
3
2
2
3
4
6
2
4
1
2
4
1
2
1
4
3
1
2
2
1
1
1
2
1
1
2
1
1
•
1
2
1
1
3
4
1
2
1
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
GENERAL TABLES
Total_______ _____
10 w age
earn* rs—
8 wage
earners—
7 wage earners—
6 wage earners-
J5 wage earners—
-G
-1
Table IV.—Number of wage earners in family at time of interview and number employed steadily, by size of family
-I
Co
Families having one or more wage earners at time of interview that had had during the year—
Total___ __________
__
]
2_____________________________
3
4
5
- -___ - _____ ____ _____
6_ ___________________
_ _
7 _____________ ______________
8
9_. ____
_
10 ___ :
11
12
13
14
2,592
346
206
140
163
535
475
439
329
251
152
106
64
31
27
10
6
4
163
79
49
21
16
9
4
2
96
49
27
14
8
9
1
1
67
30
22
7
8
1
2
1
3
1
1
1,519
762
558
199
464
167
175
84
38
194
53
75
456
380
288
168
108
56
34
15
222
182
150
93
59
24
18
7
171
142
103
50
42
25
13
6
63
56
35
25
7
7
3
2
1
46
116
88
76
56
36
26
13
36
35
25
23
15
13
19
46
27
32
20
13
8
10
23
16
16
9
5
2
4
11
10
3
4
3
3
14
52
47
21
24
12
2
11
16
5
7
5
22
20
5
9
4
1
1
2
4
36
18
3
8
5
5
2
6
2
5
2
1
1
- -r*--------
1
1 —
—
2
1
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
Number of persons in family
Total
1 wage earner—
2 wage earners3 wage earners—
report
4 wage earnersing
number
of wage
And now had,
And now had, em
And now had, employed
employed
earners
And now had employed steadily—
ployed steadily—
steadily—
steadily—
em
ployed
steadily Total
Total
Total
Total
at inter
2
2
3
2
3
No
4
1
No
1
No
1
view
No
1
wage
wage wage
wage wage wage
wage wage
wage wage earn
wage wage earn
wage wage earn
earn
earn
earn
earner earner
earner earner ers
earner earner ers
earner earner ers
ers
ers
ers
Families having one or more wage earners at time of interview that had had during the year—Continued
Number of per
sons in family
2
No
1
wage wage wage
earn earn earn
ers
er
er
4
wage
earn
ers
5
wage
earn
ers
2
No
1
wage wage wage
earn
earner earner ers
3
wage
earn
ers
5
wage
earn
ers
6
wage
earn
ers
2
1
1
2
1
1
54
23
16
6
6
2
1
11
2
3
5
11
11
7
9
5
2
3
1
4
4
3
4
4
2
1
1
2
3
3
4
1
2
2
1
2
2
1
1
1
4
3
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
l
1
1
1
2
1
1
No 4 wage
wage earners
earner
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
GENERAL TABLES
___ ____
3
wage
earn
ers
And now
And now
had, em
had, em
ployed
ployed
steadily Total steadily,
3 wage
1 wage
earners
earner
Total
Total
Total
Total ____
And now had,
employed
steadily—
And now had, employed steadily—
And now had, employed steadily—
8 wage earners— 10 wage earners—
7 wage earners—
6 wage earners—
5 wage earners—
so
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
Appendix B.—Schedule Forms
SCHEDULE I
Phis schedule was used for the interview with women in their homes.
U. S. Department of Labor
Women’s Bureau
[front!
1. Name----------- -- ------------ 2. Address-----------------Ward__
Block__
3. Relationship to head of family-------4. Age_____
5. Marital status___
o. Country of birth------------- 7. Occupation_____
8. Industry__ __
At work yesterday: Yes No
EMPLOYMENT HISTOEY
-Firm name
Occupation
Industry
(9)
00)
(id
Time
employed Reason left
(12)
BROKEN EMPLOYMENT
Number
Occu of weeks
pation
idle
No.
(17)
Reason
(18)
(13)
Date
left
Time un
employed
Cause
(M>
(15)
(16)
EMPLOYED IRREGULARLY
Occu
pation
No.
Describe
Reason
m
(20)
[BACK]
21. If unemployed: Able to work _ _ Desire to work___ Looking for work__
22. Present economic status__________________________
23. Comparison of definite jobs, in wages, regularity of work, and other con
ditions: ___________________
24. General comments on employment (difficulties in "finding work, technological
changes)__________________________ __________________
25. General comments on changes and difficulties in family economic conditions:
(As to other wage earners, housing, finances—loans, pensions, etc.)
26. Any assistance from unemployment insurance?
Person interviewed' Agent
Date
81
SCHEDULE FORMS
SCHEDULE II
This schedule was used for information from factories on numbers
of employees, hours, wages, and policies.
Firm____
________________________
Product___
______ :
Person interviewed___________________
______________________________
Number employed: September, 1929, to September, 1930
Men
Women................
Marked variations, in number. (Indicate whether or not a usual seasonal trend.)
Department
Date
Number men and women affected
Turnover records by month: Men and women for 2 years
Hours: Normal schedule, 1929______________________________ _ _
Changes in schedule, 1930, by department (give dates of changes)__
Variations in hours worked daily or number of days worked per week, by depart
ment. Describe overtime or undertime.
Staggered shifts_____ ________________________ ___________ ____
Employees’ voluntary division of work_________________
_.
_________
Lay-offs: Number affected, men and women, by department and date.
Policy basis—Efficiency, experience, sex, age, family, type of work, transfers___
Vacation practice, 1930_________________________________________
Vacation practice, previous years________________________________
Wages: Changes in method; rates or standards or bonus payments
If recently established in South Bend—
Reason for location_________ __________________________
Date of beginning production_________________________ 1__
Type of labor hired Age.
Experience ________________ _____
Training
Employment records kept ___________ _ _
Agent.
Date.
PUBLICATIONS OF THE WOMEN’S BUREAU
[Any of these bulletins still available will be sent free of charge upon request]
*No.
*No.
No.
No.
*No.
No.
No.
*No.
*No.
*No.
1. Proposed Employment of Women During the War in the Industries of
Niagara Falls, N. Y. 16 pp. 1918.
2. Labor Laws for Women in Industry in Indiana. 29 pp. 1919.
3. Standards for the Employment of Women in Industry. 8 pp. Fourth
ed., 1928.
4. Wages of Candy Makers in Philadelphia in 1919. 46 pp. 1919.
5. The Eight-Hour Day in Federal and State Legislation. 19 pp. 1919.
6. The Employment of Women in Hazardous Industries in the United
States. 8 pp. 1921.
7. Night-Work Laws in the United States. (1919.) 4 pp. 1920.
8. Women in the Government Service. 37 pp. 1920.
9. Home Work in Bridgeport, Conn. 35 pp. 1920.
10. Hours and Conditions of Work for Women in Industry in Virginia.
32 pp.
1920.
No. 11. Women Street Car Conductors and Ticket Agents. 90 pp. 1921.
*No. 12. The New Position of Women in American Industry. 158 pp. 1920.
*No. 13. Industrial Opportunities and Training for Women and Girls. 48 pp.
1921.
*No. 14. A Physiological Basis for the Shorter Working Dav for Women. 20 pp.
1921.
No. 15. Some Effects of Legislation Limiting Hours of Work for Women.
26 pp. 1921.
No. 16. (See Bulletin 63.)
No. 17. Women’s Wages in Kansas. 104 pp. 1921.
No. 18. Health Problems of Women in Industry. 6 pp. Revised, 1931.
No. 19. Iowa Women in Industry. 73 pp. 1922.
*No. 20. Negro Women in Industry. 65 pp. 1922.
No. 21. Women in Rhode Island Industries. 73 pp. 1922.
*No. 22. Women in Georgia Industries. 89 pp. 1922.
No. 23. The Family Status of Breadwinning Women. 43 pp. 1922.
No. 24. Women in Maryland Industries. 96 pp. 1922.
No. 25. Women in the Candy Industry in Chicago and St. Louis. 72 pp. 1923.
No. 28. Women in Arkansas Industries. 86 pp. 1923.
No. 27. The Occupational Progress of Women. 37 pp. 1922.
No. 28. Women’s Contributions in the Field of Invention. 51 pp. 1923.
No. 29. Women in Kentucky Industries. 114 pp. 1923.
No. 30. The Share of Wage-Earning Women in Family Support. 170 pp. 1923.
No. 31. What Industry Means to Women Workers. 10 pp. 1923.
No. 32. Women in South Carolina Industries. 128 pp. 1923.
No. 33. Proceedings of the Women’s Industrial Conference. 190 pp. 1923.
No. 34. Women in Alabama Industries. 86 pp. 1924.
No. 35. Women in Missouri Industries. 127 pp. 1924.
No. 36. Radio Talks on Women in Industry. 34 pp. 1924.
No. 37. Women in New Jersey Industries. 99 pp. 1924.
No. 38. Married Women in Industry. 8 pp. 1924.
No. 39. Domestic Workers and Their Employment Relations. 87 pp. 1924.
No. 40. (See Bulletin 63.)
No. 41. Family Status of Breadwiiming Women in Four Selected Cities. 145
pp. 1925.
No. 42. List of References on Minimum Wage for Women in the United States
and Canada. 42 pp. 1925.
No. 43. Standard and Scheduled Hours of Work for Women in Industry.
68 pp. 1925.
No. 44. Women in Ohio Industries. 137 pp. 1925.
Home
Environment and Employment Opportunities of Women in
No. 45.
Coal-Mine Workers’ Families. 61 pp. 1925.
* Supply exhausted.
82
PUBLICATIONS OF THE WOMEN’S BUREAU
83
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. 1926No. 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. 635 pp. 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. 66-1. History of Labor Legislation for Women in Three States. 133 pp.
1929. (Separated from No. 66-11 in reprint, 1932.)
No. 66-11. Chronological Development of Labor Legislation for Women in the
United States. 145 pp. 1929. (Revised and separated from
No. 66-1 in 1932. ---- pp.)
No. 67. Women Workers in Flint, Mich. 80 pp. 1929.
No. 68. Summary: The Effects of Labor Legislation on the Employment. Op
portunities of Women. (Reprint of Chapter II of bulletin 65.)
22 pp. 1928.
No. 69. Causes of Absence for Men and for Women in Four Cotton Mills. 24
pp. 1929.
No. 70. Negro Women in Industry in 15 States. 74 pp. 1929.
No. 71. Selected References on the Health of Women in Industry. 8 pp. 1929.
No. 72. Conditions of Work in Spin Rooms. 41 pp. 1929.
No. 73. Variations in Emplovment Trends of Women and Men. 143 on
1930.
No. 74. The Immigrant Woman and Her Job. 179 pp. 1930.
No. 75. What the Wage-Earning Woman Contributes to Family Support.
21 pp. 1929.
No. 76. Women in 5-and-lO-cent Stores and Limited-Price Chain Department
Stores. 58 pp. 1930.
No. 77. A Study of Two Groups of Denver Married Women Applying for Jobs
11 pp. 1929.
No. 78. A Survey of Laundries and Their Women Workers in 23 Cities. 166 pp
1930.
No. 79. Industrial Home Work. 20 pp. 1930.
No. 80. Women in Florida Industries. 115 pp. 1930.
No. 81. Industrial Accidents to Men and Women. 48 pp. 1930.
No. 82. The Employment of Women in the Pineapple Canneries of Hawaii.
30 pp. 1930.
No. 83. Fluctuation of Employment in the Radio Industry. 66 pp. 1931.
No. 84. Fact Finding with the Women’s Bureau. 37 pp. 1931.
No. 85. Wages of Women in 13 States. 213 pp. 1931.
No. 86. Activities of the Women’s Bureau of the United States. 15 pp. 1931.
No. 87. Sanitary Drinking Facilities, with Special Reference to Drinking Foun
tains. 28 pp. 1931.
Supply exhausted.
84
WOMEN AND THE INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1930
No. 88. The Employment of Women in Slaughtering and Meat Packing. 211
pp. 1932.
No. 89. The Industrial Experience of Women Workers at the Summer Schools,
1928 to 1930. 62 pp. 1931.
No. 90. Oregon Legislation for Women in Industry. 40 pp. 1931.
No. 91. Women in Industry—A Series of Papers to Aid Study Groups. 79 pp.
1931.
No. 92. Wage-Earning Women and the Industrial Conditions of 1930. A Sur
vey of South Bend. 84 pp. 1932.
No. 93. Household Employment in Philadelphia. (In press.)
No. 94. The Lighting of Work Places. An analysis of lighting codes and State
regulations for employers, employees, and State departments of
labor. (In press.)
Pamphlet. Women’s Place in Industry in 10 Southern States. 14 pp. 1931.
Annual Reports of the Director, 1919*, 1920*, 1921*, 1922, 1923, 1924*, 1925,
1926, 1927*, 1928*, 1929*, 1930*, 1931.
Supply exhausted.
o
@FedFRASER