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STATE COLLEGE LIBRARY
4
Mwten
HIGHER-LEVE
POSITIONS
• V v
P9180
For sale by the Superintendent of Document
U. S. Government Printing Office
Washington 25, D. C.
Price 25 cents
LIBRARY
SOUTHWEST MISSOURI
ST/TE college
SPRiNGEIEtD
Bulletin of the Women’s Bureau No. 236
tVMHCtt
IN
HIGHER-LEVEL
POSITIONS
A survey of women in positions of responsibility in selected
fields of business and industry and in specified areas
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Maurice J. Tobin, Secretary
WOMEN’S BUREAU
Frieda S. Miller, Director
Letter of Transmittal
United States Department
■
of
Labor,
Women's Bureau,
Washington, March 28, 1950.
Sir : I have the honor to transmit a report on women in the higher-level
positions in selected fields of business and industry. The Women’s Bureau
has received many requests for information about women in positions of
responsibility, and many inquiries concerning obstacles to their advance
ment. The American Association of University Women, the Business and
Professional Women’s Clubs, colleges, and trade unions have expressed an
interest in having such a report.
Within the business and industrial fields little has been known about the
extent to which women have risen above the ranks of subordinates. In
these areas of endeavor we have had to rely upon scattered reports and
individual opinion. There has been, in fact, little analysis of women’s
status in business and industry, the extent to which they are holding higherlevel jobs, and the factors which contribute to success and failure.
The study deals with the attitudes both of management and of the women
who have advanced to responsible positions and with the bearing of both on
achievement. It has sought to throw some light on the extent to which
training and the ambition of women themselves are determining factors.
Of particular interest to the career-minded woman, the study is also of
general interest, since if women’s abilities are not being fully developed or
used, the Nation is deprived of an important part of its labor resources.
On the other hand, evidence that women are increasingly being judged on
merit may inspire more young women to prepare themselves for positions of
high responsibility, and so increase their opportunities and their usefulness.
The report was written by Frances Van Schaick under the general di
rection of Mary N. Hilton, Chief of the Research Division. The field work
was supervised by Ethel Erickson, and all statistical compilations were under
the direction of Isadora Spring.
Respectfully submitted.
Frieda S. Miller, Director.
Hon. Maurice J. Tobin,
Secretary of Labor.
II
TABLE
OF
CONTENTS
Page
Introduction.............................................................................
1
Summary.................................................................................
6
Position of Women in Fields of This Study..........................
11
Success in attaining higher-level positions.....................................
Types of positions held by women..................................................
Status of women in department stores...........................................
Status of women in insurance companies......................................
Status of women in banks................................................................
Status of women in manufacturing.................................................
11
12
12
15
18
21
Factors Favoring and Deterring Advancement....................
Management’s views on factors favoring advancement...............
Management’s views on factors deterring advancement.............
Women’s views on obstacles to advancement...............................
The importance of traditional attitudes.........................................
Belief that certain jobs are “suitable”............................................
The importance of specialized training and experience..............
Recruitment and training programs and women’s participation
Lack of permanency as a hindering factor....................................
Company merit rating and promotion policies.............................
Views of women on what leads to advancement..........................
27
27
28
28
31
32
33
35
36
36
The Women in Higher-Level Positions................................
Characteristics, education, and work history................................
Women in personnel work...............................................................
Women in buying and merchandising...........................................
Women in factory-supervisory positions.........................................
Women in industrial research and engineering............................
Women specialists in printing and publishing..............................
Women specialists in insurance and banking................................
38
39
40
45
47
49
52
54
The Challenge to the Career-Minded Woman....................
58
The Challenge to Business and Industry................................
60
III
Appendix A—Coverage of Survey...................................................................
Page
62
Appendix B—Schedule Forms.............................................................................
64
Appendix C—Tables...............................................................................................
74
Introduction
1. Major occupation group of all employed persons and of women for the
United States, 1949 and 1940.........................................................................
Position
of
Women
in
Fields
of this
Study
2. Position of women in industries covered by the survey by area..................
3. Employment in “higher-level” positions by industry and by area and
sex.......................................................................................................................
4. Employment in “higher-level” positions by organizational classification
and by area and sex—Department stores.....................................................
5. Distribution of persons employed in “higher-level” positions by organiza
tional classification and by area and sex—Department stores...................
6. Employment in “higher-level” positions by organizational classification
and by area and sex—Manufacturing...........................................................
7. Distribution of persons employed in “higher-level” positions by organiza
tional classification and by area and sex—Manufacturing.........................
Factors Favoring
and
17.
18.
19.
20.
in
75
75
76
77
78
80
Deterring Advancement
8. Answers by management to question: “What factors favor the advance
ment of women in your type of business?”...................................................
9. Answers by management to question: “What factors deter the advance
ment of women in your type of business?”...................................................
10. Answers of women workers to question: “What obstacles do you see to
your advancement?”........................................................................................
11. Answers of women workers to question: “Five years from now what
position would you like to hold?”..................................................................
12. Answers by management to question: “What are the chief factors you
consider in selecting women for supervisory jobs?”.....................................
13. Answers of women workers to question: “What factors helped you to
advance?”..........................................................................................................
14. Answers of women workers to question: “From your experience what do
you think women should do to further their advancement?”.....................
15. Answers of women workers to question: “What do you like about your
job?”...................................................................................................................
16. Answers of women workers to question: “What do you dislike about your
job?”...................................................................................................................
The Women
74
82
82
82
83
83
83
84
84
84
Higher-Level Positions
Age of women in “higher-level” positions by industry...............................
Marital status of women in “higher-level” positions by industry..............
Education and training of women in “higher-level” positions by industry.
Work history of women in “higher-level” positions by industry...............
85
85
85
86
IV
Women in Higher-Level Positions
INTROD UCTION
Women’s present status provides freedom to participate in a broad
range of activities almost unknown to the woman of 50 years ago. The
import of this freedom can be fully understood only by realizing that its
foundations rest not alone in the vast achievements of the movement for
women’s rights, but in the complexities of a changing social and economic
order with its revolutionizing effects upon home and work life. Not
only have women achieved a position of self-confident participation in
social and community relationships; in their whole mode of living they
have also been presented with a variety of choices not known to their
forebears. They have indeed been both “pushed” and “pulled” out of
an area of activity once circumscribed by the household—“pushed” by
the lesser requirements upon their time and interest by the withdrawal
from the home of many productive activities, and “pulled” by expanding
opportunities and the demands for income in an economy of ever-increas
ing living standards.
This is not to say that in the workaday world, which is the field of
our immediate concern, opportunities for women are commensurate
with those of men, nor that the pattern of living for women may not
differ in many ways from that of men. Nor should the inference be
drawn that long-standing obstacles to achievement have now been ban
ished. Traditional attitudes and institutionalized practices which are
discriminatory of women still exist. These may be expected in so new
and changing a social and economic structure as ours.
It seems no longer appropriate, however, to assume that obstacles to
women’s achievement rest chiefly in the “tyranny of men.” Both men
and women are the victims of tradition and prejudice. Both are affected
by the continuance of a “mode of thinking which has not caught up
with the actual conditions of our times.” 1 A more objective view of
This conception of women’s problems of opportunity and achievement has been
clearly stated by C. Mildred Thompson, until recently Dean of Vassar College:
1
the problem of women’s opportunities and achievements will take into
consideration not only the attitudes of management and workers but a
complex of other factors in the social and economic situation which
affects the opportunities of women, and their actual accomplishments
on the job.
It is within this broad framework that the present report of effort and
accomplishment of women in a particular field was conceived. A mat
ter of growing interest is the extent to which women are using their
greater freedom to achieve success in the higher levels of employment.
That women today are holding positions of heavy responsibility is com
mon knowledge. In politics, in public service, in the professions, women
are successfully assuming responsibilities once accepted as appropriate
for men alone. How widespread is this participation, what obstacles
must be overcome, what are the positive factors which lead to success:
these are less well-known. Of achievements in the business and indus
trial world even less is known. The casual observer might well find it
difficult to name offhand an industrial magnate or a corporation execu
tive who is a woman. Not long ago an article in the Survey Graphic
characterized the average business office as a “beehive filled with women,
ruled by a few men.” *2 3 In a speech given at a Women’s Bureau Con
ference (1948), a prominent economist and social philosopher said,
“In all honesty, the posts for women in many organizations are mostly
confined to the lower echelons. * * * Progress has of course been
made, but business and industry are in all the crucially determining
factors still a man’s world.” a
There has been, in fact, little analysis of women’s status within indus
try and business—the extent to which women are holding higher-level
jobs, the factors which influence attainment, and those which are ob
stacles to achievement. This study has been designed in response to the
need for more such information. It deals with the extent to which
higher-level jobs are open to women, the qualifications demanded, the
relative success of men and women in obtaining such jobs, and the back
ground and experience of the women who are holding higher-level
positions.
The Women’s Bureau publication of three years ago, “Women’s Oc
cupations Through Seven Decades,” gives background and perspective
for the present study. While questions of job level were touched on only
“Social pressures change and ideologies of society cause shifts in acceptable standards.
The development of women’s powers, the conception of their rights, and the measure
of their contributions cannot be wisely evaluated apart from the whole of society and
the forces which control it. These forces are not immutable, but are constantly
changing.” U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. Women’s Bureau
Conference, 1948. Bulletin 224. Washington, U. S. Government Printing Office,
1948. Pp. 50-51.
2 Smith, Harrison. Women are a fantasy. Survey Graphic, December 1948,
p. 509.
3 U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. Women’s Bureau Conference,
1948. Bulletin 224. Washington, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1948. P. 74.
2
indirectly, that report showed women increasingly participating as “pro
prietors, managers, and officials”-—the census classification most closely
comparable to the “higher-level” job classification used in the present
study. Within the fields to be considered in this report, merchandising
was the only exception. In 1910 women proprietors, managers, and
officials in general merchandise, apparel and accessories, shoe stores, and
milliners (not in factory) were almost 40 percent of the workers in this
occupational group; by 1940 they were only slightly over 25 percent.4
On the other hand, in 1940 the proportion of women among insurance
officials was about 7 percent, in contrast to somewhat over 1 percent in
1910. By 1940 women were about 4.5 percent of the proprietors, man
agers, and officials in banking and other finance, in contrast to about 2.5
percent in 1910.5
As for women in industry, “Women’s Occupations Through Seven
Decades” reported as follows:
As increasing numbers of women have entered paid work and have taken
up various occupations in the world of business and industry, they have also
had growing, though still limited, opportunities to enter those positions that
carry great prestige in our business-dominated economy. Major increases
seem to be reported beginning about the turn of the century. Nearly 27,000
women were proprietors, managers, and officials in industry in 1940, over
100 times as many as were reported in the 1870 census. They were 3.5
percent of the total in 1940, a proportion nearly 10 times as great as in 1870.
In 1910, women constituted about 1.5 percent of all workers in this
group, in contrast to 3.5 percent in 1940.6 7 More recent census figures
show that since 1940 the number of women “proprietors, managers, and
officials” has more than doubled.
Despite the steady gain through the years in women’s participation as
“proprietors, managers, and officials,” statistics on income give evidence
that women are still far from having achieved the same success as men
in reaching the better-paid positions in business and industry. In 1948
with the exception of those under 20 years, women’s incomes averaged
considerably less than men’s in every age group, occupation group, and
major industry. Median annual earnings for all employed women were
$1,522, more than $1,000 less than median annual eamingsfor employed
men. Over eight times as many men as women earned more than
$3,500.T
Supplementary evidence that women have lagged far behind men in
achieving the higher-paid jobs is offered by a survey of women college
graduates of the class of 1934, conducted in 1949 for the New York
* U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. Women’s occupations through
seven decades. By Janet M. Hooks. Bulletin 218. Washington, U. S. Government
Printing Office, 1947. P. 184.
5 Ibid. Pp. 188-9.
6 Ibid. P. 185.
7 U. S. Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. Current Population
Reports, Consumer Income, 1948. P-60, No. 6, table 15, p. 26.
3
Times. The graduates of Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Radeliffe, Smith, Vassar, and Wellesley who had been working 15 years since
graduation, were earning an average of $3,790 a year. Their husbands,
83 percent of whom were college graduates, were receiving an average
annual salary of somewhat more than $9,800. Even granted that the
men were some years older than the women, the differential is startling,
although, to the reporter who made the survey, the average wage of the
career women seemed “impressive.” 8
Information on management attitudes relating to the appointment or
promotion of women to the higher-level jobs has been very limited.9
However, a study made by two associates of the Yale Labor and Manage
ment Center contributes useful background material for appraising
attitudes. The authors sought information on hiring practices in re
spect to “executive and administrative assistants” otherwise defined as
“middle management”—the group composed of all management above
first-line supervisors, except the president, vice presidents, secretary, and
treasurer. The survey showed that in these two communities:
Not only is this area of middle management dominated by men at the
present time, but there is no indication of a desire on the part of employers
for a change. Only about 8 percent of the people in this category now
employed in the two cities are women, and they are chiefly in jobs like a
president’s secretary who has quasi-executive duties, or assistant in the
personnel department with particular relations with women workers.
Seventy-five percent of the employers in New Haven and 83 percent in
Charlotte preferred men.10 11
That industry during the war trained women in higher job skills and
used women in jobs previously held only by men is a matter of record.
But it is also a matter of record that even during the war “opportunities
for upgrading and supervisory jobs for women were very limited.” 11
A Women’s Bureau report in 1944 stated:
Unfortunately there are many cases where women still have been given
far too little chance to be upgraded to their highest skills * * *. More
over, numerous instances are reported of the placement of women in jobs
that are not in the usual line for the job progression; in such blind-alley
jobs neither proficiency nor length of service can bring these women beyond
a limited early stage of the work. If this situation continues, it will be a
great disadvantage to women after the war, and in fact Government
agencies are finding promotional discrimination against them as one of the
8 Willig, John. Class of ’34 (Female) fifteen years later. New York Times
Magazine, June 12, 1949. P. 10.
B A recent study made for the National Federation of Business and Professional
Women’s Clubs, Inc., entitled “Opportunities for Careers for Women,” gives useful
information on the progress of women in insurance, cosmetics, and department stores
and examines the reasons for women’s failure to make further progress.
“ Noland, E. William, and Bakke, E. Wight. Workers wanted. A study of employ
ers’ hiring policies, preferences, and practices in New Haven and Charlotte. Yaie
Labor and Management Center Series, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1949. P. 79.
11 U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. Women’s Bureau Conference,
1948. Bulletin 224. Washington, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1948. P. 15.
4
major reasons why women quit jobs in war plants. Whether or not this
continues * * * will depend to some extent on how proficient women
show themselves to be.12
In a community survey which was made by the Women’s Bureau during
reconversion, it was discovered that, with the end of World War II,
many of the jobs assigned to women during the war were again becoming
men’s work.13
The present study is necessarily limited in scope. It contains facts
about women holding higher-level positions in four fields of work—de
partment stores, home offices of insurance companies, banks, and manu
facturing—in the Boston-Hartford area, Philadelphia, and Chicago.14
It also contains the views and attitudes of management and of women
holding positions of responsibility. Such evidence must be clearly dis
tinguished from “factual” evidence. But however conflicting and in
consistent they may sometimes appear to be, attitudes themselves are an
important part of the occupational climate in which women work and
properly evaluated they provide useful supplementary background for
an appraisal of women in the higher-level positions. Conclusions from
such a study can only be suggestive of the general situation. Yet here,
for the first time, systematic coverage replaces scattered individual
reports. Women about to enter the business world will find enlighten
ment from the observations and recommendations of the men and
women who were interviewed. Executives in business and industry will
find thought-provoking material for evaluating current attitudes and
policies.
Of particular interest to the career-minded woman, this study is also
of general interest. If women’s abilities are not being fully developed or
used, it deprives the Nation of the full use of an important part of its
labor resources. On the other hand evidence that women are increas
ingly being judged on merit may inspire more young women to prepare
themselves for positions of responsibility, and so increase their usefulness
to society.
Since tangible and intangible factors combine to produce the very
real situation faced by the career-minded woman as she looks to the
future, this report has placed on the record, along with the statistics,
many factors which defy scientific measurement but without which the
statistics alone would lose much of their meaning. Together they present
a picture of great interest, and one which it is believed marks a real
advance in our knowledge of women’s status in business and industry.
18 U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. A preview as io women workers
in transition from war to peace. By Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon. Special Bulletin 18.
Washington, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1944. Pp. 7-8.
13 U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. Women workers after VJ-day
in one community—Bridgeport, Conn. Bulletin 216. Washington, U. S. Govern
ment Printing Office, 1947. P. 12.
14 For complete coverage data and tables, see appendixes A and G, respectively.
5
880477—50—2
SUMMARY
In all fields of work covered by the survey, many positions formerly
considered “men’s jobs” are today being held by women. While the
status of women in many fields of department store work has long been
assured, the acceptance of women in positions of responsibility in the
other business and industrial fields has been of more recent origin.
There is evidence that the attitudes or limitations of women them
selves may be no less an obstacle to advancement than traditional atti
tudes of management. The survey reveals that women themselves did
not always have the necessary requisites for further advancement, nor
did they always take advantage of the opportunities for special training
offered them. The study also indicates that women of ambition and
ability who had performed outstanding service were often advanced in
the face of a general company policy unfavorable to women.
As women are successful in securing training, and demonstrating
ability in job performance and a desire to advance, their accomplishments
and work attitudes are encouraging a changing attitude on the part of
management. The survey shows a trend towards an increasing recog
nition that women should be judged on merit, and receive the promotions
and titles for which they qualify.
Significant numbers of women were found in higher-level positions in
all of the fields covered by the survey, but only in department stores was
there an even distribution of such jobs among men and women. In the
home offices of the insurance companies, women held one-fifth of the
higher-level positions; in the banks and manufacturing firms no more
than 15 percent of the higher-level positions were held by women.
In no category of business and industry was the ratio of women to men
in higher-level positions comparable to the ratio of women to men in
total employment. In department stores and in insurance companies,
women constituted roughly two-thirds of all employees, and in banks
and manufacturing nearly one-half of all employees were women.
In department stores, more than half of these women were in the
merchandising division, usually as buyers or assistant buyers. The rest
6
held a variety of jobs in other departments—as section heads, floor
managers, personnel directors, advertising managers, artists or copy
writers—to name but a few.
In insurance companies, over half of the women in the higher-level
jobs were clerical supervisors, work which is more traditionally “women’s
work.” However, a few occupied positions in specialized fields of insur
ance requiring a high degree of skill.
In banks, two-thirds of the women in higher-level jobs were tellers
or clerical supervisors—a third held a variety of positions, some at a fairly
high level of responsibility, including credit and security analysts, tax
experts, accountants, administrative or executive assistants.
In manufacturing, about half of the women in higher-level positions
were in production. The remaining half were in various departments,
chiefly personnel or office and finance—a few with positions of con
siderable responsibility.
The classification “higher level jobs” as used in the survey covers a
wide range of responsibility levels, which must be taken into consideration
in measuring the achievement of women in business and industry. In
general, the women in higher-level jobs in the fields surveyed were in the
middle brackets. Only in insurance companies were the majority of
the women at the lowest level of responsibility covered by the classifi
cation higher-level jobs. But, with the possible exception of department
stores, neither were they found to any large extent in the highest levels of
responsibility. In the firms covered by the survey, not more than 4
percent of the officers in any of the industries covered were women; in
banks the proportion of positions with officer status held by women was
almost negligible (in spite of the fact that nearly one-third of all higherlevel positions in the banks surveyed carried with them officer status).
In the production operations of manufacturing, very few women were
found above the forelady level. Only three women were actuaries in
insurance companies, and in banks comparatively few of the women
were engaged in technical or administrative positions of a very high
order. Only in stores were women holding highly responsible positions
in substantial proportions, but even here few held positions at the
top level.
It was apparent that women who held the responsible jobs had taken
a marked interest in their work and had made unusual efforts to be
successful at it. The vast majority of the women interviewed believed
that they owed their promotion to having done well on the job. When
asked what other women should do to get ahead, a preponderance of
women said “better work performance and attitudes.” Also stressed
were “ambition or desire to succeed,” “education and training,” “better
human relations and social attitudes.”
The belief that certain jobs are “suitable” favored women in certain
fields. A business whose clients were women was considered a “woman’s
7
field.” Sometimes a generalization about women’s abilities, such as the
belief that women are better on detail work, encouraged promotion in
certain fields.
In some cases, most notably engineering, World War II had opened
new opportunities for women through providing them with the special
training which they might not otherwise have received. The fact that
even a small percent of the women so trained have remained in industry
and have been successful has meant a growing acceptance of women in
these new fields.
Many women who were interviewed felt that traditional attitudes
were an obstacle to women’s advancement. With the exception of
women in department stores, this factor was mentioned by a large pro
portion of the women interviewed. These women felt that the assump
tion that certain jobs were “men’s jobs” would prevent them from
advancing to better positions. Management itself, particularly in banks
and insurance companies, also recognized this as a factor.
However, management representatives also expressed the belief that
women are handicapped by their lack of permanency and the distractions
of family responsibility. Many firms in finance and manufacturing re
ported giving women training in specialized fields, only to have a large
percentage leave within a year or so. Interviews with the women them
selves indicated that there was perhaps little foundation for this concern
about lack of permanency among the group employed in positions of
responsibility. When asked, “What do you want to be doing 5 years
from now?” very few said “retire.” The vast majority wanted to con
tinue in their present job or hold a better position.
Both management and the women in higher-level positions also in
dicated some limitations in women’s job qualifications. Women’s lack
of education, training, or work experience necessary for certain higherlevel jobs was given by some firms as a reason why women had not been
placed in such positions. Women themselves often felt that lack of
adequate preparation disqualified them for further advancement. In
some instances opportunities for in-training were less for women than
for men; but often, where training courses were open to both men and
women, experience indicated that women were less likely to take ad
vanced courses, although interest was widespread in the beginning
courses.
That there may be some merit to this point of view is indicated by the
general level of education found among women in the higher-level posi
tions. In department stores nearly half and in the other industries con
siderably more than half had had no more than a high school education;
about one-fourth had had a college education, with the exception of those
in manufacturing where even fewer were college trained. Nearly all of
the women in banks and about half of the women in the other industries
had had other special training, chiefly business or other technical training.
8
State College Library
A marked characteristic of most of the women interviewed in the
higher-level positions was a genuine enthusiasm for their work. Most
of them expressed a keen interest in the job and accepted as a challenge
the duties and responsibilities which accompanied their positions.
Taken as a group they were somewhat older than were women in the
general labor market. Three-fourths were 35 years of age or over, in
contrast to half for the labor force as a whole (April 1948). Also larger
proportions were single than in the general labor force.
Work histories of women in the higher-level positions indicated that
most of them had had many years experience. In every field of business
and industry covered by the survey, nearly two-thirds of them had been
working for more than 15 years. Substantial numbers had had all or
most of this work experience with the same firm. This long experience
is evidence that women at these levels of responsibility at least, are not
lacking in qualities of permanence and stability.
That there were seldom rigid patterns of progression to the higher-level
positions was apparent from an examination of the background and
experience of women who had achieved such positions. Education and
experience as well as personal qualifications often varied among women
holding similar positions.
Personnel work held possibilities for women of many different back
grounds. Training jobs might require teaching experience or aptitudes
in this direction. In counselling jobs emphasis was sometimes given to
personal qualities—ability to get along with people, and sympathetic
understanding. Job testing and certain social service activities in the
larger personnel departments might call for college work in psychology.
Women with nurses’ training sometimes had been promoted to executive
positions in personnel departments, especially in the manufacturing firms.
Some buyers and merchandise managers had college work or training
in schools of retailing, but many had grammar school or high school
education, supplemented by in-store training courses in retailing and
store operations.
Women in factory-supervisory jobs were on the whole persons with
a grammar school or high school education only. Advancement had
come because of satisfactory job performance and proven ability to work
with people. While a few women had moved from factory-supervisory
work into personnel work, advancement possibilities were exceedingly
limited.
For the better positions in engineering, chemical and bacteriological
research and testing, college or postgraduate work were prerequisites.
Interesting laboratory-technician jobs in these fields had been obtained by
women without such training, but possibilities for further advancement
were rare.
Women holding higher-level positions in printing and publishing
usually had a college background, but occasionally women with less
9
formal education were found, typically in technical jobs of publishing.
Women in editorial work generally had college training and sometimes
experience in writing or teaching.
In insurance and banking, women holding specialized positions as
investment and security analysts, statisticians, etc., were usually college
women with training in mathematics. The most highly specialized job
in insurance is that of “actuary,” a position requiring a number of years
of special training. Few women have spent the many years of training
necessary for such jobs, but there was in each city one, at least, in the
firms covered by the survey who had done so.
10
library
SOUTHWEST MISSOURI
STATE college
SPRINGFIELD
WOMEN
THIS STUDY
Success in Attaining Higher-Level Positions
Women were holding a wide variety of higher-level positions in the
department stores, banks, insurance companies, and manufacturing es
tablishments covered by this survey, giving vivid proof that ability to
perform supervisory, administrative, and specialized jobs of all kinds
is not purely a masculine attribute. In the fields studied, many positions
formerly believed to be “men’s jobs” were being held by women, indi
cating that women are preparing themselves for advancement, and that
management is discovering that the person best qualified for promotion
may very well turn out to be a woman.
A broad picture of women’s success in attaining higher-level positions
is provided by figures indicating the ratio of women to men in total
employment in the industries covered, and the ratio of women to men
in the higher-level positions in these same industries. That women have
made greater progress in some industries than in others is apparent.
In the department stores, where slightly more than two-thirds of the
employees were women, the higher-level positions were equally divided
between women and men. In the other industries covered, women had
not yet made such striking inroads into the higher brackets. In insur
ance, where almost two-thirds of the employees were women, and in
banks and manufacturing, where somewhat less than half of the em
ployees were women, men were holding four to six times as many of the
higher-level positions as were women.
There were women officers in all of the fields covered by the survey,
but it was still the exceptional woman who had reached officer status.
In the department stores and manufacturing firms, 4 percent of the
officers were women; in the insurance companies only 2 percent; in banks
only 1 percent.
li
Types of Positions Held by Women
The classification “executive, administrative, professional, technical,
and supervisory,” 1 includes within each category a broad range of re
sponsibility levels and of job requirements. Within this wide range of
responsibilities it is interesting to note that while only a small proportion
of the women in “higher level jobs” were officers or active in top man
agement, on the other hand they were not predominately at the lowest
levels of responsibility. Only in insurance companies were the majority
of women in higher-level jobs occupying posts of a routine nature and
with restricted responsibilities. In the department stores, 80 percent
of the women in higher-level jobs were in positions which would seem to
require specialized knowledge of the business, or professional competence
in a given field. In the banks there were almost as many women holding
positions as tellers or assistant tellers as were holding clerical-supervisory
jobs. In the factories covered by the survey, over twice as many women
were foreladies12 as were holding positions at the lowest levels of
responsibility.
Status of Women in Department Stores
Standing as a symbol of women’s advancement in the merchandising
field is the woman president of one of the large department stores covered
by the survey. The movement which began before the Civil War to
release men for more manly pursuits than “cramping their genius over
chintzes and delaines” has carried women far beyond the sales clerk jobs
which were then their highest ambition.3 Even in the small sample of
the Nation-wide situation which the present survey represents, women
might be found in almost any position in the store. Some of the women’s
specialty shops were largely staffed by women, and in some cases antici
pated having a completely feminine staff in the future.
The higher-level jobs in the department stores covered by the survey
were evenly divided between men and women. Among the various
departments there was considerable variation in the proportions of the
higher-level jobs held by men and women. Almost all of the specialized
shopping-service positions were held by women, as were 85 percent of
1 See appendix A for definitions of higher-level positions and levels of responsibility.
2 Interviewers found that the position of “forelady” was often not at the same level
of responsibility as that of “foreman.” A few women said they were foremen, mean
ing that their jobs involved broader responsibilities than those of forelady.
8 A boycott of those shops which did not employ women was advocated by the New
York Daily Tribune of March 7, 1845, which said: “All our stores mainly visited by
women should be attended by women. It is a shame that fine, hearty lads, who
might clear their 50 acres each of western forest * * * should be hived up in
hot salesrooms, handing down tapes and ribbons, and cramping their genius over
chintzes and delaines.” Quoted in Report on condition of woman and child wageearners in the United States. S. Doc. 645. Washington, U. S. Government Printing
Office, 1910-12. Vol. IX. P. 235.
12
State College Library
the higher-level jobs in personnel and employee welfare. Nearly twothirds of the higher-level jobs in the publicity departments and slightly
over half of those in the merchandising departments were held by women.
Somewhat less than half of the higher-level positions in departments
having to do with store operations and with general office, finance, and
control were held by women. Relatively few women in proportion
to men held jobs in top management.
The merchandising division has been called the “hub” of the store’s
activities and over half of the higher-level jobs in the stores covered were
in this division. This is the division which is responsible for the buying of
merchandise and its sale and distribution to customers. Over half of
the women in higher-level jobs in the stores covered were in this division.
The preponderance of women holding responsible jobs in merchandising
(1,500 out of 1,600) were buyers or assistant buyers. However, 12
women in 7 of the 29 stores were merchandise managers, 10 were assistant
merchandise managers, 12 held jobs as fashion coordinators or stylists.
Thirty women in the merchandising divisions of these stores served as
heads or assistant heads of receiving, wrapping, and packaging depart
ments; about half as many were clerical supervisors.
Over-all, there were approximately as many women as men in head
buyer positions, and there were one and one-half times as many women
as men in assistant-buyer jobs. There appeared to be a disposition to
assign men to certain departments, women to others. In none of the
stores covered did a man hold the position of buyer or assistant buyer
in infants’ wear. On the other hand, buyers of men’s and boys’ clothing
were almost always men, although one woman buyer and three women
assistant buyers were in this field. Housewares and blankets, rather sur
prisingly, seemed to be considered more suitable for men. Yet a woman
buyer in hardware and paint was said by the personnel director to
“know more than any man about the houseware department,” and a
woman had been promoted to the position of buyer in a furniture and
bedding department.
Over one-tenth of the women in the higher-level positions in the stores
covered were active in store operations. This division is responsible
for purchasing supplies and equipment for the store as well as for the
handling of merchandise. Store superintendents and floor and section
managers are in this department. Of some 350 women active in re
sponsible jobs in store operations, over 200 were acting as section heads,
and nearly 100 were working as floor managers or assistant floor
managers.
While only 4 percent of the employees holding higher-level jobs in the
stores covered were in the personnel and employee welfare department,
7 percent of the women holding responsible jobs were in this field.4 Most
4 Including 42 nurses and 1 doctor.
13
880477—50------- 3
of the women in personnel were serving as assistants to personnel directors,
employment managers, and training directors. However, 8 women had
become personnel directors; 18 were employment managers; and 23 were
training directors. Some women in personnel work reported that with
the unionization of the department stores, management’s attitude toward
women in top-personnel jobs had changed. And while men were not
replacing women in these positions, in at least one store, a newly created
job of “industrial relations director” had been given to a man on the
grounds that men negotiate with union representatives more acceptably
than women.
Over 200 women held positions of responsibility in the publicity and
sales-promotion departments in all but 3 of the department stores covered
by the survey. Eleven women were advertising managers, three were
promotion managers. Twenty women held jobs as assistant advertising
managers. Most of the women in advertising and promotion worked as
artists or copywriters. One store reported that the best display manager
the store had ever had—“a genius”—was a woman who had replaced a
man during the war.
Mail-order selling, telephone service, and personal customer services
are included among the responsibilities of the shopping service. There
seemed to be widespread assignment of women to handle special customer
services: customers’ shopping chief, comparison shoppers, and heads of
special shops and services. Fifty-three of the 57 jobs in this classification
in the stores covered were held by women.
The general office, sometimes called the finance division or accounting
division, has the responsibility for the store’s money transactions. In
this department payrolls and purchasing orders are prepared; all finan
cial records are kept and audited; and departmental statistics are com
piled. The credit section deals with customers’ credit, records of pur
chases, and billing. Women held almost half of the higher-level posi
tions in the finance and control division of the stores covered. The larger
number were section supervisors of bookkeeping and accounting, cashier
ing, or payroll. However, women were also found holding a wide
variety of general office positions including those of office manager,
assistant office manager, credit manager, assistant credit manager, and
statistician.
Six percent of the women in higher-level positions in the department
stores performed a variety of other services. Many had become res
taurant managers or assistants. Others were in charge of alterations
and workrooms. In almost every store there was a woman as chief
telephone operator. Quite a few women were holding executive posi
tions in beauty shops. In one of the largest stores visited, a woman was
head of store protection, which includes protecting the stock and the
customers against fire, theft, loss, accidents, or damage.
14
Higher-level positions held by women in department stores
Officers.
Branch store managers and assistants.
Administrative assistants.
Consultants to management.
Executive secretaries.
Adjustment managers and assistants.
Advertising managers and assistants.
Artists.
Buyers and assistants.
Clerical supervisors in—
Merchandising.
Office.
Personnel.
Comparison-shopping
supervisors
and assistants.
Consumer-relations specialists.
Copywriters.
Credit managers and assistants.
Customer-shopping-service supervi
sors and assistants.
Display managers (assistants).
Editors of company paper.
Editors of sales publications or leaf
lets.
Elevator operator supervisors.
Fashion coordinators.
Fashion promotion supervisors.
Floor managers and assistants.
Interior decorators.
Librarians.
Mail-order shopping service.
Managers and assistant managers
of—
Alterations and workrooms.
Beauty shops.
Fur storage and repair.
General repair desk.
Restaurants.
Sewing and art needlework
schools.
Market-research specialists.
Merchandise managers and assist
ants.
Nurses (registered).
Office managers and assistants.
Personnel employees such as—
Employee counsellors
Employment managers and assist
ants.
Interviewers and testers.
Job and wage analysts.
Personnel directors and assistants.
Supervisors of personnel records.
Training directors and assistants.
Pharmacists.
Physicians.
Public relations directors.
Publicity directors.
Purchasing agents and assistants.
Radio and television program direc
tors.
Receiving- and packing-department
supervisors and assistants.
Research workers.
Sales-budget-control analysts.
Sales-promotion managers and assist
ants.
Section heads.
Service managers.
Sign-shop supervisors.
Special department consultants in—
Brides bureaus.
Church bureaus.
Home-planning centers.
Maternity bureaus.
Travel and ticket bureaus.
Statisticians.
Store-protection chiefs.
Stylists.
Telephone operators (chief).
Status of Women in Insurance Companies
The business of insurance is many-faceted and calls for a great variety
of skills not readily classified into categories based on levels of respon
sibility or along lines of departmental organization. Among the more
skilled specialists occupying positions of responsibility in insurance com
panies are the following: the actuaries, who determine how insurance
policies are to be written, highly skilled work requiring a careful balancing
15
of risks against company income and operating costs; 5 underwriters who
decide whether an application for insurance should be accepted; claim
experts who decide which claims should be paid and which are un
tenable; investment analysts and other specialists who are responsible for
the investment of company funds. Acting as advisors, and supplement
ing the functions of these specialists in the insurance business are medical
men, nurses, lawyers, to name only a few. The administration of so
specialized a business requires many skills since there must be persons
responsible for personnel, purchasing, printing, filing, financial records
and transactions. Some of the larger companies have their own libraries
and restaurants.
For purposes of analysis they have been divided roughly into the
following categories: Officers or other executives representing topmanagement positions; positions requiring specialized knowledge of
insurance or closely related fields; clerical-supervisory positions; execu
tive secretaries and administrative assistants.
Almost two-thirds of the employees in the 30 home offices of insurance
companies covered by the survey were women, but they held only onefifth of the higher-level jobs in these firms. While many were holding
positions requiring specialized knowledge of insurance, over half were
clerical supervisors, a position traditionally belonging to women, and
one involving somewhat limited responsibilities in relation to the business
as a whole.
There were no women officers in the 4 property and casualty com
panies in Philadelphia, but in 14 of the 26 life-insurance companies
covered in the study there were 1 or more women officers, usually in
small companies. The 21 women officers were holding responsible
positions in many different departments. One was an associate actuary,
one of three women actuaries in this study and one of four actuarial offi
cers in her firm. Another handled public relations for her company, as
well as representing the president of the company at many meetings.
Several women officers were personnel directors or assistants. Two were
in the legal departments of their companies. Women officers were also
managers of other departments including the ordinary-life-claims division
and the industrial-insurance division. In another instance a woman
officer was general office manager. One junior officer was assistant
division sales manager. Another was doing similar work, although her
title was assistant secretary. One woman officer was acting treasurer,
supervising all financial activities and making all company disbursements
and payments. Still another, as statistician and assistant secretary, was
responsible for all reports of the firm’s financial standing.
" The actuary is the most highly skilled person in insurance, and it has been said that
the actuary “is to life insurance what the civil engineer is to bridge-building.” See:
Thai, Helen M. Careers for youth in life insurance. Institute of Life Insurance,
New York, 1947. Pp. 8, 19.
16
State College Library
Almost one-tenth of the women in higher-level jobs in life-insurance
home offices, and a somewhat smaller proportion in casualty and propperty insurance, were holding positions as executive secretaries or
administrative assistants. All had administrative duties involving re
sponsibility for carrying out the routine work of the office, and acting
in many matters for the officials when they were away. An administra
tive assistant to the president-treasurer of a small company had taken
over the job of the secretary of the company when he had died some 8
years before, but she had never received the title. The company execu
tive who was interviewed stated that it was his personal belief that she
should be given the official title but he doubted that a woman would be
elected in spite of the fact that she had served in that capacity for so long.
Several women in the insurance home offices covered by the survey
were mortgage and investment security analysts. Over 30 women were
underwriters. Almost as many were in actuarial or statistical work.
Only one woman in each of the three cities was an actuary but several
were junior actuaries. Two women in actuarial work had become offi
cers and each was receiving the highest salary for women in her company.
Five others in actuarial or statistical positions were among the highestpaid women in their firms. Only two women in underwriting were
found among the top-salaried women in their companies, and one woman
in underwriting had become an officer. There were women attorneys
in four of the companies covered, in addition to the two women at
torneys who had been made officers.
Higher-level positions held by women in insurance home offices
Officers.
Administrative assistants.
Executive secretaries.
Personnel employees such as—
Employment managers and assist
ants.
Interviewers and testers.
Job and wage analysts.
Personnel directors and assistants.
Supervisors of personnel clerks.
Training consultants.
Policy-holders service bureau heads.
Policy-title, option, and settlement
department heads.
Prospect bureau (managers and as
sistants) .
Publicity writers.
Purchasing agents (assistants).
Research workers.
Sales-promotion department heads.
Telephone operators (chief).
Underwriters.
Accountants and auditors.
Actuarial and statistical technicians.
Actuaries.
Attorneys.
Bond traders.
Cashiers and assistants.
Claims examiners and adjusters.
Clerical supervisors.
Controllers (assistants).
Custodians of security cage and vault.
Directors of Visiting Nurse Service.
Librarians.
Medical technicians and registered
nurses.
Mortgage, security, and investment Dieticians.
specialists.
Maintenance supervisors.
Museum heads.
Restaurant managers.
17
Many of the supervisory jobs and a great many of the specialized jobs
were reported as new jobs for women in the past 10 years. While the
majority of firms could name positions which had been held by women
only during the war period, most of the insurance companies mentioned
other jobs now held by women which they had not held 10 years ago.
Most of the officerships for women had come in recent years, many since
the war. While some companies still believed that women were good
only for the clerical jobs, there were many management representatives
who agreed with the personnel man who said “there is no job in the
company which a qualified woman cannot hold.”
Status of Women in Banks
The findings with respect to the position of women in banks gain added
significance if viewed in the light of the rapid changes which have taken
place in the past 10 years in the position of bank women throughout the
country. The Association of Bank Women has pointed out that “before
the war no individual bank had more than 40 percent women employees
in relation to the total personnel—the average was nearer to between 15
percent and 25 percent. At the peak of the war period the percentage
rose to an average of not less than 50 percent.” In some regions the
changes had been even greater. From Maine a woman banker re
ported that a published survey covering a representative group of banks
showed that in her State women employees in the larger banks had
increased from 35 percent in 1939 to 85 percent in 1945.6
That this increase in the employment of women has been accompanied
by changes of great significance in the status of bank women may be seen
from a comparison of reports at 2-year intervals of the Association of
Bank Women. The report of 1942 said:
Prior to the present war women were employed in banks principally as
stenographers, secretaries to officers, general clerks and a few special tellers.
The attitude toward advancement has not changed much during the last
15 years. This was due, in part, to the women employed, many of whom
did not * * * prepare themselves for new types of work or for a
variety of positions. * * * In many cases they had the idea that their
opportunities were so limited they would never be able to use their knowl
edge after they took the time to study.7
By 1946 the Association of Bank Women could report that during the
war period and the time immediately after, “there were advances all
along the line based upon merit and long overdue recognition * * *
particularly true in the case of official appointments at certain banks.” 8
And elsewhere William Powers, Deputy Manager of the AmericanBankers Association, was quoted as saying: “The impressive fact today
8 Women in Banking.
Women, 1946. P. 6.
''Ibid. P.42.
’ Ibid. P. 8.
Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition.
Association of Bank
18
is that where once stenography was the only assured shoehorn to a job
in a bank, now women are filling every possible job. That is an in
dication that traditional thinking is being scrapped.” 9
Interviews with bank representatives in Chicago and Philadelphia
would tend to substantiate the foregoing views. Over half of these banks
reported that the trend is definitely toward the use of more women in
supervisory and administrative positions. One bank representative felt
that women could do some of the jobs better than men. Of the banks
reporting “little possibility” for increasing the number of women in the
higher-level jobs, one already had three women as officers—one of the
few banks where women had achieved this distinction. Another said
that it would use more women in the higher-level jobs if they prove their
ability and indicate that they intend to stay. The management of
another bank felt that while the time had not yet come for women to
be made officers, in another 10 years there might be quite a number in
this same bank, since several women now on responsible jobs were ad
mittedly good officer material.
The survey showed that of the women holding higher-level positions
in the banks covered by the survey, one-third were clerical supervisors,
one-third were tellers or assistant tellers, and the rest held a variety of
positions, some involving specialized knowledge of banking, and some
involving considerable administrative responsibility. There were few
women officers in relation to the total number of officers, a significant
index of women’s general status in the higher-level positions, since
banks give officer titles to a much greater extent than do the other in
dustries covered.10 Eight of the twelve banks covered by the survey
had no women officers. The other 4 had among them a total of 15
women officers, 1 large bank alone accounting for 8 of these officers.
The 15 women officers were performing a variety of functions. One
was an auditor, responsible for all auditing and tax returns for her bank.
An assistant trust officer handled and managed living trusts. Another
woman was administrative assistant to the president with responsibility for
keeping confidential records and minutes of board meetings. One was
an officer with responsibility for passing on collateral and legal docu
ments left in escrow. She was one of four escrow officers in the bank.
Another woman officer handled all types of insurances related to trust
transactions for the bank’s clients; another was personnel assistant for
women. Several women officers were “signing officers,” with various
non-policy-making functions which included signing legal papers for
their companies.
In addition to these women with officer status, there were 37 women
9 Campbell, Dorcas E. Careers for women in banking and finance. E. P. Dutton
& Co., Inc., New York, 1944. P.31.
10 Thirty percent of the higher-level jobs in the banks covered were held by officers
in contrast to 3 percent in department stores.
19
in 6 of the 12 banks who held responsible positions as administrative
assistants or executive secretaries. Several of them were among the
highest-paid women in the banks. In addition to their administrative
and supervisory duties, many acted for officers in their absence or rep
resented them in other ways. Personal interviews with some of these
women led interviewers to conclude that women were carrying responsi
bilities which would have made them junior officers had they been men.
A number of the women holding responsible positions in banks were
doing statistical work in various departments and at different levels of
responsibility. Among them were credit and security analysts, auditors
and accountants. Some women were tax experts; others were specialists
in insurance. In the title departments, a few women did title searching.
Although women had been used in this capacity during the war, they
were generally being replaced by men since this work involved handling
heavy books and was considered too much of a strain for women. How
ever, other jobs in title work did not have this disadvantage. One
woman held a position as assistant head of judgments, getting clearance
on titles or judgments held against property. A woman attorney an
swered letters involving legal matters relating to titles.
In banks offering special services for women, there were special cus
tomer-service jobs assigned to women such as helping women customers
make out checks and deposit slips, or open accounts. A few banks had
women in customer-relations jobs not limited to dealing with women.
In other banks such positions were closed to women on the ground that
customers prefer men.
While almost one-third of the women in responsible positions in the
banks covered were tellers, there were only about 150 women in this
position in contrast to nearly 600 men. In all but 2 of the 12 banks,
women were holding teller or assistant teller positions. In some of the
banks which had women tellers, women had first been assigned to such
positions during the war. A few banks reported replacing women
tellers with men after the war. In one bank, when the men returned
from the service, “some women became assistant tellers although they
had given satisfactory performance.” Other banks indicated that
women were being kept on as tellers. One personnel officer said he
personally favored larger numbers of women tellers since the top salary
was insufficient to hold men, and he felt that women would be more
content than men to remain at such jobs.
Personnel work was being done by almost one-tenth of the women in
higher-level positions in the banks covered, and about half of the per
sonnel jobs in these banks were held by women. They had been more
successful in this department than in any other. In the personnel
departments, as in other departments, men generally held the officerlevel jobs. Of the 19 officers assigned to personnel work, only 1 was a
woman. Fourteen of the 33 women in personnel were nurses. Six
20
held training jobs of various kinds. The others did hiring or interview
ing, often as assistant to the personnel director. Usually women in such
jobs were assigned to work with women employees.
Several of the women holding higher-level jobs in banks were librar
ians. Others were dietitians, managers, or assistant managers of bank
restaurants. Women translators were found in two banks. Another
specialized job in the foreign department was held by a woman who
issued letters of credit and handled travelers checks and correspondence
with “out of the country” customers.
Higher-level positions held by women in banks
Officers.
Administrative assistants.
Executive secretaries.
Purchasing agents.
Senior clerks—miscellaneous custom
ers’ services.
Senior clerks with specialized duties
in—
Accountants and auditors.
Foreign departments.
Advertising assistants.
Insurance departments.
Analysts—credit, investment, loan,
Trust departments.
and security departments.
Statisticians.
Attorneys.
Tax
specialists.
Bond traders.
Telephone and telegraph operators
Clerical supervisors.
(chief).
Librarians.
Tellers and assistant tellers.
New accounts clerks.
Title searchers.
Personnel employees such as—
Translators (code).
Assistant personnel directors.
Translators (languages).
Interviewers and testers.
Vault, assistant managers.
Job analysts.
Nurses.
Dietitians.
Training directors and assistants. Restaurant managers and assistants.
Status of Women in Manufacturing
The manufacturing enterprises covered by the study were chiefly in
“light” industries, which, by virtue of their operations or the type of
product manufactured, usually employ important numbers of women.
These included among others such industries as confectionery, paper
products, radio and electrical products, pharmaceutical products, and
publishing houses.11
In manufacturing establishments covered by the study, employment in
the higher-level positions was concentrated in production, with compar
atively few in any other one division. In all of the companies covered,
80 percent of the men and about 50 percent of the women in higher-level
positions were in production. Only one-tenth of these positions were
held by women, whereas in other departments, particularly personnel
and employee welfare, women held much larger proportions of the
higher-level jobs.
11 See appendix A for complete coverage.
21
880477—50---- 4
The extent to which men occupied the supervisory positions in pro
duction varied considerably from industry to industry, but in none did
women occupy as many as one-third of such positions. In others con
siderably less than 10 percent of the positions were held by women.
There seemed to be a general feeling among manufacturing represent
atives that there are many jobs “which require a man,” both because
of the physical strength needed for many factory operations, and because
many supervisory positions in production require training in techniques
and engineering which few women have. The findings indicated some
relationship between the nature of the operations involved, and the
extent to which women had acquired supervisory positions in produc
tion. In radio and electrical manufacturing, an industry in which
supervisory positions may require technical knowledge, women occupied
only 3 percent of the supervisory positions and usually with limited
responsibilities, although they constituted 39 percent of total employ
ment. On the other hand, in confectionery establishments, where tech
nical requirements are less important, women occupied one-fourth of the
supervisory positions and accounted for 57 percent of all employment.
Those in confectionery firms were usually foreladies or assistant foreladies
in dipping, enrobing, and packaging departments. However, even in
those departments in which women predominated as operatives, it was
more usual to find men in supervisory positions.
Within the same industry there were often differences in the extent to
which women occupied supervisory positions. In one plant manufactur
ing radio parts, no women held jobs above the lowest supervisory level.
It was the contention of management in this concern that “the type of
company and its product are of such a nature that relatively few women
could be given advanced positions because they would then be required
to supervise men.” In another company manufacturing radio parts one
woman interviewed was forelady of a department making resistors.
Aided by an assistant foreman, she supervised 135 men and women, 2
women instructors, and a night-shift supervisor. In this same company
a woman engineer had recently been chosen to succeed a man. In some
plants where it was company policy to give foremen’s jobs to men, women
had taken over foremen’s responsibilities successfully in their absence.
While most of the higher-level positions in manufacturing were in
production, there were other departments which provided important
numbers of higher-level positions for women. Almost 500 women, or
16 percent of all women in higher-level positions in manufacturing were
in the personnel departments. These constituted half of the higher-level
personnel jobs available. Nineteen women in the 166 companies cov
ered by the survey were serving as personnel directors. Others held
positions as assistant personnel directors, employment managers, or
assistant employment managers, or had other jobs involving interview
ing and testing. Very few held training jobs. Over 20 women were
22
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P9180
engaged in time-study and job-analysis work. More than half of the
women holding higher-level jobs in personnel in the manufacturing com
panies covered were industrial nurses. In some cases administrative as
well as professional responsibilities were being carried by these nurses.
In a few cases former nurses who had given up all nursing duties were
holding executive and administrative jobs in personnel.
Other women were holding positions of responsibility in office and
financial control divisions as department heads or clerical supervisors.
Several women had been made office managers, and others were con
trollers or credit managers. Very often in small companies officemanagement jobs would include multiple functions. One woman, an
assistant secretary-treasurer of her company, was also credit manager
and office manager, dealt with the union, and handled proxies for
stockholders’ meetings. Another woman, who was office manager and
treasurer of her company, reported: “I run the office and the financial
matters, keep the private ledgers, approve the payroll, hire all office
help, supervise the office clerical staff, and have charge of the pension
plan.” In a manufacturing firm the secretary of the company reported
a variety of duties which included handling most of the sales credit,
handling all complaints, taking care of personnel problems, and super
vising the office manager. The secretary of another corporation stated
that she supervised about 130 salaried employees, was responsible for
complicated accounts, stocks issued, monthly statements to stockholders,
hiring and training of office help. She also had charge of office pro
cedures, finances and budgets, did all the purchasing of office supplies
and equipment, was responsible for office decoration, and was at present
supervising the planning of a new building.
Eight percent of the women holding higher-level jobs in manufac
turing were active in sales, advertising, and purchasing activities. Sev
enteen percent of the 1,400 higher-level jobs in this category were held
by women. Their jobs were varied and interesting. One woman held
a position in the sales department of her firm in which she answered all
correspondence from field representatives. She issued instructions to
field men concerning procedures, kept account of their salaries and ex
penses and handled sales figures. In addition, she planned medical con
ferences held by her company.
Another woman was head of a home economics department with
responsibility for all sales promotion directed toward the housewife. Her
job included preparing radio, television, and advertising copy, and
training and supervising demonstrators. She had full charge of a staff
of some 30 home economists, and also had veto power over designs.
In another radio-phonograph corporation, a woman edited and prepared
a catalog on educational records for schools and answered all correspond
ence from schools.
23
A woman purchasing agent in a rubber company did most of the buy
ing for the company. In another rubber company a woman held the
title of secretary to the purchasing agent, but was in fact an assistant pur
chasing agent. During the depression the assistant purchasing agent
was dismissed and this woman took over his work but was never given
a new title.
Higher-level positions held by women in manufacturing firms
Officers.
Administrative assistants.
Executive secretaries.
Laboratory technicians and assist
ants.
Liaison agents.
Librarians.
Map analysts.
Market-research specialists.
Medical technicians and registered
nurses.
Office managers and assistants.
Order-department directors.
Personnel employees such as—Employee counsellors.
Employment managers and assist
ants.
Interviewers and testers.
Personnel directors and assistants.
Personnel research workers.
Supervisors of employee facilities.
Supervisors of personnel records.
Time-study and job analysts.
Training directors and assistants.
Physicians.
Production managers and assistants.
Production methods, planning, and
control technicians.
Public relations directors.
Purchasing agents and assistants.
Research workers and consultants.
Safety cartoonists.
Sales and market-research workers.
Sales managers and assistants.
Sales-promotion managers and assist
ants.
Statisticians.
Stock-control supervisors.
Stylists.
Telephone operators (chief).
Traffic-manager assistants.
Translators.
Welfare and social workers.
Advertising managers and assistants.
Accountants, auditors, and assistants.
Adjustment managers.
Artists and art department super
visors.
Branch store supervisors.
Business-research workers.
Buyers for employees’ store.
Cartographers.
Cashiers.
Chemists and bacteriologists.
Chief clerks.
Clerical supervisors in—
Manufacturing process.
Office and financial control.
Sales and purchasing.
Controllers and assistants.
Copywriters.
Cost analysts.
Credit managers and assistants.
Customer-service-bureau directors.
Department or division heads.
Designers and assistants.
Draftsmen.
Editorial consultants.
Editors and associate editors.
Editors of house organs.
Engineers.
Export-sales supervisors.
Factory counsellors.
Factory-maintenance supervisors.
Foreladies and assistant foreladies.
Home economics department di
rectors.
Illustrators.
Industrial psychologists.
Cafeteria and restaurant managers.
Insurance managers and assistants. Dietitians.
24
Generally speaking, manufacturing seems to be providing a variety
of opportunities for women in office positions and in production when
technical and professional qualifications permit. The postwar years
have seen some shifting of women to their prewar status in production
supervision. During the war many women in the companies covered
by the survey had carried foreman-level responsibilities which they had
had to relinquish when the men returned. However, over one-third of
the firms covered by the survey indicated that prospects were good for
increasing the proportion of women in higher-level jobs, and in all areas
they were holding positions not held by women 10 years ago.
25
FACTORS FAVORING AND
DETERRING ADVANCEMENT
In all of the industries covered in the three areas, women were holding
positions which had formerly been considered “men’s jobs.” Almost
without exception, the women who were making good at such jobs were
responsible for a change in company attitude toward women, a breaking
down of prejudice, and a growing recognition that women as well as men
should be considered for any type of work for which they were qualified.
An insurance company executive said: “The company has had good
experience with women officers, and is planning further promotions.”
A bank executive said that since some women had given excellent service
the trend is to give increasing recognition to women. A department store
executive told the interviewer: “Since the one woman floor manager has
worked out very successfully, we may replace some of the older men with
women.” The personnel director of a manufacturing plant spoke of the
excellent work being done by a woman in training for the position of en
gineer. He added, “Probably other women will be taken on now that
the ice is broken.”
On the other hand, many executives in each of the industries studied
expressed the belief that women were generally less interested than men
in advancement to positions of responsibility, either because they planned
to stop working when they married, or because further business responsi
bilities would be too burdensome if added to home responsibilities. This
means that the woman of ambition must prove to management that she
is exceptional in desiring the special training, the responsibilities, and the
opportunities for advancement so often assumed to be the prerogatives
of men. Even in department store work, where it was usually manage
ment policy to seek qualified women for positions of responsibility, the
survey revealed that there was still a prevalent assumption, particularly
in the larger stores, that top-management jobs are “men’s jobs.”
26
Management’s Views on Factors Favoring Advancement
The opinion of management was sought in the hope of gaining some in
sight into the positive factors contributing to women’s success. Manage
ment’s views may also be indicative of attitudes which have a bearing upon
women’s advancement. In answer to the question “What factors favor
the advancement of women in your type of business?”, a plurality of an
swers pointed to the high proportion of women employed in the business as
a whole. This was felt to give women a competitive advantage. Among
department stores, the largest number of answers emphasized the fact
that most of the clientele are women, so it is plausible that women should
play an important part in the management of the business. Manage
ment’s belief that women are particularly suited to certain types of
work was considered by many representatives to favor women’s ad
vancement. | This answer was given prominence by department store
managers, manufacturers, and insurance representatives. A more favor
able attitude by management toward women’s advancement, and satis
factory job performance by women, were mentioned less frequently, but
it is interesting to note that in banks, where prejudice and tradition have
limited opportunities for women, both factors are significant in relation to
other factors mentioned by bank representatives.
Management’s Views on Factors Deferring Advancement
In considering handicaps to women’s advancement, management rep
resentatives showed ataiarked tendency to stress the traditional attitudes
of employers toward women as a major factor hindering advancement.
But even more often the answers indicated that management believed
that lack of permanency and the distractions of family responsibilities
influenced management’s attitude toward women. Among department
store representatives this view was given considerably more prominence
than any other factor. How often such answers rested on assumptions
rather than actual experience it was impossible to determine. Among
the other views given there was a greater variety by industry. Women’s
lack of technical knowledge was mentioned by manufacturing represent
atives almost as often as were traditional attitudes and shortcomings in
job performance, but this was not given prominence by representatives
of other industries. Almost one-half of the bank and insurance repre
sentatives, and one-fourth of the factory and store representatives said
they thought women’s lack of interest in advancement was a deterrent.
Personality traits were mentioned somewhat less frequently than other
factors, but a substantial number of representatives, especially in depart
ment stores and insurance companies, mentioned this factor. Women’s
lack of physical strength was considered an obstacle by many manufac
turing representatives.
It would thus appear that management is inclined to place consider
27
able emphasis upon those factors which relate to the limitations women
themselves have displayed: qualities of instability, lack of ambition, per
sonality traits, lack of technical knowledge. At the same time manage
ment recognized that women face a formidable handicap in the tra
ditional promotion policies and discriminatory attitudes of management.
The relationship between these two factors was perhaps not so clearly
recognized. While management can hardly take responsibility for the
married woman’s problems of family responsibility, the traditional atti
tudes of management might have some bearing upon women’s work
attitudes, lack of technical training, impermanence, and even person
ality traits as demonstrated on the job.
Women’s Views on Obstacles to Advancement
The extent to which women reported obstacles to advancement varied
with the industry in which they were employed. Nearly one-fourth of
the women in department stores felt there were no real obstacles to
advancement. In banks, however, only 4 percent so expressed them
selves. Among those reporting obstacles, the traditional attitudes of
management toward women was the most frequently reported deterrent,
although the emphasis given to this factor differed greatly among the
industries. Sixty-one percent of the women in banks expected manage
ment attitudes to hinder them, as did 35 percent of the women in manu
facturing and 40 percent of the women in insurance. In department
stores only 15 percent of the women believed that prejudice would keep
them from gaining the jobs they desired.
One-third of the women interviewed in insurance companies, in con
trast to a much smaller proportion in banks, department stores, and
manufacturing, felt that their own limitations in education, training, and
experience would prevent them from receiving further promotion. Onethird of the women in manufacturing and about one-tenth of the women
in stores, insurance, and banks, felt that they had reached the top in
their own field or department, thus eliminating any possibility of
advancement.
Some expressed the belief that the size of the firm and the small turn
over in top jobs would keep them from getting promotions. Some
women did not expect to be in a higher job in the next 5 years because of
retirement. Others believed they would still be too young to receive
promotion. A few did not seek additional promotion because of family
responsibilities. About one-tenth of the women indicated no interest in
advancement, saying that they were content with their present jobs.
The Importance of Traditional Attitudes
In all fields there was widespread recognition by management that
prejudice and tradition existed and that they were obstacles to women’s
28
advancement. It is interesting to note that these answers were usually
mentioned along with other factors. Often to “prejudice and tradition”
was, added the view that women’s lack of qualifications was also an
obstacle to their advancement with an implication or assertion that
women who could measure up to the requirements and responsibilities of
the higher-level jobs might change traditional attitudes. Some firms
giving prejudice or tradition as a deterrent to women’s advancement
added: “* * * and women’s lack of permanency”; “* * *
and women’s lack of the right kinds of experience—engineering problems
not usually a women's field”;
* * and few women have enough
knowledge of real estate and trust management.”
There was evidence that attitudes may be changing even where dis
crimination still exists. An example was the manufacturing firm in
which a well-qualified woman was denied promotion to purchasing
agent, and a factory supervisor said that she “would like to be an assistant
or full foreman but these are men’s jobs.” The employment manager
of this firm said that in his company the managers and officers were
“steeped in tradition,” and that it had been the policy of the company
until very recently to regard women chiefly as operatives in the factory
and occasionally as secretaries to officers. Until World War II women
had rarely held supervisory positions. During the war, however, several
women were given positions of responsibility which they still occupied at
the time of the survey.
The employment manager went on to say that the company organi
zation was revamped in the spring of 1948, and that the new set-up
would give greater recognition to ability. He himself believed that
“women have done good work in all departments and have been as good
supervisors as the men.” He added: “The woman who is assistant
purchasing agent could head the division as well as any man, and the
woman assistant to the controller also may receive an appointment to a
higher-level position if a vacancy occurs.”
As with management, women who were interviewed often mentioned
prejudice and tradition in conjunction with some other obstacle. For
instance the answer might be: “lack of legal training plus tradition and
prejudice against women,” or “own lack of ability and experience in
finance and traditional attitude toward women.” For many women,
however, the company attitude toward women in higher-level positions
seemed the only obstacle. That women may sometimes have assumed
management prejudice against the promotion of women, rather than
experienced its effects is illustrated by the following case: A research
chemist who was interviewed thought she was in a “dead end” job
because she felt sure the concern which employed her would choose
only men for advancement. The interview with the personnel manager
of the company indicated that this woman was considered one of their
29
880477—50------------ 5
most brilliant chemists, and there seemed to be no doubt about her
promotion at the first opportunity. The remark of many women that
I never expected to get as far along as I have,” is further indication that
perhaps women too often expect a discriminatory attitude from man
agement which experience on the job does not warrant.
In some instances management believed that a deterrent to women’s
advancement was the fact that women themselves preferred men as
supervisors. On this question, the survey sought the opinions of the
women interviewed. It would appear from the survey that the pre
ponderance of women were not prejudiced in this direction. Of 646
women interviewed, two-thirds stated that they had no preference.
However, of those who expressed a preference, 206 women said they
preferred men, while only 36 women indicated that they preferred
women. Among those who expressed a preference it was evident that
women as well as men are prone to generalize. One woman believed
that men are less afraid of competition from subordinates who show
promise. Conversely, another woman said: “Women supervisors are
less afraid of women working under them, while men fear competent
underlings.
One woman held that “men are fussy and like to act
superior;” another, that “women are too fussy,” and “women are too
domineering.” One woman had found women supervisors “less petty
and gossipy than men supervisors;” another, that “men are less inclined
to jealousy and petty attitudes.” However the vast majority, who ex
pressed no preference, believed that “it depends on the individual.”
Occasionally representatives of management believed that customers
preferred to deal with men. This view was confined chiefly to depart
ment stores and banks, where there were many customer-relation jobs.
In department stores this generalization was not applied to sales clerks
but was often applied to employees dealing with adjustments. In banks
it might or might not apply to tellers, and more often it was applied to
employees dealing with applications for loans.
It was not easy to discover the extent to which such generalizations
about attitudes reflected actual experience or to what extent they were
assumed. However, the study did show that there were seldom any
such generalizations which could not be modified by favorable experi
ence with women. Thus, one bank official noted that in recent years,
when women have been used more and more in customer-relation and
supervisory work, the attitude of customers and fellow employees towards
women has changea, and women are being increasingly accepted.
In another bank, one of the women interviewed was an assistant to the
vice president in the department of new accounts. This department
gives individual service to clients (about half of them elderly women
with money for investments), assists them with wills and income-tax
returns, as well as guiding them in making investments. The woman
30
interviewed reported that when the vice president died, many of his
customers came to her, preferring to deal with someone of maturity and
someone with whom they were familiar.
Belief That Certain Jobs are “Suitable"
Management’s belief that women are suited to certain types of work
favors women’s advancement in some fields, just as management’s atti
tude that certain types of jobs are “men’s jobs” hinders them in others..
When representatives of the department stores were asked what favored
women’s advancement in their business, the answer came almost with
out exception, “this is a woman’s field,” or as one man put it, a
“woman’s game.” It was pointed out that department stores depend
largely on women customers and most of their employees are women.
In further defining women’s suitability for department store work, some
pointed to women’s ability to buy and sell and choose what women like.
One store felt that women could “get a better bargain” than men, and
others pointed to the amount of detail work involved for which they
believed women were better than men. Many store executives pointed
out that it is the “type of business women like.”
In the other fields also, it was felt that where women were to be
the ultimate customers it was “suitable” for women to be employed.
Several women’s clothing manufacturers said, “this is a woman’s in
dustry,” and a manufacturer of food products said, “Food is a woman’s
field.” One confectionery manufacturer believed this to be a woman’s
field because “consumers of candy are women.” If a publishing house
published women’s magazines, the fact that women were the readers was
considered a factor favoring women’s advancement in the firm.
Similarly, some insurance company representatives mentioned that in
surance affects women more than men so far as benefits are concerned,
and “therefore they should be interested.”
The assumption that women are better than men on detail, was a
factor favoring women in printing and publishing. In banks and in
surance companies the belief that women are better than men on detail
work was mentioned a number of times as a factor favoring women’s
advancement. However, one or two spoke of the fact that there was
not a job in the company which women could not do if they had the
training and education. One bank representative felt that “women’s
intuition is helpful—particularly in customer contacts.”
For most of the supervisory jobs in factory production the suitability
of women for certain jobs was defined in terms of physical requirements.
In the manufacture of candy for instance, management emphasized the
belief that women were not able to handle the lifting of kettles, and hence
it was considered reasonable that men trained in the preparation of the
candy, should supervise such work. Women were generally considered
better than men at delicate operations requiring finger dexterity such as
31
the dipping and packaging of candy, assembling small parts of electrical
appliances, and similar operations. However, even in such departments
it was more usual to find men in the supervisory positions.
The Importance of Specialized Training and Experience
Representatives of manufacturing firms and insurance companies—
more often than those of other industries—said that lack of specialized
training and technical knowledge handicapped women in advancing to
more responsible positions, particularly at the top-management level.
Conversely, it was often pointed out that the woman of ability, who had
obtained specialized training of the kind needed for top-level jobs, would
be hard to keep down. Some managers indicated that the need for
persons with specialized skills would result in increasing opportunities
for women’s advancement. A manufacturer of industrial instruments
reported that although opportunities in production were limited, in office
and research work women were being given increasing opportunities
to compete.
One banker felt that “women haven’t had enough experience in finance
to inspire confidence in their ability.” Another said: “Women have
not developed or shown any marked interest in banking techniques and
problems.” An insurance company reported that women “do not have
the training for jobs such as actuary, investment specialist, security
analyst.” Another pointed to women’s “lack of basic background in
insurance,” still another to the fact that “women lawyers, doctors, actuar
ial trainees rarely apply.”
One insurance company believed it offered unlimited opportunities
to women since it was company policy to promote the best qualified person
for the job. But the representative of this company went on to say:
‘Actually few women complete courses leading to actuary or other techni
cal jobs and are therefore not considered for placement in top jobs.
* * * As women with college training, ambition, and stick-to-itiveness enter the company in increasing numbers they will force a recognition
of women’s ability to hold top jobs, and they will be given them. This
will take some time but it is bound to happen.”
In manufacturing there were many to agree with the management
representative who held that “women do not have enough ‘know how’
for productive engineering development or sales promotion on a general
or over-all basis.” One company which manufactured electrical meas
uring instruments reported that all vacant positions which are technical,
professional, or administrative in the nonproduction departments are
posted on the bulletin board, and any employee who is qualified may
apply. No woman had ever applied for any of the positions posted, and
the company representative felt that this was because the positions usually
required technical skills the women did not possess. However, another
company reported that it was recruiting women engineers and
technicians.
32
Recruitment and Training Programs and Women’s Participation
An attempt was made to discover to what extent women and men had
equal opportunities to gain the experience and training considered neces
sary to achieve top-level jobs, and the extent to which women took
advantage of such opportunities when offered them.
Because the recruitment of college graduates is usually associated with
bringing into a firm promotional material for top-level jobs, the college
recruitment programs offer some clue to possible opportunities for
women to reach higher-level jobs in the fields covered. Also, oppor
tunities for women to participate in in-plant training courses offer further
evidence of management’s interest in seeing women achieve the prepara
tion necessary for promotion.
College graduates were recruited, and then given special junior execu
tive training by all but one of the large department stores and by two
out of five of the smaller department stores. Most of the very small
stores felt that opportunities for advancement were too limited to appeal
to most college graduates, although one small store recruited women but
not men.1 With this one exception stores having recruitment programs
recruited both men and women. Likewise, training courses which fol
lowed recruitment were open to women as well as men. In only one
department store covered were training opportunities less for women
than for men. This store gave a year’s training to the men college
recruits, only 4 months’ training to women.
In sharp contrast to department store practice, 7 of the 12 banks
covered by the survey recruited college men, but not one recruited college
women. One-third of these banks sponsored training courses for which
women were not eligible. Seven of the insurance companies recruited
college women; twice as many recruited college men. Eight of the 30
insurance companies conducted training courses for which women were
not eligible. In some insurance companies special junior-executive
training was given only to college recruits, and in such companies the
opportunities for women were dependent upon inclusion in the recruit
ment program. In many of the insurance companies the Life Office
Management Association (LOMA) courses were offered to provide basic
training in the insurance field. Sometimes such courses were given by
the company on company time; sometimes the company itself did not
offer the course but gave credit for the completion of such courses else
where. These courses were usually open to both men and women.
College men were recruited by half of the manufacturing firms sched
uled. Less than one-fourth of these firms recruited college women. Re
cruitment of college women was limited chiefly to positions in research
in pharmaceutical, drug, and radio companies; to editorial positions in*
'Large stores were defined as those employing over 3,000 persons; smaller stores,
those employing 1,000-3,000 persons; very small stores, those employing less than
1,000 persons.
33
publishing companies; and to stenographic and other office positions in
other firms. One or two firms indicated that they would employ quali
fied women if they applied or were recommended to them by a college.
Somewhat over one-third of the manufacturing firms had training
courses, and in almost two-thirds of these firms such courses were not
open to women. Several firms reported that union regulations closed
certain apprentice courses to women. In manufacturing, training for
executive jobs often began with over-all plant experience. Since almost
one-fourth of the plants covered conducted operations deemed too heavy
for women, their opportunities to secure such experience were limited.
There was indeed a general lack of interest in training women for super
visory jobs in production, and in factories where all positions above the
forelady level are closed to women they have little incentive to acquire
experience or training which would qualify them for better positions.
Management had differing experiences in the extent to which women
participated in training courses. All but one of the department stores
which offered training courses reported that women participated in such
courses at least to the same extent as men, and in most cases it was felt
that they were more interested. Many of the women interviewed indi
cated a genuine interest in the training programs and believed that
such programs contributed to their advancement.
In the field of insurance, most of the firms reported that more men
than women take the LOMA (Life Office Management Association
Institute) courses given for insurance company personnel. All agreed
that relatively few women finish the advance training. One manage
ment representative gave the following as his company’s experience: 50
percent of the employees completing the beginning course were women,
10 percent of those finishing the intermediate course were women, and
5 percent of those in the advanced course were women. Another insur
ance company offered the LOMA courses to all its employees, urging
the more promising employees to take the courses. Of 25 persons signing
up in 1948-49 for the courses, 18 dropped out before completion, 13
of whom were women. Among the latter were 5 who had been prom
ised promotion if they would take the courses.
Of the banks reporting on women’s participation in courses of the
American Institute of Banking, 7 said women’s participation was less
than men’s, and 4 reported that women’s participation was equal to or
greater than men’s. All bank representatives agreed that most women
take only the beginning courses, and “few women show interest in the
more advanced work.” Only one woman in the banks covered was
reported to have completed the courses required for a Prestandard Cer
tificate (four examinations). Experience had led one bank official to
conclude that “women do not have a sustained interest in developing
better work background in finance.”
34
State College Library
Lack of Permanency as a Hindering Factor
Almost without exception the companies which gave special training
and opportunity for advancement to men pointed to women’s lack of
permanency or lack of interest in the training needed for top jobs as a
reason for their discrimination. It was considered a better investment
of the company’s time and money to train men, since a larger percentage
of men than women could be expected to stay with the company long
enough to make the trainng worth while. One life-insurance company
gave as evidence of women’s relative impermanency the fact that there
were four or five times as many men as women in the company who had
had 25 years or more of service, although over half of the employees were
women (an answer which overlooks the fact that undoubtedly 25 years
ago the proportion of women employees was decidedly smaller). Sev
eral manufacturing firms reported that during the war women were
employed in laboratory and engineering positions, but due to turn-over
they were replaced by men.
A bank reported that in 1942^43 about 50 college women were re
cruited to be trained and assigned to responsible jobs as credit analysts,
cost analysts, investment analysts, auditors, and assistants in personnel.
By 1949 only 6 or 7 of these women remained. Of those who left, only
one reported leaving to get other work. Most of them left because of
marriage or change of residence. While the company representative
was aware that unusual conditions of wartime were partially responsible
for the high turn-over, the experience had caused this bank to resume
its former policy of hiring men when openings occur.
One medium-sized department store reported that in 1947 it had
recruited 12 women and 8 men for special junior-executive training.
A year later only 4 of these women were still with the store, although all
of the men had remained. This store had decided to recruit 7 women
and 8 men in 1948.2
On the other hand, several company representatives in the different
fields held that while lack of permanency is in general a deterrent to
women’s advancement, it is not important as far as the higher-level posi
tions are concerned. One large department store had in fact found that
there was less turn-over among young promotional women than men.
A bank representative pointed out that women who were eligible for
administrative and supervisory positions in his company had usually been
there for 10 years or more. Even when these women marry, the bank’s
experience had been that most of them remained on the job.
This conclusion received substantial support from the women who
were interviewed in the survey. When asked what position they would
This store reported that the firm feels lucky if women who are given special consid
eration and training for supervisory and other responsible positions remain 2 or 3
years. If they remain 4 years or more the company feels compensated for the effort
and expense of development.
35
like to hold 5 years from now, relatively few of the women planned to
withdraw from the labor market because of marriage or retirement.
In all industries except manufacturing, from 40 to 50 percent of the
women interviewed hoped for promotion. Approximately a third wished
to retain the jobs they were then holding. One-tenth of these women
hoped that within 5 years they would have their own business or be in a
new field of employment.
Company Merit Rating and Promotion Policies
Three-fourths of the banks, one-half of the insurance home offices and
department stores, and one-third of the manufacturing firms covered by
the survey used a formal merit rating in advancing employees to super
visory positions. There seemed to be a growing use of merit rating, and
firms which had just introduced such systems or were planning to do so
shortly, considered it a policy change which would be helpful to women
seeking advancement. All of the companies surveyed made it a policy
to fill supervisory positions through promotion from within the company.
Exceptions usually involved positions requiring professional or technical
competence for which existing personnel could not qualify.
For promotions from within, seniority might be a consideration but it
was less important than ability to do the job, except in a few cases where
a union contract made seniority a major factor. When asked what were
the chief factors considered in selecting women for supervisory jobs,
“ability to get along with people” was mentioned even more often than
“knowledge of job and work performance,” although both were men
tioned by a large majority of the firms. “Demonstrated leadership
traits” and “background experience, education, and training” were
mentioned less often but were also important considerations.
Views of Women on What Leads to Advancement
The woman who said “hard work and willingness to give more than
full measure on the job,” when asked what helped her to advance, spoke
for the majority of the women who, by their answers to this question and
their job records, testified to the importance of competence and initiative
in getting ahead. It was clear that these women had discovered that
taking an interest in the job, as well as hard work, provided the formula
for achieving success. Many gave credit to their ability to get along
with people, or to their own ambition. In addition, these women cred
ited experience and training as major factors in their advancement. For
others there were events beyond their control which had helped them up
the ladder—the war, the growth of the business, or chance circumstances.
When asked what they thought women should do to further their ad
vancement, most of them emphasized the importance of better work
performance. Also frequently mentioned were “more education and
36
training,” “ambition or desire to succeed,” and “better human relations
and social attitudes.”
Although the comments of women varied in emphasis, the same factors
appeared repeatedly in the interviews, as the following examples
illustrate :
Be willing to work; be interested in any sort of a job; pick up all of the
background experience you can lay your hands on. Take the time to listen.
Learn to work with men in such a way that they will respect your ability and
j udgment. (Head of the customers’ service department in a pharmaceutical
firm.)
Find something you like and then work toward a goal. Be enthusiastic about
your work—you must like it. Learn to work with people and realize that
there are all kinds and that you can get along with them. Take specialized
training. (Publicity director in a publishing house.)
Try to acquire a broadness of thinking rather than being petty or detailed.
Worry less about the progress other people are making and more about your
own. (Head of new products department in a pharmaceutical firm.)
Get training in a specialized field. Consider career possibilities while still in
college. If you go into business, be prepared for a long and slow plan of
upgrading. (Statistician in a bank.)
Become well prepared for a job. Watch for advancement possibilities and
be quietly aggressive in going after advancement. Be regular in attendance
and accept the “gripes” from supervisors and co-workers without emotion.
(Personnel assistant in a bank.)
Have a goal of what you want to do. Don’t mark time—too many women
work only for the 15th and 30th and pay as little attention as possible to
their jobs. Learn to memorize useful information and have it ready when
needed. (Statistician in an insurance company.)
Get best education for the job. Be cooperative. Don’t brag as much as the
men do but show what you can do and do it quickly. (Assistant to actuary
in an insurance company.)
Strive for recognition as individuals. Do not ask for any favors as a woman
or on a feminist basis. Show more interest in the “fringe” aspects of your
job and be willing to take on additional duties and show you can carry them.
(Personnel manager in an insurance company.)
Be more gracious and cooperative. Learn to “live and let live.” Forget
your importance—too many women believe they are all important and
can’t be replaced. Learn to delegate responsibility. (Buyer in department
store.)
Be ambitious. Few women want to make their job a career—not interested
beyond the day’s work. Put more effort into your job—regard it as your
own business. Overcome emotional and personal approach to problems.
(Buyer in a large department store.)
37
880477—50------- 6
THE WOMEN IN
HIGHER-LEVEL POSITIONS
The present chapter is concerned with the women themselves who
hold higher-level positions—their personal characteristics, general work
background, education, and training. It also considers the various
avenues through which women have achieved their present positions.
Such an inquiry may prove a useful guide to an understanding of the
qualities in women which have led to success, and of the requirements
in education, work experience, and special training which women have
met in certain occupations in order to reach positions of responsibility
in the fields covered.
Any attempt at generalization is difficult since individual achievement
is the result of so many factors not easily defined. Women holding
higher-level positions presented a great variety of personalities and back
grounds as disclosed by the personnel records and interviews. These
showed how many were the roads that led to success, how individual the
women who had traveled these roads. Only one thing was common to
most of them—a love of their jobs. The woman who said she could
“never get used to the hurly-burly and dirt of the city” and who longed
for a farm in Georgia was an exception, as was the senior executive
officer of a department store who felt that her store job was all right
but the job she had really loved was cashier in a bank. When asked
what they liked about their jobs, some of the women interviewed
answered “everything,” and conversely, when asked what they disliked,
considerably more answered “nothing.” Repeatedly women spoke of
their satisfaction in holding a challenging and responsible job which gave
recognition to their capabilities. Many spoke particularly about en
joying contacts with people.
Particular job requirements as well as possibilities for advancement
differed considerably with the kind of work being done. Special types
of work in which women were holding positions of responsibility have
therefore been examined, and the experiences of particular women in
these fields have been used as illustrative material. A general picture
38
of age levels, educational background, and work experience provides
descriptive background for measuring the achievements of women in
particular types of work.
Characteristics, Education, and Work History
As might be expected, the women in all industries who had reached
higher-level jobs were an older group than women workers in general,
and there was little variation among industries in the age distribution of
the women in higher-level jobs. Only 3 percent of the women in such
positions for whom records were obtained were under 25 years of age,
whereas 27 percent of all women in the labor force were under 25.
Three-fourths of the women on whom data were obtained were 35 years
or over, in contrast to about half of all women in the labor force.
Women in labor force,
April 1948 1
Women in higher-level
positions2
Number-------------------------- 17,155,000
860
Percent distribution
Percent--------------------------100
Under 25 years_________________
27
25 to 34 years_____________________
22
35 to 44 years_____________________
22
45 to 54 years_________________
17
55 years and over_______________
12
100
3
22
37
27
11
U. S. Dept, of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. Current Population Reports,
Labor Force. Marital and family characteristics of the labor force in the United
States, April 1948.
Series P-50, No. 11, Washington, U. S. Government Printing
Office, December 23, 1948.
S
' For data by industry, see appendix table 17.
More than half of the women surveyed were single, in contrast to not
quite one-third for the general labor force. Proportions were higher in
some industries than in others.
Women in labor force,
April 19481
Number
_
..
Women in higher-level
positions 3
17,155,000
860
Percent distribution
Percent
_
Single
_
Married, husband present
Married, husband absent
Widowed and divorced
_
_
_
__
100
35
44
4
17
100
55
31
2
12
1 U. S. Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. Current Population
Reports, Labor Force. Marital and family characteristics of the labor force in the
United States, April 1948. Series P—50, No. 11, Washington, U. S. Government
Printing Office, December 23, 1948.
2 For data by industry, see appendix table 18.
Women in the higher-level positions covered by the survey were not
predominantly college-educated. In department stores nearly half of
the women, and in the other industries considerably more than half,
39
had had not more than a high school education. In manufacturing, 16
percent of the women had gone no further than the eighth grade, and only
12 percent were college graduates. About one-fourth of the women in
the other fields studied had completed 4-year college courses. Others
had had some college work, and in both department stores and manufac
turing, nearly one-tenth had done some graduate work. In banks only
3 percent had taken advanced work, but 85 percent of the women in
banks had received business or other special schooling. In other indus
tries about half of the women had taken business or other special courses.
With the exception of women in banks, substantial proportions had
attended in-plant training courses. It would appear from the foregoing
summary that specialized training plays an important role in fulfilling
requirements for higher-level positions and is undoubtedly useful in
supplementing a limited general education.
The women holding higher-level positions were in large part women
w'ith extensive work experience. In all fields about two-thirds of the
women in higher-level positions had been working for more than 15
years. In the banks nearly two-thirds had been working for over 20
years, while in department stores less than one-third had been working
that long.
With the exception of women in insurance, over half of the women
holding higher-level jobs had been on their present job for less than 5
years. About one-fourth of the women holding higher-level jobs in
each field had been on their present job from 5 to 10 years. In depart
ment stores and manufacturing 28 percent of the women holding higherlevel jobs for whom records were obtained, had been with the same
firm for their entire working life. In banks 32 percent of the women
in such jobs had had all of their work experience with the same firm,
and in insurance companies 42 percent were in the same company in
which they had started work.
Women in Personnel Work
Many very challenging and responsible positions in the personnel field
were being held by women in all of the industries covered. In some
cases the job of personnel director had brought with it officer status.
Almost all of the women holding top jobs in personnel spoke of the chal
lenge of their work, its variety, and their pleasure in having been given
the opportunity to plan and carry out a program of importance.
Needless to say, “personnel work” in a small company, where an office
manager does the hiring and firing along with his other work, differs
from “personnel work” in a company with thousands of employees. In
large stores and companies the personnel director or industrial relations
director may be head of a department whose functions include, not only
interviewing and hiring personnel and maintaining personnel records,
but also elaborate training programs, employee welfare and medical serv
40
ices, counselling, and testing. In some companies, as in one of the lifeinsurance companies, a staff of job analysts was maintained to work on
improved job descriptions and classifications.1
Advancement to the general administrative jobs in personnel could
come in any of a number of ways, as revealed in the work histories of
those interviewed. For the college graduate advancement might come
very quickly, as in the case of the employment manager of a department
store who had spent 1 year in an advertising agency after college, then
had come into the store as a salesgirl and after 4 months had been trans
ferred to the personnel department as an interviewer. In less than a
year after that she had been made employment manager.
In some companies formal training was less important than a broad
knowledge of the operations of the business. One of the most interesting
illustrations of how a woman achieved recognition and advancement
through knowledge of her company concerns the woman personnel
director of a manufacturing firm with plants throughout the country.
This woman, whose schooling ended with high school, hired the tech
nical and salaried personnel for the company; set personnel policies and
standards; contacted colleges throughout the country to recruit men for
technical jobs; set up training programs and followed through on
trainees. Personnel managers in all of the plants were responsible to
her. And she did the job with one assistant, a secretary, and two
stenographers. This is her story:
About 15 years ago it became necessary for Mrs. X to earn a liveli
hood for herself and her three children. She asked the company where
she had worked one summer while in high school for a reference, and
the president of the company suggested that she take a job with them
as receptionist. Eight months later the company asked her to be assist
ant office manager in charge of women in addition to her duties as
receptionist. While serving in this dual capacity, she also took on the
secretarial work of the director of research and chief engineer whose
office opened off the reception room. While these added responsibilities
meant overtime, they also expanded her opportunities. She learned
about equipment, chemicals, turbines; how to set up a plant and what
was required to run it efficiently and productively. This experience
proved an excellent background for her later responsibilities in per
sonnel work.
Two years after she came with the company a personnel department
was established, and Mrs. X shortly became assistant director of per
1 In this insurance company the chief job analyst, a woman, headed a department
of five women and one man. She herself was college trained, with a year of graduate
study at RadclifTe in management training, and all in her department were college
graduates. She felt her analytical ability as well as her ability to write simply, had
been of value in her work. She said that her job was not only giving her an oppor
tunity to make the most of her training and capabilities but was giving her valuable
experience in “a new management technique.”
41
sonnel in charge of preliminary interviewing of women. Due to
business conditions the personnel department was temporarily dis
continued, but when it was reestablished Mrs. X was made personnel
director, and a year later her responsibilities were enlarged to include
the direction of personnel departments for subsidiary plants of the
company throughout the United States.
Mrs. X liked everything about her job but believed that her greatest
interest was selecting and placing young people in positions where
ability was utilized and both the employee and the company benefited.
Mrs. X felt that she had reached the peak and did not aspire to officer
status since that would require a knowledge of operations and costs
which she did not have.
For other women who had come in on the “ground floor” when a
personnel department was set up for the first time, the progression had
come through the job of payroll supervisor. One personnel director
who was interviewed had come to the company about 15 years before
when the weekly payroll was $3,500, and the factory operated only
3 days a week. At the time of the interview the weekly payroll had
become $70,000, and the factory was operating three shifts.
In her first job as payroll clerk, this woman had interested the
company in establishing personnel files. At the time these were estab
lished, the company employed a man as personnel manager but he was
not successful in the work, and within a year the woman was given
the position. In this capacity she interviewed all job applicants,
checked their references, hired for the mill, and assigned jobs. She also
had charge of the payroll, group insurance and hospitalization, and
was working on a pension plan. She had one assistant and eight girls
under her, and she said there was not one phase of the job that she dis
liked. She believed that she could not advance further in this com
pany, but since the later was growing, she felt that her job would grow
with it.
Occasionally experience in a factory, first as a bench operator and then
as a supervisor, led to promotion to personnel work—in fact this progres
sion was one of the few exceptions to the general experience that factory
supervisory jobs are “dead end.”
A woman, who was personnel manager in a manufacturing plant,
began work with the company 12 years earlier as a bench operator,
having been a machine operator in another factory for 13 years. After
3 years in the plant she was transferred to another department where
she worked as a checker and soon became assistant to the supervisor.
When the supervisor was called into military service, this woman took
over the department and ran it until he returned. Then she was put
in charge of the plant training program until the regular employee on
this job returned from war. A little later she became personnel man42
State Collage Library
ager. Her work included interviewing, pre-employment testing, and
giving orientation courses. She also handled grievances and did em
ployee counselling, as well as hiring, firing, and transferring.
In many manufacturing companies and in at least one bank covered by
the survey, persons with nursing training had progressed to administrative
jobs in personnel. This was particularly true where medical records and
accident reports were an important part of the personnel department
records, as they are likely to be in factories. One former nurse, assistant
to the personnel director at the time of the study, had charge of the nurses,
ordered all the medical supplies, prepared all accident reports, handled
employee insurance, prepared insurance and safety reports, and inter
viewed applicants for jobs when the director was out of the office.
Another nurse, who had become employment manager in a factory, did
the interviewing and hiring for the factory, kept personnel and employ
ment records, gave first-aid, made employment reports for the State
Department of Labor and other Government agencies, drew up accident
reports, handled insurance, hospitalization, and various other employee
services. Another nurse, who had become personnel supervisor serving
as employment manager and industrial relations representative of one
of the plants in a manufacturing company, represented the firm in unioncontract negotiations and all union and personnel conferences of the
company.2
Sometimes experience as a teacher furnished useful background for
personnel work especially when training programs were involved. One
department store advertised for a training director with teaching
experience.
A woman was hired who had taught school before her marriage, and
who had taken a job during the war with a railroad as chief clerk.
When she was employed in the department store she was given a year’s
training in store operations, during which time she did everything from
running errands and working in the stockroom to going on buying
trips with the buyers of various departments. At the end of a year she
took over the position of training director for which she was hired, and
in this capacity she trained store employees in sales techniques, courtesy,
company policy, and store system. At the time of the interview she
spent over half of her time on the floor in order to determine training
needs. She also assisted the personnel director in interviewing.
An interesting and important training job in manufacturing was being
done by a woman under 35 years of age with college background.
This young woman came into a manufacturing company as an
instructor. She soon became training supervisor in one plant, and
2 A labor-relations director, who represented her company in all negotiations with
the union, received her experience as a union organizer. Added to this, she had
college training in business administration and took graduate work in production
methods and engineering.
43
having done an outstanding training job in the company, she was
transferred to the main plant and put in charge of setting up a com
pany-wide training program. She was in charge of planning the
courses, establishing the general objectives, setting standards for per
formance, and planning for follow-up training from the main office,
in each of the following areas: (1) General induction and orientation;
(2) job training for specific occupational groups in plant; (3) office
procedures (the company never having had training in the field);
(4) technical and engineering supplementary training; (5) sales rec
ords and sales promotion; (6) general education—after-hour courses
to be sponsored by the company in fields where interest had been ex
pressed, even though not strictly related to the job; (7) special training
on a cooperative basis with schools and other educational institutions.
This woman had 4 years of college, with work in psychology and
sociology. She felt that she had earned her advancement through her
job performance, and said she had learned operations and something
of the philosophy and practices of management. She felt that the
war had given women an opportunity which they would not other
wise have had, and saw as an obstacle to her own advancement man
agement’s “negative attitude towards women.” In contrast, the man
agement representative who was interviewed gave this woman’s pro
motion as an example of the company’s policy to make appointments
on merit regardless of sex.
Another interesting training job was being done by a woman in in
surance who planned and directed training courses for life-insurance
agents in the field. She liked her work because it had offered her free
dom to develop her own ideas, and there was always an opportunity to
work out new projects. She had sold insurance and done promotional
work in insurance for 25 years. Active in the Society of Chartered Life
Underwriters, she was proud of being one of the few women to achieve
such standing. She felt that in the field of selling insurance there was
no prejudice against women, and that it took years of hard work and
willingness to face discouragement.
Sometimes the women in personnel would have as their main function
that of employee counsellor,3 and for such positions experience in social
work had proved useful to many of the women interviewed. But the
wide divergence of backgrounds which may lead to a job of employee
counselling is illustrated by two examples:
One woman, about 35 years of age, was employee counselor in a
very large department store. She had graduate degrees in educa-1
1 One publishing company divided its personnel work into three divisions: employ
ment, medical, and employees’ service. The woman who headed the employees’
service division said that she supervised 16 employees, 4 of whom were home visitors
who assisted families of employees in times of trouble such as illness or death. Her
division was also responsible for hospitalization, insurance, pensions, and all employee
welfare.
44
tion and in psychology, and a year of nurse’s training as well. She had
been dean of girls in a high school, a probation officer, a school princi
pal, and for 2 years served as counselor and employment personnel
chief for women in a war plant. Employees in the store came to this
woman with their personal and job problems. She contacted social
agencies and directed workers to organizations and individuals from
whom they might receive help. She made morale surveys where there
were indications of dissatisfaction in a department, supervised and had
charge of aptitude and other tests. She had three professional women
assistants, all college graduates, as well as clerical help.
The other woman, over 50 years old, had been married more than 20
years and had never worked outside of her home until the war. After
her three oldest children had entered the service she obtained a fac
tory job, first as operator, then as assembler, and later as a supervisor.
She fully planned to stop work when the war ended but when she was
about to leave, the personnel manager told her that he was leaving,
and that he had recommended her for his job. Mrs. X felt convinced
that she could not undertake it because she had only a grammar-school
education, and no special training for the job. However, she was asked
to give the job a 3-months’ trial. At the time of the interview she
had been on the job 3 years.
Women in Buying and Merchandising
A buyer, who had been a merchandise manager but who preferred the
buyer’s job, summed up the feeling of most of the women buyers when
she said that there was a fascination in buying new clothes, watching the
trends, and seeing one’s selection justified by sales. She spoke also of
the variety in the job, “There is always something new and different.”
Many of the buyers interviewed spoke of the pressure and tension in
volved in their work but felt that these were not serious disadvantages.
It was as buyers or merchandise managers that women had been the
most successful in reaching top salaries in the department store field.
Nineteen of the best-paid women in stores were buyers or department
managers, as were 22 receiving the second highest salary for women, and
20 receiving the third highest women’s salary in their respective stores.
While the position of merchandise manager outranks that of buyer, it
sometimes happens that a buyer, getting a commission as well as salary,
will earn more than her superior in the store. Two of the thirty-three
head buyers who were interviewed gave this as their reason for not
seeking advancement to the position of merchandise manager.
The background of women holding positions in the merchandising
field indicated that in-job training was at least as important as a college
education. Two of the four merchandise managers interviewed had
had 4 years or more of college, but of the 33 buyers interviewed, only 7
45
had had 4 years or more of college, and 8 others had had some college
work. The majority of the buyers, whatever their formal education,
had taken in-store courses of some kind. Nor was education necessarily
an important factor in determining rapidity of advancement. One
buyer, who had just a ninth-grade education, went to work as a bundle
examiner when she was 14. After 6 months she became a sales girl and
1 year later was promoted to assistant buyer, just 1 /2 years after that
she was made a buyer for three departments, a job she had held for 22
years. She hoped to be a merchandise manager within the next 5 years.
In contrast another buyer, who had had 4 years of college with a major
in history, had been in sales work for 5 years before becoming an assistant
buyer and then had spent 1 year in that position before being promoted
to buyer.
Some of the women advanced by specializing in one field, others by
going from department to department. One woman who had begun
her work life as a cosmetics demonstrator was a buyer of books, and she
hoped to be a fashion buyer within the next 5 years, either in ready-towear or accessories. Another buyer decided while a saleswoman that
she would like to make handbags her specialty. She asked to be given a
handbag-sales job and when, after 2 years at a first-floor counter, she
heard of an opening in the shoe department selling better bags, she asked
to be transferred. Three years later she was made an assistant buyer for
the department. Sometime later she became buyer of handbags for a
small store. At the time of the interview she was keeping her eyes open
for a handbag-buyer’s position in a larger store.
Women with varying types of experience had acquired positions as
merchandise managers. Two of the merchandise managers interviewed
worked in the largest stores. One was in a medium-sized store and an
other was in a store employing fewer than 1,000 people. One of these
women began her work life as a society reporter. After 2 years she came
to the store in the comparison-shopping office where she worked for 1
year. She was then made an assistant buyer, and after \l/2 years, a
buyer. For 9 years she was a buyer for 2 divisions, and had been a
merchandise manager for the past 3 years—a job in which she was
directly responsible for 11 departments.
Another woman who had become merchandise manager began work
as secretary to the general merchandise manager. A year and a half
later she was made a buyer, and 13 years later she was promoted to
merchandise manager, a position she had held for 3 years at the time
of the interview. She was hoping for a top-management job within the
next 5 years, although she believed she was probably too young, since
the men holding these positions were older. The record of one merchan
dise manager demonstrated that store training for an executive position
may not be wasted even though a woman may leave to be with her
family while the children are young This woman was in sales work
46
before her marriage, and took in-plant training at that time. She left
after her marriage, but returned to the store some 10 years later as a
buyer. After 3 years she was made merchandise manager.
Women in Factory-Supervisory Positions
Many factory-supervisory jobs carry with them responsibilities usually
associated with “personnel work.” In a general way, all factory super
visors are responsible for training and placing the employees in their
sections, supervising the work, and seeing that the production operations
move smoothly. At the higher levels of responsibility, usually associated
with foreman or forelady jobs, there are often added to the above
functions responsibilities for production planning, record keeping, and
seeing that the machines are in good condition. In some plants instruc
tors, rather than supervisors or foremen, do the training.
One supervisor described her job as “supervising, planning schedules,
placing the girls on the particular job for the day, making special assign
ments, checking the work done.” One of the foreladies interviewed
said that she supervised over 200 persons with 4 assistant foreladies under
her. This forelady said that she tried the workers out on the various
machines so that they could make the rate. She also figured out the
work involved in every new garment, and learned the cost of production
on each. In another factory, a head forelady with only 1 assistant was
in charge of about 500 women employees. She was responsible for
production, figured costs, handled various problems which arose, was
responsible for promotions, and also interviewed applicants for factory
jobs after the personnel office had screened them.
In another plant a line supervisor had received her promotion to
that job because of her ability to maintain good morale among the
employees. While she was a machine operator the personnel depart
ment asked her to sponsor the new girls and, subsequently, she was
promoted to line supervisor. The representative of the personnel de
partment who was interviewed said that this woman is “marvelous
with people,” that her department had less friction than any of the
others, and that the girls who worked for her refused to be transferred.
In the hope of eventually obtaining a position in the personnel de
partment she was taking courses at the university in vocation coun
seling and basic psychology, her previous schooling having stopped at
the ninth grade. She said that the company was growing and there
were “chances of going places,” and she believed that with the work
she was doing at the university, her ambition might be realized.
Another woman who was planning to go into personnel work was
the only college graduate interviewed among the 100 or so women
in factory-supervisory jobs. This woman was forelady in the packing
47
department of a candy manufacturing plant. She supervised 75 to
100 girls in the packing room. She also acted as a counsellor for
complaints, kept a record of production, ordered supplies, saw that the
flow of work was constant, and reported machinery break-downs.
She had her master of arts degree in chemistry and had done some
work toward a doctor of philosophy degree. She had also taken war
time courses given by Radcliffe College for college women training for
supervisory positions, as well as J. I. T. (job-instruction training),
J. R. T. (job-relations training), and other in-plant courses. For 11
years prior to the war she had been engaged in laboratory work and
teaching. She decided she was tired of academic work, and with the
opening up of defense jobs, she took the Radcliffe course which led to
a job as supervisor on war work in radio and communication. When
the factory in which she was working was reconverted to candy manu
facture after the war, she decided to stay on.
Over two-thirds of the women in factory-supervisory jobs who were
interviewed had less than a high school education. One woman had
only gone as far as the fifth grade, a large number had grammar school
education only. A number of the women interviewed spoke of not
having enough education to go further, and other women in factory jobs
spoke wistfully of the careers they might have had if they had had the
training. One said she “still likes to dream of the nursing career she
wanted.” Her parents refused to let her become a nurse and insisted
she work in a factory. Later, she had taken numerous correspondence
courses in English, mathematics, and management. She was a forelady
in a hosiery mill where she had complete control of the mending depart
ment and supervised over 200 women on 2 shifts. Another woman had
always wanted to be window trimmer for a store but had never done
anything about it.
Most of the women in the factory-supervisory jobs had no hope or no
desire for further advancement. When asked: “Five years from now
what position would you like to hold?”, the majority of them replied, “the
same job,” or “retire,” or “marriage and home.” Many who said “the
same job,” followed it by saying: “can’t go any further here; higher jobs
are always filled by men.” Many, who indicated that this barrier existed,
added that they would not want to have a job with more responsibility.
One woman thought that it was right for men to be given the better
jobs because “men usually have more family responsibilities.” She her
self was supporting her widowed mother and keeping up their house.
She wanted to hold her present job because she had enough responsibility
to make it interesting but not enough to “drag her down.”
In contrast to women who spoke of having all the responsibility they
wanted were those who had worked actively to secure advancement:
A supervisor in a radio plant, had first come with the company
in an office job. After a week she realized she was tremendously inter
48
ested in radio and wanted to work directly with it. She approached
her supervisor about the matter, and it was arranged with the per
sonnel department that she be given a job in the factory on the as
sembly line. She was also permitted to take the company’s course
in radio. When this course was completed, she was promoted to test
ing and was advised to take some technical courses in radio. She at
tended night classes at the Illinois Institute of Technology while
working as a tester during the day. From testing she was promoted
to engineer’s assistant in the laboratory, where her work consisted
mainly of blue-print reading. She finally became a line supervisor in
the communications department, and that is as far as she can get
because the company policy gives foremen’s jobs only to men. She
herself felt that a number of women working in the plant could handle
the foremen’s jobs.
Hoping to attain a job with more responsibility, a forelady in a phar
maceutical company was working toward that end by taking a course
in pharmacy offered by the company. She believed that her advance
ment to the position of forelady was due largely to the courses she had
taken since working there. She had the J. I. T. (job-instruction
training), J. M. T. (job-methods training), and J. R. T. (job-relations
training) supervisory courses as well as college courses in leadership and
time study.
A woman who was a division manager in a candy company indicated
that, for the woman of initiative and ambition, the job itself may
furnish the opportunity to prepare for advancement. The training
program, which she had initiated and put into effect some time ago in
her own department, was considered so good that the company had
decided to adopt it for all of its departments. This was one of the
reasons given for her promotion to a job never before held by a woman.
In spite of her achievements, she expected to be holding the same job
5 years from now because the next step would be to the position of
superintendent, and she doubted whether a woman would ever be
given that job.
Women in Industrial Research and Engineering
Top positions as chemists, bacteriologists, or engineers require college
and postgraduate training, although women without a college degree
had found places for themselves as technicians in laboratories. Most of
the women chemists and bacteriologists interviewed were working in the
pharmaceutical firms, although some were found in other industries.
The majority of women interviewed who were in engineering jobs were
with companies manufacturing machine tools and instruments or elec
trical products.
Several women chemists said that in the field of chemistry a doctor of
philosophy degree was necessary in order to get anywhere. A woman
49
chemist said: “In chemist’s jobs a woman should have a doctor of phi
losophy degree to compete with a man with a bachelor of arts degree.”
However, another said: “It is just as hard for the men in the control
laboratory to get anywhere.” One of the women interviewed said that
her advancement would depend on the number of products she could
get patented, and the number of papers she could have published. One
woman doing control chemistry and testing found her work too routine
and would have preferred a research job, but found that a higher degree
in chemistry was usually a requirement. A girl who was doing bac
teriological testing for a pharmaceutical firm had had only a high school
education, though she was taking some night courses at the university.
This girl had become interested in chemistry in high school and had
stayed on a year after graduation as a laboratory assistant. When she
went with the pharmaceutical firm the head of the laboratory recognized
her interest, mapped out a course of study for her, and took time to teach
her.
Several of the women chemists felt that it was a “man’s world.”
One woman said that there was very little opportunity for women beyond
a certain point in any company; that most firms were willing to use
women but refuse to recognize outstanding ability among them when
promotions are made. She herself believed that women make better
chemists than men because of an innate liking for careful detail work
and a willingness to be precise and painstaking. Her own experience
had been that other chemists in the company doing independent work
did not have to supervise routine workers and were given the more inter
esting tests, simply because they were men. It was her conclusion that
in laboratory work of a professional nature, women must have twice
as good an education as men, and even then advancement is difficult.”
She felt that women could help themselves by specializing and becoming
experts in one field. Another woman said that the men with whom she
worked recognized her as a good routine chemist but not on a level with
them they seemed to want her to be an “errand girl.” In another firm,
where the woman chemist had found general prejudice against women
regardless of their capabilities, men were paid a higher rate than women,
and opportunities for advancement were much greater for men than
for women.4 However, in one pharmaceutical company a laboratory
chemist reported that “women, as well as men, are given every oppor
tunity here, though women had to work harder for advancement than
men.
All of the women in engineering positions who were interviewed were
under 35 years of age, and all had begun their engineering experience
4 This woman, a senior organic research chemist, the only woman organic research
chermst the company has ever had, reported that she had one man and one woman
assisting her, both with master’s degrees, but she had quite a battle to have the woman
paid the same salary as the man.
50
State College Library
during or since the war. They represented various levels of professional
competence, including one woman who held a highly responsible posi
tion as production engineer for a concern manufacturing radio parts.
This woman was not only doing continuous research and experimenta
tion in the electrical and metallurgical fields, but was also instructing
tool and diemakers in the use of certain materials. According to the
employment manager, she had been chosen to succeed a man in this
job and was selected in preference to several men because of her superior
qualifications.
This young woman started her career with a college degree in busi
ness administration and following a decision to go into the engineer
ing field, took a degree in mechanical engineering. She told how she
took a labor job in a smelting and refining plant after finding that she
did not like office management. She won a promotion to a super
visory position and eventually became the plant superintendent. Later
when the plant was sold, the new owners were aghast at finding a
woman managing the plant, and they gave her instead an office posi
tion which she soon gave up. After some experience in metallurgy with
a research institution she secured her position as production engineer
with the firm covered by the survey.
When asked what factors had helped her to advance she said: “I
made up my mind to be an engineer and to work with metals. After
training, I found it difficult to get a job or rather an interview for a job.
When I got the job it was easy to show my ability.” She said that if
women wanted to get ahead they should be ambitious, and if they
liked to do a thing, they should get the training and let no one keep
them from achieving the job they want. She herself believed that
“there is a field for women in engineering.”
In a radio manufacturing company a woman engineer was working
in the engineering division which develops special equipment. She pre
pared the drawings and specifications for models, and reduced the de
signs and drawings for the shop. She followed a project from the engi
neering laboratory into the shop and made adjustments in drawings
when necessary. She said that she was doing the same type of work
as the men engineers in the department and that they accepted her on
the same basis as any junior engineer.
This woman, under 35 years of age, had been a mathematics major
in college. She had started her work life in a clerical job in banking
and had gone from that into a statistical research job in a publishing
house. When she switched to engineering, she found that she had a
natural bent for mechanical work and experienced much more satisfac
tion in handling mechanical problems than she had in doing office
work. Lacking an engineering degree, she was considering the advis
ability of taking time off to complete her training for it, work she had
already started by taking night courses at the university.
51
Another young woman in a radio manufacturing firm had had 2
years of college work plus night courses in engineering which were
roughly equivalent to 2 years of college work. She was employed by
the company in 1942 as an engineering laboratory assistant, having
previously been in clerical work. She found that she had a flair for
scientific analysis and an interest in the job, and she worked with a man
who made her a partner in his experimental work. She felt that she
had made slower progress and received less recognition because of
her sex, and that men supervisors in engineering think in terms of men
when a new job or chance for promotion develops. Another woman
in the same company agreed that women were not considered on the
same basis as men but pointed out that of those classed as engineers
60 percent of the men but none of the women were graduate engineers.
She felt that a woman going into engineering should seek full engineer
ing training if she wanted to obtain the same recognition as men.
Women Specialists in Printing and Publishing
Women in editorial jobs in the publishing houses covered by the survey
were responsible for the content of the books or magazines, or in some
instances for the technical work concerned with publication. Of a dozen
women with editorial titles who were interviewed, all but three had been
in the publishing field for over 15 years. A college education was usual,
but one woman with only 1 year of college was associate editor of a
widely read weekly magazine with responsibility for cutting and editing,
as well as for the make-up of the entire magazine. She was also respon
sible for editing stories from the viewpoint of possible “feminine reac
tion.” Prior to her present position she had worked nearly 15 years—as
clerk, secretary, manuscript reader, and humor editor. After about 4
years at home with her family, she returned to work and was chosen as
associate editor, a vacancy created when a man left for the war.
In one publishing house a woman held the position of managing
editor. Her responsibilities included deciding what manuscripts were
to be read and selected, making manuscript assignments, and dealing
with the authors. She enjoyed the opportunity to meet interesting
people and to help worthy authors get their books published but found
that her job took up a great deal of her time outside of working hours.
Advancement came rapidly to this woman of 35. Her first job as a
reader was with the same publishing firm. After 2 years, she was made
an editor, and 2 years later, managing editor.
Another woman, who was managing editor of a woman’s magazine,
had general supervision over the editorial department; was responsible
for the entire content and make-up of the magazine; and spent most of
her time on final editing or reading of articles and fiction. She began
working about 25 years ago after getting her college degree with majors
52
in history, political science, and journalism. She held various writing
jobs and did free-lance writing about 15 years before coming with the
magazine as an editorial assistant. After 1 year in that capacity she
became an associate editor and 6 years later was made managing editor.
For a woman who was editor of elementary publications in a text
book publishing firm, teaching experience as well as education opened
the way to advancement. Added to this she felt that she had a “lucky
break” in that the previous editor retired, and with 10 years’ experience
as his assistant she had gained the confidence of the board of directors.
She liked the combination of working with people and with books, and
she said that there was satisfaction in seeing her ideas take form in
textbooks. However, she found difficulty in combining a satisfactory
personal life with a job which demanded so much time and energy.
A woman who was associate editor in charge of production for a
magazine said that she enjoyed the mechanical details involved. She
felt that her advancement had been due to hard work and the ex
perience she had gained, first on a high school paper, then on a college
paper, and later on several magazines. Also, she had increased her
knowledge of printing by taking special courses. She had been working
for 15 years and was happy in her job. She felt that further advance
ment would come only if she moved to another city where opportunities
might be greater.
Among women holding technical jobs in publishing was the head
of the specifications and photostat department of a firm publishing
textbooks. It was her job to estimate the number of pages for each
proposed publication, make up a blank dummy showing the style form
of the finished book, figure out the sheet size of the paper necessary for
running the particular press forms involved, and plan special lay
outs for books. This woman had 2 years of college and had since
taken various courses given by the Boston Bookbinders’ Association.
She said that she had always known what she wanted to do. She had
become interested in publishing when she was in college, and most of
her work experience had been in this field.
Research jobs were held by women in a firm which published an
encyclopedia. A director of research supervised a staff of 29 which
was maintained to answer requests for information. Her job also in
cluded hiring and training college graduates for special work in libraries.
The woman who held this job was under 35, and all of her work ex
perience was with this firm, where she had come as a research specialist
after graduation from college. She found her job stimulating and said
she was learning all the time. Another woman was a geographic
analyst for the same firm. She compiled data for the revision of the
world atlas and other maps, including information on climate, products,
population—a specialized job which entailed much research. She had
S3
had special training for her job, since she had majored in geography in
college and during the war had worked in this same field for one of the
Federal war agencies.
Women Specialists in Insurance and Banking
From the personal history records acquired in the survey, it was ap
parent that women who had been promoted to good positions in the
underwriting departments of insurance companies owed their success
to the knowledge and skills they had acquired while working for the
companies, rather than to extensive formal education.
One of the women with a high school education said that her job
required “much general knowledge, and the ability to make decisions.”
She was first employed by the company as secretary to the chief actuary.
After 8 years in this position she was transferred to the underwriting
department as an underwriting secretary. Two years later she became
a lay underwriter. At the time of the interview she had responsibility
for all insurance applications up to $5,000—getting the history of the
applicant, examining each feature of the application, checking the
application with the medical director, and evaluating the total risk.
A woman underwriter in accident and health insurance with a highschool education and 6 months’ business training felt that it was her
ability to handle detail which had helped her to advance. Also, the war
had been a contributing factor. In spite of a good record as junior
underwriter, she was not made an underwriter until the war. The
women underwriters who were interviewed spoke of enjoying the
“human interest angle” and the variety—as one woman pointed out,
“Every case is different.”
For actuarial work advancement above a certain level depends upon
years of specialized training. One woman actuary with officer status
was a college graduate with 6 or 7 years’ special study in the actuarial
field, and at the time of the study, was the only woman actuary in her
city. She said that the woman who wants to be an actuary should begin
by majoring in mathematics at college, and then realize that it will take
years of preparation for the series of difficult examinations which must
be taken. She also felt that the woman who aspires to be an actuary
should be a person who welcomes responsibility.
For women who had majored in mathematics in college or otherwise
acquired a good background in mathematics, there were possibilities for
advancement to important statistical jobs in the actuarial departments
of insurance companies. Several women interviewed held very responsi
ble positions of this kind. The personnel representative of one of the
largest life-insurance companies said that one such woman was “doing
the most outstanding job done by anyone in the company,” although
she could not be made an officer because she was not an actuary.
54
Miss X came to the company 30 years ago, having been recom
mended by her high school principal for a substitute secretarial job.
She felt that her opportunity to advance came during the First World
War when she obtained a “man’s job” and held on to it after the
war. Some years later she became the assistant supervisor in the
actuarial department when the man who held the job was promoted
to the position of statistician. This man would normally have held
the position for many years, but he died shortly after his promotion.
Miss X was the only one who knew the work and was therefore given
the job. Miss X believed that upon her retirement a man would
succeed her, although two women who were her unit supervisors were
promotional material and in her judgment could handle the work.
The personnel representative who was interviewed also said that Miss X
was holding a man’s job and would be replaced by a man.
Another woman who was holding a position as actuarial statistician
began her work with the company 5 years before as assistant to the book
keeper but was soon given the job of statistician since she had had
mathematical training in college. This woman was over 50 years old,
and she had come to the company after more than 20 years as a
housewife.
In other departments responsible for reviewing policy forms, there
were also interesting positions being held by women. One woman was
doing an outstanding job as supervisor in group underwriting for one
of the largest companies.
She was in charge of over 500 persons who reviewed all contracts
and initiated new policy forms when changes in State laws and regula
tions made policy revision necessary. It was formerly company policy
for a vice president to visit those States where new contracts and policy
procedures had become necessary because of changes in the State laws.
A few years ago the vice president was unable to make a required trip,
and Miss X was selected to take over the work. She spent 3 months in
the field and did so well that she was chosen to make all future trips
when group insurance changes needed to be made. A representative
of the personnel department said that Miss X stood the best chance
of any woman in the organization for promotion to an executive posi
tion since her record had been outstanding.
Women attorneys in insurance companies were found working on
various assignments. One, who had reached officer status in her com
pany, dealt with legal questions connected with the handling and distri
bution of trust funds. Another was executive secretary to the general
counsel, assisting him on cases and acting for him in his absence.
In two companies, women without legal training were in policy-title
55
divisions doing work which required some knowledge of insurance law.
One of these women, the chief of the policy-title division, said that her
work was concerned with changes in beneficiaries, setting up procedures,
and drawing papers for settlement-assignment options. She felt that she
owed her advancement to the fact that she had had experience in a field
that was becoming increasingly important—that of developing optional
methods of settlement in creating trusts, life incomes, etc. Another
woman had held the title of supervisor in the settlement division for 26
years and said this department was about five times as large now as when
she started. She advised agents in the agency offices on special settle
ments and had written a manual on optional methods of settlement for
their use. As with the other women doing this type of work, she saw
her lack of legal training as an obstacle to further advancement.
A very impressive job involving service to clients was being done by a
woman trust officer in a large bank. This woman had a law degree and
had also taken graduate work in business administration and trust
problems.
She had had experience in estate management before coming to the
bank some 13 years ago, and in her job as assistant trust officer handled
trusts which go into effect during the lifetime of the donor. In addition
to executing the provisions of the trusts and the investment of funds,
this trust officer performed a wide range of services for the beneficiaries.
Miss X mentioned, for instance, that she had made investigations of
schools for boys who were the beneficiaries of a trust. She said that
clients often came to her with problems other than those of their
“estate” business, and she felt that helping them was a definite part
of the “good will” function of her job. She pointed out that one needed
to have a sincere interest in the needs of each client to do a job of this
sort really well, and she felt that women were perhaps more sympa
thetic than men with such personal problems.
In both insurance companies and banks, women holding responsible
positions as security and investment analysts usually had college training.
Most of them got their start in this work during the war. Their work
might include investing and loaning the company’s funds, investing trust
funds for clients, or analyzing securities which the bank was selling.
One young woman who was investment analyst for an insurance company
had been employed after majoring in economics in college and later
taking night school courses at the university in corporation finance. She
was in charge of the company’s public-utility investments, work which
included obtaining financial and engineering reports on all public
utilities, analyzing the reports, and making comparative studies within
the utility field and with other industries. A senior analyst in one of the
banks had responsibility for her company’s securities in the nondurable
56
goods field. Another analyst selected securities for the bank’s clients in
the service industries. She had added 6 years of evening college courses
to her academic work and had taken one American Institute of Banking
course. She gave credit to the “cooperative attitude” of the officers of
the bank for her advancement but still felt that tradition and prejudice
against women would keep her from obtaining the junior officership
which she would like to be holding 5 yeans from now.
57
THE
CHALLENGE TO THE
CAREER-MINDED WOMAN
In every field covered by the study, women holding positions of re
sponsibility were doing “a type of work that presents a challenge and
is not routine.” Yet a study of the histories of these women has shown
that they were usually those who had seen a challenge also in the routine
jobs they held at the start of their work life. In most cases it was apparent
that they had proved their interest and ability through unusual effort or
unusual personal qualifications, regardless of the character of work they
were doing. These women said that “hard work and willingness to give
more than full measure on the job,” accounted for their advancement. A
review of their work histories as well as the comments of personnel man
agers confirmed their views.
It was evident that women who had succeeded in serving competently
in positions never before held by women, were blazing trails which other
women might follow. In many cases management had come to realize
that such recognition of ability had improved morale and spurred the
interest of women in their work all along the line. An insurance com
pany reported that the appointment of a woman officer had been an
inspiration to other women in the company. A manufacturer of cigars
who had appointed a woman as head foreman of the night shift—the
first time in the company’s history that a woman had been given such a
responsible job—reported: “The effect on employee morale is marvelous.
It has acted as a stimulant to the women workers who now feel that there
is no limit as to how far a woman can go; that the opportunities for
advancement are limitless.”
For women in higher-level positions formerly held by men, the chal
lenge is twofold: not only must they prove themselves capable of holding
a “man’s job,” but because of the tendency of management to generalize
about women, their performance on the job will be an important influ
ence in changing management’s attitudes toward women. The study
has indicated that there are few types of jobs which women, simply
58
because they are women, are unable to do well. The study has also
shown that there remain many employers who have still to be convinced.
Furthermore, working women who are not themselves interested in
a career often determine management attitudes toward those who seek
advancement to higher-level positions. Supervisors who expressed con
cern about the lack of interest of girls under them no doubt had a legiti
mate complaint. But it must be realized that lack of interest in assuming
heavy responsibility is a trait not confined to women. There are un
doubtedly many people, both men and women, who for a variety of
reasons will remain in the more routine jobs, many of whom may be
content to do so. Women, more than men, must bear in mind that their
job performance at any level, however routine, affects management’s
attitudes toward women who aspire to higher-level jobs.
The survey has shown that in each field, though not in every plant,
management is increasingly seeking the best person for the job without
excluding women from consideration simply because they are women.
The survey also indicates that in many cases the tradition that certain
jobs are men’s jobs only reflects the fact that often there are few women
qualified for positions which carry heavy responsibilities. When quali
fied women are available for such positions, the traditional patterns are
often abandoned. The women in positions of responsibility covered by
this survey have themselves brought changes in traditional attitudes and
by their own achievement have shown what other women can do.
59
THE
CHALLENGE
BUSINESS
AND
TO
INDUSTRY
It may be true, as the insurance representative said, that “as women
with college training, ambition, and stick-to-itiveness enter the company
in increasing numbers they will force a recognition of women’s ability to
hold top jobs, and they will be given them,” but it may also be true that
women with such attributes would enter the competition in greater num
bers if recognition could be taken for granted and did not need to be
forced.
Often a firm which believes it offers every opportunity for women
maintains discriminations. A bank, for instance, which hires college
men for junior-executive training and college women for secretarial
jobs, should not find it surprising that more women in the firm do not
spend long years taking American Bankers’ Association courses. Like
wise the manufacturing firm, which reported that all openings in the
higher-level jobs are posted and anyone can apply but no woman ever
had, might ask itself whether its hiring practices do not exclude the pro
motional type of woman right from the start. In many manufacturing
firms women are hired only for the dead-end jobs, and the possibility of
using women in some of the jobs requiring higher qualifications has never
been explored.
This survey has shown that there are many women in every field who
have ambition and a willingness to train for the higher-level jobs. That
they are still the exception rather than the rule should not mean that they
are to be denied the opportunity to prove their worth. The experience
of the firms which have discovered and given recognition to such women
has been rewarding, as there were many representatives of management
to testify. Such firms have enlarged their own opportunities for finding
the best person for the job. At the same time they have given all women
in their employ an incentive to take more interest in their work.
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State College Library
The survey revealed that throughout business and industry, manage
ment realizes that prejudice and tradition often prevent their making
full use of the women’s skills, and that women are doing jobs which
would entitle them to greater rewards of salary and title if they were
men. This awareness, which may lead to a growing modification of
attitudes and policies, is in itself a long step forward.
Much remains to be done, however, if business as a whole is to profit
from the full development of the capabilities of its women employees.
That so many firms have discovered how much can be gained by helping
women develop and use their talents, should be a challenge to others to
do the same. It may be hoped that this record of achievement by those
women who were given a chance, will inspire a further opening of the
doors of opportunity and the growing adoption of policies which will
allow women to compete on even terms with men for the higher-level
positions.
61
APPENDIX
A
COVERAGE
OF
SURVEY
The present report is based on a survey made in the autumn of 1948 and
the early months of 1949. The survey covered women holding higher-level
positions in selected department stores, home offices of insurance companies,
banks, and a variety of manufacturing plants employing large numbers or a
large proportion of women in Boston, Hartford,1 Philadelphia, and Chicago.
The manufacturing plants were selected from “light” industries in which
large numbers or proportions of women are usually employed. The follow
ing industries were represented: apparel, cigars, dental equipment and
supplies, confectionery and certain other food products, footwear industries
(except rubber), metal products, paper products, pharmaceutical prepara
tions, printing and publishing, radios and other electrical products, rubber
products, hosiery and other textile products. The choice of firms in the
4 industries covered constituted a selection of large firms employing more
than 100 women or firms employing a significant proportion of women, and,
in a few cases, smaller firms because special conditions, such as the employ
ment of women in certain top jobs or specialized work, seemed to justify
their inclusion.
The survey covered 237 firms in the 3 cities as follows: 29 department
stores, 30 insurance companies, 12 banks (Philadelphia and Chicago only),
and 166 manufacturing plants. These firms represented 345,000 employees,
of whom approximately half in each area were women. The proportion of
women holding the higher-level jobs varied substantially by industry and
establishment. Information was obtained on the total number and pro
portion of women and men employed, as well as numbers and proportions
of those in the higher-level jobs.
“Higher-level” positions as used in this survey include executive, admin
istrative, technical, professional, and supervisory jobs. Within each of these
categories there may be a very wide range of responsibility levels. In the
production operations of manufacturing, for instance, all positions above
the level of “group leader” are included. (To be considered a supervisor,
an employee must have a certain degree of line responsibility for operations
or production, and control over work assignments.) This includes section
chiefs, assistant foremen, foremen, general foremen, assistant superintend
1 Boston and Hartford are combined for purposes of this study.
62
ents, superintendents, works managers. In the business fields covered, in
cluding office jobs in manufacturing, the lowest levels of responsibility in
cluded were usually “clerical supervisors” proceeding on up through various
departmental positions to those which are considered top-management jobs.
The latter include company officers, general managers, sometimes division
heads, depending upon size and type of firm. Technical and professional
jobs at different levels of responsibility are included—nurses, statisticians,
security analysts, attorneys, etc., with or without administrative or super
visory responsibilities. Since job classifications vary considerably from in
dustry to industry, and according to size and organization of firms, man
agement’s decision was utilized in each case as to which employees belonged
in the general classification of “higher-level” jobs.
Information was obtained from management regarding the types of work
being done by the women holding the higher-level positions, as well as the
jobs in which women had advanced furthest in salary. Management rep
resentatives were questioned about the apparent possibilities for increasing
the percentage of women in executive and supervisory and other higherlevel jobs, and as to what factors favored or retarded the advancement of
women in their business. Information on the recruitment and selection of
supervisors was also obtained from management, as well as information
on the considerations and standards which influence promotion. Data were
collected on the training provided or required for advancement in each firm
and the opportunities afforded women for receiving such training.
In over three-fourths of the firms covered by the survey additional per
sonal information about the women was obtained. Management records
concerning the age, marital status, education, training, and work history
of 860 women in the higher-level jobs were supplemented by personal inter
views with 646 of these women of whom 335 were in manufacturing, 151
were in department stores, and 160 were in banking and insurance.
Through these interviews valuable and interesting facts were gathered on
what the women liked and disliked about their jobs; what factors they
believed contributed to their advancement; what they believed women
should do to get ahead.
It must be emphasized that the criteria used in selecting the firms to be
included in the study were primarily those of size of establishment and high
proportion of women employed. Accordingly, the findings are not necessarily
representative of either industries or areas as a whole and should be con
sidered as suggestive rather than definitive. The report presents combined
findings by industries, and variations by areas are shown in the appendix
tables.
63
APPENDIX B
SCHEDULE FORMS
FIRM INTERVIEW
CONFIDENTIAL
Budget Bureau No. 44-4810
Approval Expires 4-30-49
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Women’s Bureau
Washington
I.
General Identification—All Industries
1. Name of firm................................................... ....................................................
Address..................................................................................................................
(Street)
(City)..........(Zone) ' (State)
2. Type of business or products..............................................................................
3. Persons interviewed:
Name........................................ Position..........................................................
Name....................................... Position..........................................................
Name........................................ Position..........................................................
4. Numbers employed:
Total:
Total
Men
Women
Executive, Administrative, Supervisory.......................................
All Other............................................................................
Agent..........................................................
Date.............................................................
1948 and 1949
64
FIRM INTERVIEW
II. Men
and
Women
in
“Higher-Level” Positions
in
Total
Total
TOP MANAGEMENT
Officers (active members).......................................
Store manager..........................................................
Assistant store and branch store manager...........
Administrative assistants and executive secretaries
MERCHANDISING
Merchandise managers and assistants...................
Buyers........................................................................
Assistant buyers........................................................
Heads of receiving, wrapping, packing, delivery.
Merchandise clerical supervisors (specify)...........
STORE OPERATIONS
Superintendents and assistants...................................
Floor managers, service or section heads, assistants
Purchasing agent (store supplies)..............................
Other (specify).............................................................
PERSONNEL AND EMPLOYEE WELFARE
Personnel, employment and training directors..............
Assistants to above and other personnel department
supervisors (specify).........................................................
Nurses....................................................................................
PUBLICITY
Advertising managers and assistants
Display managers and assistants. . .
Artists..................................................
Copywriters........................................
Other promotional heads (specify) .
SHOPPING SERVICE
Customers’ shopping chief and assistants.....................
Comparison shopping chief...........................................
GENERAL OFFICE, FINANCE AND CONTROL
Office manager, chief accountant and their assistants
Credit manager and assistants.......................................
Other office supervisors (specify)...................................
OTHER SERVICES
Alteration and workroom heads and assistants
Restaurant managers and assistants..................
General research and other technicians...........
Chief telephone operators..................................
Beauty shop manager.........................................
Building maintenance heads..............................
Other customers’ services (specify)...................
65
Department Stores
Number Employed
Men
Women
FIRM INTERVIEW
II. Men
and
Women
in
“Higher-Level” Positions
in
Manufacturing Industries
Number Employed
Total
Men
Women
Total............................................................................................................................
Top Management
Officers..................................................................
Administrative assistant or executive secretary
Production
Plant manager and superintendent. .
Department and division head..........
Foreman—forelady..............................
Assistant foreman—assistant forelady
Personnel
Personnel or industrial relations director
Employment manager..............................
Training director.......................................
Office
and
Financial Control
Controller...........................................
Office manager..................................
Department and division head........
Supervisor (1st level of supervision)
Sales
and
Purchasing Department
Purchasing head...................................................
Sales manager.......................................................
Other Services
and
Departments
66
FIRM INTERVIEW
III. Women in “Higher-Level” Positions—All Industries (other than buyers and
assistant buyers in stores).
List positions shown for women on page 2 in sufficient detail to identify work done and
number employed.
Number of
women
67
Job title
Other data to identify job
FIRM INTERVIEW
III. (Supplementary) Department Buyer
and
Assistant Buyer—In Department
Stores
Check sex of buyer (do not enter number)
Women
Men
Buyer
Asst.
Buyer
Asst.
Infants’ wear..........................................................
Housefurnishings such as furniture, floor coverHousewares, hardware, household appliances,
Other, list in broad erouninps.............................
68
State College Library
FIRM INTERVIEW
IV. Comments
Industries
on
Women’s Status
in
Supervisory
and
Administrative Jobs—All
1. What are the 3 highest paid positions held by women in order of salary?
(1)....................................................... (2).................................................................
(3).......................................................
2. (a) Have women been employed in supervisory positions now filled by men?
Yes.......... No............ If yes, give reasons for change.......................................
(4) What jobs are women holding now not held by women 10 years ago?
3. (a) What are the possibilities of increasing the proportion of women in super
visory and administrative positions?
(A) What are the possibilities for placement of women in higher levels of positions
than women now hold?
4. What factors favor the advancement of women in your type of business?
5. What factors deter the advancement of women in your type of business?
69
FIRM INTERVIEW
V. Recruiting
and
Promotion—All Industries
1. Is it the general policy to fill supervisory positions by promotion from within the
company?.......... If yes, what are typical steps of progression for women?
(a) Office.............................................................................................................................
(A) Other
2. Who in the organization selects or recommends persons for promotion?.......... • • • •
............................................................. Who passes on promotions (i. e., reviews
qualifications and eligibility)?.........................................................................................
3. (a) What are the chief factors you consider in selecting women in supervisory
positions?.....................................................................................................................
(A) Is there a formal merit rating that is considered in advancing employees to
supervisory positions of higher responsibility? Yes.......... No............ If
yes, explain.................................................................................................................
(c) Is seniority a major factor in promotion? Yes..........
No............ Explain.
4. Does the company have a general policy against the hiring or retention of married
women? Yes.......... No............ Note any recent change in this policy..............
5. What positions of this type (E. A. S.) held by women are filled usually from outside
the company?
6. Are college graduates recruited? Men
Women
If yes, explain.
FIRM INTERVIEW
VI. Training Program—All Industries
1. Do you have in-plant training courses for non-supervisory employees that have a
bearing on opportunities for advancement for men.......... , for women? ...........
If yes, describe briefly.......................................................................................................
2. Do you have training courses for supervisory and administrative personnel, for
men, ... for women? ... If yes, describe briefly.......................................................
3. Are trade courses voluntarily taken outside of plant a factor in considering promo
tion? .......... Comment..................................................................................................
4. Are there any training courses sponsored by the firm for which women are not
eligible? .......... If yes, explain....................................................................................
5. Compare the extent to which men and women take advantage of training courses
and opportunities offered by the company.
71
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
Budget Bureau No. 44-4810
Date of Expiration 4-30-49
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Women’s Bureau
Washington
Information
1.
3.
4.
5.
to be
Obtained From Firm Records—All Industries
Firm.................................................
Name or identification........................................... 2. Position......................................
Age: Under 25........ 25-34. . . ., 35-44. . . ., 45-54. . . ., 55 and over........
Marital status: Single. . ., Married. . ., Widowed. . ., Separated. . ., Divorced....
Education and training:
(a) Highest grade completed. ... If college, number of years completed........
(b) Business school or other specialized schooling.......................................................
(c) In-plant courses
6. Work history—(Date of first job.....................................)
In This Company (Date beginning).......................................
Kind of Work
Duration
First job...........................................................................................................................
Intermediate job..............................................................................................................
Present job
Jobs Held Before Employment Here
(3 last jobs)
Last job...........................................................................................
Job before that...............................................................................
Other jobs.......................................................................................
If employment in this firm has been broken for more than 6 months, give length of time
and reason....................................................................................................................... ............
Agent..........................................................
Date...........................................................
1948 and 1949
72
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
Information
to be
Obtained by Personal Interviews With Women
Level” Positions—All Industries
1. Name or identification.....................................................
in
“Higher-
Firm.......................................
2. Briefly describe your job, its responsibilities and the number supervised......................
3. What factors have helped you advance?
4. What do you like about your job?
5. What do you dislike or find unpleasant about your job?
6. From your experience, what do you think women should do to further their advance
ment? .......................................................................................................................................
7. What obstacles do you see to your further advancement?
8. Five years from now what position would you like to hold?
9. Do you prefer to be supervised by men........, by women............, no preference........... ?
(Check one)
73
i
APPENDIX C
TABLES
INTRODUCTION
Table 1.—Major occupation group of all employed persons and of women for the United
States, 1949 and 1940
[Thousands of persons 14 years of age and over]
April 1949
Major occupation group
Proprietors, managers, and officials, except
March 1940
Percent
women
Total
Women
16,356
28
45,166
11,138
25
1,477
236
37
5
3,345
5,144
1,470
152
44
3
867
5, 928
'165
3,199
3’, 577
906
14
53
2
28
58
15
3, 749
7, 518
5,056
8, 252
5j 570
6', 154
'379
424
3,157
' 107
2,046
3; 231
418
134
11
42
2
25
58
7
35
Total
Women
57,819
4,041
4, 801
6,265
11,100
7', 689
11, 631
6,151
6,142
Percent
women
Source: U. S. Dept, of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Population. Vol. Ill, The Labor Force, 1940,
pt. 1, United States Summary. Table 58, pp. 75-80; and Current Population Reports, Labor Force, 1949.
P-57, No. 82, table 13, p. 11.
74
POSITION OF WOMEN IN FIELDS OF THIS STUDY
Table 2.—Position of women in the industries covered by the survey by area
Number of employ
All employees
ees in higher-level Number of officers1
positions
Num
ber of
estab
Per
Per
Per
lish
ments Total Women cent Total Wom cent Total Wom cent
en
en
wom
wom
wom
en
en
en
3 AREAS
Department stores
Insurance
Banking
Manufacturing-----------------
29 57,786 39,426
30 29, 752 19,164
6, 214
12 13, 565
166 243, 877 109,446
68 5, 724
64 4,607
46 3, 478
45 21,105
2, 865
905
508
2,973
50
20
15
14
183
982
1,047
805
8
21
15
35
4
2
1
4
BOSTON-HARTFORD AREA
Department stores......... ........
Insurance __
__ _ _
Manufacturing
8
9
48
12,073
18,159
46,185
8,793
11, 760
24, 719
73
65
54
1,398
2,486
3,138
755
436
646
54
18
21
42
636
182
3
7
9
7
1
5
1,931
985
798
8,095
942
217
153
902
49
22
19
11
66
218
292
293
3
4
3
8
5
2
1
3
2,395
1,136
2, 680
9,872
1,168
252
355
1,425
49
22
13
14
75
228
755
330
2
10
12
18
3
4
2
5
PHILADELPHIA
Department stores________
Insurance.. _______ __
Banking...
Manufacturing
10
10
4
57
19, 776
5,878
3,849
91,683
13,469
3,601
1,852
38, 271
68
61
48
42
CHICAGO
Department stores_______
Insurance---------------------Banking __
Manufacturing__________
11 25,937
11
5,715
9, 716
8
61 106,009
17,164
3,803
4,362
46,456
66
67
45
44
1 Included in higher-level positions.
Table 3.—Employment in “higher-level” positions by industry and by area and sex
Industry
Women
Men
Both sexes
Number in Percent of Number in Percent of Number in Percent of
higher-level total em higher-level total em higher-level total em
positions ployment
positions ployment positions
ployment
3 AREAS
Department stores
Insurance
Banking—
__ ___
_ _
Manufacturing--------------------
5,724
4, 607
3,478
21,105
10
15
26
9
2,859
3,702
2, 970
18,132
16
35
40
13
2,865
905
508
2,973
7
5
8
3
20
32
12
755
436
646
9
4
3
BOSTON-HARTFORD AREA
Department stores
Insurance . ...........................
Manufacturing
1,398
2,486
3,138
12
14
7
643
2,050
2,492
Department stores
Insurance:
Life______ ______
.
Property and Casualty...
Banking
Manufacturing------- ----------
1,931
10
989
16
942
7
555
430
798
8,095
21
13
21
9
412
356
645
7,193
44
27
32
13
143
74
153
902
8
4
8
2
Department stores
Insurance----------------- ------—
Banking-------------------------Manufacturing
2,395
1,136
2,680
9,872
1, 227
884
2,325
8,447
13
46
43
14
1,168
252
355
1,425
7
7
8
3
PHILADELPHIA
CHICAGO
75
9
20
28
9
Table 4.—Employment in "higher-level” positions by organizational classification and by area and sex—Department stores
Higher-level positions
3 areas
Organizational classification
Total
number
Total_______
________
Officers________________________
_________
Store managers__
_____
Assistant store and branch store managers
Administrative assistants and executive secretaries-_
Departments or services:
Merchandising______
Store operations _______________________
Personnel and employee welfare____
Publicity______
Shopping service _ ______________________
General office, finance and control
Other services
1 Base too small to justify computations.
Percent
men
Percent
women
Total
number
50
50
1,398
4
22
42
6
20
17
52
41
85
61
93
47
49
777
193
68
93
18
87
77
5,724
183
22
64
43
3,173
845
228
339
57
395
375
Boston-Hartford
96
<*)
(0
78
48
59
15
39
7
53
51
(*)
Percent
men
Philadelphia
Percent
women
Total
number
Percent
men
Percent
women
Total
number
54
1,931
51
49
2,395
51
66
3
23
8
95
5
75
13
21
18
97
46
0)
§
p)
m
(l)
0)
0)
0)
47
51
18
31
52
39
Chicago
0)
53
49
82
69
48
61
1,113
265
65
126
19
136
107
(*)
0)
0)
h
50
63
12
37
49
55
(0
50
37
88
63
51
45
1,283
387
95
120
20
172
191
Percent
men
(0
M
49
3
0)
0)
0)
C1)
Percent
women
48
60
15
48
56
54
0)
52
40
85
52
44
46
Table 5.—Distribution of persons employed in “higher-level” positions by organizational classification and by area and sex—Department stores
Higher-level positions
Organizational classification
Total
Number
Percent___
______
Officers
Assistant store and branch store managers_____
Administrative assistants and executive secretaries—
Departments or services:
Merchandising____ _ ___________________
Store operations _
_ __
Personnel and employee welfare______________
Publicity_________________________________
General office, finance and control
Other services_________________
1 Less than 0.5 percent.
Boston-Hartford
3 areas
__ ______
Men
Women
5,724
100
2,859
100
3
6
1
2
(!)
1
1
55
15
4
6
1
7
7
o
54
17
1
5
C1)
J 7
7
2,865
100
Men
Total
Women
1,398
100
643
100
3
6
1
1
1
(i)
1
1
2
1
57
12
7
7
2
7
6
56
14
5
7
1
6
5
(!)
57
15
2
5
7
5
Chicago
Philadelphia
755
100
0)
Total
1,931
100
(i)
1
2
54
13
7
9
2
6
6
Men
0)
4
Women
942
100
989
100
(!)
0)
6
1
2
58
14
3
6
1
7
6
56
17
1
5
7
6
.
Total
Men
Women
2,395
100
1,227
100
3
6
1
2
(l)
1
1
1
1
59
10
6
9
2
7
5
54
16
4
5
1
7
8
50
19
1
5
0)^ 8
8
1,168
100
1
58
13
7
5
1
7
8
Table 6.—Employment in "higher-level" positions by organizational classification and by area and sex—All manufacturing and selected industries
Higher-level positions
Boston-Hartford
3 areas
Organizational classification
Total
number
Percent
men
Percent
women
Total
number
Percent
men
Chicago
Philadelphia
Percent
women
Total
number
Percent
men
Percent
women
Total
number
Percent
men
Percent
women
ALL MANUFACTURING
Total............... .......................-.............................
21,105
86
14
3,138
79
21
8,095
89
11
9,872
86
Officers____ ____
General managers and assistant general managers...
Administrative assistants and executive secretaries...
Departments or services:
Production
Personnel- ___ . __
____________ ____
Office and financial control
Sales and purchasing department____ ________
Other departments and services
805
26
171
96
4
182
95
5
97
3
5
78
52
15
85
22
78
330
10
54
95
22
293
16
65
28
72
90
50
74
83
33
10
50
26
17
67
2,405
124
229
142
4
84
44
56
80
16
56
44
20
5,896
318
619
863
25
93
51
78
84
7
49
22
16
7,790
498
727
399
64
89
52
76
81
34
11
48
24
19
66
27
186
23
1,034
72
28
65
13
89
11
0
16,091
940
1, 575
1,404
93
rvm
to
0)
«
to
(0
14
CONFECTIONERY PRODUCTS
Total________________
Officers________
_
Administrative assistants and executive secretaries. _
Departments or services:
Production___
Personnel- _
Office and financial control____ ______ _ ..
Sales and purchasing department
1,484
73
27
264
101
17
91
9
15
3
25
55
36
19
187
13
25
21
1,075
69
125
85
12
0)
0)
75
45
64
81
to
<»>
73
0)
w
0)
to
w
Co
TO
75
«
to
to
21
1
25
115
11
26
12
77
«
«
w
(0
TO
0)
75
«
«
to
25
773
45
74
52
12
«
«
(0
TO
74
62
77
w
0)
26
38
23
FEINTING AND PUBLISHING
Total_____
Officers ..........
...... - ------------------------------Administrative assistants and executive secretaries. _
Departments or services:
Production_______________________________
Personnel
Office and financial control---------------------------Sales and purchasing department------ ------------Other departments and services----------- ------ —
72
2,585
111
41
1, 524
113
254
523
19
(0
0)
98
73
47
73
75
0)
0)
28
378
2
24
8
27
53
27
25
263
14
35
33
1
44
56
(•)
(■)
30
23
w
(*)
58
0)
0)
(»)
0)
0)
988
42
448
31
86
370
26
74
(0
0)
w
(>>
0)
57
10
83
81
17
19
813
68
133
120
18
95
5
4,978
71
(>)
29
(0
25
75
1,219
100
0)
0)
79
56
73
67
(0
0)
21
44
27
33
RADIOS AND OTHER ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS
Officers------ ---------------------------------------------------Administrative assistants and executive secretaries. _
Departments or services:
Production------------------------------------------------Personnel
Office and financial control. ---------------------Sales and purchasing department------------------Other departments and services--------------------1
Base too small to Justify computations.
6
94
8,851
103
17
94
7, 596
362
427
321
25
97
54
78
89
0)
0)
0)
6
28
4
3
46
22
11
407
21
22
20
1
18
82
503
(>)
0)
0)
30
5
<0
0)
to
85
(')
(*)
(■)
3,370
15
2,787
84
196
266
2
(!)
<0
(>>
0)
99
54
77
87
0)
45
8
1
46
23
13
4,402
257
209
35
22
6
94
(0
0)
0)
(0
«
97
54
82
(0
(>)
3
46
18
State College Library
Total
Table 7.—Distribution of persons employed in "higher-level“ positions by organizational classification and by area and sex—All manufacturing and
selected industries
Higher-level positions
Organizational classification
3 areas
Total
Men
Boston-Hartford
Women
Total
Men
Philadelphia
Women
Total
Men
Chicago
Women
Total
Men
Women
ALL MANUFACTURING
____
1
i
li
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
o
o
a
&
Number________
Officers_______ ________ ____
___________
General managers and assistant general managers..
Administrative assistants and executive secretaries..
Departments or services:
Production
Personnel_______________
_ _
...
Office and financial control_________________
Sales and purchasing department_______ _____
Other departments and services
21,105
100
(0
(0
18,132
100
2, 973
100
4
1
6
5
1
54
16
14
8
2
77
4
7
5
4
1
76
4
8
7
0)
(>>
80
2
7
7
3,138
100
«
2,492
100
646
100
7
1
(0
7
81
2
5
5
60
11
16
4
1
8,095
100
(0
4
1
o
73
4
7
11
7,193
100
(i)
(i)
(0
902
100
4
1
9,872
100
8, 447
100
(l)
(i)
to
1,425
100
6
1
43
17
79
16
2
1
43
100
1,034
100
746
100
288
100
75
5
77
69
77
2
7
10
82
(>) 4
59
3
CONFECTIONERY PRODUCTS
Number ______________________________
Percent_____________ _______________
1,484
100
1,083
100
401
100
264
100
194
100
Officers___
Administrative assistants and executive secretaries.
Departments or services:
Production
Personnel. ________
_
____ ____
Office and financial control
Sales and purchasing department_____ ____
Other departments and services
7
1
8
2
3
6
1
7
1
72
5
8
6
1
74
3
8
6
68
10
11
4
2
71
5
9
8
72
3
7
10
1
Co
(0
70
100
186
100
143
100
3
11
1
14
1
«
67
11
16
3
62
6
14
6
60
4
14
7
(2)
(2)
(3)
(2)
•
PRINTING AND PUBLISHING
Number_______
Percent--------------------------------------------------
2,585
100
4
2
Administrative assistants and executive secretaries.
Departments or services:
Production--------------- ----------------------------Personnel- ________ ________ ____________
Office and financial control.______ ________
Sales and purchasing department____________
59
4
10
20
1
1,862
100
(o
p)
6
60
3
10
21
378
100
213
100
165
100
988
100
5
6
2
11
1
5
3
2
57
8
10
18
2
70
4
9
9
72
2
8
7
66
5
11
11
1
45
3
9
38
723
100
(!)
(0
732
100
256
100
8
4
1
44
1
10
41
50
8
6
28
67
6
11
10
1
3,370
100
3, 211
100
159
100
1
1
2
3
83
2
6
8
86
1
5
7
20
25
28
21
1
0)
4
C1)
1, 219
100
302
100
917
100
(0
6
3
70
4
11
9
57
10
12
13
5
4,978
100
4,672
100
306
100
1
1
1
3
89
5
4
1
91
3
4
1
43
38
12
0)
RADIOS AND OTHER ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS
Number
Percent... ______
8,851
100
8, 297
100
554
100
503
100
414
100
89
100
1
1
1
3
6
1
7
1
5
86
4
5
4
89
2
4
4
41
30
17
6
2
81
4
4
4
83
2
3
5
70
13
10
Officers----------------------------------- -------------------Departments or services:
Production
Personnel--.
Office and financial control— __
Other departments and services______________
1 Less than 0.5 percent.
(>)
c)
2 Base too small to justify computations.
0)
1
(■)
(0
w
(0
(0
(>)
(>)
3
FACTORS FAVORING AND DETERRING ADVANCEMENT
Table 8.—Answers by management to question: "What factors favor the advancement
of women in your type of business?"
Depart
ment
stores
Answers to question
Number of firms 1______ ______________
Insurance
29
Expansion of business or new services._________
Favorable attitude of management toward women’s
advancement_______ _
__ __
.
High percentage of women employed______ _
Large proportion of clientele are women __
__
Satisfactory work of women in responsible jobs..
Suitability of women for this type of business___
Women are better on detail work.
_ _ _
No answer____________ __
_______
Manu
factur
ing
Banking
30
12
1
>93
1
9
17
23
5
16
8
23
5
10
12
36
4
12
6
17
32
1 Details aggregate more than totals because some firms reported more than 1 factor.
2 In only 93 of the 166 manufacturing firms covered in the study, was there a sufficient number of women
in higher-level positions to justify obtaining management’s opinions.
Table 9.—Answers by management to question: "What factors deter the advancement
of women in your type of business?"
Depart
ment stores Insurance
Answers to question
Number of firms i.........
.............................
Family responsibilities____
_____
Lack of business and technical knowledge ___
Lack of interest in advancement___ _
Lack of permanency____________________
Limited job opportunities. .
_ ____
Personality traits attributed to women___
Traditional attitudes of management.__
.
Traditional attitudes of co-workers__________
Wages too low________
___
..._____
No answer___
_ _ __
_
Banking
Manufac
turing
29
30
12
93
11
1
7
8
3
8
13
16
12
38
23
20
4
8
9
1
1
9
18
2
3
4
2
5
7
1
2
10
1
10
39
5
1 Details aggregate more than totals because some firms reported more than 1 factor.
Table 10.—Answers of women workers to question: "What obstacles do you see to your
advancement?"
Answers to question
Department
stores
Insurance
Banking
Manufacturing
Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent
Number of women interviewed L
151
100
109
100
51
100
335
100
No obstacles
36
24
14
13
2
4
54
16
Age: Too young or too old
...
Family responsibilities
Lack of interest in further advancement______
___ ...
Limitations in education, training,
and experience_________ _
Limited job opportunities at higher
levels______ _________________
Reached top in own field or department____ _ _
Traditional attitudes of management
toward women._ _ _
No answer.. ___ ____________
18
11
12
7
14
1
13
1
5
4
10
8
17
7
5
2
17
11
11
10
6
12
41
12
23
15
35
32
9
18
37
11
13
9
8
7
3
6
25
7
19
13
13
12
6
12
115
34
22
2
15
1
44
1
40
1
31
61
118
35
1 Details aggregate more than totals because some women gave more than 1 answer.
82
Table 11.—Answers of women workers to question: “Five years from now what position
would you like to hold?**
Department
stores
Manufacturing
Banking
Insurance
Answers to question
Number of women interviewed..
Same*job with increased responsi-
Num
ber
Per
cent
Num
ber
Num
ber
Per
cent
Num
ber
Per
cent
Per
cent
151
100
109
100
51
100
335
100
42
11
5
5
11
5
39
28
8
3
3
8
3
26
26
2
5
9
5
11
35
24
2
5
8
5
10
32
23
45
4
1
4
2
14
8
2
8
4
27
55
44
17
20
10
25
129
16
13
5
6
3
8
39
32
1
21
<>)
16
14
3
6
34
1
(0
10
i Less than 0.5 percent.
Table 12—Answers by management to question: “What are the chief factors you consider in selecting women for supervisory jobs?**
Depart
ment
stores
Answers to question
Number of firms *
Rating in psychological tests and measuring techniques.
Reasonable certainty that they will remain 4 or 5 years..
Insurance
Manu
facturing
Banking
29
30
12
93
21
10
12
5
4
18
1
9
23
10
11
1
5
23
6
4
2
4
5
11
3
6
2
4
9
2
1
65
22
25
6
9
64
20
11
4
13
3
6
7
3
3
i Details aggregate more than totals because some firms reported more than 1 factor.
Table 13.—Answers of women workers to question: “ What factors helped you to
advance?**
Department
stores
Manufacturing
Banking
Insurance
Answers to question
Number
Percent
Num
ber
Percent
Number
Per
cent
Number
Percent
Number of women interviewed L
151
100
109
100
51
100
335
100
Ability to get along with people-----Ambition and economic necessity—
Chance circumstances------------------Education and specialized training..
Experience
War and growth of business-----------Work performance-----------------------No answer
38
30
38
51
61
16
25
26
25
34
40
24
13
19
28
65
35
80
22
6
5
12
26
37
13
32
12
10
24
51
73
25
63
68
20
50
80
96
136
61
234
15
24
29
41
18
70
111
4
11
74
3
12
17
26
60
32
73
i Details aggregate more than totals because some women gave more than 1 answer.
83
2
1
Tablej14.—Answers of women workers to question: "From your experience what do you
think women should do to further their advancement?"
Department
stores
Insurance
Banking
Manufacturing
Answers to question
Number
Percent
Number
Percent
Number
Percent
Number
Percent
Number of women interviewed L
151
100
109
100
51
100
335
100
Acquire more education and training.
Be ambitious and have a desire to
succeed____________________
Cultivate better human relations
and social attitudes_______
__
Improve work performance and attitude_______________________
No answer________ ____
60
40
39
36
30
59
114
34
57
38
47
43
25
49
101
30
65
43
44
40
25
49
91
27
112
2
74
1
89
82
30
59
231
ro
1
1 Details aggregate more than totals because some women gave more than 1 answer.
Table 15.—Answers of women workers to question: “What do you like about your job?”
Department
stores
Insurance
Banking
Manufacturing
Answers to question
Number of women interviewedL
Num
ber
Per
cent
Num
ber
Per
cent
Num
ber
Per
cent
Num
ber
Per
cent
151
100
109
100
51
100
335
100
“Everything”_________________
19
13
11
10
1
2
43
13
Challenge of job
Contact with people—customers, coworkers____
_____
Opportunity to use training and
abilities_________
Responsibility and freedom to make
decisions________
___
Satisfaction of accomplishment and
recognition________________
Type of work ____
__
Variety of work. _ . _
Working conditions and company
policies________________
No answer________________
37
25
18
17
4
8
38
11
87
58
46
42
40
78
146
44
3
2
7
6
4
g
22
15
36
33
17
33
63
44
40
44
29
26
29
35
63
32
32
58
29
23
27
20
45
53
39
64
134
94
19
40
28
30
1
20
1
10
9
9
18
42
13
1 Details aggregate more than totals because some women gave more than 1 answer.
Table 16.—Answers of women workers to question:" What do you dislike about your job?”
Department
stores
Insurance
Banking
Manufacturing
Answers to question
Number of women interviewed i_
“Nothing”__________________
Disciplining and firing; training
uninterested workers______
Environment and working conditions... _______________
Job insecurity____________
Lack of recognition and opportunity
for women____
__________
Low earnings _ _________ .
Minor job irritations________
Pressure of work
________
Sacrifice of personal life for jnb
Unreasonable customers and coworkers_____ _ __
Miscellaneous answers_______
No answer___________________
Num
ber
Per
cent
Num
ber
Per
cent
Num
ber
Per
cent
Num
ber
151
100
109
100
51
100
335
100
58
38
44
40
21
41
158
47
14
9
35
32
10
20
48
14
6
6
4
4
3
7
3
6
2
4
3
1
5
2
19
16
6
8
1
13
11
4
11
4
8
12
2
10
7
14
23
7
7
11
2
5
3
1
10
6
2
42
12
4
13
4
1
27
15
2
18
10
1
15
2
14
2
8
6
16
12
15
17
4
5
Per
cent
Details aggregate more than totals because some women gave more than 1 answer.
84
State College Library
THE WOMEN IN HIGHER-LEVEL POSITIONS
Table 17.—Age of women in “higher-level” positions by industry
[Percent distribution]
Depart
Insurance
ment stores
Age
Total women—Number.------- -----------------------Percent
25 to 34 years
35 to 44 years
45 to 54 years-----------------------------------------------------55 years and over-------------------------------------------------
Banking
Manu
facturing
188
146
66
460
100
100
100
100
5
20
40
25
10
1
19
35
32
13
23
33
35
9
4
23
38
25
10
Table 18.—Marital status of women in “higher-level” positions by industry
[Percent distribution]
Depart
Insurance
ment stores
Marital status
Banking
Manufac
turing
188
146
66
460
Percent----------------------------------
100
100
100
100
Single.. -----------------------------------------------------------
45
36
7
9
3
74
18
5
2
1
68
24
3
3
2
52
34
6
b
2
Total women—Number
Widowed _____________________________________
Divorced------------------ _. ---------------- ---Separated
Table 19.—Education and training of women in “higher-level” positions by industry
[Percent distribution]
Education and training
Total women—Number_________________
Percent__________________
Years
of
or
Banking
Manufac
turing
188
146
66
460
100
100
100
100
1
3
3
3
3
13
9
34
8
50
10
44
19
32
21
23
8
1
11
21
6
1
14
26
3
11
12
7
3
16
30
6
47
1
30
15
3
50
2
21
29
35
15
20
18
6
51
5
35
62
3
39
59
2
17
83
27
70
3
Other Specialized Schooling
Business school______________________________
Other specialized schooling____ _______________
Both business and other specialized schooling-----No business or other specialized schooling_______
Not reported________________________________
Training
in
In-plant Courses
Attended in-plant courses.......... ........... .................. .
Did not attend in-plant courses------------------------Not reported________________________________
85
Insurance
School Completed
Elementary school:
Less than 8 years_________________________
8 years---------------------------------------------------High school:
1 to 3 years______________________________
4 years__________________________________
College:
1 to 3 years______________________________
4 years__________________________________
Graduate work___________________________
Not reported________________________________
Business
Depart
ment
stores
—
Table 20.—Work history of women in “higher-level” positions by industry
[Percent distribution]
Depart
ment stores Insurance
Work history
Banking
Manufac
turing
Total women—Number................. ...... ..................
188
146
66
460
Percent__ ___________________
100
100
100
100
Total Time Worked
1
10
6 to 9 years------------------------------------------- -------- ----10 to 14 years-----------_ _
____________
15 to 19 years
20 years and over.
_______
_ ________
Time worked not reported------------------------------------Time Worked
in
in
in
7
16
14
15
44
3
9
18
18
14
41
13
22
17
13
33
11
36
26
10
9
7
1
9
45
26
6
9
5
8
42
25
9
6
9
1
14
19
18
11
18
20
12
3
24
25
14
11
1
11
1
13
20
19
19
14
3
28
71
1
42
67
1
32
68
14
15
57
3
15
11
12
1
2
6
22
16
18
16
22
1
2
0)
Present Position
Less than 1 year
1 to 4 years
5 to 9 years------------------------------------------_ ...
—
_____
____
10 to 14 years
_ -----------------------15 to 19 years-------20 years and over_____
____
Time Worked
(l)
61
10
Present Firm
1 to 4 years---------------------- ----------------------------------5 to 9 years____________ __________________ ____
10 to 14 years -----------_ _ _ _ .
_
____
15 to 19 years------------------------------------20 years and over_____
_ ... _
Time Worked
1
4
14
13
19
48
9
16
31
30
3
17
40
25
8
5
4
1
Present Firm Before Present
Position
None (started in present position)
1 to 4 years _ __________________________________
5 to 9 years ---- ---------------------------------_ ___
10 to 14 years-------------- ------------------------------------15 to 19 years
_ _ __
20 years and over
_
__ _
______
Work Experience
in
24
3
27
15
12
6
12
10
1
Present Firm
All experience in present firm.
____ __ _
Experience in present firm and other firms
...
28
69
1 Less than 0.5 percent.
O
86
@FedFRASER