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U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
JAMES J. DAVIS, Secretary
WOMEN’S BUREAU
MARY ANDERSON, Director
BULLETIN OF THE WOMEN’S BUREAU, NO. 34
WOMEN IN ALABAMA
INDUSTRIES
A Study of Hours, Wages, and
Working Conditions
WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1924
[Public—No. 259—66th
Congress.]
[H. R. 13229.]
An Act To establish in the Department of Labor a bureau to be
known as the Women’s Bureau.
Be it enacted by the Senaie and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be estab
lished m 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 bj the President, by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate, who shall receive an annual compensa
tion of $5,000. It shall be the duty of said bureau to formulate
standards and policies which shall promote the welfare of wageoaming women, improve their working conditions, increase their
efficiency, and advance their opportunities for profitable employ
ment. The said bureau shall have authority to investigate and
report to the said department upon all matters pertaining to the
welfare of women in industry. The director of said bureau may
from time to time publish the results of these investigations in such
a manner and to such extent as the Secretary of Labor may prescribe.
Sec. 3. That there shall be in said bureau an assistant director,
to be appointed by the Secretary of Labor, who shall receive an
annual compensation of $3,500 and shall perform such duties as
shall be prescribed by the director and approved by the Secretary
of Labor.
Sec. 4. That there is hereby authorized to be employed by said
bureau a chief clerk and such special agents, assistants, clerks, and
other employees at such rates of compensation and in such numbers
as Congress may from time to time provide by appropriations.
Sec. 5. That the Secretary of Labor is hereby directed to furnish
sufficient quarters, office furniture and equipment, for the work of
this bureau.
Sec. 6. That this act shall take effect and be in force from and
after its passage.
Approved, June 5, 1920.
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
JAMES J. DAVIS, SECRETARY
WOMEN’S BUREAU
MARY ANDERSON, Director
BULLETIN OF THE WOMEN’S BUREAU, NO. 34
WOMEN IN ALABAMA
INDUSTRIES
A Study of Hours, Wages, and
Working Conditions
T sTT
WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1924
ADDITIONAL COPIES
OP THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM
THE SUPERINTENDENT OP DOCUMENTS
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON, D. C.
AT
15 CENTS PER COPY
CONTENTS,
TLetter of, transmittal...............................................................................................
.
Posevn
Part I: Introduction...............................................................................................
Scope and method of survey................................................................ ;........
Number of women employed in Alabama industries.....................................
Industrial history of the State........................................................................
Summary of findings.......................
Part II: Hours of work...........................................................................................
Scheduled daily hours.....................................................................................
Scheduled weekly hours.................................................................................
Scheduled Saturday hours..............................................................................
Actual hours worked.......................................................................................
Night work..................................................................................................
Conclusion........................................................................................................
Part III: Working conditions................................................................................
Posture.............................................................................................................
Ventilation.......................................................................................................
Lighting...........................................................................................................
Sanitation.......................................................................................................
Toilets........................................................................................................
Washing facilities.....................................................................................
Drinking facilities.....................................................................................
Lunch rooms....................................................................................................
Rest rooms........................................................................................................
Cloakrooms......................................................................................................
Employment methods.....................................................................................
Health hazards.............................................
Accident hazards.............................................................................................
Illustrations from plants visited.....................................................................
Part IV: Wages.......................................................................................................
Cost of living.........................................
Methods of payment........................................................................................
Earnings of white women workers..................................................................
Week’s earnings, January, 1922...............................................................
Earnings and time worked................................................................
Earnings and experience...................................................................
Earnings and rates.............................................................................
Year’s earnings, January, 1921, to January, 1922...................................
Earnings of negro women workers...................................................................
Week’s earnings, January, 1922.....................
Year’s earnings, January, 1921, to January, 1922...................................
Comparison of wage conditions, January, 1921, and January, 1922.............
Earnings of night workers................................................................................
Conclusion.......................
in
1
i
2
3
4
9
9
12
14
16
16
17
18
18
22
24 •
25
25
28
29
30
30
31
31
31
32
33
36
38
38
40
40
42
47
48
49
52
52
55
55
57
58
IV
CONTENTS.
Page.
Part V: The workers..............................................................................................
Age...................................................................................................................
Nativity and race.................................................................
■
Experience.......................................................................................................
Conjugal condition..........................................................................................
Living condition..............................................................................................
Home responsibilities......................................................................................
Financial obligations....................................................................................
Home-work obligations................................................................................
Cases illustrating home responsibilities....................................................
Appendix A. State legislation affecting women wage earners....................... ...
Appendix B. General tables......................................................................................
Appendix C. Schedule forms....................................................................................
TEXT TABLES.
No. 1. Number of establishments visited and number of white and negro women
employed therein, by industry.............................................................
2. Scheduled daily hours, by industry..........................................................
3. Scheduled weekly hours, by industry......................................................
4. Scheduled Saturday hours, by industry.......................................................
5. Principal occupations of women employed in textile mills in which
women stood to operate, and type of seat provided..............................
6. Principal occupations of women employed in laundries in which women
stood to operate, and type of seat provided...........................................
7. Insanitary conditions and lack of privacy in toilet equipment, and
number of women affected, by industry...................................................
8. Adequacy of toilet equipment, by industry.............................................
9. Washing equipment and number of women affected, by industry.........
10. Drinking facilities, by type of container..................................................
11. Working conditions from the point of view of safety in time of fire.........
12. Basis of wage payment among women for whom method of pay was
reported, by industry.................................................................................
13. Week’s earnings, by industry, January, 1922 (white women).................
14. Effect on earnings of three-hour increases in hours worked (white women).
15. Week’s earnings of women who worked 48 hours and over or on 5 days
and over, by industry, January, 1922 (white women)..............................
16. Actual and estimated year’s earnings, by industry, 1921-22 (white
women)........................................................................................................
17. Week’s earnings, by industry, January, 1922 (negro women)......................
18. Year’s earnings, by industry, 1921-22 (negro women).................................
19. Age of the women employees who supplied personal information, by
industry.......................................................................................................
20. Nativity of the women employees who supplied personal information,
by industry..................................................................................................
21. Time in the trade of the women employees who supplied personal
information.................................................................................................
22. Conjugal condition of the women employees who supplied personal
information, by industry............................................................................
23. Living condition of the women employees who supplied personal infor
mation, by industry....................................................................................
24. Financial responsibilities of 194 women interviewed, by conjugal
condition.....................................................................................................
25. Number of wage earners in family of 194 women interviewed, by size of
family group................................................................................................
59
59
61
62
63
64
67
*
67
68
69
71
72
81
2
11
13
15
19
21
26
27
28
30
32
39
41
44
46
51
53
55
.«
60
61
«
63
63
65
67
68
CONTENTS.
V
• APPENDIX TABLES.
No. I.
II.
III.
IY.
V.
VI.
Hours worked less than scheduled, by industry......................................
Hours worked less than scheduled, by scheduled hours.........................
Scheduled hours of night workers, by industry.......................................
Week’s earnings, by time worked, January, 1922 (white women)..........
Week’s earnings, by time in the trade (white women)...........................
Weekly rates and actual week’s earnings, by industry, January, 1922
(white women)........................................................................................
VII. Year’s earnings of women for whom 52-week pay-roll records were
secured, by industry, 1921-22 (white women)......................................
VIII. Week’s earnings, by time worked, January, 1922 (negro women)..........
IX. Week’s earnings of women who worked 48 hours and over or on 5 days
and over, by industry, January, 1922 (negro women)..........................
X. Week’s earnings, by time in the trade (negro women)............................
XI. Weekly rates and actual week’s earnings, by industry, January, 1922
(negro women)........................................................................................
XII. Week’s earnings, by industry, January, 1921 (white women)..................
XIII. Week’s earnings, by industry, January, 1921 (negro women).................
XIV. Weekly rate, by industry, January, 1921 (white women)...............
XV. Weekly rate, by industry, January, 1921 (negro women).........................
Page.
72
72
72
73
73
74
.75
75
70
76
77
78
78
79
80
SCHEDULED
WEEKLY
HOURS
FOR
WOMEN
873%
60.6*
60 hours 55 hours 52 hours
and oyer and over and over
/Vatoroen 753
3+57
5476
VI
Over
48 hours
-4 8 hours or under
4373
7£Z
9
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.
United States Department
of
Labor,
Women’s Bureau,
Washington, September 13, 1923.
Sir: I have the honor to submit the accompanying report present
ing results of a survey of wages, hours, and conditions of women’s
employment in selected industries in 31 cities in the State of Alabama.
This investigation was made at the request of the Alabama League
of Women Voters and the State Federation of Women’s Clubs.
Valuable assistance and cooperation were given by the State
Department of Child Welfare through Mrs. L. B. Bush and her
assistants.
The survey was made during February, March, and April, 1922,
and was directed by Miss Agnes L. Peterson, assisted by Miss
Elisabeth D. Benham, Mrs. Hildred M. Hawkins, Miss Kathleen B.
Jennison, Miss Edna Kuhnert, and Miss Mary Turner. The statistical
material was prepared under the direction of Miss Elizabeth A. Hyde,
and the report was written by Miss Kathleen B. Jennison.
Mary Anderson, Director.
Hon. James J. Davis,
Secretary of Labor.
VII
/
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES
PART I.
*
INTRODUCTION.
*
Since 1918 the Women’s Bureau of the United States Department
of Labor has made a series of studies in various localities of the hours,
wages, and working conditions in effect for women in industry.
State officials and private organizations have urged these surveys in
order to secure information necessary to the solution of the problems
incident to the steady numerical increase of women wage earners.
In the gradual shifting which has followed machinization in this
country, women find themselves not transplanted from home to
factory or store, but so placed that they are home workers and
potential mothers, and at the same time industrial workers. Because
of their value in both fields the need for the development of such
industrial standards as will promote occupational opportunity and
insure mental and physical health assumes increased importance.
A first requisite to such development is a compilation of facts built
from the material of human experience, and to secure such material,
at the request of the State League of Women Voters and the Federa
tion of Women’s Clubs, the Women’s Bureau undertook a survey
of conditions affecting wage-earning women in Alabama, the find
ings of which are presented in this report. The courteous coopera
tion of employers in all the localities visited made this survey possible;
their assistance, with that of social agencies, both State and private,
is gratefully acknowledged. Among the cooperating agencies were
the State Child Welfare Department, the State League of Women
Voters, the State Federation of Women’s Clubs, the Business and
Professional Women’s Clubs, the Young WTomen’s Christian Association, and the State Federation of Labor.
Scope and method of survey.
Alabama is eleventh in the series of States in which the Women’s
Bureau has secured material bearing upon the establishment of
industrial standards for women. In the course of the survey effort
was made to obtain representative data in regard to hours of work,
plant conditions, wages, age, nativity, industrial experience, and
home responsibilities of women in industry, the material being
secured from plant inspections, pay rolls, questionnaire cards filled
in by the workers, and home interviews. As the time available for
1
2
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
the survey was short, it was necessary to limit the number of plants
studied. In all, 131 were chosen from the chief woman-employing
industries; 34 of them were stores, 19 were power laundries, and the
remaining 78 were in the manufacturing group, which included
textile mills, garment and food factories, and printing and publishing
plants. Because conditions of work may vary with the size and
location of the community, effort was made to include all sections
of the State. Plants were scheduled in the following places: Alabama
City, Albany, Anniston, Birmingham, Bon Air, Bridgeport, Cottondale, Dothan, Eufaula, Florence, Fort Payne, Gadsden, Girard,
Huntsville, Lanett, Madrid, Mobile, Montgomery, Opelika, Oxford,
Ozark, Piedmont, Pinckard, Prichard, Roanoke, Selma, Sheffield,
Stevenson, Sylacauga, Talladega, and Tuscaloosa.
NUMBER OF WOMEN EMPLOYED IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
There were 223,868 women gainfully employed in Alabama in
1920.1 A large proportion of that number were domestic servants,
laundresses, and farm laborers. Following these groups the greatest
numbers of women were in manufacturing and mechanical indus
tries, employing 15,103 women, 55 per cent of whom were engaged
in the manufacture of textiles, and in retail stores, employing 5,399.
The occupational statistics for the general census do not offer a
classification which makes possible an estimate of the number of
women employed in power laundries, but according to the census
of manufactures 1,202 women were reported in power laundries in
Alabama in 1919.2 Because the number of women employed in
textile mills, in stores, and in power laundries was far greater than
in any of the other industrial groups in the State, the survey is chiefly
concerned with conditions surrounding women in those industries.
Table
1.—Number of establishments visited and number of white and negro women
employed therein, by industry.
Industry.
Number Number of women employed.
of estab
lishments
visited.
Total.
White.
Negro.
All industries........................................................................
131
5,726
4,966
760
Manufacturing................................................................................
Food products...........................................................................
Garments...................................................................................
78
12
9
5
39
17
5
17
13
34
21
13
19
4,164
111
391
30
3,485
1,941
681
863
147
1,072
866
206
490
3,870
73
388
294
38
3
3,239
1,729
677
833
140
1,023
826
197
73
246
212
4
30
7
49
43
9
417
Textiles.......................................................................................
Cotton goods.......................................................................
Knit goods....................................... ........... .......................
Yarn and twine..................................................................
Other manufacturing................................................................
General mercantile....................................................................
5-and-10-cent stores...................................................................
Laundries.........................................................................................
1 U. S. Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census, 1920. Abstract of the Fourteenth Census, 1920, Table
7, p. 499.
2 U. S. Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census. Manufactures, 1919. Vol. X. Table 12, p. 1048.
%
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
3
Table 1 shows the number of plants visited in the various industries
and the distribution by race of the women employed therein. The
total number of women included formed not far from one-fourth of
the women reported by the census as being employed in the industries
considered. Of the 5,726 women workers scheduled, 60.9 per cent
worked in textile mills, 18.7 per cent in retail stores, and 8.6 per cent
in laundries. An overwhelming majority of the textile workers—
92.9 per cent—were white. In power laundries negro workers formed
85.1 per cent of the women employed.
INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF THE STATE.
A brief review of certain significant events in Alabama’s evolution
may serve to illuminate the industrial situation as it exists to-day.
Her early history is the story of powerful Indian tribes; of a Spanish
explorer in 1539; of various territorial claims by England, France,
and Spain; of final cession to the United States; and of entrance
into the Union as a State in 1819. The years between 1819 and 1860
saw the development of large plantations, especially in the “cotton
belt” section, a strip of 13,000 square miles of land rich in limestone
and marl and extremely well adapted to the growth of cotton. The
immediate result of the abolition of slave labor in 1864 entailed the
breaking up of these large plantations into smaller holdings; the
ultimate result has been more intensive cultivation. Agriculture still
employs an overwhelming majority of the wage earners and Alabama
ranks among the chief cotton-producing States of the country.
The most spectacular feature in the industrial history of the State
since 1864 is the development of vast coal and iron deposits in a strip
of land stretching north of the Cotton Belt to the Tennessee Valley.
Coal had been discovered in 1834, but real development of the State’s
mineral resources did not commence until 1881. At the present time
Alabama ranks among the chief iron and steel manufacturing centers
of the world. Iron and steel is not a woman-employing industry,
but its growth has acted as a stimulus to the business of manufacturing
textiles, which also has shown remarkable increase in recent years, and
whose employees, in 1919, were 40 per cent women.3
A more direct stimulus to growth in the textile industry was sup
plied by the legislature of 1896, which exempted from taxation for
10 years all capital invested in the manufacture of cotton, providing
that $50,000 or more was invested in buildings and machinery.
Before this act there were only 13 cotton mills in the State; in 1919
there were 58. A large majority of those now in operation, therefore,
have been built during the last 25 years. In 1904 there were 758,087
cotton spindles in operation and in 1919 there were 1,108,933, an
increase of 46.3 per cent in those 15 years. In only three States,
s XJ. S. Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Ceiisus. Manufactures, 1919, Vol. IX, Table 5, p. 25.
4
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
North and South Carolina and Georgia, was there a greater increase
during that period. Alabama ranks eighth among the States in the
number of active producing spindles.4 She ranks fourth in the
production of square yards of cotton sheeting, fifth in the quantity of
cotton yarn produced, and seventh in the manufacture of square
yards of woven goods.5 The increase between 1914 and 1919 in the
number of wage earners in all manufacturing industries in Alabama
was 36.1 per cent.6 Even such a considerable increase, however,
does not bring Alabama into the ranks of the so-called industrial
States, for of all persons gainfully employed, there were only 16.6
per cent reported in manufacturing and mechanical industries, while
in States such as New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts the pro
portion so employed ranged from nearly 40 to more than 50 per cent.7
As an agricultural State Alabama has not been concerned with
standards affecting women in industry. She is still young in indus
trial activities, but as she finds herself increasingly committed to
them the creation of adequate standards becomes necessary to her
well-being as a State. Because fatigue has a bearing upon the flow
of production, the reduction of illness and accident rates, the lowering
of labor turnover, the conservation of human resources, and the pro
motion of a better citizenship, employers, employees, and the States
hold a common interest in such industrial regulations as will further
its elimination. Detailed studies of conditions affecting fatigue have
been made by experts in factory efficiency, as well as by scientists
interested in the individual and in society as a whole. Their findings
have shown that among the causes we have a low standard of living
due to an inadequate wage; excessive working hours; incorrect
posture; badly regulated ventilation or light; insanitary condition
of workroom, or of drinking, washing, or toilet facilities, or of rest
rooms or cloakrooms; nonnutritious lunches; accident hazard; and
personal worries over such factors as an uncongenial job, fear of
unemployment, physical condition, or sickness at home. In the
various sections of this report existing industrial conditions are
measured by standards which would tend to remove these causes of
fatigue.
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS.
Industrial development is comparatively recent in Alabama,
domestic service and agriculture still employing a large proportion
of the women wage earners in the State. However, manufacturing
industries there have extended their operations to a marked degree
in late years and will doubtless continue to do so. The textile
* U. S. Bureau ofthe Census, Fourteenth Census. Manufactures, 1919, Vol. X, Table 28, p. 176.
6 Op. cit., Table 19, p. 171; Table 23, p. 170; Table 18, p. 169.
• U. S. Bureau ofthe Census, Fourteenth Census. Manufactures, 1919, Vol. IX, Table 5, p. 25.
7U. S. Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census, 1920. Abstract ofthe Fourteenth Census, 1920, Table
8, p. 500.
.
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
5
industries, which rank second in the manufacturing group in regard
to value of product, are large woman-employing industries. Many
women are also at work in power laundries and in retail stores.
Alabama is one of 5 States in which there is no limit to the hours
which women may work either in one day or in one week, it is one of
32 States in which there is no regulation of night work, there is no
provision for setting a minimum amount below which wages for a
full week’s work may not fall, there are practically no regulations in
regard to plant working conditions, and it is one of 6 States in which
there is no law providing for the pensioning of mothers.
Because industrial development is comparatively recent, it is
particularly worth while to discover the facts surrounding the em
ployment of women. With a knowledge of existing conditions Ala
bama may profit by the experience of other States of older industrial
history in determining upon State standards which will promote the
mental and physical well-being of women who earn.
Hours.
Because of the home activities which await the majority of women
workers after plant hours, it is particularly essential that the demands
of their industrial employment keep well within their supply of
strength. In Alabama the lack of a State standard has resulted in a
wide divergence in the number of hours required for a full working
day or week by various plants. Eight per cent of the women worked
not longer than 8 hours orf a shift; over one-half of*them worked 10
hours or longer. For 12.6 per cent of them the normal working week
was not more than 48 hours long; for 60 per cent it was 55 hours or
longer. For 753 (13.2 per cent) of the women the normal working
week was at least 60 hours long.
Working conditions.
Good ventilation, correct posture at work, adequate and properly
adjusted lighting, and provision for sanitation tend to lessen fatigue
in industry and to leave the worker with energy for other activities
at the end of her working day. In view of the conditions which ob
tained in the establishments studied there are certain outstanding
factors which can be summarized under the general topic of working
conditions.
Ventilation.—Regulation of temperature and humidity rates was
the important need in connection with air conditions. Temperature
and humidity were especial problems in textile mills and laundries.
In all industries the climate of the State during the summer months
increases the problem of general ventilation, a problem which is at
all times in all localities a difficult one to handle.
Posture.—A large majority of the women were employed in occu
pations in which they stood to operate, and in only a small number of
6
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
cases were seats provided for their moments of relaxation. Arrange
ment, when possible, of machines or work benches so that work may
be performed either sitting or standing and provision of a chair built
with the health of the worker in mind, would alleviate the strain in
volved in constant standing.
Lighting.—To prevent eyestrain it is necessary to consider the
amount of light needed in the performance of an occupation and the
arrangement of lighting fixtures which will prevent rays from un
shaded sources or by reflection from shining in the eyes of the worker.
In a general factory inspection it is possible to note only obvious in
sufficiency or glare. Decided glare was reported in one-fourth of the
mills and factories visited; the same condition existed in 14 of the
19 laundries. A particularly vicious type of artificial lighting is the
exposed, unfrosted, unshaded bulb hung from the ceiling on a level
with the worker’s eyes. Only 1 textile mill of the 39 visited used
such a type of unshaded drop lighting; 8 of the 19 laundries were
lighted in that way. General artificial light shaded so as to prevent
glare was reported in 32 of the 34 stores.
Sanitation.
Types, adequacy, and condition of toilet, washing, and drinking
equipment were considered under the head of sanitation.
Toilets.—Certain minimum requirements from the standpoint of
the health and comfort of the worker, such as adequacy in number,
cleanliness, screening, ventilation, lighting, and methods of cleaning
had been met for at least 50 per cent of the women. Standardiza
tion would provide that conditions now applying in a majority of
cases would be required for all women workers.
Washing facilities.—For 17 per cent of the women workers there
was no provision made for washing. The use of the common towels
represented a serious health menace. In stores 78 per cent of the
women used common towels, and for 7 per cent none were supplied;
in mills and laundries the figures were reversed, 10 per cent of the
women used common towels, while for 73 per cent in laundries and
for 67 per cent in mills and factories no towels were supplied.
Drinking facilities.—Although the sanitary bubbler connected with
a cooler is an effective and practical method of insuring clean, cool
water and was found in a number of establishments, in 38 plants
the employees used common drinking cups, and in 39 plants no cup
was supplied; in 15 plants drinking conditions were sanitary, 6
supplied angle jet bubblers and 9 individual cups.
Wages.
Actual earnings are of primary interest in a study of women in
industry. In addition such correlations as wages with industry,
with time worked, with experience, with rates, indicate industrial
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
7
opportunities for women in a community. However, the community
must first secure figures showing actual earnings, and after that it
must consider them in terms of living costs, in order to determine
whether the standard of living made necessary by those earnings
requires revision. The middle point in the earnings of all white
women workers for the week recorded in January, 1922, was $8.80.
The earnings in the different industries varied from a median of
$6.85 in knit goods manufacturing to $17.30 in printing and pub
lishing establishments. The week’s earnings of those who had worked
practically full time (48 or more hours a week or on 5 days or more)
ranged from a median of $8.35 among workers in 5-and-10-cent
stores to $12.65 among general mercantile store employees. In
creases in hours of work over 48 hours did not result in consistent
increases in pay; there was no economic advantage to the employees
in working the longer shifts, rather individual competing plants had
varying wage standards. The median of earnings of all negro women
was $6.05 and of practically full-time negro workers $6.35 for the
week. Year’s earnings for white women showed a median of $502
and for negro women a median of $324.
The workers.
It is obviously necessary to look upon women who earn as indi
viduals with responsibilities toward the manufacture and distribution
of goods and with unique obligations in the life of the family. Evalu
ating their position in relation to industry and to their families in the
interest of the development of their occupational opportunity and the
elimination of sex discrimination requires a knowledge of certain facts
in regard to their age, nativity, industrial stability, marital status,
and home responsibilities.
Age.—Twenty-eight per cent of the women reporting were between
16 and 20 years old, 38.6 per cent between 20 and 30, and 28.9 per
cent between 30 and 50. These figures contradict the theory that
women wage earners are for the most part young persons who do
not stay long in industry and are in no great need, therefore, of pro
vision for trade training and promotion.
Nativity.—Ninety-nine per cent of the women reporting were
native born.
Experience.—Sixty per cent of the women reporting had been
working 3 years or longer; 42 per cent, 5 years or longer; and 22.3
per cent, 10 years or longer in the trade in which they were occupied
at the time of the survey. Because the idea persists that women
are in industry only during brief periods, there is a marked tendency
to put them to work at low skilled jobs where there is obviously less
economic advantage, less pressure to keep them from shifting to
other jobs. Since in spite of this fact figures show that large num
bers of women are in industry for long periods, it would seem that
8
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
increase in their stability would inevitably follow upon enlarged
opportunities for their trade training and promotion.
Conjugal condition.—One-half of the women reporting were single,
27.3 per cent were married, and 22.3 per cent widowed, separated, or
divorced.
Living condition.—The prevailing type of wage earner (80 per cent
of the women reporting on the inquiry) was the woman who lived
with her immediate family. Her problems represented those existing
among large numbers of working women throughout the State.
Home responsibilities.—The number of women interviewed in
regard to home responsibilities was small, but the material indicated
one or two salient points in connection with the financial and home
obligations of wage-earning women. There was no sharp division in
regard to home work and financial obligation according to conjugal
condition; both single and married women had a share of each. But
although single women had financial responsibilities to fulfill and
home work to do, their obligations were less extensive than those of
married women; and married women on the whole bore less financial
responsibility than did women who were widowed, divorced, or sepa
rated. Approximately 60 per cent of the women contributed all they
made to the family income, 5 per cent contributed nothing financially,
and 84 per cent had a definite and appreciable amount of work to do
at home daily. These facts bear upon the need for limiting hours of
employment for women and for discontinuing discrimination in wage
rates on the basis of sex.
PART II.
HOURS OF WORK.
Alabama is one of the five States in which there is no legal regu
lation of the length of the working day for women. That so few
States are without such regulation indicates a very general indorse
ment of the economic theory that industry exists for the production
and distribution of commodities which promote the well-being of
the community and that the State must therefore assure itself that
citizens stop as producers before they become too fatigued to act as
consumers. Because of the home activities which await the majority
of women workers after plant hours it is particularly essential that
the demands of their industrial employment keep well within their
supply of strength. Excessive working hours result inevitably
in lowered vitality. Healthful family life is in danger when women
go to work before sunrise and return after sunset exhausted and in
no condition to meet their home responsibilities.
That there has been a shortening of working hours by some manu
facturers in Alabama during the last decade, even though the State
itself has not adopted a standard, is indicated by figures from the
United States Census of Manufactures, for 1919.1 These figures show
that in 1914 only 8.6 per cent of the workers in all industries worked
48 hours and under, while in 1919 20.6 per cent of the workers
came under that head, and that in 1914 for 70.9 per cent of the work
ers the prevailing weekly hours were 60 and over, while in 1919 the
per cent thus affected had been reduced to 49.4. The fact that
practically one-half of the wage earners in the State were working
60 hours and over makes it significant to examine further into the
length of the working day for women.
Scheduled daily hours.
In considering the time put in at wage earning each day and each
week it is practicable to take as a basis the hour schedule of plants
employing women. The actual time worked by the few women for
whom it was possible to secure such a record is presented later in this
section. Scheduled hours represent the length of the normal work
ing day and week. They indicate the standard which is accepted
1 XJ. S. Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census. Manufactures, 1919, Vol. IX, Table 9, p. 27.
69374°—24---- 2
a
10
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
for a full day’s work in the various industries and localities, and
they are the factor which is of interest if a State standard of hours is
under consideration. More than one-half the women in the plants
visited were scheduled to work at least 10 hours a day (Table 2). A
10-hour day usually meant from 6.30 or 7 a. m. to 5.30 or 6 p.m., with
an hour off at noon. For 879 women in 19 plants the workday was
more than 10 hours long. In spite of the generally accepted theory
that rest periods of 10 or 15 minutes in the middle of the morning
and afternoon decrease fatigue, especially among women working
at standing jobs, the schedules for the plants investigated showed
that the value of such rest periods had not been appreciated in the
woman-employing industries of Alabama.
\
Table 2.—Scheduled daily hours, by industry.
Number of establishments and number of women whose daily hours were—
Number
reported.
Under 8.
Over 8 and
under 9.
8
Industry.
Over 9 and
under 10.
9
Over 10 and
including 11.2
10
Irregular.3
All Industries.................................................. 1127 5,643
Per cent distribution.................................... 100.0 100.0
Manufacturing................ ..............................
Food products...........................................
Garments...................................................
Printing and publishing..........................
Textiles......................................................
Cotton goods.......................................
Knit goods..........................................
Yam and twine.................................
Other manufacturing...............................
Stores...............................................................
General mercantile...................................
5 and 10 cent stores...................................
Laundries..................................
77
11
9
5
39
17
5
17
13
34
21
13
16
4,162
109
391
30
3,485
i;941
681
863
147
1,072
866
206
409
5
3.9
32
0.6
15
11.8
13
2
9
5
15
4
5
1
1
4
4
1
1
4
19
1
438
7.8
438
48
313
30.
47
1 Details aggregate more than total because 7 firms appear in more than one hour group.
3 Of this number all but 46 women, in 2 establishments, had an 11-hour day.
3 Not included in total.
25
19.7
839
14.9
30
23.6
543
9.6
12
9.4
771
13.7
28
22.0
2,141
37.9
19
15.0
879
15.6
4
83
8
1
2
72
4
44
6
3
20
7
6
2
617
11
26
2,127
19
879
1
2
1
2
396
1
3
2
55
6
154
2
14
3
81
5
13
10
3
4
24
611
532
79
156
3
21
11
10
3
13
457
334
123
66
34
1
W OMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES
Estab Wom Estab Wom Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
lish
lish
lish Wom lish Wom lish Wom- lish Wom lish Wom lish Wom lish Wom
en. ments. en. ments. en. ments. en.
ments. en. ments. en. ments. en. ments. en. ments. ments. es
12
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
In all textile mills tlie work day was longer than 9 hours. The
largest number of women in those establishments (2,004) were
scheduled to work 10 hours a day. They formed 57.5 per cent of
the total number working in textile mills. For the second largest
group of women in textile industries (878) the scheduled day was
longer than 10 hours. In garment factories the 8-hour day pre
vailed for 80 per cent of the women employees, the total number so
engaged being 391. The larger stores, 13 employing 611 women,
were open for between 8 and 9 hours a day; the smaller ones, 21
employing 457 women, for 9 hours. In laundries, the operating
hours for 76 per cent of the women were over 8 and under 10 a day.
From the point of view of eliminating fatigue, a measure of the
energy expended in any occupation may enter into a regulation of the
daily hours worked therein. However, it is perhaps more obviously
imperative to establish a maximum number of hours which no woman
wage earner shall exceed, thus providing for time as well as energy
for activities after working hours. If the expenditure rate of ner
vous or physical energy is excessively high in a given occupation it
is obvious that the working hours should be reduced; but even where
work is not overtaxing, in no case should women spend 10, 11, or
12 hours a day in their place of work.
Scheduled weekly hours.
Only 12.6 per cent of the women workers were employed in plants
where the regular weekly operating hours were 48 or under (Table 3).
Over three-fourths of these women workers were in garment factories
or laundries. Only 8.7 per cent of the women in the nine garment
factories surveyed worked on a schedule of more than 48 hours a
week. For 60.4 per cent of the total number of women the weekly
hours were 55 and over. For 753 women, 13.2 per cent of the total
number, the schedule was 60 hours or more. All of the women
employed in textile mills were scheduled to work longer than 48
hours; for 2,193 of the 3,485 women the regular working week was
55 hours, and for 879 it was longer than 55.
\
4
Table 3.—Scheduled weekly hours, by industry.
Number of establishments and number of women whose weekly hours were—
Number
reported.
Industry.
Over 44
and under
48.
44 and
under.
Over 48
and under
52.
48
Over 52
and under
54.
52
54
Over 55
and under
60.
55
60 and
over.
Irregular.2
All industries1.. 128
Per cent distribution. 100.0
5,701
100.0
11
8.6
360
6.3
11
8.6
205
3.6
9
7.0
157
2.8
13
10.2
503
8.8
77
4 162
8
324
7
84
34
44
7
1
91
7
9
2
311
391
Printing and pub-
8
3,485
'681
Yarn
and
twine
Other manufactur-
17
863
34
147
1 072
1
4
17
467
2
32
3
2.3
74
1.3
26 2,251
20.3 39.5
22
17.2
453
7.9
19
14.8
753
13.2
3
25
194
15
26 2,251
3
2
34
2
2
161
19
2
753
34
1
1
2
2
1
169
161
169
21 2,193
12 1,546
1 ' 45
2
1
1
116
16
7
1
718
378
124
1
45
8
216
3
8
6
2
3
10
359
307
52
103
1
1
2
23
18
14.1
656
11.5
304
11
7
3
2
1
1
244
17
227
3
6
2
60
5
2
2
49
178
178
2
2
47
47
4
121
2
66
2
21
i
27
5
3.9
5
4
1
289
5.1
289
262
27
8
602
1
21
17
7
10
3
195
72
123
97
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
EsEsEsEsEsEsEsEsEsEsEsEstab- Wo- tab- Wo- tab- Wo- tab- Wo- tab- Wo- tab- Wo- tab- Wo- tab- Wo- tab- Wo- tab- Wo- tab- Wo- tab- Wolish- men lish- men lish- men lish- men lish- men lish- men lish- men lish- men lish- men lish- men lish- men
lishments
ments
ments
ments
ments
ments
ments
ments
ments
ments
ments
monts
1 Details aggregate more than total because 9 establishments appear in more than one hour group*
2 Not included in total.
Co
14
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
In each industry, although one set of hours prevailed for large
numbers of working women, there was a variation of as much as 10
hours a week in the operating schedules of various plants, which
would indicate that some firms found it feasible to operate on a
shorter workday. The overwhelming majority of plants and working
women whose scheduled hours were more than 48 a week must be
considered in connection with the fact that a large proportion of
these women found themselves confronted with home activities
before and after working hours.
Scheduled Saturday hours.
There is no State regulation in regard to a short Saturday. In
spite of that fact, however, textile mills have generally adopted a
policy that employees shall have the benefit of a half-day. Only
one mill operated 6 hours or more on Saturday, and 36, employing
2,919 women—83.8 per cent of those working in textile mills—
operated less than 6 hours on that day (Table 4). In laundries
the majority of the women worked a schedule of less than 8 hours
on Saturday. In stores, on the contrary, for all women the regular
hours were at least 8. For 585 women, 54.6 per cent of those work
ing in stores, the hours were 10 or more on Saturday, and for 20
women, in three stores, the hours were 12 on that day. The custom
which has arisen, especially in rural communities, of keeping stores
open so that shopping may be done late Saturday afternoon or in
the evening makes the problem of Saturday hours for store employees
a difficult one. There are, however, two solutions which have been
applied successfully. The first and more constructive one has been
a development of public opinion to 'the point of realization that the
slight extra convenience of being able to shop Saturday afternoons
and evenings does not justify the extra fatigue incurred by the store
employees. This point of view has become so general in many cities,
that extra long hours for stores on Saturdays have been abolished
and in many cases the Saturday half holiday for store employees
has been inaugurated. In other localities, where the managements
still find it advantageous to keep stores open on Saturdays, a simple
adjustment of hours so that all employees do not start and end work
at the same time, but so that the full force is on duty during the
hours when business is heavy, has made it unnecessary for any woman
to work excessive hours. This same adjustment has also been found
practical for the busy shopping days of the Christmas period.
t
Table 4.—Scheduled Saturday hours, by industry.
Number of establishments and number of women whose scheduled Saturday hours were—
Number reported.
6 and under 8. 8 and under 10. 10 and under 12.
Under 6.
12 and over.
Irregular.2
Industry.
All industries 1....................................
129
78
9
39
5
17
34
21
13
17
5,703
391
3,485
1 941
681
863
288
1,072
'866
206
467
9
431
61
3,507
9
394
21
742
29
609
5
392
212
44
207
207
95
2
6
1
1
9
1
359
119
227
13
34
3,420
389
2,919
1,615
4.54
850
112
3
4
2
1
1
1
58
8
34
14
4
16
16
2
5
8
8
8
93
487
487
38
87
6
182
4
160
44
565
375
190
4
3
6
23
12
11
1 Details aggregate more than total because two firms appear in more than one-hour group.
2 Not included in total.
3
20
3
1
2
20
4
16
Estab Wom
lish
en.
ments.
2
23
2
23
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES,
Estab Wom Estab Wom Estab Wom Estab Wom Estab Wom Estab Wom Estab Wom
lish
lish
lish
lish
lish
lish
lish
en.
en.
en.
en.
en.
en.
en.
ments.
ments.
ments.
ments.
ments.
ments.
ments.
16
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
Actual hours worked.
The foregoing sections have shown the normal working hours in
the plants surveyed. Figures giving the hours actually worked by
women during the week for which hours and wages were secured are
also significant. It was possible to get this record for only 1,985, or
34.7 per cent, of the women scheduled, as on some pay rolls hours
were not shown for piece workers. Of the women whose actual
hours were reported, 52.5 per cent had worked less than full time
(Appendix, Table I). The fact that over one-half of the women
whose actual working hours were known had worked undertime
indicates that this condition was very widespread at the time of the
investigation. That undertime was extensive as well as wide
spread is shown by the fact that for almost one-tenth of the women
working less than scheduled hours the time lost during the week was
30 hours or more, and for 66.5 per cent of them it amounted to 10
hours or more. Appendix Table II shows undertime classified
according to the normal working hours in plants where it occurred.
For 79.9 per cent of the women reporting time lost the plant hours
were 55 a week or more. In the textile industry, where the 10-hour
day prevailed, about one-half of the 1,507 women for whom hours
worked were reported had worked undertime. The largest number
of them had worked between 10 and 15 hours less than their
regular plant hours. Ninety of them had lost 30 hours or more
during the week. It is impossible in anything short of an absenteeism
study to ascribe relative importance to such causes of lost time as
excessive working hours, shortage of work, sickness of the worker
or her family, or home duties. However, shorter working hours
might have some effect on stabilizing employment by removing
excessive fatigue from the list of possible reasons for irregular workers
who constitute an inevitably disrupting force in industry.
Overtime in the plants surveyed was inappreciable. Of the 1,985
women reporting hours worked, only 8.6 per cent worked more than
scheduled hours. One-third of these worked less than 3 hours over
time. One-third worked 10 hours or more overtime, although their
regular schedules were at least 55 hours a week.
Night work.
For at least 40 years it has been urged by physicians, physiologists,
social workers, labor organizations, and others that night work
should be abolished especially in the case of women, for whom it too
often means a night’s work in the factory and a day’s work in the
home. There were 299 women working on night shifts in the
factories surveyed (Appendix, Table III). All but two of them
worked in textile mills. This number is only 5 per cent of the num
ber of women who worked on day shifts. Of these night working
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
17
women 170 put in 11 hours a night and 55 hours a week. The next
largest number, 78, worked a 12-hour night and 60-hour week. In
nine of the plants there was a lunch period of from 15 minutes to one
hour in length. In the other five plants no time was allowed for
lunch and the girls ate at their machines. In only one plant, employ
ing two women, were there six shifts a week.
Conclusion.
The hours of work for women in Alabama during the period studied
were extremely uneven. The upper and lower limits were widely
variable quantities. Whether there was work to be had four, five
or six days a week was uncertain and consequently earnings were
not to be figured upon in advance. When there was steady work
the majority of the women put in a 10-hour day five days a week and
five hours on Saturdays. Textile manufacturing employed 60 per
cent of the women in the plants visited, and of the 3,020 women
whose regular day was at least 10 hours long 95 per cent worked in
that industry. It is apparent therefore that the textile industry is
largely responsible for the long working day in the State.
Women workers are not in industry because they prefer to earn
and to pay some one else to do their home making. Most of them
find that group of activities awaiting them before they go to work
in the morning and after they come home at night. With no State
standards there is a possibility that plant hours may be regulated
merely fiom the point of view that human energy gives out in a
certain period of time. On the other hand if plant hours are not
excessive, women will enter into their relations as wage earners,
wives, mothers, sisters, friends, and citizens with new mental and
physical health. Probably no industrial condition in the State
cries more loudly and insistently for revision than the length of the
working day.
PART III.
WORKING CONDITIONS.
Fatigue in industry is increased by harmful working conditions as
well as by overlong hours. In reporting on the working conditions
surrounding women in Alabama industries the findings in the factories inspected are measured by standards which tend to lessen
fatigue. In each part of the State there are employers who reason
that their efforts to improve ventilation, posture, lighting, and sani
tation reduce the energy-depleting forces which exist in every job,
result in increased industrial efficiency, and leave the worker with
energy for other activities at the end of her wage-earning day. These
employers are in competition with others in the same localities who
have neglected to consider the importance of conserving the energy
of their employees by these means. This report is not concerned
with placing a certain number of plants in class 1 and the remainder
in class 2. It deals with working conditions from the point of view
of standardization. It therefore considers each condition separately
as it applies in all work places, and relates each of these conditions
to the specifications which would remove certain simple causes of
fatigue.
POSTURE.
The Alabama law regulates seating only in retail stores. It re
quires proper accommodation for sitting and resting for any woman
employed as a clerk or a saleswoman when not actively engaged in
the work of her employment. This is a health regulation designed
to protect one group of women workers. In recent years studies
made by industrial engineers and physiologists have ranked incorrect
posture a prominent factor in the promotion of industrial fatigue.
Therefore to protect the health rights of the individual and also in
the interest of operating efficiency detailed studies and recommenda
tions have been made toward the elimination of incorrect position
at work. Following demonstrations of this connection between
unscientific seating and industrial fatigue chairs designed to meet
health requirements for specific occupations are rapidly becoming
standardized.
In considering posture in industry, occupations may be classified
under three heads, according to whether the worker (1) sits to oper
ate, (2) stands to operate, or (3) sits or stands to operate. The
women who stand to operate work under two different conditions,
continuous standing in one place or walking from one machine to
another, as in the work of spinning, weaving, etc. The operator of a
18
'
>
.
^
19
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
sewing machine sits to operate. The spinner and the weaver must
move from machine to machine. The shirt-front presser in a laundry
can either sit or stand, by having a properly-adjusted chair. The
saleswoman can sit between sales and adjusting stock if the aisle
is wide enough to allow other salespersons to pass and if a chair or
stool is available. The operative whose work is so arranged that it
is possible for her to work either sitting or standing uses her strength
more effectively than the one who sits or stands constantly. In
dustry, realizing the tremendous loss in energy resulting from un
necessary fatigue, is transferring occupations from classes 1 and 2
to class 3. The shift would entail considerable adjustment in
machine, chair, and work table, as well as in building and arrange
ment and will necessarily be gradual.
However, certain minimum seating standards recommend them
selves for all establishments regardless of the ratio existing therein
between sitting and standing jobs. Each woman who sits at work
needs a chair of a height which permits her to operate with least
strain, with a back which supports her spine in moments of relax
ation, with a broad, slightly saddle-shaped seat round edged in
front, and with a foot rest if her feet do not rest squarely on the
floor. Each woman who stands at work needs a chair with a back,
so that in stated rest periods or while waiting for material she may
be relieved and renewed after the strain of standing.
As seating is primarily an occupational study, it is necessary to
discuss findings according to occupation and industry groups. In
the textile mills surveyed a large proportion of the 3,485 women were
employed in occupations in which it was necessary to stand while
at work. The chief occupations in which this condition obtained
are listed in Table 5.
Table 5.—Principal occupations of women employed in textile mills in which women
stood to operate, and type of seat provided.
Number
of plants
Occupations in which women stood to reporting
women
operate.
in speci
fic occu
pation.
Drawing frame..............................................
Speeder......................................,..................
Spinner..........................................................
Spooler...........................................................
Warper...........................................................
Creefer............................................................
Winder...........................................................
16
16
19
34
23
12
11
15
6
5
Number of plants in which the seat provided
was—
Box, bench, or
stool.
Chair.
Ade
Inade
Ade
Inade
quate
quate
quate
quate
number.1 number. number.1 number.
1
2
2
2
3
2
2
1
2
3
4
2
2
1
2
3
3
4
5
2
1
1
1
1
1 Seating was considered adequate if at least 1 seat to 4 standing workers was available.
5
5
5
10
8
5
5
4
2
None,
7
4
5
13
8
2
2
7
3
5
20
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
A very much smaller group of women in the same industry, work
ing as drawing-in hands, loopers, menders, and in some factories
as inspectors, sat at work, and in the plants reporting these occupa
tions chairs with backs were supplied in all cases. The real need
presented by the existence of so vast a majority of women in stand
ing jobs is for provision, where possible, of chairs which operatives
can use while at work. In the meanwhile, in practically all of those
standing occupations there are pauses when the work is running
well, or there is a wait for material, and it is possible for the opera
tive to relax. At such times she needs an accessible chair with a
back. In various mills the girls sat on window sills or leaned against
posts, used the edges of trucks, perched themselves on beams of
cotton thread, or sat on low boxes which they had brought with
them and placed against the wall. Only 1 of the 16 mills employ
ing weavers supplied chairs. Seven of them supplied no seats what
ever. Of the 34 mills employing spinners, 13 did not provide them
with seats. The fact that most of the mills furnished only an occa
sional seat without a back, or no seat at all, for operatives on stand
ing jobs, shows primarily that the enormous waste in human energy
due to incorrect posture had not been realized in that industry.
In power laundries this relation between posture and fatigue had
been even less considered. Except for occasional menders or flatwork catchers the laundry workers stood continuously, more or less
in one spot, and in a majority of cases on a cement floor. Table 6
shows that in 16 of the 19 plants there were no seats for hand ironers
or press operatives. There were no seats whatever for any of the
workers in over two-thirds of the laundries. One of the laundry
operatives interviewed during the course of the survey, a woman
of 36 who had “always worked,” and who had been responsible
for the support of her two young children since the death of her
husband several years earlier, worked all day standing, did her own
family wash at noon, and her cooking, scrubbing, and sewing at
night. She said that although she was thankful for a steady job,
toward the end of the day the cement floor got unbearable, that she
could think of nothing but her feet, and of how soon she could get off
them and into bed.
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
21
Table 6.—-PrineipaToccupations
of women employed in laundries in which women stood
to operate, and type of scat provided.
Number of plants in which the seat provided was—
Number
of plants
reporting
Occupations in wliich women stood to women
operate.
in spe
cific
occupa
tion.
Hand and machine ironers...................
Starchers........................
Flat workers..............
Markers and sorters..............
19
14
2 19
14
Box, bench, or
stool.
Chair.
Ade
Inade
Ade
Inade
quate
quate
quate
quate
number.1 number. number. number.
1
1
1
1
2
1
None.
16
12
Vi
12
* Seating was considered adequate if the ratio was at least 1 seat to 4 standing workers.
In one establishment the flat-work catchers were supplied with a bench which they could use when
folding small pieces.
In stores the chief occupation, salesmanship, is, of course, a stand
ing job. Five of the 34 stores visited supplied seats with backs.
In 13 there were stools in the ratio of 1 or more to every 4 employees,
and in 15 there were stools in the ratio of only 1 to more than 4
employees. One store supplied no seats whatever. Aisles behind
counters wide enough to permit passage back and forth behind the
chairs are necessary to effective seating in stores. However, in
cases where seats are supplied, whether store employees may obviate
posture strain by sitting at times through the day also depends
upon the number of saleswomen in proportion to the trade. The
provision of a seat does not help the situation if there is no time
for, or a sentiment against, its use. However, in Alabama most of
the managers who supplied seats encouraged their use, believing
that it would increase rather than reduce the number and amount
of sales. One man, whose employees had been with him for a long
time, said he knew that they came forward to customers with more
alertness if they had been sitting rather than leaning against the
counter or shelves.
The figures for women in any one occupation in the industries
other than textiles, laundries, and stores are too small to discuss,
except in the case of machine operating in garment factories, which
is, obviously, a sitting job. The nine factories in that industry all
supplied seats with backs.
In 132 factories none of the chairs supplied for women operating
in sitting, or sitting or standing, jobs had been constructed to pro
mote healthful posture. The fact demanding immediate considera
tion, however, is that a large majority of the women in the plants
surveyed stood while at work and that there were almost no seats
provided for their moments of relaxation. The need for construct
ing comfortable chairs and arranging machines or work benches so
22
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
as to permit workers to stand or to sit to operate, *3? the meanwhile
providing seats with backs for women who still must stand while at
work, is clearly apparent.
VENTILATION.
Ventilation is a problem of more than usual difficulty for a State
in the latitude of Alabama. It has an effect on physical efficiency
too direct and immediate to be left entirely unstandardized. Good
ventilation means provision for temperature and humidity rates
which do not interfere with the heat-regulating mechanism of the
body; for movement of air at a stimulating rate; for change of air
at specific intervals, defined in terms of cubic feet per person; and
for removal before it enters the air, of injurious matter created in a
factory process. Technical measurements and analyses of air in
work places would be necessary for a statement as to the number of
women affected by good or bad ventilation in the State. In a general
factory inspection, however, it is merely possible to indicate the
existence of excellent natural or artificial methods of ventilation,
extreme heat or cold, an obviously oppressive humidity rate, and
the presence of excessive dust, lint, or fumes. The inspection sheets
show that bad ventilation and its attendant fatigue had been reduced
in some work places, but that lack of attention to air condition
existed in a number of others, which resulted in some cases in a
serious health menace.
The inclusion of certain brief descriptions from schedules may
prove illuminating. The manager of a large store stated that when
it was planned, “as the temperature is high eight months of the
year ventilation was a major consideration.” A five-aisle floor area
was used and only four aisles were put in, making wide passageways
between counters and a space from 3J to 4 feet wide behind them.
The counter cases were low and not piled with stock; movement
and change of air were provided for by electric fans, windows on all
four sides, and an exhaust pipe and fan; the temperature was 70°.
In a large cotton mill, also, the requirements of good ventilation had
been met when the building was put up. The windows were built
in sections so that they could be adjusted to admit air without
creating a draft. The artificial ventilating system provided for
movement of air, for vacuum strippers to remove lint from cards,1
and for the maintenance of a certain temperature and humidity
range. In these two plants effort had been made to apply the best
that scientific study has brought out in order to conserve the health
of the workers. In certain other establishments it was obvious
that air conditions had not been considered from the point of view
i A satisfactory method for lint removal has not been entirely worked out. The vacuum method used
effectively on cards is said to interfere with the factory processes when used on frames.
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
23
of physical comfort and efficiency. In one laundry there were no
electric fans, exhausts, or heat deflectors over mangles; the windows
and doors were closed; the humidity and heat were stifling; steam
hung in clouds against the ceiling. In another, all laundry processes
were in one room and there was no artificial ventilation whatever.
In a large textile plant the windows were all closed, there were no
electric fans or exhausts, the heat and humidity were oppressive,
and the air was thick with lint. In one coarse-textile mill where
the cards were in the same room as the frames and there was no
artificial method for cleaning machines, the lint lay in rolls on the
floor or circulated like snow in the air. It was kept moving partly
by belts to high overhead shafting and partly by so-called cleaners
who walked between the frames with a piece of cloth on a stick and
flapped it off the floor from around the comers of machines. In a
garment factory machines and work benches were extremely crowded,
shipping boxes were piled in narrow aisles, the windows were closed,
there was no artificial ventilation of any kind, and the workroom
was hot and stuffy.
.
In stores temperature, air movement, and change of air must be
considered in terms of workers plus customers. In one place a
small front section was partitioned off by high stock cupboards and
the only air for the remainder of the long salesroom came from a
high narrow window on the west side; there were no electric fans
or exhausts. In another store there were small high windows front
and back, the aisles were narrow and the counters piled high, there
was no artificial ventilating system, the room was close and warm.
In still another there were no windows in the store, air came from the
front door only, there were no exhausts, and no electric fans. Fatigue
is inevitable when such conditions exist.
Regulation of the temperature and humidity rates in laundries
and cotton mills, both large woman-employing industries, is urgent
in the interest of healthful air conditions in Alabama work places.
The combination of excessive heat and moisture means that body
evaporation is less active, the blood becomes hot, the pulse high,
blood pressure low, and the heart is overtaxed. The ultimate result
is loss of appetite, energy, and power of resistance. In laundries
where the washing and finishing operations were in the same room,
or mangles were without deflectors, or there were no exhaust pipes
or electric fans, the humidity in addition to a high temperature
constituted a decided health hazard. Textile mills also have heat
and moisture to contend with. The fact that a certain degree of
both is essential to factory processes makes regulation all the more
needed as the tendency is to let temperature and humidity rates
rise considerably above the degree necessary to the industry rather
than chance their falling below the safe level.
24
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
LIGHTING.
Lighting, like seating, must be considered in connection with
occupation. To prevent eyestrain it is necessary to determine the
amount of light needed in an occupation according to the visual
discrimination required, measured in foot candles at the work, and
so to arrange that light as to prevent glare, which results when rays
from unshaded sources or by reflection shine in the eyes of the workers.
If illumination is faulty long-continued eye concentration is accom
panied by strain, annoyance, and fatigue. Among the secondary
results of poor lighting are less accuracy, less speed, a higher accident
rate, and more spoilage. Conversely, according to lighting experts,2
the stimulus afforded to production by scientifically lighted work
rooms pays for the installation.
Sufficient natural light, shaded by curtains, awnings, or opaque
glass, in combination with a proper arrangement of work tables or
machines, is the most satisfactory method of preventing eyestrain.
Dirty windows and dark walls and ceilings enter into a consideration
of natural lighting because their existence makes more supplemental
light necessary. A large proportion of the Alabama textile mills
have been built in the last 25 years. The typical mill is an elongated
rectangle, practically window-walled, and partitioned through the
center so as to make a large oblong section at either end. This con
struction provides for natural light from three sides in all work
rooms, and in many plants the window space is increased by monitor
or saw-tooth roofs. In over one-half of the 39 mills visited the glass
in at least the upper half of the windows was opaque or the windows
were curtained. Except in an inappreciable number of cases, the
windows were clean. In the few mills of earlier construction, with
windows narrow, high, and less numerous, natural lighting was
supplemented by artificial at all times. On the whole, natural
lighting was well taken care of in textile mills. In laundries natural
lighting was not so satisfactory. The usual construction was a
deep, one-story room with windows front and back and an occasional
one high up on the side, and a skylight. The fault was with insuffi
ciency rather than with glare. In stores natural lighting was almost
never adequate.
Inadequate natural light taken by itself, however, is not significant,
as it may be correctly supplemented by artificial light. The most
satisfactory artificial illumination is that which most nearly approxi
mates daylight. This condition is secured by general overhead illumi
nation, of the color of sunlight, diffused, steady, and so placed that
direct rays do not shine in the eyes of the workers. In the mills and
J An authoratiYC article on the subject will be found in “A code oflighting factories, mills, and other
work places,” p. 36, issued by the Illuminating Engineering Society, 1922.
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
25
factories covered by this survey artificial lighting for practically all
occupations was general. Inspectors, drawing-in hands, loopers in
textile mills, and sewing-machine operators in garment factories had
general light supplemented by individual light. In one-fourth of the
mills and factories there was glare from artificial light due to in
effective shades or no shades at all. In laundries regulation of
artificial light in regard to the glare, rather than to the amount
provided, was needed. In 17 of the 19 visited the lights were not
shaded. Obvious glare was reported in 14 of them. A particularly
vicious type of artificial lighting is the exposed, unfrosted, unshaded
bulb hung from the ceding on a level with the worker’s eyes. Only
one textile mill of the 39 visited used such a type of unshaded drop
fighting. However, 8 of the 19 laundries were lighted in that way.
In the majority of the laundries it was necessary to supplement
natural light by artificial during a large part of the working day,
and for that reason the annoyance caused by lack of shades and by
the drop-light method was almost constant. General artificial light
ing satisfactory shaded was reported in 32 stores; decided glare
was found in only two cases.
SANITATION.
To insure sanitary toilet, washing, and drinking facilities it is
necessary first to standardize equipment, for the reason that certain
types lend themselves most effectively to being kept clean; second, to
see that there is an adequate number of units of equipment to supply
the needs of all workers; and third, to provide for supervision, because
obviously, equipment and maintenance of equipment are both neces
sary to the desired results.
Toilets.
Equipment.—The health and comfort of the workers are the most
important considerations governing toilet equipment. The following
specifications are made with those two points in mind—separate
toilet rooms for men and women; designation by sex; room equipped
with outside partitions extending to the ceiling, or consisting of an
area independently ceiled over; arrangement which makes it im
possible to see the toilet from the workroom when the door is open;
outside window or system of artificial ventilation; seat surrounded
on four sides so as to insure privacy; floor of smooth, nonabsorbent
material, such as marble, asphalt, cement, tile, or glazed brick.
69374°—24-----3
26
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
Table
7—Insanitary conditions and lack of privacy in toilet equipment, and number of
women affected, by industry.
Toilet equipment.
Number of plants having specified conditions and number of
women affected in—
Total
num
ber of
Manufacturing in
wo
laundries.
Stores.
dustries.
men
em
ployWomen
Women
Women
ees on
affected.
date
affected.
affected.
Num
Num
of in Num
ber of
ber of
ber of
spec plants.
tion.
Num Per plants. Num Per plants. Num Per
ber. cent.
ber. cent.
ber. cent.
Total................................ 5,824
Room not designated............... 2,609
2.932
712
Room not screened...................
957
Seat not inclosed...................... 2,510
Seat inclosed on three sides
555
Floor absorbent........................ 2,165
34
4,214
100.0
6
29
34 1,635
131 12,593
384
14
611
20
37 2,262
.7
38.8
61.5
9.1
14.5
53.7
19
4
6
6
8
531
1,231
12.6
29.2
2
26
79
4
46
100.0
19
488
100.0
596
49
52
87
113
53.1
4.4
4.6
7.8
10.1
3
16
11
14
13
6
39
378
290
276
259
135
8.0
77.5
59.4
56.6
53.1
27.7
24
565
2.1
50.4
i5
369
75.6
1,122
x The 2,219 women in 16 establishments used rooms which were ceiled but had no doors.
Table 7 shows that each of these requirements had been met for at
least 50 per cent of the women workers in plants visited. Nine estab
lishments, employing 68 women, had failed to provide separate toilets
for men and women. In one of these cases the provision consisted of
a dilapidated room with no window and no artificial light, situated
outside in an alleyway. Slightly more than one-third (37.2 per cent)
of the women in the plants surveyed used rooms in which the floor was
of absorbent material, not satisfactory from the point of view of clean
ing. The screening of rooms so that the toilet could not be seen from
the workroom when the door was open had not been attended to in
34 work places, in which 712 women were employed. In one plant a
space had been set off at one side of the workroom by 8-foot partitions
and a few slats placed across the top. Light and air came from the
workroom through the slats. In 39 establishments 957 women were
using toilet rooms in which there was no window or artificial ventila
ting system, and which therefore ventilated into the workrooms.
The need for the establishment of certain minimum standards in
regard to toilet accommodations is more apparent when it is found
that rooms which fell below on one count were also lacking as to four
or five others. For example, in the majority of cases where men and
women used the same toilet the room was not ventilated or screened,
and the floor was of wood.
Adequacy of equipment.—According to the standards of the Women's
Bureau the number of toilets is adequate if one seat is provided for
each 15 persons. Table 8 indicates that this provision existed for
only 45 per cent of the women workers in the plants visited. For the
27
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
other 55 per cent conditions were crowded. This situation means
inconvenience. It also means that any kind of a standard for cleanli
ness is almost impossible to maintain.
Table 8.—Adequacy
of toilet equipment, by industry.
Number of women employees and number of establishments having
equipment as specified.
Number of women employees on date of inspec
tion in—
Number of employees to one
toilet facility.
Number of establish
ments.1
According According
to least
to most
crowded
crowded
condition condition
Laundries.
which
which
obtained
obtained
for at least for at least
1 toilet
1 toilet
facility.
facility.
All industries.
Manufacturing
industries.
Total...........
5,824
4,214
1,122
488
132
132
Not more than 15.
16 but less than 25
25 but less than 50.
50 and over...........
2,632
1,188
1,496
508
2,007
822
1,027
358
415
201
356
150
210
165
113
115
10
6
1
86
22
20
4
Stores.
1 As the facilities in 1 establishment may vary from the least adequate to the most generous, the 132
plants are here distributed in one column according to their most crowded toilet and in the other according
to their least crowded one.
•
In one plant where the proportion was 45 women to 1 facility, a
row of four seats was separated from the work place by an L-shaped
partition about 8 feet high. There was no window and artificial
light was not provided. The place was dirty and disorderly. In
four establishments, employing 508 women, the proportion was 50
or more to 1 facility.
Conditions of equipment.—In 75 per cent of the plants persons had
been assigned and paid to clean the toilet equipment at definite
times. In one plant where the cleaning was thus supervised the
walls of the room were tiled, the floors were concrete and sloped to a
drain, there were large windows set high on two sides of the rooms,
two cleaners were responsible for the sanitary condition, and all the
rooms were in excellent shape. In 39 cases the toilet rooms were
reported as extremely dirty, and in a majority of those plants there
were no regular cleaners. In one plant where drugs were prepared
the toilet room was dark and disorderly, there was no window and
no artificial light, the floor was of wood, and the girl employees
cleaned “when they had time.” In another the floor was never
scrubbed, the girls swept it “about once a week.” In laundries it
was a common plan to leave the cleaning to the girls when they had
nothing else to do. In stores where the public used the toilets the
crowded condition made cleaning standards low. Adequate equip
ment, however excellent, is not enough. Supervision—to provide
28
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
that the plumbing and the rooms are kept clean, that needed repairs
are made, and that supplies are available—is essential to the main
tenance of sanitary toilets.
Washing facilities.
The effect of the condition of the skin upon general health makes the
provision of washing facilities essential in a sanitation program.
An adequate number of washing units equipped with soap, hot and
cold water, and individual towels represents satisfactory equipment.
According to Table 9, 18 of the plants, employing 981 women, or 17
per cent of the total women workers scheduled, provided no washing
facilities whatever. One of the superintendents in this group stated
that there was “no need for a wash place in the plant, the women
tended to that at home.” Only 16 per cent of the remaining plants,
employing 9 per cent of the women, supplied hot water. A little
over one-half of them provided soap.
Table 9.—Washing equipment and number of women affectedby industry.
Washing equipment.
Towels.
Items.
Total.
All industries:
Number of establishments..............
132
Total facilities............................
346
Total women............................. 5,824
Mills and factories:
Number of establishments.......
79
Number of facilities...................
255
Number of women.................... 4,214
Stores:
Number of establishments.......
34
Number of facilities--................
66
Number of women.................... 1,122
Laundries:
Number of establishments.......
19
Number of facilities...................
25
Number of women............
488
Plumb Hot Soap
ing in water sup
sup plied.
repair. plied.
Indi
vid
ual
sup
plied
daily.
No
wash
Indi
ing
vid
ual
equip
Com None ment.
sup
plied mon sup
sup plied.
less
often plied.
than
daily.
Ill
340
4,626
18
73
45
180
517 2,182
9
13
66
6
41
58
18
178
1,355
3,244
981
65
251
3,126
9
24
234
35
110
886
7
10
41
4
16
40
12
37
426
2,811
899
33
64
1,094
4
9
94
31
56
1,055
2
2
24
6
25
141
878
78
13
25
406
5
12
189
7
14
241
1
5
51
12
6
355
82
1 Number of women employees on date of inspection.
More far-reaching than the lack of soap and hot water, however,
is the serious health hazard presented by the use of the common
towel. There is serious risk of contagion when such a carrier is
passed from person to person. In the plants visited 1,355 women
were subjected to that risk; this figure forms 85 per cent of the
women employed in plants where towels were supplied. In stores
78 per cent of the women used common towels and for 7 per cent
none were supplied; in mills and laundries the figures were reversed,
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
29
10 per cent of the women used common towels, while for 73 per cent
in laundries and 67 per cent in mills and factories none were supplied
One foreman in a work place where there were no towels said there
was always something lying around which could be used. This hap
hazard plan may have resulted in even further use of the common
towel than the table indicates.
In places where food is handled washing equipment has a double
significance—protection to the worker and to the consumer. Of the
79 mills and factories visited, 13, employing 131 women, were food
factories. All of these plants had provided washing facilities, but in
a majority of them the equipment was signally incomplete. In 4
plants there was no hot water and in 9 no soap; in 5 there were no
towels, and in 3 common towels were supplied. In one plant provi
sion for washing consisted of an iron sink in a toilet room in which
there was no window, no artificial light, no hot water, no soap, and
nothing in the way of towels. Some persons interested in the manu
facture and distribution of clean food have gone so far as to urge
that food handlers pass not only a physical examination before being
employed hut also a mental test showing that they understand certain
sanitary principles. A knowledge of the danger of contagion is
essential, but it is useless if, as a primary requirement, food handlers
are not supplied with soap, hot water, and individual towels.
Drinking facilities.
Drinking facilities in an industrial plant must provide an abundant,
clean, cool supply of water if they are to measure up to the demands
of modern sanitation. The drinking fountain seems to answer all
these requirements in a most effective way. It eliminates the trouble
some question of cups, there is no waste of water, and the equipment
is fairly simple to provide. It has been proved recently, however,
that unless the jet of water emerges at an angle of at least 15 degrees
from the vertical, there is danger of contagion. This angle provides
that the water does not fall back upon the fresh supply. It is possible
to make the vertical jet fountain conform to these findings. Table 10
shows that one-third of the plants inspected were supplied with
fountains, and in six plants the angle jet type was in use. In more
than one-half of the plants having fountains the water was cooled.
The health hazard connected with the common drinking cup is
well known. This risk existed in 38 of the plants visited. In 39
plants no cup at all was supplied; the girls used their hands, milk
bottles, or tin cans, and in some instances a few had brought cups
which were passed around. Three plants supplied a bucket and
dipper. In one the water was in a barrel which was refilled when
necessary.
30
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
Table
10.—Drinking facilities, by type of container.
Drinking water container.
Tank...............................................................
Number of establishments providing—
Number
of estab
lish
Insani Individ Common
No
ments. Sanitary
tary
bubbler. bubbler.
ual cup.
facility.
cup.
132
6
40
9
38
39
55
24
3
50
6
25
2
4
11
12
13
5
9
10
3
16
116
1 Hydrant supplied primarily tor lactory processes or for washing facilities.
The need for cool water is of more than usual concern for workers in
places where the temperature and humidity rates are high. Seventynine plants provided it at least in hot weather. In 24 cases the cooling
process consisted of the questionable method of placing the ice
directly in the water tank, but in 55 cases the water passed through
an ice coil to the faucet. The sanitary bubbler connected with a
cooler seems to be the effective method of insuring clean, cool water.
In 15 plants drinking conditions were sanitary; 6 supplied angle-jet
bubblers, and 9 individual cups.
LUNCH ROOMS.
Provision for nourishing lunches is another industrial health
measure which has demanded consideration as increasingly large
numbers of employees have become concentrated in single stores or
factories. In small towns and in cotton-mill villages, if the lunch
period is long enough, the workers go home at noon. For those who
stay at the plant through the lunch period, however, an alternative
to eating a cold lunch in the workroom or on the factory steps is
necessary. Twenty-one plants, of which 16 were stores, had pro
vided well-ventilated rooms in which workers might eat and had
equipped them with tables and chairs. Seven of these rooms were
used as lunch rooms only, the others were lunch and rest rooms com
bined. Six plants provided hot food at cost. In addition to the 21
plants in which there were lunch rooms, 12 supplied gas plates.
When the plant is too small to warrant a cafeteria, such cooking
facilities mean a healthful contrast to the otherwise necessarily cold
meal. In 99 of the 132 plants there were no lunch rooms or cooking
facilities.
REST ROOMS.
In regard to rest rooms, the question before plants employing
women is not “Are they necessary?” but “Where can they best be
located and how equipped?” In 97 of the 132 plants visited there
was no place for women to lie down except the floor of the toilet room.
That the floor was so used would indicate the need for a room sup
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
31
plied with, a cot. Thirty-five of the plants, of which 26 were stores,
had provided a rest room. All but one of these rooms were ventilated
by outside windows and 22 were equipped with a cot.
CLOAKROOMS.
Clean, ventilated, conveniently located cloakrooms are needed for
the convenience and protection of the workers. One-half of the
plants visited (66) had provided cloakrooms. In 39 of them there
were seats, 50 were ventilated by an outside window, and 8 were
supplied with individual lockers. Fifteen were dirty and 6 were
extremely overcrowded. In the other 66 plants—those without
cloakrooms—women hung their coats and hats on nails in the work
room in factories or laundries, and under or behind the counter in
stores.
EMPLOYMENT METHODS.
Certain causes of fatigue equally potent though less direct than
those already described—such as lack of adaptation to the job or
fear of losing it—may be eliminated if some one person is put in
charge of plant personnel work. This holds true even in a small
plant. When one person hires, transfers when the worker is not
satisfactory in the job assigned, and discharges, and is in touch more
or less with the employee’s industrial history and outside responsi
bility, there is machinery to provide that the management’s point of
view is correctly interpreted in the plant and that the worker’s point
of view is made known to the management. One hundred and three
of the plants visited used the centralized employment system. In
one there was a full-time employment manager, in the others the
superintendent or one foreman was responsible. Eleven of these
plants kept records, showing among other things the employee’s
experience before entering the plant. In 29 plants the system was not
centralized. When a foreman needed a hand he employed one for as
long as help was required and then fired him. This decentralized
system is obviously wasteful and makes for irregular employment and
a disorganized working force.
HEALTH HAZARDS.
The field of industrial medicine has developed rapidly in the last
decade. Although results in the promotion of workers’ health do
not admit of complete measurement, they are obviously far-reaching.
The activities of a health department in an industrial plant may
include the following: Periodic physical examinations and treatment
of defects requiring attention; diagnosis, curative care, and pre
ventive work in connection with occupational diseases and such
conditions as tuberculosis, hernia, cardiac disease, mental and
nervous disorders, and so forth; plant sanitation- and visiting nurse
32
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
work, including the dissemination of health education as well as
community nursing. Under the head of preventive work might fall
the study and elimination of possible strain involved in certain
occupations, such as foot and knee press work in sewing-machine
operations, laundry foot-power press operating, weight manipulation
by laundry workers, and lifting, reaching, or speeding in various
other occupations, and the effect of incorrect posture and of excessive
heat and humidity in textile mills and laundries.
Although the majority of plants in Alabama were too small to
warrant employing a full-time physician, in some localities the
experiment of combining three or four factories under one man who
gave to each a regular amount of time daily had been found successful.
Nine of the mills studied employed a doctor for part or all of his
time and in 11 there was a registered nurse. In the other places there
was no physician on the pay roll. In the cotton-mill village, where
housing as well as plant sanitation is dependent upon the factory
management, the advice of at least a part-time physician is par
ticularly useful.
Accident hazards.
In the general factory inspection of the plants surveyed no effort
was made to pass on safe and unsafe conditions, but certain obvious
hazards were noted to indicate the need for further efforts to prevent
accidents. In 18 plants at least one elevator shaftway was not
inclosed at floor levels. Uneven or splintered or wet floors were
reported in 23 plants. In 11 there was hazardous crowding of
machines or other equipment. In textile mills the wire-mesh case
extending to a height of 6 feet above the floor for power-transmission
machinery was perhaps the most needed guard. Of 40 plants in
which transmission machinery was reported not inclosed, 23 were
textile mills. Provision made against accident in time of fire may
be noted in Table 11.
Table 11.—Working conditions from the point of view of safety in time offire.
Conditions.
Total.
Equipped with sprinklers.................................
Equipped with fire doors between workrooms
Of more than one story in height.....................
Stairwavs:
Dark (no natural or artificial light)...
Narrow (less than 4 feet wide)............
Winding (triangular treads)................
Handrail defective or lacking..............
Exits:
All opening in...............................................
Part opening in............................................
Obstructed...................................................
Indirect..........................................................
Number of
establish
ments.
132
52
39
101
25
14
6
13
69
41
14
13
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
33
Stairways were reported dark if there was no natural or artificial
light; winding, if the treads were triangular; and narrow, if the width
measured less than 4 feet. In over two-thirds of the plants which
were higher than one story the exits all opened in. In one-fourth of
them at least one stairway was dark. Managements, especially those
with perishable stock, take out fire insurance and conform to the
rides for plant conditions set forth in their insurance policy. How
ever, fire-insurance policies deal chiefly with the safety of product in
time of fire and not with the safety of workers.
Turning from workroom to occupational hazards, we find that
according to insurance rates issued by the State, power laundry occu
pations are estimated the most dangerous in which women are em
ployed. Extractors without covers, and flat-work machines without
a fixed rod which prevents the hand from entering the pressing rolls,
are the most hazardous conditions. Only two plants were reported
in which there were no covers for extractors. The flat-work guard
also had come into common use. The compensation law was less ,
than two years old at the time of the investigation, and records
showing accident severity and frequency by occupation were not
available. It is therefore impossible to ascribe relative accident risk
to unguarded needles and button-riveter machines in garment fac
tories, knives used by snippers in some textile mills to remove waste
from spindles, occasional flying of loom shuttles in weave rooms, and
flat-work machines and hot presses in laundries.
A large number of the plants surveyed were too small to warrant
the employment of a full-tiihe or even a part-time industrial physician.
However, if certain equipment essential to the proper treatment of
injured employees is at hand, it is possible to attend effectively to
minor injuries, and to provide immediate aid for more serious cases
which require surgical care. Eighty-five plants were equipped with a
first-aid kit. Eight of them had provided a separate room in which
to administer treatment. In 47 plants there was no first-aid equip
ment whatever.
Illustrations from plants visited.
By presenting plant conditions separately, one after another, as
each applies through all work places, it has not been possible to
indicate the cumulative effect upon health which exists when several
harmful conditions occur in one establishment. The following sum
maries from plant inspection sheets call attention to the need for
estimating the seriousness of this cumulative effect.
One laundry presented this picture: All women standing at work,
no chairs, wet cement floors, natural light insufficient, low-powered
light bulbs hanging at the eye level of the workers, all fights unshaded,
heat and moisture oppressive. In stores working was a strain where,
34
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
as in one place described, the hours were from 8.30 to 6 on week days
and from 8.30 to 9 at night on Saturdays, no outside opening except
doors in front, no method of artificial ventilation, folding steel stools
under counters with aisle space so meager as to make their use almost
impossible. In a large textile mill the description read: Lint thick
in the air, floors oily and slippery, aisles extremely narrow, machines
crowded, low overhead shafting, no guards on transmission machinery,
noise tremendous, and vibration so great as to shake the floor con
stantly, wrapping paper tacked by girls over windows on east side to
eliminate glare, no seats whatever, drinking facilities a pail and dipper
in the toilet room, toilet plumbing out of order, flushed by a janitor
with a bucket two or three times a day, day shift 6 to 5.30 five days a
week and 6 to 11 a. m. on Saturdays, night shift 12 hours for five
nights a week, women employed on each shift.
In many plants, of course, the opposite situation prevailed, the
working conditions were good throughout and the cumulative effect
was to safeguard health. Standardization in regard to working
conditions throughout the State would provide that the conditions in
such plants would apply for all women in all plants.
35
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
Graph
MEDIAN
WEEK'S
2.
EARNINGS.
WHITE
BY
INDUSTRY
WOMEN
I’//A
-KEY-
Women wor/finy -46hours
or oyer, or SUo/j or orer.
A 11.65
All yeomen, irrespective
of time worked
t 10.40
2431 '4668
/Vo. Women
Industry All
Industries
6 6 S'780
General
Mercantile
12.61590
126'590
Ofhar
Manufacturing
1435
.3232.
>435'5232
TeXt/les
166 '194
5 and 10
cenf stores
PART IV.
WAGES.
The woman in industry works because she must earn, and the
money she receives in return for her time and energy is of crucial
significance to her, because it must be directly applied to the living
expenses of herself and those toward whose support she contributes.
In a consideration of wages it is of primary importance to know the
amount she actually earns each week. The woman worker of to-day
is tied to industry not as the young sister or daughter of a brother
or father but as an individual. She plays her part as a producer in
a cooperative industrial unit, giving her time and energy for the
entire working day, and when she goes home she and the other
members of her family group cooperate as consumers. She is not
working for spending money for herself, nor are her earnings sub
sidiary to those of a chief breadwinner, welcomed merely as extras
to the budget. Her wages go in as a substantial part of the com
posite family income. Dependency studies in various industrial
communities have shown that in an appreciable number of cases
women’s earnings constitute the entire budget. The single woman
is found supporting a mother or father or both; the married woman
supporting the family during absences of the husband from work;
the widowed mother, or other woman with disrupted marital rela
tions, supporting her children. In a larger number of cases the
woman worker shares with other wage earners the financial support
of her family group. The married woman and her husband and
oldest child work, and the other children go to school; the widowed
mother has the assistance of a sister or father in the support of her
children; the single woman and her brother and father earn, and the
mother and younger sisters and brothers stay at home. In any
case the prevailing type of woman worker contributes to the sup
port of others than herself.1
That as a wage earner she is an individual, and an individual with
appreciable responsibility to dependents, must be kept in mind in
connection with a consideration of the wage scale in operation for the
industrial woman. In industry generally there are two groups of
1 For a compilation of existing material in regard to the share of wage-earning women in family support
see U. S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau, Bulletin 30.
36
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
37
workers—those who are employed in occupations in which perfor
mance depends upon training, experience, and length of service and
those who are employed in occupations for which the learning period
is short. The second group is larger numerically, and it increases
slowly but steadily with increased efficiency in machine building.
Performance demands a certain output of physical energy, but the
newcomer is very quickly as capable of producing the quantity and
quality required per day as is the older worker. There is no great
premium on experience. Obviously rates of pay for the occupations
in this second group range at the lower end of the wage scale. In a
study of the occupational opportunities open to women in industry,
it is of interest to analyze the work and rates of pay of the smaller
number of women in group 1 who are earning their way in what
may be called skilled work. But in a wage survey it is of primary
concern to ascertain the prevailing rates of pay for all women accord
ing to industry rather than occupation. Such figures will show
whether women in certain industries, or in certain plants in one
industry, or in certain localities, are earning at least the amount
essential to a decent and healthy existence. The wage scale is
shifted by various influences; occupation rates rise and fall, but the
powerful factor of social consequences must take precedence in
determining that minimum wages shall at least equal minimum
living expenses.
The wage figures presented in this report show the earnings of the
5,625 women for whom earnings were reported in the 131 plants
visited for a representative week in January, 1922, the earnings of
women in the same plants for a representative week in January, 1921,
and the earnings of from 15 to 20 per cent of the women employed
in the plants in January, 1922, for the whole of the 52-week period
intervening. In selecting the week in 1922 for which earnings were
secured, care was taken that it should be representative of the usual
hours of the firm and that it should not contain a holiday. If a
plant had been running undertime for several months, a week was
chosen in which not more than the usual number of hours had been
lost. It seemed important to take into consideration a possible
difference in standards which might prevail in Birmingham, the
largest industrial center in the State, and other localities which
were included in the survey. However, the differences shown by
the tabulation appear to be due to the character of the industries
included, so the figures for the separate localities have no great
comparative significance. Of the 5,625 women in the plants sched
uled, 4,868 were white and 757 were negro workers. Because occu
pations and rates varied to a marked degree between the two groups
their earnings are presented separately.
38
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
Cost of living.
One of the many elements to be considered in a study of wages is
the relation between the lowest figures on the cost of living scale
and the lowest figure on the wage scale. Is a budget based on the
minimum living expenses of an individual woman worker higher or
lower than the minimum wages for women in a community? One
factor in the measurement of the competency of the business manager
is his ability to operate successfully and at the same time to main
tain an adequate wage scale for his employees. A community can
not permit its women to work full time and make less than enough
to live on. The ultimate social consequences in terms of mental
and physical family health loom in too threatening a way. Because
there are woman-employing occupations in some industries in which
excessively low rates prevail, it has been found effective in 13 States
and in certain Canadian Provinces to establish a board composed of
employers, employees, and the public, which shall keep itself in
formed as to minimum rates and minimum living expenses and
provide that the former shall at least equal the latter. This method
of setting minimum wages has recently been declared unconstitutional
in the District of Columbia by the Supreme Court of the United
States. It is not certain what effect the decision will have on mini
mum wage legislation in other localities. Nevertheless, the social
philosophy back of this method of setting wages has been accepted
by many persons, and no study of wages is complete which does not
compare earnings with the actual cost of living.
Cost of living figures for Alabama are not available for the period
studied; however, the figures set by minimum wage commissions
in other States may be of some interest. These figures are based on
an estimated subsistence budget for an individual woman worker.
Rates set for experienced workers vary according to the date of
the final ruling rather than according to the location of the State or
the length of its industrial history; so the figures seem not out of
place in connection with Alabama wages. The later rates, based
on the cost of living in recent years, are most significant. The
range provided extended from $10.25 to $16.50 in the States in which
the rate has been set since January, 1921. These figures represent
a wage which was expected to cover a bare minimum of living ex
penses for one week.
Methods of payment.
The two systems of wage payment, output, and time worked, were
found in about equal proportions among the women workers scheduled;
2,939 of them worked on a piece-rate basis and 2,487 on time rates
(Table 12). Among the white women, 61.5 per cent were piece
workers and 38.5 per cent time workers; among the negro women,
91.6 per cent were time workers and 8.4 per cent piece workers.
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
39
Table 12.—Basis of wage payment among women for whom method of pay was reported,
by industry.
Number of women whose basis of pay
ment was—
Industry.
Number
of women
reported.
Time worked.
White.
Negro.
Output.
White.
egro.
Total................................................................
5,426
1,800
687
2,876
63
Manufacturing industries..........................................
Food......................................................................
Garments..............................................................
Printing and publishing.........................................
Textiles..............................................................
Cotton goods......................................................
Knit goods.........................................................
Yarn and twine................................................
Other manufacturing..............................................
Stores...............................
Laundries.........................................................
3,915
102
333
29
3,311
1,904
572
835
140
1, 022
489
755
39
9
29
592
414
44
134
86
973
72
226
11
2
2,876
26
321
58
26
1
203
181
1
21
10
49
412
2,485
1,282
31
27
676
44
Practically all of the laundry operatives (99 per cent) were paid
time rates. In that trade the amount of work to be done weekly
remained a fairly constant quantity. The women were paid on a
six-day basis and, if in any week they had a heavier load than normal,
they stayed on Saturday afternoon. In any case they left on Satur
days when they finished the work. On that week-rate basis of com
pensation the women were able to plan their expenses ahead because
they knew what they could count on if they worked full time.
All the store employees were paid on the time basis. Certain
managers, however, had worked out methods by which, in addition
to a straight week rate, the saleswoman received a premium or bonus
figured on the amount of her sales if they exceeded a certain figure,
on the sale of certain kinds of merchandise, or on length of service
with the company.
Of the 3,915 women in manufacturing industries, 2,934, or 74.9 per
cent were paid on a straight piece-rate basis, and the time-rate
method functioned for the remaining 981. In textile mills which
formed so large a part of the manufacturing group, the proportions
were nearly the same, 76 per "cent operating on a piece-rate basis.
Frame operatives, including speeders and spinners, were returned as
piece workers, but they offered a variation from the straight piecerate system. The flow of production depended upon the frame speed
and upon the efficiency of the operative in keeping her spindles revolv
ing for the maximum amount of time in her 10-hour day. She was
paid in “side hours,” that is, according to the number of hours she
worked on her given number of sides or frames, and if she could tend
more sides she raised her rate. To this extent the frame operative
was on a production basis.
Of the various methods of payment, the straight piece-rate type is
the least defensible. In addition to the emphasis on speeding which
40
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
occurs in any method of payment based on production rate, the opera
tive is not rewarded in proportion to effort. Large production is
recompensed at the same rate as small. The overhead cost is reduced
and the profit per piece is thereby increased, but the rate paid remains
the same. Either of two systems may prove satisfactory from the
point of view of the worker and of the management: (1) A time rate
based on the work involved in each occupation, and considering also
the length of the learning period, the fatigue incurred (through
working under such conditions at a very high or very low tempera
ture, a high humidity rate, or great eye concentration), length of
service, regularity of attendance, and quality of work, such a rate
increasing with the operative’s increased efficiency; or (2) a payment
system by which a considerable part of the wage is paid on this same
basis, with extra compensation for improvement of output over the
standard rate.
Earnings of white women workers.
Week's earnings, January, 1922.—Even as late as the period for
which records of earnings were secured, January, 1922, industry
throughout the United States had not recovered from the paralysis
which followed the World War. In Alabama there was extensive
unemployment in the iron and steel industries, the largest employers
of labor in the manufacturing group in the State, and in industries
employing women workers the situation was also acute. In textile
mills the depression had resulted in undertime employment, obviously
more easily borne than shutdowns and complete idleness. In connec
tion with the earnings of textile workers, it should be borne in mind
that all but three of the mills scheduled furnished houses for their
employees at an average weekly charge of 25£ cents a room.2 With
complete unemployment or, at best, rate cuts, affecting large
numbers of wage earners, buying was below normal, and retail stores
though they operated full time had reduced their forces. Fewer people
were affording steam laundries, and the latter found themselves in
more than usually strong competition with laundresses who offered
their services more cheaply at home. With these conditions in mind,
correlations between earnings and time worked, particularly in manu
facturing plants and in laundries, warrant careful study. However,
although from the standpoint of the industry, the community, and
the worker herself, qualifying factors in regard to women’s wages
require consideration, her actual earnings are of first importance, as
portraying certain problems which face women wage earners during
a period in which some undertime is inevitable.
a For a more detailed presentation of the mill village system see p. 65.
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
41
Table 13.—Week’s earnings, by industry, January, 1922 (white women).
Number of women earning each specified amount in—
Manufacturing industries.
Week’s
earnings.
All
in-
Stores.
Textiles.
Print
ing
tries. ufac- Food. Gar and
ments. pub All Cotton Knit Yarn
tur
lish tex goods. goods. and
ing.
ing. tiles.
twine.
All
Total......... 4,868 3,822
65
Median
earnings.. $8. 80 $8.30 $9.10
Under $4... 494
$4 and un
der $6__ 601
$6 and un
der $8__ 891
$8 and un
der $10... 1,036
$ 1 0 and
under $12 681
$12 and
under $15 589
$ 1 5 and
under $18 308
$18 and
under $25 187
$25 and over
81
359
29 3,232
1,729
671
$9.95 $17.30 $8.15
*8.70
$6.85
449
2
21
551
12
33
780
11
60
837
13
515
1
832
Other
Gen
Laun
dries.
eral
All
10
ufac- stores.
mer cent
tur
can
ing.
tile. stores.
137
974
780
$7.60 $7.85 $11.00 $12.45
72
194
$8.05 *11.00
405
159
119
127
20
41
28
13
4
473
177
147
149
33
42
17
25
8
1
691
373
144
174
17
102
45
57
9
67
1
742
448
131
163
14
194
124
70
5
12
43
7
440
270
66
104
13
152
131
21
14
415
13
54
3
327
200
45
82
18
153
148
5
21
177
2
SI
5
103
65
15
23
w
125
125
27
3
10
1
45
6
33
4
4
8
2
6
95
70
93
69
88
10
6
2
1
4
1
The median of the week’s earnings of the 4,868 women for whom
wage data were recorded was *8.80; that is, one-half of them earned
less than and one-half more than that amount during the week
studied (Table 13). Over half of the total number of women earned
between $6 and *12 for the week, and 21.3 per cent earned between
*8 and $10. The prevailing standard of wages for each industry is
indicated by the figures showing the median of earnings which ob
tains in each. Placing the industries included in the survey in
descending order according to the median of week’s earnings pre
vailing therein, they stand as follows:
Industry.
Number of
women.
Median
earnings.
All industries.....................................................................
4, 868
$8.80
Printing and publishing..............................................................
General mercantile.......................................................................
Laundries.......................................................................
Garments...............................................................................
Food products................................................................
Cotton goods........................................................
5-and-10-cent stores......................................................................
Yarn and twine............................................................................
Knit goods....................................................................................
29
780
72
359
17.30
12 45
69374°—24----- 4
65
1, 729
194
832
671
n on
9 95
9 10
8 70
8.05
7.60
6.85
42
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
The highest median, $17.30, is based on the earnings of only 29
women in printing and publishing plants. Printing and publishing
is one of the smaller woman-employing industries in Alabama,
approximately 196 women being so engaged in 1919,3 but an appre
ciable number of women employees did skilled work and were well
paid for it. Probably few of them would be included in a considera
tion of minimum rates and minimum living expenses. Among sales
women and wrappers and cashiers in general mercantile stores, the
median was $12.45, which was $3.65 higher than the median for all
industries. In 5-and-10-cent stores, with a force made up of younger
girls with less experience, the median was $8.05. The laundry
median ($11) stands $2.20 higher than the prevailing median for all
workers. The white women in that trade were for the most part
markers and sorters, more highly paid than women in other laundry
occupations.
In comparison with the earnings of women in the three industry
groups just discussed there is a distinct drop to the levels obtaining
among women in manufacturing industries other than printing and
publishing. The highest median ($9.95) was found among garment
factory workers. The men’s and women’s clothing industry is
organized throughout the country and is employing an increasing
number of women in proportion to men.4 The median ($9.95) is
$1.65 higher than the median for the manufacturing industries taken
as a whole.
The median wage in textile industries varied from $6.85 in knit
goods manufacturing, through $7.60 in the making of yarn and twine,
to $8.70 in cotton-goods manufacturing. Because the figures in this
table showing actual earnings of all women regardless of time worked
are of interest chiefly as indicating the amounts above which living
costs can not go, it is necessary to recall the fact that living costs
may be lower for women in the three textile groups than for those
in other industries. The majority of the women textile workers
lived in mill communities where houses were supplied at almost
nominal sums by factory managements.
Earnings and time worked.
Actual earnings are of primary importance to the individual wage
earner. An adequate consideration of wage levels, however, requires
figures showing time worked in connection with wages. It is im
portant also to bring out the facts showing earnings for full-time
workers. Only by including these correlations is it possible to indi
cate State standards in regard to wages paid.* *
* U. S. Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census. Manufactures, 1919, Vol. IX, Table 32, p. 42.
* There were 270,278 women workers so engaged in the United States in 1919 as against 246,204 in 1909,
and 164,004 men in 1919 as against 167,971 in 1909. U. S. Bureau of the Census, Thirteenth Census. Manu
factures, 1910, Vol. VIII, Table 6, pp. 680 and 682. U. S. Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census.
Abstract Census of Manufactures, 1919, Table 210, p. 395.
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
43
Unfortunately it was not always possible to ascertain hours worked
for piece workers. In some cases where hours were not shown, howGraph 3
WEEK’S
EARNINGS
BY
INDUSTRY-WHITE
WOMEN
-KEY-
EZJ
Under
# 8 andUndergo
t==J
t=d
uiiiuu
t_J
$
# I/Oand
Oondunder
under &i?
&J2
\ < and under &/$
4^<n5 and over
I53Z-
iO o O D N
Wontzn
Tndusfry
AH
Industries
ai w o s t
10 T t << in
iO N * "5
7sx///es
in u> <0
0) N CO N
Ofhe-r
Sd21?
G<zne.rot
Manufacturing Mercantile.
0) N.
«3 O
5 one/’JO
Cent Stores
ever, the pay roll showed the number of days on which each woman
worked. For 76.4 per cent of the 4,868 women for whom earnings
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
44
were secured, it was possible to obtain the time which had been spent
in earning the week’s wage. For 2,247 of them the time was stated
in hours and for 1,473 in days. The earnings of these 3,720 women
are correlated with time worked in Appendix Table IV. For 23.6
per cent of the women for whom wages were recorded neither days
nor hours worked were obtainable.
Of the women whose time was recorded in hours, 655 (29.1 per
cent) worked less than 44 hours during the week scheduled. The
earnings of these women are indicative of the situation among part
time workers, but for normal wage standards it is necessary to turn
to the figures for the 1,592 women who had worked 44 hours or
more. Among that group consistent increase in earnings did not ac
company increased hours of work. The median of earnings for the
1,289 women working 48 hours and over was $10, and $10 was the
median of earnings for the 650 women in the 55-hour group. The
$12.80 median of earnings among the 48-hour workers was the high
est median of any hour group. Table 14 shows the effect on earnings
of increases in hours of work.
Table 14
.—Effect on earnings of three-hour increases in hours worked (white women). '
"Number of women earning each specified amount who worked—
Number
of
30 33 36 39 42 45 48 51 54 57 60 63 66 69 72 75 78
Week’s earnings. wom Un and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and
en der un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un
re 30 der der der der der der der der der der der der der der der der der
port hr
81
s. 33 36 39 42 45 48 51 54 57 60 63 66 69 72 75 78 hrs.
ed.
hrs. hrs. hrs. hrs. hrs. hrs. hrs. hrs. hrs. hrs. hrs. hrs. hrs. hrs. hrs. hrs.
Total..................... 2,247 265
Under $4..............
$4 and under $6.. $6 and under $8...
$8 and under $10..
$10 and under $12.
$12 and under $14.
$14 and under $16.
$16 and over.........
71
77
9
193 147 12
273 — 39 32
hr
476 35
6
2
543 26
3
1
2
332
110
3
87
95 109 254 252 108 705
2
26
31
11
6
3
7
4
36 17
76 61
90 65
-27- nr
13 26
4 26
1 16
5
7
25
34
21
6
2
13
25
32
TT
1
1
9
9
23
30
19
12
7
8
3
29
112
196
156
95
62
52
56 144
10
19
1
24
39
IT
~TT
6 25
1
2
14
9
14
3
....
1
4
2
1
5
5
1
1
2
2
1
__
1
1
2
1
....
__
Considering first the women who did not work full time we find
that, among the 958 women who had worked less than 48 hours
during the week, as the amount of lost time decreased there was a
consistent rise in the amount of earnings. The earnings’ peak (the
wages earned by the largest group of women in each hour classifica
tion) was under $4 for those working less than 30 hours, $4 and
under $6 for those working 30 and under 36 hours, $6 and under
$8 for those working 36 and under 42 hours, $8 and under $10 for
those working 42 but less than 48 hours. This progressive rise in
earnings did not continue, however, for the women who worked a
full week. Beginning with the 48-hour workers, the high point on
the wage curve in each hour group remained at $8 and under $10,
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
45
irrespective of whether the hours had heen 48 or 62 during that
time. These facts are particularly striking as the women for whom
actual hours were recorded were, in the main, time workers, paid
by the hour rather than on an output basis. The number of women
working longer than 62 hours is too small to be of significance for
comparative purposes, but the fact that economic necessity forced
even an unappreciable number of women to work such excessive
hours, over half of them earning only between $8 and $12 a week,
has a bearing upon the need for standardization. The statement
which is sometimes made, that women will be discriminated against
if they are not able to compete for the higher earnings possible on
long hour shifts, is not substantiated by these figures. Rather, the
fact that there is not a proportionate increase in the earnings of
time workers with increased hours of work means that individual
competing plants have varying standards. Some managements,
although they operate on shorter hour schedules, evidently com
pete successfully with others who have longer schedules but an
inappreciable variation in pay.
The 1,473 women whose time was reported in days were largely
piece workers. Of that number 22.5 per cent had worked on less
than five days during the week scheduled and their earnings are
of significance only as indicating problems confronting undertime
workers (Appendix Table IV). Among the remaining 1,142 women,
the median of the earnings of those who worked on five days was
$7.65 and the median for those who worked on six days was $12.
These figures showing the earnings of women whose time worked
was reported in days have no value in an estimate of the relation
between earnings in long and short hour plants. They merely
show the number of days on which the women worked; whether
the day was 8, 9, 10, or 11 hours long was not specified. While some
workers reported as employed 6 days worked 48 hours during the
week, others reported as working 5} days worked 55 hours. Hence
some of the 5J-day workers actually worked 7 hours longer during
the week than did some of the 6-day workers. The facts showing
the effect on wages of increased hours of work have heen presented
in Table 14.
It is of especial interest in a consideration of wages to know the
median of earnings among full-time workers according to industry,
in order to determine the wage levels in effect under more or less
normal conditions. As there is no arbitrary line of demarcation in
regard to normal working hours in the State, the women are here
considered to have put in practically a full week if they had worked
48 hours or over, or on 5 days or more, during the week scheduled.
On that basis, 65.3 per cent of the 3,720 women for whom time
records were secured had worked practically full time and the
46
WOMEN IN' ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
median of their earnings was $10.40; that is, one-half of them earned
more and one-half earned less than that amount during the week
(Table 15.)
Table
15.
Week’s earnings of women who worked 48 hours, and over or on 5 days and
over, by industry, January, 1922 (white women).
Number of women earning each specified amount inManufacturing industries.
Week’s earning.
All in
dustries. All man
ufac
turing.
Total....................
Median earnings.,
2,431
$10.40
1,561
$9.90
Under $4..............
$4 and under $6...
$6 and under$8...
$8 and under $10..
$10 and under $12.
$12 and under $15.
$15 and under $18.
$18 and under $25.
$25 and over.........
25
24
90
266
41'8
319
278
103
56
7
111
361
606
462
431
219
139
77
Food.
36
$10.65
Gar
ments.
17
$9.90
Textiles.
Printing
and pub
lishing. All tex Cotton
tiles.
goods.
1,435
$9. 80
C1)
804
$10.25
23
90
251
394
292
250
2
9
126
240
184
154
56
29
88
41
6
4
Number of women earning each specified amount in—
Manufacturing industries.
Stores.
Week’s earnings.
Textiles.
Knit
goods.
Total.....................
Median earnings..
204
$8.75
Other
manu
Yarn and facturing.
twine.
427
$9.40
Under $4...............
$4 and under $6__
$6 and under $8__
$8 and under $10...
$10and under $12..
$12 and under $15..
$15and under $18..
$18 and under $25..
$25 and over..........
64
$12.00
All
stores.
General 5-and-10mer
cent
cantile.
stores.
834
$11.50
$12.65
191
94
187
132
140
40
117
110
82
69
668
16
111
135
110
80
68
166
$8.35
Laun
dries.
36
$12.35
2
1
1
11
13
6
1
1
1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.
Manufacturing industries employed 1,561 of these full-time workers
and the median in that group was $9.90. Among the 834 wage
earners in retail stores the median was $11.50. The median for the
36 laundry workers was $12.35; as the large majority of power
laundry workers were negroes the significant median wage in that
trade will be found in connection with the earnings of negro women
workers which are presented separately in this report. The bulk of
the full-time workers in all industries, 76.5 per cent, earned between
$6 and $15; in each industry group those figures represented the
prevailing earnings except in the case of general mercantile stores,
47
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
where there was a considerable percentage of women who earned
between $15 and $18. Forty-four per cent of the full-time workers
earned between $8 and $12 during the week.
The industries in which the 2,431 women who had worked full
time were employed arranged in descending scale according to the
median earnings in each, stand as follows:
Industry.
Number of
women
working 48
hours or
more or on
five days
or more
during the
week.
Median
earnings
for week's
work.
2,431
$10.40
668
36
64
36
804
17
427
204
166
9
12.66
12.35
12.00
10.65
10.25
9.90
9.40
8.75
8.35
0)
1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.
A comparison of median earnings for all women with those for
women who worked full time indicates that there is a greater increase
in the textile median than in that of any other industry group; that
is, undertime accounted in part for the low earnings prevailing at
the time of the survey in that large woman-employing industry.
Earnings and experience.
Wage fluctuation in relation to length of service shows the value of
stability in terms of earnings. The median of the earnings for the
2,680 women who reported on length of service rose steadily from the
beginners up to the group of women who had worked from 10 to 15
years in their trade (Appendix, Table V). There were 281 women
in that latter group, forming 10.5 per cent of the total, and the
median of their earnings ($11.75) was nearly double the $6.15 median
of the 238 women who had worked less than 6 months. There ap
peared to be a slight falling off in earnings after 15 years of service,
the median for the women so reported being less than the figure for
48
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
those who had worked from 10 to 15 years, though higher than that
of any group with less than 10 years experience. These figures indi
cate that an upward wage trend was coincident with stability. The
beginning rate and also the length of service required to earn the
maximum rate differed according to industry. But whether the per
cent of increase with experience was small and spread over a long
time, whether it was small and received very quickly, or whether
length of service in itself assumed a definite position in setting wage
increase, in any case there was a premium oil experience.
Earnings and rates.
Weekly rates for time workers indicate the standards in regard to
full-time pay which prevail in a community. As plant or department
EXPERIENCE
AND MEDIAN
EARNINGS
WEEK'S
Under 6morfJ/5 I year 2 years 3years 4years £years JOyears /5years 20years
e,rmthK and under, and
and .
and
and
and
and
and
and
/year.
under?. under3. under4. underS. Under/O. under/£. under20, oyer.
(juomen&O
eOO
27/
355
251
204
530
20/
/*&
/SS
shutdowns and absences for personal reasons affect the earnings of
time workers, a comparison of weekly rates with week’s earnings is
also significant as showing something of the extent of the influence
of lost time on wages during the period studied. Among the 1,765
women for whom time rates were recorded the median of weekly rates
ranged from $8.25 to $17.70, according to industry (Appendix,
Table VI). The median rate for a full week’s pay among all women
irrespective of industry was$10.20; that is, one-half of the timeworkers
were scheduled to make more than that amount and one-half to
make less for a week’s work.
49
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
The median of the actual earnings of the 1,765 women for whom
time rates were reported was $9.75, only 45 cents less than the median
rate, so the element of lost time influenced time workers’ earnings to
the extent of only 4.4 per cent during the week studied. Among the
739 women engaged in manufacturing industries, the median rate
was $9.20, 85 cents higher than the median of actual earnings. In
the textile industries, the median rate for a full week’s work was $9,
45 cents higher than the median of actual earnings. Median earnings
were $1.25 less than median rates in knit-goods manufacturing;
and in that industry the median rate for a full week’s work was $8.25,
a figure from which any deduction told most seriously. Among the
workers in mercantile stores the median for earnings, $12.45, coin
cided with the median for rates; premiums and commissions for
effective salesmanship in certain departments balanced the element
of lost time. Arranged in descending scale according to the median
weekly rate for time workers, the industries stand as follows:
Industry.
All industries............................
Printing and publishing.....................................
General mercantile...............................
Laundries..............
Food products................................
Yarn and twine.................................
Cotton goods.............................................
5-and-10-cent stores..................................
Knit goods................................................
Garments.............................
Number of
timeworkers.
Weekly
rate.
Week's
earnings.
1,765
110. 20
$9.75
20
780
56
38
134
411
190
17.70
12.45
12.10
10.55
10.45
8.90
8.45
8.25
f1)
17.30
12.45
11.00
10.20
8.60
8.05
8.10
7.00
(‘>
6
1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.
Year’s earnings, January, 1921, to January, 1922.—Earnings for
one week correlated with industry, time worked, experience, and
rates present a fairly detailed cross section of the economic situation
as it affected women wage earners in Alabama early in 1922. This
cross section includes figures showing earnings as affected by lost
time. However, although in choosing the week to be recorded in each
plant effort was made to select the most normal one in January in
regard to operating hours, plant or department shutdowns may have
figured more or less largely in connection with the annual income.
The possibility of rate increases or cuts over a 12-month period also
enters into the situation. For these reasons it is impossible to esti
50
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
mate a priori that annual income will equal a week’s earnings multi
plied by 52. To discover the general average of earnings prevailing
over a year’s time, records were taken of each week’s earnings over a
YEAR’S
EARNINGS -
BY
mm
Y777L
E=iH
llllllll
I ~1
INDUSTRY
-KEYUnder &4C°
£-400 and underf&o o
600 and under & Boo
dt300 and under &/ooo
4/000 and. over.
Textiles
period of 12 months from January, 1921, to January, 1922, for
17 per cent of the women for whom the one-week pay-roll information
was secured. These women were chosen, with the help of the man
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUS TRIES.
51
agement, from the experienced steady workers in each occupation and
their earnings indicate wage opportunities for fairly regular employees.
Although effort was made to select steady workers, it was not possible
to eliminate entirely the element of lost time; 80.3 per cent of those
for whom records were secured had worked between 46 and 52 weeks
during the 12-month period.
Year’s earnings were recorded for 961 women in manufacturing
industries, stores, and laundries, and $502 was the middle point in
the scale of wages received (Appendix Table VII). Eighty women
earned less than $300, and 66 made $900 or over, but they were
exceptional cases; 71.2 per cent of the women earned between $300
and $700 for the year. In the manufacturing industries, year’s
earnings were recorded for 734 women. The median in that group
was $472. Among the 634 women in the textile manufacturing
group the median was $453. Among the 208 women employees
in retail stores, half earned less than $668 for the year. In general
mercantile stores the middle figure was $731 during the 12-month
period, and in 5-and-10-cent stores it was $438. Among the 19
white laundry workers the median was $675. Dividing $502, the
median of year’s earnings of all women workers irrespective of
industry, by 52 weeks gives $9.65 as the equivalent of one week’s
earnings, which is 75 cents less than the median earnings of approxi
mately full-time workers, and 85 cents more than the median earn
ings for all workers regardless of time lost, during the scheduled week
in January, 1922.
In Table 16 the industries in which 52-week records were secured
are listed in descending order according to the median of year’s
earnings obtaining in each.
Table
16.—Actual and estimated year’s earnings, by industry, 1921-22 (white women).
Median year’s earn
ings of steady
workers1
(52week records).
Industry.
Estimated year’s
earnings of all
workers (based
on median earn
ings of one week
in January, 1922).
Number
Median Number Median
of
of
earnings.
women.
women. earnings.
Total.......................................
General mercantile.................
Garment manufacturing......
Laundries...............................
Knit-goods manufacturing..............................
Cotton-goods manufacturing........... ..............................
961
$502
4,637
$458
172
70
19
112
353
169
36
731
683.
675
459
456
440
438
780
359
72
671
1,729
832
194
647
517
572
356
452
395
419
1 Of the 961 women reported upon, 80.3 per cent had worked at least 46 weeks during the year.
52
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
The medians of year’s earnings among steady workers are very
little higher, industry for industry, than the annual earnings of all
workers estimated from the median of week’s earnings in January,
1922. In cotton-goods manufacturing, employing 38 per cent of the
women, the difference between the two is only $4 for the year; for
women in all industries the difference is $44; the greatest difference
between the two is $166, occurring in the garment industry. So it
would seem that the more comprehensive figures for the week recorded
in January, 1922, can be accepted as fairly indicative of the wage
opportunities throughout the year for women in Alabama industries.
Earnings of negro women workers.
A larger proportion of negro than of white women were working
for wages in Alabama in 1920,5 but by far the greatest number of
the negroes were engaged in agriculture and in domestic and personal
service, which accounts for the fact that only 13.5 per cent of the
5,625 women for whom data were secured in the survey were negroes.
They were employed chiefly in power laundries and as cleaners in
stores and factories. The war-time scarcity of labor had opened
certain occupational opportunities to negro women for the first time,
but their lack of industrial experience was accompanied by low wage
standards. The interdependence of women workers requires that
standards set forth for women in industry should apply to all working
women without regard to race; but because in the plants studied
the negro women employees formed a distinct group in regard to
wage levels, their earnings are presented separately.
Week's earnings.—The actual earnings of the 757 negro women for
whom wage records were secured are shown in Table 17. Six dollars
and five cents represents the median of week’s earnings for all women
workers, irrespective of industry; in other words, one-half of them
earned more and one-half earned less than that amount during the
week recorded. A larger number of negro women were employed in
power laundries than in any other industrial group, and the median
of week’s earnings in that trade was $6.10. The remaining 340 women
were employed chiefly as cleaners in factories and stores, the median
of earnings in the manufacturing group being $5.80 and in stores $6.80
for the week. Approximately 80 per cent of the negro women earned
between $4 and $8 during the week recorded.
. U. s. Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census, 1920. Abstract of the Fourteenth Census. Table 20,
p. 518.
53
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
Table 17.—Week’s earnings, by industry, January, 1922 (negro women).
Number of women earning each specified amount in—
Week’s earnings.
Num
ber of
women
report
ed.
Manufacturing
industries.
All
manu
factur
ing.
Tex
tiles.
Stores.
Other
Gener
All al mer 5-andmanu
factur stores. can 10-cent
ing.
tile. stores.
Total......................................................
Median earnings...................................
757
$6.05
291
$5.80
244
$5.50
47
$7.15
49
$6.80
40
$6.80
Under $4................................................
$4 and under $6....................................
$6 and under S8....................................
$8 and under $10...................................
$10 and under $12.................................
$12 and under $15.................................
$15 and over..........................................
110
256
327
43
12
8
1
46
113
112
16
3
1
45
107
83
8
1
1
6
29
8
2
1
8
5
11
3
Laun
dries.
9
417
$6.10
6
3
2
2
56
138
7
2
4
1
16
0)
1
1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.
A correlation of week’s earnings with time worked was possible
in the case of the 757 women. For 437 of them records showed hours
worked during the scheduled week; for 202 the time worked was
reported in days (Appendix Table VIII). Thirty-two per cent of
the women whose time was reported in hours had worked less than
48 hours during the scheduled week, and 31.7 per cent of those whose
time was reported in days had worked on less than 5 days. Under
time employment was not entirely responsible, however, for low
wages. Earnings did not increase with increased hours of work.
The median of those who had worked 60 hours ($5.90) was less than
the median for those in the 55-hour group, in the 48-hour group, and
also in the group working 44 and under 48 hours; and it was identical
with the median for the 50-and-under-55-hour workers. Of the 639
women for whom wage and hour data were secured, 435 had worked an
approximately full-time week, that is, 48 hours or over, or on 5 days
or more (Appendix Table IX). Their earnings are indicative of the
wage levels obtaining for negro women among whom the element
of lost time had been practically eliminated. About 87 per cent of
them earned between $4 and $8 during the week scheduled. Medians
of the earnings of these full-time workers in comparison with medians
of all women regardless of time worked, arranged in descending order
according to industry, are shown in the following statement:
54
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
All women.
Full-time workers.
Industry.
Number.
Median
earnings.
Median
earnings.
Number.
All industries.................................
757
$6.05
435
$6.35
Manufacturing (exclusive of textiles)...
Retail stores.............................................
Laundries.................................................
Textiles....................................................
47
49
7.15
6.80
6.10
5.50
17
39
212
167
7.65
7.40
6. 35
6.05
417
244
Three hundred and seventy-four women reported on the length of
time they had worked in the trade in which they were engaged at the
time of the survey (Appendix Table X). This correlation of experWEEK’S
EARNINGS
BY
INDUSTRY-NEGRO
WOMEN
-KEY-
Under $8,00
$800 and under dtJOjOO
81COO and under $1200
■8/2.00 and under 4/6.00
4 f5,00 and over.
No. Women
AW Industrie,*
ience and earnings indicates that here was a marked dearth of indus
trial incentive to wage-earning negro women. They were employed
in low skilled work in the performance of which experience was no
asset, and stability resulted in an almost inappreciable increase in wages.
The median of the earnings of those who had worked under six months
was $5.70, and there was a fairly consistent rise to the figure $6.65
which represented the middle point in the wages paid to the worker
who had been engaged in her trade for from 5 to 10 years. Fiftyfive per cent of the women had worked three years and over in their
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
55
trades, and the median of their earnings varied from $6.00 to $6.65
during the week scheduled.
A large proportion of the 757 negro women workers were paid on
a time basis, and it was possible to secure time rates for 586 of them.
Rates paid for a full week’s work varied from $6.25 to $6.95 according
to industry (Appendix Table XI). These figures indicate the “going
price in effect for a majority of the negro women workers. There
was not very much difference between median rates and the medians
of actual week’s earnings. However, the 35-cent decrease from
$6.40 which represented the possible earnings for full-time work
among women in all industries meant a cut of 5.5 per cent in the
weekly income. In manufacturing industries the median of rates
was $6.35, which was 65 cents higher than median earnings. In
stores, weekly rates very nearly coincided with week’s earnings.
Among laundry workers there was a difference of 25 cents between
the two.
Year’s earnings, January, 1921, to January, 1922.—Earnings of
97 women, 12.8 per cent of the negro women for whom wage data
were secured, were recorded for the 52 weeks preceding the week
scheduled in January, 1922 (Table 18). Three hundred and twentyfour dollars was the middle point on the scale of year’s earnings.
The largest number of women, 79.4 per cent, earned between $200
and $400 for the 12 months recorded. In manufacturing industries
the median of year’s earnings was $300 and among laundry workers
it was $329.
Table 18.— Year's earnings, by industry, 1921-22 (negro women).
Number of women earning each specified amount
in —
Year’s earnings.
Number
of women
reported.
Manufacturing industries.
Stores.
All
Other
manufac Textiles. manufac
turing.
turing.
m Total..................
Median earnings.
Under $200..............
$200 and under $300.
$300 and under $400.
$400 and under $500.
$500 and under $600.
$600 and under $700.
97
$324
28
$300
21
$291
5
28
49
3
2
109
8
4
3
11
12
o)
7
c>)
2
1
31
2
1
1
Laun
dries.
$329
172
37
5
1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.
Comparison of wage conditions, January, 1921, and January, 1922.—
One year previous to the pay-roll date for which the wage material
presented under “week’s earnings” was secured, there were 4,277
white and 883 negro women on the books of the plants scheduled.' In
addition to the more detailed study of wages as obtaining in January,
56
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
1922, and of the wages of certain of the women employees who had
worked steadily at the same plant through the 12 months previous to
that time, a brief study was made of the 5,160 women employed in the
plants scheduled at a date one year previous to the week recorded in
January, 1922. It seemed important to consider wages and rates
over a year’s period in order to determine to what extent the more
detailed information in regard to wages in 1922 was indicative of
wages paid women workers.
The wage median for white women on the 1921 pay roll was $9.15,
which indicates an inappreciable difference between the wage levels
of the two periods (Appendix Table XII). Examination of the differ
ence, industry by industry, shows a certain amount of fluctuation in
earnings rather than a definite increase or decrease. In January,
1922, the median for cotton textile workers, comprising 35.5 per cent
of the 4,868 women for whom wages were recorded, was 45 cents
higher than in January, 1921. In the other industry groups, how
ever, there were decreases in median earnings varying from 5 cents in
mercantile stores to $1.80 in laundries.
In the case of the negro women workers there was only a 15-cent
difference between the median of week’s earnings on the 1921 and on
the 1922 pay roll (Appendix Table XIII). Among the 326 women in
manufacturing plants there was an increase of 25 cents; among the
506 laundry workers there was a decrease of 25 cents.
The proportion of women who had worked full time varied in the
two periods. On the 1922 pay roll, 57.4 per cent of the white women
workers whose time was reported in hours had worked 48 hours and
over during the week and the median of their earnings was $10; 77.4
per cent of the white women whose time was reported in days had
worked on 5 days or over and the median of their earnings was $10.90.
On the 1921 pay roll 36.3 per cent of those whose time was reported in
hours had worked 48 hours and over and their median earnings were
$11.35; and 81.8 per cent of the women whose time was reported in
days had worked on 5 days or over and their median earnings were
$11.75.
Wage rates of white and negro women in January, 1921, are pre
sented by industry in Appendix Tables XIV and XV. Median earn
ings and median rates of white women on the 1921 and 1922 pay rolls
are presented according to industry in the following summary. This
brief comparison of earnings and wage rates for a week with those of
one year previous to the week surveyed in 1922 indicates certain
fluctuations in earnings and rates between the two periods, but it
corroborates the salient points in the findings already presented in this
section in regard to the wage situation as it affects women workers in
Alabama industries.
57
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
Weekly rate.
Industry.
January,
1922.
Increase
(+) or de
crease (—).
111. 40
110. 20
10.30
11.20
(‘)
January,
1921.
January,
1922.
Increase
(+) or de
crease (—).
-|1. 20
19.15
18.80
-$0.35
9.20
10.55
(')
-1.10
-.65
8.30
9.00
9.45
8. 30
9.10
9.95
+ .10
+.50
18.45
9.85
9.70
11.00
10.25
17.70
9.00
8.90
8.25
10.45
-.75
-.85
-.80
-2.75
+ .20
17.65
8.10
8.25
7.60
8.00
17.30
8.15
8.70
6.85
7.60
15.50
12.65
9.25
12. 70
8.55
12.45
8.45
12.10
-6.95
-.20
-.80
-.60
12.25
12.50
8.70
12.80
7.85
12.45
8.05
11.00
January,
1921.
All industries....
All manufacturing.........
Food........................
Garments................
Printing and publiahing..................
Textiles...................
Cotton goods__
Knit goods.......
Yarn and twine.
Other manufacturing..............................
General mercantile........
5-and-10-cent stores........
Laundries.......................
Week's earnings.
-.35
+ .05
+ .45
-.75
-.40
-4.40
-.05
-.65
-1.80
1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.
Earnings of night workers.
There were only 279 women working on night shifts during the week
scheduled. However, many manufacturing industries were not
operating full force or full time and a period of greater activity would
perhaps result in increased employment of night workers. It is
sometimes protested that workers on night shifts earn more money
than day workers and that to prohibit women from competing for
those economically desirable hours is a grave discrimination—
graver than the situation which exists when women work a double
shift, in the factory at night and at least intermittently at home
during the day. Figures showing comparative earnings of night
and day workers in Alabama indicate that that protest is without
foundation. From an economic point of view there was very little
choice between night and day work. All but two of the 261 white
night workers were employed in textile mills, and for those textile
workers the median earnings were $8.55, only 40 cents higher for the
week than the median for the textile day shift. The comparative
economic opportunity offered to all white workers on day shifts
irrespective of industry was greater than that offered to night workers.
The median of day shift earnings was $8.80, as against the night
shift median of $8.55. There were so few negro women working
69374°—24----5
58
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
on night shifts (18) that their earnings have no comparative signif
icance. They were employed largely as cleaners in textile mills
and their earnings are included in the following summary:
Number of women
earning each specified
amount.
Actual week’s earnings:
Under $4............................................................
|4 and under $6.................................................
$6 and under $8.................................................
$8 and under $10...............................................
$10 and under $12.............................................
$12 and under $15.............................................
$15 and under $18.............................................
$18 and over......................................................
44
34
54
46
37
33
22
7
CONCLUSION.
The primary consideration in a study of the industrial life of women
workers is the degree to which their wage earning power has developed
in any given community. Obviously, the amount of money they
earn determines automatically the standard of living they can
maintain. Over a period of time the community of which they
form a part suffers if it does not consider wages paid in terms of what
those wages will buy. In a distribution of the earnings of an in
dustrial enterprise, the cost of living of the individual workers is
the first irreducible expense. A community interested in the mental
and physical well-being of its members after informing itself as to
wage levels will have facts with which to decide whether the standard
of living made necessary by those levels requires revision.
The median of week’s earnings in January, 1922, was $8.80 for
white and $6.05 for negro women workers. These medians were not
the result of extensive undertime employment, as the median of
week’s earnings of full-time white women was only $10.40 and of full
time negro women $6.35. Neither were they the result of a tem
porary depression—for the median of earnings of white women for
1921 varied only to the extent of 35 cents from that of 1922, and the
median of year’s earnings when divided by 52 was only 75 cents less
than the median of week’s earnings of full-time workers in January,
1922, and 85 cents more than the median of week’s earnings of all
workers in January, 1922,
PART V.
THE WORKERS
r
,
.
Between 223,000 and 224,000 women are working for wages in
Alabama.1 Industry offers them an opportunity to earn. But if in
return women are to play their part in building industry so that it will
be good for human beings, they must have increased occupational
opportunity. Such opportunity has been analyzed to mean, first, a
chance for a woman to choose her occupation; second, a chance to be
trained for it; third, a chance to advance to more important work in
her chosen field; and fourth, fair compensation for the work she is
doing. In the interest of providing industrial conditions under which
woman may most fully develop her powers, and so most effectively
serve society, it is necessary to compile facts from the material of
human experience. When a woman is employed to-day certain con
siderations are inevitably in mind: Her maternal functions may
entail absence from industry at intervals, and her home respon
sibilities enter very emphatically into the need for limiting the length
of her wage-earning day. Because of these handicaps she has been
weak in bargaining power. However, in spite of them she continues
to make a definite contribution toward the manufacture and dis
tribution of goods, and in the interest of the development of what
we have called her occupational opportunity certain other considera
tions arise. Are working women for the most part young persons ?
Are they native or foreign born ? Do they form a stable group or do
they shift between trades? What is the ratio of married to single
women in industry; of those who live at home to those who live
independently? To what extent are wage-earning women responsible for the support of others?3
.
In the Alabama study information on these points was secured by
the questionnaire method, and the material is presented in the
following pages. About 3,500 of the women workers supplied per
sonal history information on cards distributed in the plants visited.
Age.
Of the 3,118 women who reported age, 28.0 per cent were between
16 and 20 years old, 38.6 per cent between 20 and 30, and 28.9 per
cent between 30 and 50 (Table 19). This distribution of women
A
workers through all age groups coincides very nearly with the find
ings of similar surveys in other States. It contradicts the theory that
women wage earners are for the most part young persons, and in no
great need, therefore, of provision for trade training and promotion.*
* TI. S. Bureau of the Census, fourteenth Census, 1920. Abstract of the fourteenth Census Table 7
p. 499.
‘ For a detailed study of the share of wage earning women in family support, see TJ. S. Department of
Labor, Women’s Bureau, Bulletin 30.
59
05
Table 19.—Age of the women employees who supplied personal information, by industry,
o
Number of women whose age was—
Number of
women re
porting.
Industry.
16 and under
18 years.
18 and under
20 years.
20 and under
25 years.
25 and under 30 and under 40 and under 50 and under 60 years and
50 years.
60 years.
30 years.
40 years.
over.
White. Negro. White. Negro. White. Negro. White. Negro. White. Negro. W’hite. Negro. White. Negro. White. Negro. White. Negro.
2,732
386
348
20
457
49
664
98
358
84
496
71
294
41
95
15
20
8
Manufacturing............................................
2,143
108
1
349
9
495
26
278
18
399
25
248
15
87
5
24
2
2
2
75
3
11
8
314
198
35
81
7
82
69
13
18
15
8
56
2
177
102
35
40
5
46
45
1
8
6
1
1
11
5
3
3
5
4
12
103
68
35
4
38
2
224
128
42
54
10
69
58
11
6
2
2
6
35
8
434
250
83
101
12
161
131
30
12
1
1
13
16
6
302
161
70
9
1
18
48
250
21
1,771
999
353
419
53
542
413
129
269
11
6
2
3
Textiles.........................................
Cotton goods..........................
Laundries........................................................
►
47
*
77
63
1
13
5
13
7
6
265
9
2
242
118
71
53
5
73
35
38
6
1
6
6
71
17
5
1
1
1
39
8
13
12
1
5
3
2
67
11
1
1
3
3
1
2
63
15
3
4
2
2
44
2
16
15
11
4
26
67
37
14
16
2
8
7
1
4
2
5
1
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES,
All Industries.................................................
61
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
There was a more even distribution of women by age among
textile employees than among employees in any other industry.
The largest per cent of them, 36.9, were between the ages of 20 and 30
and 28.4 per cent were between 30 and 50. A majority of the laundry
workers were over 25 years of age. Evidently older women, finding
it necessary to earn a living, turned to that work as seeming less
apart from their experience and as demanding less in the way of in
dustrial training than did other industries. The business of selling
in 5-and-10-cent stores offered opportunity for young workers; an
overwhelmingly large number of the women employed in that way,
54 per cent, were between 16 and 20 years old. The number em
ployed in these stores decreased rapidly with increase in age, and
only 11.9 per cent of the workers were between 30 and 50. Among
women in department stores, 46 per cent were between 20 and 30
years of age, and 27.1 per cent between 30 and 50. The significant
fact to which all of these figures lend emphasis is that women workers
are in industry in large numbers between the ages of 30 and 50 and
by no means should be excluded from plans for vocational training and
from opportunities for advancement.
Nativity and race.
The percentage of foreign-born among wage earners is of concern
in an inquiry into the conditions surrounding employment in any
community. The newly arrived immigrant not only increases the
supply of unskilled labor, thereby decreasing its economic value,
but is prone to accept any industrial regulations offered as inevitable
in the new country. It is of interest, therefore, to correlate informa
tion on such points as length of time in the trade, rates of pay, and
earnings with nativity. In Alabama, however, there has been no
very recent immigration, and of the 3,482 women reporting nativity,
only 0.5 per cent were foreign-born (Table 20). Among the nativeborn, 78.1 per cent were white and 21.9 per cent negro women.
Table 20.—Nativity of the women employees who supplied personal information, by
industry.
Number and per cent of women who were—
Women.
Number
of
women
reporting.
Native-born.
Negro.
White.
Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent.
All industries...............
3,482
2,706
77.7
757
21.7
19
0.5
Textile manufacturing.
Other manufacturing..
Stores............................
Laundries.....................
2,003
418
597
464
1,755
363
541
47
87.6
86.8
90.6
10.1
244
47
49
417
12.1
11.2
8.2
89.9
4
8
7
0.1
1.9
1.1
62
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
The comparatively small number of negro women in manufac
turing industries would indicate that the war-time migration of negro
women workers in the United States, which was occupational as well
as geographic, had no marked effect on Alabama industries. A large
majority of the negro women wage earners there were still engaged in
domestic and personal service. A paradoxical situation prevailed in
regard to those who were industrially employed. On one hand, they
were moving very slowly into manufacturing occupations;’ they
formed only 12.1 per cent of the women employed in textile mills,
and they worked there chiefly as cleaners. On the other hand, they
had moved rapidly into power laundry work where they formed
89.9 per cent of the women in that industry. They worked there on
extractors, on flat-work machines, at starch machines, and at power
presses.
Experience.
It is often asserted in connection with the question of women’s
need for training and their claim for advancement that they are
instable, that they shift into industry and out of it again, or from one
kind of work to another. If their stay in a trade is to be brief the
occupations open to them might logically be of an unskilled, low-paid
type for which the learning period is short. This supposed instability
oi women wage earners does not seem to prevail in Alabama. Of the
2,937 women who reported on the length of their trade experience,
59.8 per cent had worked for 3 years or over in the trade in which
they were occupied at the time of the survey, 42 per cent had worked
for 5 years or over in their trade, and 22.3 per cent for 10 years or
over (Table 21). Of the 42 per cent whose trade experience had
been 5 years or longer, nearly one-half had worked in that trade
for from 5 to 10 years, one-fourth had worked for from 10 to 15 years
and more than one-fourth for 15 years or longer. Sixteen per cent
had worked less than one year at their trade, but that figure is to an
appreciable extent compensated for by the fact that it includes those
who were entering industry for the first time. Figures already pre
sented in Table 19 have shown that 11.8 per cent of those who re
ported age were between 16 and 18 years old, and 16.2 per cent were
between 18 and 20. Among those young workers an appreciable
number had been in industry for less than a year.
63
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
Table
21.—Time in the trade of the women employees who supplied personal information.
Negro women.
White women.
Time in the trade.
Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent.
Total........................................................................................
2,680
100.0
257
100.0
446
271
355
251
204
539
281
333
16.6
10.1
13.2
9.3
7.6
20.1
10.4
12.4
28
39
42
38
28
42
26
14
10.8
15.1
16.3
14.7
10.8
16.3
10.1
5.4
There was a consistent difference between white and negro workers
in regard to length of occupational experience. Fifty per cent of
the white as against 42.8 per cent of the negro women had worked
4 years or longer at the trade in which they were engaged when
surveyed; 43 per cent of the white women as against 31.9 per cent
of the negroes had worked 5 years or longer; 22.9 per cent of the
white women as against 15.6 per cent of the negro women had worked
10 years or longer.
.
Because the idea persists that women are in industry but a short
time, they are put to work at low skilled jobs where there is obviously
less economic advantage, less incentive to keep them from shifting
to other jobs. Since, in spite of this chain of circumstances, we
find that large numbers of women are in industry for long periods,
and that they are stable, it would seem that increase in that stability
would inevitably follow upon enlarged opportunities for their trade
training and promotion.
Conjugal condition.
Of the 3,021 women workers who reported on conjugal condition,
1,524 were single, and of the remaining 1,497, 55 per cent were
married and 45 per cent were widowed, separated, or divorced.
Table
22.—Conjugal condition of the women employees who supplied personal informa
tion, by industry.
Number and per cent of women who were—
Industry.
Number of
women re
porting.
White.
Widowed, separated, or
divorced.
Married.
Single.
Negro.
White.
Negro.
White.
Negro.
Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per
White. Ne ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent.
gro.
All indus
tries....... 2,649 372 1,392
Textile manu
facturing— 1,707
Other manu
facturing__
357
538
47
Laundries.......
52.5
132
35.4
708
26.7
116
31.0
549
20.7
124
33
74
843
49.3
21
28.3
517
30.2
22
29.7
347
20.3
31
41.8
30
13
255
147
381
21
41.1
70.8
44.7
11
6
94
36.6
46.1
36.8
99
81
11
27.7
15.0
23.4
8
4
82
26.6
30.7
32.1
111
76
15
31.0
14.1
31.9
11
3
79
36.6
23.1
30.9
64
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
That there was a difference of only 10 per cent between married
wage earners and those who were widowed, separated, or divorced
emphasizes the fact that a comparatively larger proportion of the
women with disrupted marital relations were at work. In manufac
turing industries the same division in regard to marital status existed
as in the case of all industries. In stores 70.2 per cent of the women
were single, and of the remaining 29.8 per cent, practically one-half
were widowed, separated, or divorced. In laundries the proportions
were reversed, 38 per cent being single, but of the remaining 61.9 per
cent, again one-half were widowed, separated, or divorced. The
question of the proportionate number of married and single women
in a working group is sometimes raised when equal pay for equal
work without regard to sex, or the special need for regulating hours
of work for women because of their homework, is under discussion.
4 lie tradition which pays a family wage to the male breadwinner and
a lower one to the subsidiary woman worker, is based upon several
premises, one of which is that woman wage earners are single. The
contention that mothers are at home bearing all the responsibility
for home making and child rearing, and that there is no special need
for regulating plant hours of working women, also is based on the
premise that women wage earners are single. The facts show that
49.6 per cent of the women reporting were or had been married.
Whether they were in industry because there were no young children
at home, or because the husband’s earnings were not sufficient to
support the family, or because there was no husband and they sup
ported the family, the 49.6 per cent were there, forming a number
large enough to merit recognition.
Living condition.
The prevailing type of woman worker in the plants visited lived with
hei immediate family, 80 per cent of the 3,139 women reporting on
the question being found in that classification. This per cent reflects
the situation among textile workers, who formed about three-fifths
of the total number of women, and of whom only 6.1 per cent were
living independently. In the other industry groups, however, the
per cent of women living at home was very little lower; in laundries
76.7 per cent lived with their families and 12.5 per cent independently;
and in stores 73.7 per cent lived with their families and 13.9 per cent
independently. In investigations in other parts of the country where
the samo inquiry has been made, 80 per cent has been found to be the
normal figure for working women living with their families and rela
tives.
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
65
Table 23. Living condition of the women employees who supplied personal information,
by industry.
Number and per cent ot women who were living—
Number of
women re
porting.
At home.
With relatives.
Independently.
White.
White.
Industry.
White.
Negro.
Negro.
Negro.
White. Ne Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per
gro. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent.
All indus
tries __ 2,758
Textile manu
facturing__ 1,778
Other manu
facturing__
377
556
Laundries.......
47
381 2,238
81.1
294
77.2
263
78 1,529
85.9
62
79.5
19 61.3
14 100.0
199 77.1
31
14
258
268
406
35
71.0
73.0
74.4
9.5
41
10.8
257
141
7.9
10
12.8
108
6.0
6
7.6
47
71
4
12.4
12.7
8.5
2
6.5
32.3
11.2
16.4
14.2
17.0
10
29
62
79
8
30
11.6
9.3
46
12.1
The manufacture of textiles was carried on largely in distinct com
munities, and an overwhelming majority of the employees lived in
family groups. As textile manufacturing is the most important
woman-employing industry in the State, and as certain practices in
regard to housing and rents enter into a consideration of textile
wages, it is of interest to note something of the organization of Ala
bama mill villages. The early steps in the evolution of these “vil
lages of looms and spindles” were influenced by the economic status
of tenant farmers in the fifties, who worked land on shares in those
days of extensive plantations and were quartered by the owners.
With the breaking up of large agricultural holdings came the gradual
development of the business of manufacturing as well as of growing
cotton, and the textile manager drew his labor supply largely from
the tenant-farmer group. He had selected his site with perhaps
transportation facilities or water power in mind; sometimes it was
on the edge of a town and sometimes in a less settled section, and he
carried over the custom of providing houses for his employees. There
was no charge for rent, the number of rooms allotted depending upon
the number of hnillhands ” in the family. In these producing groups,
consisting of from 50 to 500 people with their families and forming each
a more or less distinct community, activities in regard to health, educa
tion, and recreation also were initiated by the management. The
following description from a plant schedule is typical of the activities
so initiated: A modern school building equipped with apparatus for
vocational training; a small hospital with an operating room in charge
of a part-time doctor, with no fee for his service or for those of the vis
iting nurse; a large auditorium used for meetings of all' sorts, with a
moving-picture machine by which were shown the usual type of pic
ture and! were used also to experiment with State educational films
66
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
which taught geography, physiology, and so on; a swimming pool;
a conservatory in charge of a botanist who taught children how to
raise flowers and shrubs and vegetables; a stock farm; a reservoir;
and lighted streets. In another village, built in a more isolated loca
tion, there were a school with textile courses for boys, an audito
rium, a hospital with a doctor and visiting nurse in attendance, a
day nursery, a moving-picture house, a swimming pool, a laundry, a
commissary, a dairy, a poultry and truck farm, and an ice plant.
There was of course the opposite condition, as shown by the following
description from the schedule of one of the smaller, older, mill villages,
where only the bare needs of existence had been considered: Ill-kept
houses, a one-room school, a general store, water from an occasional
pump, neither gas nor electricity in the houses, and no provision for
village activities. The fact that the mill had been built in an isolated
section added seriousness to the omission. Such a village meant a
supply of labor for the mill, and that only. That type, however,
seemed to be gradually decreasing in Alabama. It offered no appre
ciable advantage in rents or wages, and it was not able to compete
with the more progressive mill managements in the labor market.
So these satellite towns have evolved, each closely dependent in
all its activities upon the theories and successful operation of the
mill management, the more progressive ones having developed more
quickly into a smoothly running community than would have been
possible through individual effort. Among the 36 villages visited,
the average weekly rent per room was 25£ cents. In 28 villages
there was running water in the houses, and in 29 there were electric
lights. These facts are important in connection with wage rates
prevailing among textile workers, and although it is impossible to
estimate accurately the equivalent of such provisions in terms of
earnings, due allowance for their existence should be made in esti
mating what the employee receives for her work. In some villages,
organizations with employee representation have been instituted
which deal with such conditions as plant and village safety, housing,
and health. The development of individual initiative and responsi
bility is one of the problems confronting employers and employeesOne of the managers stated that his great hope in that connection
lay in the schools, which have increased so signally in efficiency
during recent years.
So among workers in textile mills and also, though in less degree,
among those in other industries, the prevailing type of wage earner
was the woman who lived at home. Her problems represented those
existing among large numbers of working women throughout the
State.
a
A
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
67
Home responsibilities.
Women as such have certain home obligations which men for the
most part do not share. The wage-earning woman also has financial
obligations. The question of marital status is sometimes raised in
connection with the extent of these two types of responsibility.
Investigations have shown, however, that there is no hard and fast
division of obligation in that respect, it is perhaps more a question
of degree. Single women have financial responsibilities to fulfill and
home work to do, though less extensively than have married women,
and married women on the whole hear less financial responsibility
than do women who are widowed, divorced, or separated.
The survey has shown that the prevailing type of woman wage
earner lives at home and is usually confronted before and after plant
hours with home work. Furthermore, in the majority of cases she
also contributes to the family income, thus carrying a double burden.
Figures showing the extent of her home and financial obligations have
a bearing upon the need for regulating plant hours and upon the need
for discontinuing discrimination in wage rates on the basis of sex.
For these reasons in addition to the data already presented in this
section, secured from the 3,482 women through the questionnaire
method, other facts were obtained from certain women through
personal interviews. The schedule form used is printed in Appendix
C. The 194 women visited included workers in each occupation in
the industries studied. In that sense only are they a picked group.
Although the numbers involved are small, the material indicates
one or two salient points in connection with the financial and home
work obligations of wage-earning women.
Table 24.—Financial responsibilities of 194 women interviewed, by conjugal condition.
Conjugal condition.
Total............................................................
Single...............................
Married................................
Widowed, separated, or divorced..............................
Women workers contributing of their
earnings to the family budget—
Number
of women
report
All
Part
Part ir
ing.
regular regular- regular
None.
ly.
iy.
ly.
194
114
53
16
11
89
51
54
32
40
42
35
7
11
12
3
1
10
1
Financial obligations.
Ninety-five per cent of the women interviewed lived at home;
58.8 per cent of them contributed all of their earnings to the family
income regularly, only 5.7 per cent contributed nothing financially
(Table 24). Among the women who were or had been married,
78.1 per cent contributed all their earnings to the family budget.
68
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
Among the single women, 36 per cent regularly contributed all they
made and 39.3 per cent regularly contributed part. Forty-one of
the women were the sole breadwinners in their family group (Table 25).
Six of them were the sole earners in families of five or over.
Table 25.—Number of wage earners in family of 194 women interviewed, by size offamily
group.
Number of wage earners in family.
Num
ber of
Number of persons in family group.
inter
viewed.
Total
4 and over...
Not reported.
1 Women living independently.
In 63 cases the woman worker was one of two wage earners in the
household, and 11 of these households consisted of six or more persons.
Although these figures were secured from a comparatively small numher of women, they are in line with the findings of other reports which
show that women workers bear responsibility for the support of
dependents, a point which merits special study, but which should be
kept in mind in connection with the rates paid in woman-employing
occupations.
Home-work obligations.
The phrase “home-work obligations” includes an array of activities
which can not but be a burden to the woman who has put in 10, 11, or
12 hours at wage earning. Taking care of children, marketing,
cooking, sweeping, scrubbing, sewing, washing, ironing, staying at
home if one of the family is sick—these things are part of the week’s
work for women. In 124 cases, 63.9 per cent of the workers inter
viewed, the women cooperated in the housework, just as they cooper
ated as wage earners in the matter of family income. Only those
women were included as cooperating who did a definite and appreci
able amount of housework daily. Twenty-nine of the women, 7 of
whom boarded, did no home work regularly. Thirty-nine of the
women did all their own work all the time; 20 of this number were
married, and 16 were widowed, divorced, or separated. In all, 163
of the 194 women found themselves in a special group in that they
were confronted with household tasks before and after plant working
hours. That point bears with other factors upon the need for
regulating hours of employment for women.
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
„
1
69
Cases illustrating home responsibilities.
In connection with these figures it may be of interest to note from
interviews certain typical cases showing something of the financial
and home-work responsibilities of women who earn.3
Women workers who were widowed, separated, or divorced:
1. Sole wage earner in family of 5. Her 3 children under 16, and her mother
76 years old, live with her. She does “what work gets done” at home;
has lost some time on account of sickness and dreads possibility of more.
2. Sole wage earner in family of 4. Husband has been dead 4 years. Children
4, 6, and 8 years of age at home. She and oldest child get up at 6 each
morning. Does all her own work before and after plant hours.
3. Supports 1 son. Made $448 last year. Does all her own work.
4. Sole wage earner in family of 5. Father out of work. Her two children
stay at home with her mother.
5. Works nights on a 12-hour shift and does housework during the day. Two
wage earners in family of 3. One son works. The other is young.
6. Usually she and her mother work, and her 3 children stay at home. Mother
has been ill, so she has 5 to support and all the work to do at home.
7. One of 2 earners in a family of 5. She and brother work. Support her
child, her sister, and her father.
8. One of 2 wage earners in family of 9. She and 1 child work. Other 7 at
home; 14-year-old one does most of the work. Has lost some time on
account of sickness of self and family and dreads recurrence.
Single women workers:
*
9. Sole wage earner in family of 3; supports own mother and child of dead
sister. Mother not strong enough to do all housework.
10. Sole wage earner in family of 3. Father unable to get work. Mother does
housework when well enough, but has been ill so worker does it all at
present. Turns in all earnings.
11. Supporting grandmother, who is 76. Takes all earnings. Latter tries to
help with housework, but worker does most of it.
12. Father dead. Mother and 2 young sisters at home. She earns for 4.
13. One of 2 wage earners in family of 7. She and sister earn and do most of
the housework. Mother not strong, stayB at home with 4 brothers and
sisters under 16.
14. One of three wage earners in family of 8. She and brother and sister support
father, mother, and 2 sisters and a brother under 16.
15. One of two wage earners in family of 9. She and brother earn, latter under
16. Mother, a widow, stays at home with 6 brothers and sisters.
Married women workers:
A
16. One of 2 wage earners in family of 5. Husband works days. She works
nights so she can be at home days with children aged 2, 5, and 7. Does
her housework, too.
17. She and husband work. Four children at home. She does all her own work,
except the washing, before and after plant hours.
18. Sole wage earner. Husband out of work all winter. Two children at home.
She does all the work.
3 The members of the household are spoken of in terms of their relationship to the scheduled woman
worker, and the latter is designated by the third personal pronoun.
70
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
Married women workers—Continued.
«
19. Sixty-six years old. She and husband of 70 came down from the mountains
a few months before with their 2 single daughters to live with married
daughter and son-in-law who had preceded them. All 6 work. She creels
and her husband was made a sweeper. Finds the standing and the hours
hard. She does the cooking. Gets dinner cooked by 7.30. Tries to get
to bed between 8.30 and 9 because they have to be at work before 5.
20. Baby ill a long time—went $752 in debt. Therefore she went to work. Chose
night work because, although baby died there were 2 other children under
6 to be looked after in the daytime. Husband works days.
APPENDIX A.
STATE LEGISLATION AFFECTING WOMEN WAGE EARNERS.
Industrialization to any appreciable extent is comparatively
recent in Alabama and the existing labor legislation is quickly enu
merated. According to the State Code of 1907, proper accommoda
tions for sitting and resting when not actively engaged in the work
of her employment was required for any girl or woman employed as
a clerk or saleswoman in a store or shop, and separate toilets were
required for men and women employees in places of work. Accord
ing to the acts of 1911, the employment of women in or about any
coal mine was prohibited. The acts of 1919 established an effective
plan for jurisdiction over the welfare of minors, in the form of a
child welfare department. This department inspects the sanitary
condition of establishments where minors are employed, in that
respect affecting the working conditions of some adults. Regula
tions for women workers in regard to industrial working hours,
minimum rates of pay, or mothers’ pensions had not yet been con
sidered in the State legislature. The legislature of 1919, which
created the child welfare department, also passed the workmen’s
compensation act, thus making the State one of the 42 which have
accident compensation laws.
The Smith-Bankhead law, of which Representative W. B. Bank
head, of Alabama, was joint author, provides funds for the voca
tional rehabilitation of all persons handicapped through accident,
disease, or otherwise. Alabama has accepted the act, has matched
the Federal funds allotted to Alabama, and has deputed the duty of
expending them to the State department of education. The newly
created vocational education division in that department has for its
program the provision of vocational training courses for physically
handicapped persons, the arrangement for cooperation with employ
ers in job placement, and follow up work in regard to economic
rehabilitation.
71
APPENDIX B
Table
I.—Hours worked less than scheduled, by industry.
Num
ber of
women
re
ported.
Industry.
Num Number of women who worked less than scheduled
hours to the extent of—
ber of
women
who
worked
less
5 and 10 and 15 and 20 and
30
than Under
under under under under hours
5
sched hours.
10
15
20
30
and
uled,
hours. hours. hours. hours. over.
hours.
All Industries1..........................
1,985
1,048
113
236
270
165
157
101
Manufacturing..................................
1, 721
920
75
196
257
152
139
101
64
1,507
1,204
78
225
150
62
762
636
28
98
96
16
149
132
3
14
31
1
247
203
9
35
9
33
102
94
1
10
122
99
9
14
7
Textiles...........................................
Cotton goods...........................
Knit goods...............................
Yarn and twine......................
Other manufacturing....................
264
52
41
3
8
23
122
38
40
7
17
13
13
1
90
67
3
20
9
18
1 Excluding stores, in which actual hours worked are generally not reported.
Table
II.—Hours ivorked less than scheduled, by scheduled hours.
Number of women who worked
Number less than scheduled hours to
of women
the extent of—
Number
who
of women worked
reported. less than
10 and 30 hours
scheduled Under 10 under
30
hours.
hours.
hours. and over.
Scheduled weekly hours.
Total1...................................................................
1,985
1,042
349
592
101
44 hours...........................................................................
69
54
157
16
40
8
1,322
93
226
62
35
63
10
31
8
675
32
126
16
31
20
9
19
44
4
38
1
12
8
408
12
65
2
48 hours...........................................................................
55 hours............................................................................
60 hours and over............................................................
189
20
45
5
78
16
1 Excluding stores, in which actual hours worked are generally not reported.
Table
Industry.
Number
of estab
lish
ments em
ploying
women at
night.
Total................ .
14
Textile maunfacturing
Cotton goods.........
Yarn and twine ...
Other manufacturing..
13
6
7
1
72
*
III.—Scheduled hours of night workers, by industry.
Number
of women
working
at night.
.
299
297
189
108
2
Number of women
whose scheduled
hours per night
were—
Number of women
whose scheduled
hours per week
were—
9
50 53f 54
55
5
170
78
170
105
65
78
40
38
2
*2"
10 lOf 11
12
5
44
5
44 170 78
5 44
44 105 40
44
65 38 ‘T
5
170 78
44
2
2
60
*
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
Table
73
IV.—Week’s earnings, by time worked, January, 1922 (white women).
A. WOMEN WHOSE TIME WORKED WAS REPORTED IN HOURS.
Number ol women earning each specified amount who worked—
Num
ber of
wo
Over
Over
30
44
50
men Un and
48
55
48
and
der under and
re
48
and under
55
and
60 Over hours
under
port 30
hours.
under
hours.
under
hours. 60
and
48
55
ed. hours. 44
hours.
50
60
hours. hours.
over.
hours. hours.
hours.
K
Week’s earnings.
*
Total..........
Median earnings__
Under $4.................
$4 and under S6.........
$6 and under $8......
$8 and under $10........
$10 and under $12.......
812 and under $15..........
815 and under $18........
$18andunder$25......
$25 and over.........
2.247
265
390
303
38
89
250 650
94
120
48 1,289
$8.65 $3.70 $6.40 $8.25 $12.80 $9.05 $9.35 $10.00
$10.70 $10.95 $9.55 $10.00
193
147
31
8
1
3
3
7
273
45
132
39
1
7
20
28
57
1
476
35
124
87
4
25
55
107
15
9
15
230
543
26
57
105
3
26
69
187
25
33
12
355
332
3
26
33
7
13
39
142
29
32
270
8
278
4
13
20
15
14
42
117
19
26
8
241
96
3
3
8
4
3
14
42
5
12
2
82
50
1
4
3
4
1
8
22
1
5
1
42
6
1
2
2
1
5
B. WOMEN WHOSE TIME WORKED WAS REPORTED IN DAY'S.
Week’s earnings.
Total....................
Median earnings.......
Number
of
women
reported.
1 and
under
3 days.
3 and
under
5 days.
5 days.
5£ days.
6 days.
1,473
$9.85
105
$2.20
226
$5.90
114
$7.65
235
$10.35
793
$12.00
1,142
$10.90
157
134
188
277
204
203
141
97
72
89
13
1
1
50
67
56
25
12
12
4
7
24
31
18
13
17
3
11
23
23
53
47
- 40
23
12
3
7
77
180
132
133
111
85
68
18
54
131
251
192
190
137
97
72
Under $4.................
$4 and under $6.........
$6 and under $8___
$8 and under $10...
$10 and under $12___
$12 and under $15___
$15 and under $18.......
$18 and under $25....
$25 and over............
Table
Number of women earning each specified amount who worked
on—
1
1
5 days
and
over.
V.—Week’s earnings, by time in the trade (white women).
Number of women who had worked in their trade—
Week’s earnings.
ber of
6
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 10 and 15 and 20
women Under months
report
under under under under under under years
6
and under
ed. months
2
3
4
5
10
15
20
under
and
years.
years. years. years. years. years. years. over.
1 year.
Total..............
Per cent distribu
tion ..................
Median earnings__
2,680
238
208
100.0
$9.30
8.9
$6.15
7.8
$7.90
10.1
$8.10
$8.70
Under $4...........
$4 and under $6.......
$6 and under $8.......
$8 and under $10__
$10 and under $12...
$12 and under $15...
$15 and under $18...
$18 and under $25...
$25 and over............
1&3
284
504
591
420
378
193
115
32
40
74
58
50
12
3
1
16
32
59
52
25
17
6
1
35
70
58
36
32
8
36
75
88
63
46
15
6
69374°—24----- 6
ooo
251
204
9.4
7.6
$9.65 $10.20
26
37
66
51
40
12
8
2
16
43
29
39
31
31
6
539
281
148
185
20.1
10.5
58.5
$9.90 $11.75 $11. 60
6.9
$11.20
18
37
83
137
93
73
57
9
10
15
32
49
40
67
26
3
7
23
26
20
32
17
13
5
6
24
36
41
37
20
11
5
74
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
Table VI.—Weekly rates and actual week's earnings, by industry, January, 1922 (white
women).
•
Number of women for whom amount specified was weekly rate and number for whom it
was actual earnings in—
Manufacturing industries.
Textiles.
AllindusAmount.
All manufacturing.
Week
ly
rate.
Under 84—
*4 and un
der 86.......
86 and un
der $8.......
88 and un
der 110....
$10 and un
der $12....
$12 and un
der $15 —
$15 and un
der $18....
$18 and un
der $25....
$25 and over
120
2
1-40
22
275
514
254
292
243
278
160
182
110
71
103
66
38
38
739 739
$9.20 $8.35 $10.55 $10.20
(l)
6
C1)
29
29
$17.70 $17.30
6
179
166
193
119
92
71
101
30
33
21
2
11
16
14
51
1
146
152
101
107
1
239
172
189
136
99
68
53
35
65
43
37
26
17
14
12
9
2
5
13
2
15
1
2
1
5
6
1
3
3
8
1
1C
9
1
45
73
7
2
15
411 411
$8.90 $8.05
65
16
268
589 589
$9.00 $8.55
Ac
tual
earn
ings.
2
1
75
2
Cotton
goods.
All textiles.
Ac Week Ac Week Ac Week
Ac
tual
tual Week
ly tual ly
ly tual ly
earn rate. earn rate. earn rate. earn
ings. rate.
ings.
ings.
ings.
Ac Week Ac Week
tual ly tual ly
earn rate. earn rate.
ings.
ings.
Total... 1,765 1,765
Median $10.20 $9.75
Printing
and publishing.
Garments.
10
]
5
or whom amount specified was weekly rate and number for whom it
was actual earnings in—
Stores.
Manufacturing industries—Con.
Textiles—Continued.
Yarn and
twine.
Knit
goods.
Week
ly
rate.
Total..
Median
Other
manufac
turing.
Ac Week
tual ly
earn rate.
ings.
15
*4 and un$6 and un19
$8............
$8 and un
19
der 810...
$10 and un
5
der $12...
$12 and un
der $15.
$15 and un
1
der $18..
$18 and under $25..............
$25 and over..........
780
780
970
970
77
77
$8.55 $7.90 $11.05 111. 05 $12.45 $12.45
28
41
9
16
6
Ac
tual
earn
ings.
Ac Week
tual ly
earn rate.
ings.
56
56
190 190
$8.45 $8.10 $12.10 $11.00
4
13
6
21
20
6
38
6
17
10
120
102
51
45
69
57
7
7
16
26
29
30
12
31
24
20
7
236
194
149
124
87
70
10
5
41
29
2
8
163
152
138
131
25
21
10
10
28
17
18
14
155
153
149
148
6
5
22
19
4
6
8
143
125
142
125
1
6
5
81
66
95
70
66
93
69
4
4
1
1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.
mercantile.
Laundries.
5-and-10cent
stores.
Ac Week Ac Week Ac Week
tual
tual
tual ly
ly
ly
earn rate. earn rate. earn rate.
ings.
ings.
ings.
Ac Week
tual ly
earn rate.
ings.
134 134
44
44
$8.25 $7.00 $10.45 $8.60
All stores.
.......
2
1
1
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES,
75
Table VII.— Year's earnings of women for whom 52-week pay-roll records were secured
by industry, 1921-22 (white women).
Number of women earning each specified amount in—
Manufacturing industries.
Year's earn
All
ings.
in All
dus mantries. ufac- Food. Gar
ments.
tur
ing.
Total... 961 734
Median
earn
ings.. $502 $472
11
70
Stores.
Print
Textiles.
Other
Gen
Launing
and
All eral 5-and- dries.
ufac10-cent
All
merpubCot- Knit Yam
tur- stores. can- stores.
tile.
ing. tiles. goods. goods. twine. ing.
353
112
169
9
<‘)
$683 0) $453 $456
Under $300... 80
78
6
72
35
$300 and under $400__ 180 161
3
156
90
$400 and under $500__ 217 183
7
175
97
$500 and under $600__ 160 127
1
12
2 112
64
$600 and under $700.... 127 94
2
16
2
72
40
$700 and under $800.... 78 41
2
10
4 23
14
$800 and under $900__ 53
26
8
2 15
11
$900 and under $1,000.. 26
14
10
4
2
$1,000 and imder $1,200... 22
7
3
3
$1,200 and
over............ 18
3
1
2
*----- ---------- -—____
1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.
$459
$440
(*)
12
25
Table
10
634
208
172
36
19
$668 $731
$438
$675
25
41
2
15
7
8
4
32
46
1
33.
11
22
1
25
23
32
27
5
13
19
2
31
30
1
4
5
2
33
33
1
3
1
25
25
2
10
10
3
14
14
2
15
15
2
4
VIII.—Week's earnings, by time worked, January, 1922 (negro women).
A. Women whose time worked was reported in hours.
Week’s earnings.
Total...................
Median earnings.
Under $4..............
$4 and under $6__
$6 and under $8...,
$8and under $10...
$10 and under $2 ..
$12 and under $15..
$15 and over..........
Number of women earning each specified amount who worked—
Num
ber
of
Over
Over
30
44
50
wom Un and
48
55
48
and
and
en re der under under
48
and under
55
and
60 Over
60 hours
port 30
hours.
under
hours.
under
hours. hours.
and
44
48
55
ed. hours. hours.
50
60
hours.
over.
hours. hours.
hours.
437
26
55
59
44
$6.10 $2.65 $4.80 $6.00 $6.65
43
160
209
17
6
2
26
14
60
119
(l) $5.90 $6.60
0)
41
$5.90
10
(1)
297
$6.35
3
96
182
13
2
1
76
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
Table
VIII.—Week's earnings, by time worked, January, 1922 (negro women)—Contd.
B. WOMEN WHOSE TIME WORKED WAS REPORTED IN DAYS.
Number
of women
reported.
Week’s earnings.
Total..................................
Median earnings...............
Number of women earning each specified amount who worked
on—
1 and
under 3
days.
3 and
under 5
days.
8
56
$3.80
27
$4.60
8
34
21
1
7
16
2
2
202
$5.50
C1)
49
72
50
22
5
4
Table
5
days.
si
days.
(>)
-*
5 days
and
over.
6
days.
10
101
$6.50
138
$6.30
6
3
1
35
41
17
4
4
7
51
49
22
5
4
t
IX.—Week's earnings of women who worked 48 hours and over or on 5 days and
over7 by industry, January, 1922 (negro women).
Number of women earning each specified amount in—
Num Manufacturing industries
Stores.
ber of
women
report
Laun
Total
Other
ed.
manu- Tex- manu
All General 5-and- dries.
10-cent
factur- tiles, factur stores. mercan
tile.
stores.
ing.
ing.
Week’s earnings.
Total..................
Median earnings
Under $4..............
$4 and under $6..
$6 and under $8...
$8 and under $10.
$10 and under $12
$12 and under $15
$15 and over........
435
$6.35
184
$6.15
10
3
81
85
13
147
231
35
7
5
167
$6.05
17
$7.65
39
$7.40
32
$7.00
18
7
...
2
...
4
3
...
2
4
18
11
3
3
2
7
0)
2
1
212
$6.35
7
62
128
11
2
2
1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.
Table
X.—Week's earnings, by time in the trade (negro women).
Number of women who had been in the trade—
Week’s earnings.
Num
ber of
6
women Under months 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 10 and 15 and 20
under under under under under under years
report
and un under
6
ing. months.
3
4
5
10
2
15
and
20
der 1
years.
years. years. years. years. years. years. over.
year.
Total..............
Per cent distribution...
Median earnings.............
$4 and under $6.......
$8 and under $10__
374
24
26
56
7.0
15.0
100.0
6.4
$6.20
$5.70
41
119
182
21
8
3
3
12
8
i
53
43
64
30
16.3
14.2
11.5
17.1
8.0
$5.90 $6.05 $6.25
3
11
10
1
1
9
18
26
3
i Not computed, owing to small number involved.
61
6
17
33
3
2
$6.00 $6.30
5
22
24
2
6
11
22
1
$6.65 $6.25
3
14
37
6
3
1
4
8
15
1
2
11
2.9
C1)
6
1.6
<■)
2
5
4
i
3
1
i
V
*
%
V
Table
*
XI.—Weekly rates and actual week’s earnings, by industry, January, 1922 (negro women).
Number of women for whom amount specified was weekly rate and number for whom it was actual earnings in—
Manufacturing industries.
Amount.
All industries.
All manufac
turing.
Stores.
Other manufac
turing.
Textiles.
«
All stores.
General mercan
tile.
5-and-10-cent
stores.
Laundries.
Total.................................................
Median...................................................
586
$6.40
586
$6.05
218
$6.35
218
*5.70
205
$6.25
205
$5.60
Under $4............................
S4 and under S6...............................................
86 and under $8.........................................
88 and under $10...........................................
SlOand under $12......................................
$12 and under $15.................................
$15 and over.................................................
17
175
343
34
10
5
2
90
195
257
29
9
5
1
8
80
118
10
2
30
8
30
8
2
9
1
7
1
1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.
13
0)
13
(■)
49
$6.95
49
$6.80
40
$6.90
40
$6.80
m
9
(0
9
319
$6.35
319
$6.10
52
1
1
1
1
11
4
11
3
7
7
1
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
Weekly Actual- Weekly Actual Weekly Actual Weekly Actual Weekly Actual Weekly Actual Weekly Actual Weekly Actual
earn
earn
earn rate.
earn
earn
earn
rate.
earn
earn
rate.
rate.
rate.
rate.
rate.
rate.
ings.
ings.
ings.
ings.
ings.
ings.
ings.
ings.
-a
78
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
Table XII.—Week’s earnings, by industry, January, 1921 (white women).
Number of women earning each specified amount in—
Manufacturing industries.
Stores.
Week’s earn
All
ings.
Print
Textiles.
in All
ing
dus manGar and
tries. ufac- Food. ments
pub All Cot Knit Yam
tur
lish tex ton goods. and
ing.
ing. tiles. goods.
twine.
Total-. 4,277 3,068
76
Median
earnings.. $9.15 $8. 30 $9.00
Under $4.......
$4 and under
$6................
$6 and under
$8
$8 and under
$10..............
$10 and under
$12..............
$12 and under
$15..............
$15 and under
$18..............
$18 and under
$25..............
$25 and over.
Table
166
42 2,735 1,657
355
$9.45 $17.65 $8.10 $8.25 $7.60
723
Other
Gen 5- Laun
man- All eral and- dries.
ufac- stores. mer 10
tur
can cent
tile. stores.
ing.
49
1,120
929
89
191
$8.00 $12.25 *11.75 $12.50 $8.70 $12.80
379
335
3
7
2
319
167
57
95
4
43
26
17
499
459
11
14
1
432
258
62
112
1
38
29
9
2
753
636
14
37
583
351
76
156
2
107
60
47
10
783
568
16
29
1
517
323
61
133
5
206
138
68
9
655
460
1C
19
4
415
241
62
112
12
179
150
29
16
577
352
IS
35
6
285
182
25
78
8
204
189
15
21
333
142
a
14
9
108
72
12
24
8
176
171
5
15
232
66
112
4
i
11
17
2
74
2
62
1
12
1
9
106
61
105
61
1
14
1
1
XIII.—Week’s earnings, by industry, January, 1921 (negro women).
Number of women earning each specified amount in—
Manufacturing industries.
Week’s earnings.
Under $2................................................
All
indus
tries.
Other
Gen 5-andAll
eral
manu
factur stores. mer 10-cent
ing.
cantile. stores.
All
manu
factur
ing.
Tex
tiles.
883
$6.20
326
$5.55
285
$5.50
41
$6.05
51
$7.60
42
$7.25
30
74
288
386
71
15
12
7
18
46
133
94
27
6
2
13
44
120
79
22
5
2
5
2
13
15
5
1
1
2
7
21
12
3
3
2
1
2
7
20
6
1
3
2
1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.
Stores.
c)
Laun
dries.
9
506
$6.35
1
6
2
11
26
148
271
32
6
7
5
V.
Table XIV.—Weekly rate, by industry, January, 1921 {white women).
Number of women receiving each specified amount in—
Stores.
Manufacturing industries.
Textiles.
All
manu
facturing.
Pood.
Total..........
Median rate.
1,882
$11.40
708
$10.30
26
$11.20
$4 and under $6...
$6 and under $8...
$8 and under $10..
$10 and under $12.
$12 and under $15.
$15 and under $18.
$18 and under $25.
$25 and over.........
30
176
457
356
387
242
166
68
18
90
228
143
128
45
52
4
2
8
7
5
3
1
1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.
Other
Gen- 5-andAll
eral
manu
Yarn
factur stores. mer 10-cent
All
Cotton Knit
stores.
and
ing.
cantile.
textiles. goods. goods. twine.
Gar
ments.
Printing
and pub
lishing.
3
42
$18.45
610
$9.85
442
$9. 70
2
5
8
24
3
18
88
219
133
109
20
22
1
6
67
178
81
69
18
22
1
C1)
1
2
22
$11.00
146
$10.25
3
4
4
11
12
18
37
48
29
2
27
$15.50
1
9
14
3
1,100
$12.20
920
$12.65
180
$9.25
74
$12.70
12
77
221
200
236
188
102
64
10
34
144
166
218
184
100
64
2
43
77
34
18
4
2
9
8
13
23
9
12
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
All
industries.
II
Weekly rate.
CD
80
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES
Table
XV.—Weekly rate, by industry, January, 1921 (negro women).
Number of women receiving each specified amount in—
Manufacturing
industries.
Weekly rate.
Total...........................................
All
indus
tries.
All
manu
factur
ing.
Tex
tiles.
677
$6.70
234
$7.00
226
$6.95
18
134
401
93
15
13
3
8
43
124
51
4
4
8
43
120
49
2
4
1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.
Stores.
Gen 5-andOther
All
eral
manu
factur stores. mer 10-cent
ing.
cantile. stores.
0)
8
50
$7.65
41
$7.25
4
2
2
1
1
27
13
3
3
2
1
1
26
7
1
3
2
o)
'Laun
dries.
9
393
$6.50
1
6
2
9
90
250
29
8
6
1
■ff
Appendix C.
SCHEDULE FORMS USED IN THE COURSE OF THE SURVEY.
Form I.—Data from pay rolls; one card made out for each woman
employee who appeared on the plant books during a normal week in
January, 1922, and one in January, 1921.
F8
U. S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau.
Establishment.
Employee’s No.
Department.
Name.
Male.
Address.
Female.
Age.
Conjugal condition.
Occupation.
M.
ltate of
pay.
Piece.
Days
worked.
Regualr
weekly
hours.
Hour.
Day.
Week.
Overtime
hours.
Undertime
hours.
£ month.
W.
Month.
D.
N.R.
Additions.
SO.
----------------------------^
Country of birth.
Earnings.
Hours
worked
this period.
Began work.
Deductions.
Computed for
This period. regular
time.
Time at work.
In this trade.
This firm.
Age.
At home.
Board.
Pay-roll period.
.........Daysending.
81
«»
#
82
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES,
Form II.—Data from pay rolls; blanks made out for from 15 to 20
per cent of the women employed during the week scheduled in
January, 1922; showing weeks’ wages of the steadier worker over a
period of 12 months, from January, 1921, to January, 1922.
U. S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau.
Agent...........................................................................
Firm.............................................................................
City...............................................................................
Employee.....................................................................
Occupation.......................................................*..........
M................
F................
Race................
Earnings each week from.......................... to...........................
Rate: Piece................ Time................ Piece and time................
Date.
Wages.
Hours
or days Hours
Slack
worked or days or shut
during paid for. down.
week.
Date.
1
27
2
28
3
29
4
30
5
31
6
32
7
33
8
34
9
35
10
36
11
37
12
38
13
39
14
40
15
41
1(5
42
17
43
18
44
19
45
20
46
21
47
22
48
23
49
24
50
25
51
26
52
Hours
or days Hours
Slack
Wages. worked or days or shut
during, paid for. down.
week.
Total....................................................................
Av. weekly wage..........
No. weeks worked a
Av. weekly wage for 52 weeks..........................
83
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
Form III.—Data from women employees; the personal history
material secured from these cards, which were filled in by the women
in the plants scheduled, is transferred later to Form I, so as to make
possible such correlations as age, experience, marital status, and
nativity with wage and rates.
F. 10
U. S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau.
Establishment
Employee’s No.
Department
Name.......................................................................................................................Male or Female........................
Address
Single, Married, Widowed, Sepa......................................................................................................................
rated, or Divorced......................
Country of Birth.....................................................................................................................Age...........................
How old were you when you began to work for wages........................................................................................
How long have you been in this trade or business...............................................................................................
How long have you been working for this firm......................................................................................................
What is your regular work here............................................................................................................................
Schooling—Last grade completed...........................................................................................................................
Do you live with your family............................ With other relatives..................................................................
Do you board or room with persons not relatives..............................................................................................
Form IV.—Data secured from each firm scheduled, indicating
certain plant policies.
F. 12
U. S. Department of Labor—Women’s Bureau.
Firm............................................................................................................. Product................
1. Wks. closed..............................2. Lgth. pay per....................................... 3. Vac. pay*.
4. E. P. Date......... 1...................................................... L. P. Date.......................
(Day....................... Sat..........
5. Hours:-)
8. Day—
Wht.
Col.
Wk.........
Hours-)
(Night.............................................
Tot.
Day—
Women...............................................................
Total..................................................................
Night—
NightWomen....................................................................
Total.................................................................
Wht.
Co.
Wk
Tot.
84
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
Form V.—Data secured from plant inspections.
U. S.
Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau,
FACTORY SCHEDULE (ALABAMA).
1. Name of factory................................................
2. Product............................. ............................... .
Address........................................................................
Person interviewed................................................... .
Position.......................................................................
3. Number employed:
Day.
Night.
White.
Colored.
Total.
White.
Colored.
Total.
Men..............................................................................
Men...............................
Women........................................................................
Women........................
Minors..........................
Total............................................................................
Total.............................
4. Firm’s schedule hours:
Daily: Begin......... End......... Lunch period......... Rest period......... Total...................
tt
It
it
It
It
u
Saturday: “ .........
Regular weekly number of day ....... Total weekly hours.........
Daily: Begin......... End......... Lunch period......... Rest period......... Total...................
it
tt
ti
a
tt
Saturday: “ .........
“ .........
Regular weekly number of days
Total weekly hours.
5. Seasonal:
6.
7.
Employment policy:
Employment manager----
Centr. method, supt, foreman other----
Subcontract shop....
Home work process,
Records___Lab. Trnv.
In plant......... Same rates......... Var.
BUILDINGS.
8. Number................ Mat................................... Entire.................................... Part.
Special roof construction...............................................................................................
9. Stairways:
No. Location. Open.
Enel.
Wall.
Wind Nat.lt. Hnd.rl.
ing.
adqt. 0. K.
Nar.
Mat.
Clean.
Rpr.
O.K.
Other.
10. Exists: Outside no.......... Openout......... In......... Slide......... Obst......... Indr......... Ext.mrkd
......... Well......... Firedoor......... Where................................. Spklr......... Extg.........................
Bkt......... Hose.........
11. Elevators:
Passenger: No......... Guard................................. Oprt......... Empl. Rstrct..................................
Freight: No......... Guard................................. Oprt......... Empl. Rstrct..................................
Agent................................................................... Date..................................................
WORKROOMS.
A. Floors.
12. Dept.
FI.
Mate Repair. Cln.
rial.
B. Walls.
Other. Repair. Col.
C. Ceilings.
Cln.
Frq.
Repair. Low.
Cln.
Frq.
Crdng.
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES,
85
12a. Arrangement (machines, material, tables)...............................................................
*
13. Clngd: by girls.........men......... cleaners, warn......... men......... other.............no resp........Scrubbed
.........Wrkhrs......... Freq...........: Swept ..........Wrk. hrs......... Freq..................................
11. Heating system: kind.............................................. location.......................................
15. Ventilation: App. O. K...............Art.............Kind................................".".".Loo............................................
16- Special problem: Heat................Cold................ Dust............".’."Lint".".".’.....’.’.Humid!.’.’.’.’!!!.’!!!!!!!
Fumes................Other................ Description.........................................................
17. Hazard: (workroom) Floor................Placing of material................ Transmission machinery
Description.............................................
1.
OCCUPATIONS.
A. W mdows.
B. Artificial light.
C. Seating.
18. Occ.
Posi Opq. Curt. Glare
Shades Glare
tion.
(rfl.). Ind. Ceil. Grp. (kind). (rfl.).
Sit.
Std. Kind. Mo. Foot
O.K. rest.
1
ISa. Special noce (nat. lgt.: art. Igt.; seating).
19. Hazard: (occupation) Machine................Handling hot, poisonous, or corrosive material.,.
Handling tool or object......... Other.............. ..... Description...................
20. Strain: Eye......... Post......... Lift......... Press.........
Description........................................................
21. Uniforms: Required.............................
Reach.........
Speed___
Other
Supplfed.’.’.’’.'.” Lamder^d’by fim.'.’.!’.'."iYeq’!
SANITATION.
22. Drinking facilities: Loc..............................................
Tank......... Cooler......... Faucet......... Other
Supl. firm.......... Description..............................
23. Washing facilities:
No.
1
Kind.
Conv.
Cln.
Conv......... Bublr......... San............
.. Cup com......... Ind......... Kind
Repr. Hot W. Soap. Towels. Indiv. Paper.
Com.
Freq.
86
24.
WOMEN IN ALABAMA INDUSTRIES.
Toilets: Kind.... Sep___ Flush, hnd... Auto. seat... Repr... Plb. cl... Pap... Inst....
Description......................................................................................................................................................
Total
rooms.
No.
Room
ceil.
Sera.
Vent.
vent.
0. K.
vent.
O. K.
Clean.
*
24a. Total number seats................... Number women per seat...................
Clng: by girls......... Men......... Jant......... Jantrs......... Special person......... No. resp...
Swpt.reg......... Freq.............. Wrk. hrs.........: Scrub reg.......... Freq.............. Wrk. hrs.
Special note........................................................................................................................................
SERVICE AND WELFARE.
25.
Lunchroom............. Combined with....................... Location....................... Kind.................
Equipment..................................................... Cln......... Lt. nat......... Art......... Vent.O.K
Prov. hot food, drink only.................................... Ckng conv...........................................................
Supr............ If none,................................. Description...............................................................
26.
Rest room............. Combined with............................. Location...................... Equip........
................................................................... Cln......... Lt. nat......... Art......... Vent. O. K.
Supr............ If none,........................................ Description.....................................................
27. Cloakroom............ Combined with................... Loc................. Conv......... Lkr......... Shiv.............
Hngr....... WlHk....... Seats....... Cln....... Lt.nat....... Art....... Vent.O.K....... Supr__
If none,............................................................... Lkr.......... Shiv......... Hngr......... W1 Hk............
Description....................................................................................................................................................
28. Health Service: Hosp......... Chg. of............ Dr. reg......... On call......... 1st aid..............................
................................................................................... Chg. of................ Med. exam......... Health rec.........
Acc. rec.................................... Comp....................... Nature acc. to wm.............................................
................................................................ Special note................................................................................
29.
Other welfare:
O
?
PUBLICATIONS OF THE WOMEN’S BUREAU.
BULLETINS.
No. 1. Proposed Employment of Women During the War in the Industries of Niagara
Falls, N. Y. 16 pp. 1918.
.
No. 2. Labor Laws for Women in Industry in Indiana. 29 pp. 1918.
No. 3. Standards for the Employment of Women in Industry. 7 pp. 1919.
No. 4. Wages of Gandy Makers in Philadelphia in 1919. 46 pp. 1919.
No. 5. The Eight-Hour Day in Federal and State Legislation. 19 pp. 1919.
No. 6. The Employment of Women in Hazardous Industries in the United States.
8 pp. 1919.
No. 7. Night-Work Laws in the United States. 4 pp. 1919.
No 8. Women in the Government Service. 37 pp. 1920.
No. 9. Home Work in Bridgeport, Connecticut. 35 pp. 1920.
No. 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. 1920.
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. 1920.
No. 14. A Physiological Basis for the Shorter Working Day for Women. 20 pp. 1921.
No. 15. Some Effects of Legislation Limiting Hours of Work for Women. 2G pp. 1921.
No. 16. State Laws Affecting Working Women. (Illustrated by colored maps.) 51 pp.
1921. (Supplement, 1923.)
No. 17. Women’s Wages in Kansas. 104 pp. 1921.
No. 18. Health Problems of Women in Industry. (Reprint of paper published in the
Nation’s Health, May, 1921.) 11 pp. 1921.
No. 19. Iowa Women in Industry. 73 pp. 1922.
'
No. 20. Negro Womon 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. W’omen in Maryland Industries. 96 pp. 1922.
No. 25. Women in the Candy Industry in Chicago and St. Louis. 72 pp. 1923.
No. 26. Women in Arkansas Industries. 1923.
No. 27. The Occupational Progress of Women. 37 pp. 1922.
No. 28. Womon’s Contributions in the Field of Inventions. 51 pp. 1923.
No. 29. Women in Kentucky Industries. 114 pp. 1923.
No. 30. The Share of W’age-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.
No. 35. Women in Missouri Industries.
No. 36. Radio Talks on Women in Industry.
No. 37. Women in New Jersey Industries.
No. 38. Married Women in Industry.
No. 39. Domestic Workers and Their Employment Relations.
First Annual Report of the Director. 1919. (Out of print.)
Second Annual Report of the Director. 1620.
Third Annual Report of the Director. 1921.
Fourth Annual Report of the Director. 1922.
Fifth Annual Report of the Director.
1923.
@FedFRASER