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V Women Workers in Their Family Environment United States Department of Labor WOMEN'S BUREAU Bulletin No. 1S3 fa J? 6, SOCIOLOGY DIVISION http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ SEHIAU Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR FRANCES PERKINS, Secretary WOMEN'S BUREAU MARY ANDERSON, Director + Women Workers in Their Family Environment BULLETIN OF THE WOMEN'S BUREAU, NO. 183 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON : 1941 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. Price 15 cents CONTENTS Page Letter of transmittal The situation Salient facts of survey Who are the women workers? Age and marital status Age at beginning work Education Length of work experience Position in the family Family needs Members of family and earning members Financial conditions Contributions to family support What part are women's earnings in family income? Care of children and home in households with employed wives In what position are women to meet these needs? Work available Extent of employment Monthly earnings Schooling in relation to earning power Experience and earnings Earning power and marital status In conclusion • vn 1 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 6 6 7 8 9 9 10 10 11 11 12 12 13 13 CLEVELAND WOMEN WORKERS IN THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT Background of the study The women workers The sample Age and marital status Age at beginning work Length of work experience Position in the family The families of women workers Composition of the families Responsibilities of these families Family breadwinners What positions do bread winning women hold in the family? Family income Income in families with employed married women Women workers' money contributions — Comparison of sons' and daughters' contributions Women workers' service contributions Care of children In what position are Cleveland women to meet family needs? Work available Monthly earnings by marital status and occupation Employment history of women who have been married Education of women workers by occupational group Education related to first job Experience and earnings r 15 15 15 16 16 17 18 18 19 19 20 20 20 22 24 26 26 27 27 27 28 31 32 34 35 in IV CONTENTS UTAH WOMEN WORKERS IN THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT Page Background of the study The women workers The sample Age and marital status Age at beginning work Length of work experience Position in the family The families of women workers Composition of the families Responsibilities of the families Family breadwinners What positions do women breadwinners hold in the family? Family income Earnings of husband-and-wife 2-person families Married women in public employment Case histories Women workers' money contributions Comparison of sons' and daughters' contributions Contributions of women teachers Women workers' service contributions Household conveniences Care of children In what position are Utah women to meet family needs? "Work available Earnings of women workers Comparison of full-time earnings by marital status and occupation— Age and occupation Employment history of women who have been married Education of women workers by occupational group Education related to first job Earnings and education Education and age at entering employment Length of employment Experience and earnings 37 38 38 39 39 40 40 40 41 41 42 42 42 44 45 46 47 48 48 49 49 SO 51 51 52 52 54 55 56 58 59 59 60 60 Appendix A.—Tables Appendix B.—Estimated total earnings of Cleveland women employees.- 65 81 TEXT TABLES 1.—Total earnings in working women's families for month preceding the interview, by size of family: Cleveland Utah 2.—Extent of schooling, by first regular job: Cleveland Utah 22 47 35 58 APPENDIX TABLES I.—Occupational distribution of employed women according to Women's Bureau survey of 1939 and Census of Occupations of 1930: Cleveland Utah II.—Percent distribution by age and marital status of women working or seeking work: Cleveland Utah III.—Present age of women workers by age at beginning work: Cleveland Utah 65 72 65 73 66 73 CONTENTS V Page IV.—Extent of schooling and age of women workers at time of beginning work: Cleveland Utah V.—Age of women earners, by their marital status and relationship to head of household: Cleveland Utah__ VI.—dumber of wage earners in the family, by size and type of family: Cleveland Utah VII.—Women earners' share in contributions to the family, by family relationship: Cleveland Utah VIII.—Contributions made by sons and daughters in families with both sons and daughters employed, by age group: Cleveland Utah IX.—Accomplishment of household tasks in families where wife or mother works and male head is present, by size of family: Cleveland Utah X.—Average monthly earnings of full-time women workers, by present occupation and by marital status: Cleveland Utah XI.—Employment of women who are or have been married: Cleveland Utah XII.—Breaks in employment of women who are or have been married: Cleveland Utah XIII.—Interruptions to married women's employment caused by childbirth: Cleveland Utah 66 74 67 74 68 76 69 75 70 77 70 77 71 78 71 79 72 79 72 79 CHARTS Number of families receiving specified contributions from women wage earners: I.—Cleveland III.—Utah Percent of women single, married, widowed, separated, or divorced with full-time earnings as specified in the month reported: II.—Cleveland IV.—Uta h 25 47 29 53 LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL U N I T E D STATES D E P A R T M E N T OF LABOR, WOMEN'S BUREAU, Washington, February 1, 1941. I have the honor to transmit a study of economic conditions in families one or more of whose women members are employed or seeking employment. This study throws into sharp relief the conditions which have brought women into the labor market in the last 25 years at different age periods and the factors that make for earnings opportunities for women whenever the need to work arises. The survey should serve to clarify public thinking with regard to the importance to the family of the woman worker and to end attempts to detach her from it. The survey was conducted under the general supervision of Bertha M. Nienburg, chief economist of the Women's Bureau. The field work was supervised by Ethel Best and Rebecca Smaltz. Miss Smaltz wrote the detailed reports on Cleveland and Utah. Respectfully submitted. M A R Y A N D E R S O N , Director. MADAM: H o n . FRANCES PERKINS, Secretary of Labor. VII WOMEN WORKERS IN THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT THE SITUATION Women are accepted as the buyers of the bulk of what the Nation's 33,000,000 families consume. That they are contributing, and have always contributed, an important part of the family producing and buying power is less widely known. Their value to the family in the days of home hand production for family consumption was obvious. When women as well as men had to go outside the home into the industrial and commercial world to make their contribution to family support, the prevailing attitudes concerning woman's sphere in society were slow to adjust to the economic forces carrying her into new work and into new workplaces. Today the public recognizes the widow's need to support herself and her children. It recognizes the adult single woman's need for self-support but does not acknowledge, in the scale of wages paid, her contributions to family support. The public still has to be convinced that married women have the right to work, that they may face an inescapable need to supplement and often supply the entire income, and that they can work without harm being done to the home and to the working standards of men and women wage earners. Young women today are uncertain as to what society expects of them. They do not know what preparation is essential to meet the demands life will make upon them. Clarification of the personal and family problems of women workers is deemed necessary, not only for the many individuals directly affected by beclouded concepts, by adverse action in denying to women education, training, and employment opportunities, but to permit the formulation of sound policies for the effective guidance of women themselves. Because a picture of personal and family demands can be obtained only by personal interview with the working woman herself, a study of such intimacy can include only a relatively small number of women. The numbers included in this study were chosen to give a cross section of the women who are at work at different ages, with varying marital status, and different occupations and earning power. Original plans called for a review of woman's situation in cities in eight parts of the country and in cities with different economic demands. The cost factor, however, did not permit the fulfillment of these plans. The study was completed in two communities, widely different in employment offered to women: The city of Cleveland, Ohio, whose industrial structure affords broad opportunities for women in commerce, manufacture, and all the professions and services, and the State of Utah, where an agricultural and mining economy limits women's opportunities chiefly to the professions and services found 1 2 WOMEN WORKERS IN THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT in every community. In Cleveland there are 100,000 women at work. In the whole State of Utah there are but 25,000 women at work. The women interviewed were so chosen that each age, each occupation,1 each marital status was represented in the proportion indicated by the 1930 census. The sample is truly indicative of the young, the middle-aged, and the older women, of those whose work history began in a period when economic conditions were vastly different from conditions in 1939 as well as of those whose work history extends only through the depressed economic period. It is indicative of women with extended and women with limited education, with high as well as low earning power. It includes women with long and uninterrupted work histories, with work histories just begun, women whose work history stopped at marriage, women whose work history began after marriage, and those whose work history was interrupted by marriage or child bearing. The economic forces at work in the past quarter century in these communities are recorded in the work histories of the 6,000 women who make up the sample. As the study includes only women at work or seeking work,2 the family picture is one of families with potential or actual women workers rather than a cross section of all families in the community. 1 Women employed in household service were not included because the problems of this group differ widely from those of other women workers. 2 In Cleveland some women are included who have worked but are not now seeking work. SALIENT FACTS OF SURVEY WHO ARE THE WOMEN WORKERS? There are many similarities as well as marked and minor differences in the status of women workers in the city of Cleveland and the State of Utah. Uniformity under such diverse economic and social conditions is indicative of similar conditions elsewhere; differences may or may not have general application. Age and Marital Status. Women of all ages work. However, in this study the majority are mature women, as in each community 68 or more in every 100 women workers are 25 years of age and older; in fact, 51 in every 100 are at least 30 years old and 25 in every 100 are 40 years and over Single women not only are the largest group of women workers but they are the largest proportion in each age group up to 40 years, where widowed, separated, or divorced women outnumber them. Naturally, the largest group of single women, almost one-half of all single women workers in both communities, are under 25 years. One-fourth or more of the women workers are married; while married women are found even in the youngest group, there is a distinct increase in the proportion of married women at work in each age group until 40 years is reached. Widows or other women with broken marital ties are concentrated in the groups of 40 years and older. Age at Beginning Work. Today's women workers began work at all ages. The largest number started at between 18 and 20 years, the second largest at between 16 and 18 years. While the proportion beginning work at other age periods decreases as age increases, 6 in every 100 women working today began work at 30 years of age or older, and almost 2 in every 100 began at 40 years or more. Economic and social changes in the last 20 years have extended the educational period of women and have raised the age at which girls begin work. In this study the women who began work before they were 16 did so largely before 1925, and half did so before 1920. About 72 in every 100 who began work between 16 and 18 and are still working began before 1929, and about 55 in every 100 who began work between 18 and 20 did so before 1929. Education. Beginning work at an early age is not necessarily linked with the termination of school attendance. In Cleveland, where 8 percent of today's women workers were not even graduated from the grammar grades, not far from half (43 percent) of these women did not go to work until 18 years of age or older, and a noticeable proportion not until after 25 years. However, the completion of recognized school levels does determine in both communities the age at which the larger 3 4 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT proportion begin work. More than half the girls ending school with grammar-school or eighth-grade graduation took their first job before they were 18. High-school graduates in Cleveland—three-fifths of them—began work at from 18 to 22 years of age, and that proportion in Utah began work at from 16 to 20 years. Again, college graduates began work at an earlier age in Utah than in Cleveland. In Utah about half the college graduates began work between 18 and 22 years of age, while in Cleveland 40 percent were 22 and under 25 years and a fourth were 20 and under 22 years old. More women workers in Utah than in Cleveland worked their way through high school and college, which probably is largely responsible for the greater proportion with high-school or college work. Ninetenths of the Utah women went beyond the eighth grade, four-fifths were graduated from high school, nearly two-fifths went beyond high school, and one-sixth were graduated from college. In Cleveland 8 percent did not complete the grammar grades, but three-fourths went beyond the eighth grade and two-fifths were graduated from high school; an eighth went beyond high school and 6 percent were graduated from college. Length of Work Experience. Because this picture is a cross-section view of women workers as they are found today, their work history is of various lengths and different continuities. About half the women have worked 10 years or more, with a fourth working at least 15 years. Between two-fifths and onehalf have uninterrupted occupational histories. With this proportion giving long or continuous service to industry, women cannot rightfully be refused positions of responsibility on the ground that their service to industry is too short in duration to warrant training. The causes of interrupted work histories are many. Among the women who are or have been married and who worked both before and after marriage, twice as many stopped at marriage as continued at work. About a fifth of the women who are now working stopped work because of childbirth. The large proportion who left work upon marriage came back as widows or divorced women. The length of time that married women are out of the labor market is dependent mainly on whether they come back as married women or as widows. Among the latter group the larger proportion have been out of the labor market for 10 years or more. Among those living with husbands more than half returned within the first 5 years of marriage. Because of the difficulty of securing permanent jobs in the last few years, it is interesting to find that 60 percent of the girls in Cleveland and 50 percent of those in Utah with under 5 years' experience have had continuous employment. Position in the Family. The standard household—that is, the household made up of father, mother, and children living intact without other relatives—does not prevail among the households from which women workers come. Rather it is the broken and the composite family in largest number that calls for their earnings. The family without a father, the family without a mother, the family with neither father nor mother, the family with relatives living with them—there are many different family relationships in the broken and composite households from which working women come. In these families the woman worker is SALIENT FACTS 5 daughter, daughter-in-law, sister, mother, wife, cousin, or aunt; in fact, her relationship to the head of the family is as varied as there are human relationships. In both Cleveland and Utah 35 percent of the families in which women workers live are such broken or composite families, as compared with approximately 30 percent who live in the normal family group without other relatives. In Utah about one-fifth of the women workers live outside their own family group, a proportion slightly larger than in Cleveland, probably because Utah rural women have to leave home to find a means of livelihood and because of the larger proportion of widows employed. The remainder, somewhat over 10 percent, are young married couples or older married couples with no child living at home at the time of this survey. In over half the mother-father-children families with and without relatives living with them, the young daughter is the woman at work. This is as expected, but it is surprising to find mothers at work from over two-fifths of Utah's families and from one-fourth of Cleveland's families in this group. The larger proportion of mothers in such families have one or two children and the wife and husband both work. The doubling up of families occurs in both communities; a seventh or more of all families with women workers have grandchildren, nieces, nephews, mothers, fathers, or other relatives, both adult and children, living with them. The woman earner in such families, when not the daughter or mother, usually is the daughter-in-law. The largest single group among broken families from which women workers come are families without a father. Here again the daughters are the women earners in over half the families. In Utah, the mothers are sole women earners in about three-tenths of the families without fathers, as compared to one-fifth in Cleveland, and mother and daughters are earners in nearly one-tenth of the fatherless families in both communities. Broken families with only the father and a daughter at work are relatively few. The single daughter living at home is numerically most important as an earner when all families are grouped, for from 3 to 4 in every 10 women have this status. Three-fourths of such daughters are under 30 years of age. In Utah the single women living apart from their families comprise 16 in every 100 women workers; the single woman is 30 years or older in 43 in every 100 cases, but is under 22 years in 22 of every 100 cases. The single woman adrift is a smaller part of Cleveland's group, or 13 in every 100 women workers, and she is more likely to be a mature woman. In both communities the married woman without children is a worker in over 10 of every 100 cases. In Utah similar proportions are under 25 years of age, 25 and under 30, and 30 and under 40, while 17 in every 100 are 40 years or more. In Cleveland the proportion in the oldest group and in the youngest group is the same, or about 17 percent, but in the middle groups it is over 30 percent. The married mother at work forms a larger group in Utah than in Cleveland. But in both communities 40 in every 100 are 40 years and older and 82 or more in every 100 are 30 years and older. In Utah, too, the widowed mother at work is more numerous than in Cleveland, comprising 9 percent compared to 5 percent. In both cities she is, in most cases, 40 years old or more. The widow or separated woman 6 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT living alone forms 5 percent of Utah's working women and 3 percent of Cleveland's group. Single sisters living with brothers or other sisters are 6 percent of Utah's and 4 percent of Cleveland's working women. These women are more frequently at the 30-years-and-older levels. Widowed working sisters also live with their brothers' or sisters' families. When other single women relatives live in the family group, they usually are in the youngest or the oldest group. WTiile married daughters and daughters-in-law living with parents are among women workers, their number is small. Widowed daughters and daughters with husbands temporarily absent are a larger, but not numerically an important, group. FAMILY NEEDS Members of Family and Earning Members. Two-fifths of the families in which working women live have 2 or 3 members, the proportion with 2 members being slightly the larger. Nearly one-tenth, however, have 5 or more members. Children of their own under 16 years of age are found in one-fifth of the Cleveland families and in over one-fourth of Utah's families. Three to four percent of the families have other children under 16 years living with them. Adult relatives live with 11 to 15 percent of all families. To a similar extent families have ill adults or entirely dependent elderly adults living with them. The family responsibilities extend beyond the home, too, since one-fifth of all Cleveland families and over onefourth of all Utah families make regular contributions to relatives living outside the household where the woman worker lives. When families of two or more members are considered alone, about 30 percent have children and from 13 percent to 18 percent have ill or dependent relatives living with them. The father-mother-children family with or without relatives carries the heaviest burdens. In Cleveland one-half have children under 16 years to support and over one-sixth have dependent adults; in Utah about two-thirds have young children and one-eighth have dependent adults. The number of wage earners in the family, however, increases with size of family. In Cleveland, when the family has 3 members, twice as many have 2 earners as have 1; in Utah also 2 earners are more frequent. With 4- and 5-family members, 2 wage earners are the rule. When the family expands to 6 and more members, many families have 3 wage earners. The earners in these families are father and daughter in 28 of every 100 cases. They are mother and father in a fourth of the Utah families, compared to but one-seventh of the Cleveland families. Father, daughter, and son carry the financial burden in about one-eighth of the families. Daughters only are the wage earners in one-tenth of Cleveland's and one-twelfth of Utah's families. The mother alone works in 5 percent of the families. In the same proportion a family member and relatives work, but few families are supported by relatives alone. A fourth of the Cleveland mothers left without husbands have children under 16 years, and an additional 5 percent have other children living with them, making about three-tenths with that responsibility in Cleveland. In Utah 36 in every 100 families without fathers have own children under 16 years and 2 percent have others' SALIENT FACTS 7 children. To add to their responsibilities a fourth of these fatherless families have dependent adults living with them. Here, too, the number of earners increases with size of family. However, until the family reaches 5 members, the number of wage earners is less in the mother-and-child families than in the father-mother-and-children families. In about two-fifths of the families the burden is carried by a daughter or daughters only. In Utah 32 of every 100 such families have a mother worker only, in Cleveland this proportion is but 18 in every 100. In Cleveland both daughter and son work in about 18 of every 100 families, while in Utah only 8 in every 100 have son and daughter workers. Mother and daughter work in less than a tenth of the families. The Cleveland father-and-children families with a woman worker usually have 3 or 4 members; in Utah there are very few such families reported. There are children under 16 in a few of these Cleveland families, some of whom are grandchildren. In most of these families daughters only, father and daughter, or father, son, and daughter are the earners. The brother-and-sister or sisters-only family usually is a 2- or 3-person family. The children under 16 in these families are sisters or brothers; in Cleveland less than 5, in Utah about 9, in every 100 families have dependent children. The burden of adult relatives living with them is greater, or from 10 to 15 percent. In families where both brother and sister are employed, the proportion making contributions to family members living elsewhere is one-fourth in Cleveland and nearly two-fifths in Utah. Over three-fourths of the husband-and-wife families have only 2 members. From 8 to 12 of every 100 families have dependent relatives living with them. However, it is the husband-and-wife families, more frequently than other groups, that make regular contributions to relatives not living with them. This appears in over one-third of Cleveland's and in over two-fifths of Utah's husband-and-wife families. In 13 of every 100 families the wife only works, in 8 of every 100 a family member and some other relative works, while in the remainder both husband and wife work, in both communities. Women who live apart from their families are the only ones who contribute to distant relatives as consistently as do husband-and-wife families. About 3 in every 8 women send money regularly to their families. Financial Conditions. Almost four-fifths of all families live on earnings only. In Utah, the other families are farming families, the value of their produce not calculated. Families with income other than earnings are about equally divided between those who have some return from invested capital and those who are using up savings or receiving funds from relatives or relief agencies. Considered by size, datrnings of families with other sources of income are materially less than earnings of those dependent on earnings only. In Cleveland the total earnings of all members of the family group for the month preceding the interview average $168.55. About three-tenths of the families show less than $100 in earnings that month, over half show less than $150. These are the combined earnings of all family members, not all of which are contributed to the family purse. 8 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT In Utah, the earnings of all families average $149.75 for the month preceding the interview; 35 of every 100 families have combined earnings of less than $100, about 60 of every 100 earn less than $150. The general trend is for family earnings to increase as size of family increases. In both communities, in 2- and 3-person families about three-tenths have under $100, compared with one-tenth in the 7-ormore-person families. The group that has the smallest income is the family without a father. In Cleveland the mother-and-one-child family averages $108.90 a month, the mother-and-2-children family $132.80. In Utah the mother-and-child family has $104.05, the mother-and-2children family $134.70. The family earnings are lowest when the mother or wife is the sole earner. In Cleveland these women average but $78 for their families, in Utah $85. When women are seeking work and the father, husband, or son is the sole worker at the time, average earnings are between $86.40 and $93.85. Women living apart from families earn the next smallest average, and daughters living at home come next. The families that have only a woman earner are those with least to draw upon, regardless of the status of the woman in the family. Wlien the mother has the assistance of a son or daughter, the combined earnings are lower than in other 2-earner households; when she has the assistance of both a son and a daughter, the combined earnings are lower than in other 3-earner households. Among the 2-earner families, earnings are highest when a daughter and father work. In both communities, their average earnings exceed $200 a month, though husband and wife, brother and sister, or son and daughter do not reach this amount. Brother-and-sister families reported earn $160 in Utah and $194 in Cleveland. Families whose 2 earners are son and daughter earn $138 in Utah and $174 in Cleveland, and those whose 2 earners are husband and wife earn $184 in Utah and $197 in Cleveland. The father-and-l-daughter average is $212 in Utah and $217 in Cleveland. That the woman is the weaker economic link is obvious. That she is weakest when she is also a mother in the family and stronger when she is a sister also is true. CONTRIBUTIONS TO FAMILY SUPPORT The earnings reported represent the total amount that the various members of the family earn. Contributions indicate the amount they turn into the family coffers for the use of the manager of the household after deducting money for their own needs. When the earner is the mother or wife, the father or husband, 90 percent or more of the earnings are considered joint funds for use of the family. Wlien a daughter or daughters earn with the father or mother, 75 percent in Utah and 76 to 80 percent in Cleveland become family funds, but if a son or sons earn with father or mother, the combined amount turned over to the family is 68 percent in Utah and 74 to 77 percent in Cleveland, and it drops still lower as sons and daughters take the place of either parent in the earning ranks. In the families with lowest earnings, 75 percent or more of the total generally is contributed to the family regardless of who the earners are. It is when the combined earnings reach $200 that sons and daughters keep a larger proportion of their earnings for themselves. SALIENT FACTS 9 What Part Are Women's Earnings in Family Income? When women are the sole earners, all the earnings are pooled except in a few families in which each married daughter carries her own support while her parents have other sources of income. While the lower earning power of women makes their possible contribution smaller than men's, nevertheless it is of significant importance in many of the families with men earners. When the wife or mother works, as well as the husband or father, in 60 percent or more of the families the woman's contributions form a fourth to a half of the total contributions. In Cleveland, when daughters and fathers work, about 50 percent of the daughters give under 25 percent of the total contributions, and a third give from 25 percent to 50 percent of the contributions; the corresponding figures for Utah are over 80 percent and 13 percent. When daughters and sons are earners, half the daughters ill Cleveland give 50L percent to 75 percent of the amounts contributed to the family. With daughters, sons, and fathers all employed, nearly three-fourths of the daughters contribute less than 25 percent. Daughters turn over a much larger share of their earnings to their families than sons do. In Cleveland families, when the proportion of daughters contributing all their earnings is compared with the proportion of sons so doing, one-fifth of the daughters as against oneseventh of the sons in the same families contribute all they earn, and twice the proportion of boys as of girls contribute nothing. Among Cleveland daughters 30 years of age and over, 17 percent contribute all their earnings to their families, whereas among Cleveland sons 30 years and older only 6 percent turn all earnings in to the family coffers. When sons and daughters are under 21 years, about a third of the girls compared to a fourth of the boys turn over all earnings. In Utah the families with both sons and daughters reporting are relatively few. Here 22 percent of the girls and 29 percent of the boys contribute less than 25 percent of their earnings, and less than 12 percent, chiefly young sons and daughters, contribute to the family as much as 75 percent of what they earn. CARE OF CHILDREN AND HOME IN HOUSEHOLDS WITH EMPLOYED WIVES When wife or mother goes to work away from home, who carries on the daily household tasks? In both Cleveland and Utah most of the families included in this survey live in single and multiple family houses, rather than in apartments. Yet in about one-fourth of the families the wife or mother earner does all the family work. This is true even of families with several members. In 2 of every 10 Utah families and in more than 3 of every 10 Cleveland families there are other members of the family who help the homemaker. In only a very small proportion of the families is there an adult who lifts all the burden of the household from the wife or mother earner. A paid full-time household employee is a rarity. In Cleveland and Utah, respectively, part-time aid is employed by 37 and by 49 in every 100 families reporting. This help is chiefly for laundry work, in many cases the wash being sent to a power laundry. Few have part-time house-cleaning service or have the meals prepared. And very few families eat their meals away from home, —2 10 W O M E N WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT Though some service is had by 55 in every 100 Utah and 40 in every 100 Cleveland employed homemakers, when laundry service is excepted the household tasks still are primarily the concern of the wife or mother. In roughly two-thirds of the Utah families she has, to ease the burden, a gas or electric cook stove, a mechanical refrigerator, a vacuum cleaner, an electric washer, and a telephone. One-sixth of the Utah families and nearly one-tenth of the Cleveland families have working mothers with children under 12 years of age. The Utah children are under 6 years of age in 6 percent of the families and are 6 and under 12 years in 13 percent. In Cleveland the proportions are much smaller, as only 4 percent are under 6 years of age and 6 percent are 6 and under 12. Children of preschool age usually are cared for by an adult relative or a paid helper. In only a few of the families are children sent to day nurseries or nursery schools. In such places the average charge is $1.08 a week in Utah and $2.96 a week in Cleveland. In other cases working mothers who are heads of families board young children with relatives or friends. Children of school age but under 12 years usually take themselves to and from school. In a few families the mother gets them ready for school, in others they get themselves ready or relatives do it. In the majority of families these school children have lunch at home, and in most cases a hot lunch. This is prepared by the working mother in about one-fourth of the cases; in others by another relative or a paid helper. Children so young prepare their own lunches in a few families and buy their lunches at school in a few other cases. IN WHAT POSITION ARE WOMEN TO MEET THESE NEEDS? Work Available. The positions open to women in Cleveland and Utah vary little in kind but do vary in extent. Manufacturing operations, extensive in Cleveland, give employment to over one-fifth of the women in that city compared to only one-tenth of those in Utah. These operations and the large commercial undertakings in Cleveland make clerical pursuits the outstanding field for women in Cleveland, giving employment to 28 of every 100 women. In Utah greatest opportunity lies in the professions, though clerical pursuits are a close second. Larger proportions of women in Utah than in Cleveland must find employment in trade or in personal and domestic services, largely because these fields offer by far the greatest number of openings in the smaller towns. In both sections of the country the proportion of women having their own businesses or acting as executives of other businesses is relatively small. Women in Utah reported two occupational groups not named by Cleveland women, picking turkeys and candling eggs, and landscape architecture. This does not mean that there are no such openings in Cleveland, but that no person engaged in these pursuits is included in the survey. Other occupations are found in both communities. The largest groups of women in clerical positions are general clerks, stenographers, typists, secretaries, bookkeepers, and office-appliance operators, with a few office managers or assistants. WTiile school teachers, nurses and nurse supervisors or teachers, social workers, and librarians rank highest in numbers represented in the professions, SALIENT FACTS 11 there are found also such occupations as lawyer, architect, photographer, dietitian. There is also a group made up of assistants to doctors and dentists, assistants in laboratories, and in libraries. Managers and executives usually are in stores, restaurants, or offices. The independent business group operates beauty shops, lunchrooms, apparel stores, florist shops, and other kinds of store. Women in domestic and personal service are employed in largest numbers in laundries and dry-cleaning establishments, beauty parlors, and hotels and restaurants. Others are caterers, matrons, custodians, apartment and boarding-house managers; or they may be charwomen, or practical nurses. Household employees are excluded from the study. Some girls and women included are in N. Y. A. or W. P. A. jobs. Extent of Employment. Not all women have full-time employment. While some absence is due to personal reasons, the custom of retail stores to employ extra women for the busy days or hours brought short-time work to over one-third of Cleveland's store workers in the month studied. About one-fifth of Cleveland's factory workers and of the domestic and personal service workers reported short time; and the earnings of part-time workers are far below those of full-time workers. The hours in which interviewing was done in Utah stores reduced the number of part-time workers below the proportion known to be employed. Monthly Earnings. In both Cleveland and Utah, teaching affords women the best opportunity to earn; the average earnings of teachers interviewed in Cleveland are $178.80, in Utah $121.90. This is followed in point of salary by the miscellaneous professional group, including librarians and social workers. Secretarial work ranks third in both communities, yielding $113.25 in Utah and $110.60 in Cleveland. Nursing follows, averaging $103.15 and $105.40 in the two areas. The only other occupational group averaging $100 or more a month comprises the miscellaneous clerical workers in Utah, which includes officeappliance operators, office managers, and others. In both communities earnings average between $75 and $100 a month for bookkeepers, cashiers, stenographers, typists, general clerks, and telephone and telegraph operators. In Utah, store workers average $65.25, but in Cleveland their average is $56. Cleveland women working full time in stores average $71 a month; when parttime workers are included, all store women average only $56. Factory workers in Cleveland average $72.30, while Utah factory workers average $62.20. Beauty-parlor workers in Utah average $69.75, those in Cleveland $66.80. In neither community do any of the workers in domestic and personal service average more than $70. In Cleveland hotels and restaurants the earnings of full-time workers average $60, all workers $55.40. In Utah, laundry and dry-cleaning operators average $55.75, and workers in hotels and restaurants and other domestic service $47.35. When part-time workers are eliminated from the latter group, earnings average $51. It would appear that among saleswomen, hotel and restaurant workers, and laundry and dry-cleaning operators, the average earnings 12 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT are close to the minimum permitted by law in the case of establishments engaged in interstate commerce. Schooling in Relation to Earning Power. The type of job secured when a woman seeks work usually is related directly to the extent of her formal schooling. Though a larger proportion of Utah women workers than of Cleveland women have higher education, there is the same general relation between first job and schooling. Exceptions are found, but they are exceptions. Women who did not finish the eighth grade began work in domestic and personal service or in factories. With grammar-school graduation there is some spread into trade, and into telephone and telegraph and clerical occupations. But the three services calling for least education employ the largest proportion of women until the tenth grade in Cleveland, and high school graduation in Utah, is attained. The openings shift to clerical for the high-school graduate and the girl with additional occupational training, and shift to professional after normal school, college, or high-school and special professional training. The job held at the time of the survey also is closely tied to extent of schooling. Practically all teachers are normal school or college graduates. In over four-fifths of the cases, social workers and other professional women are college graduates or attended college and had special professional training. Nurses are college graduates in 6 percent and 11 percent of the instances in Cleveland and Utah, while by far the larger proportion had high-school education and all had special nurses' training. Seventy percent of the women who are secretaries in Cleveland have high-school education and some special occupational study. In both areas a smaller but prevailing proportion of employees in other clerical capacities are high-school graduates with additional occupational training. Most of the telephone and telegraph operators are high-school graduates and a number had special training. In Cleveland stores, half the women attended high school and some had special training. In Utah 21 percent of the store employees attended, and some were graduated from, college. In personal and domestic service, only a relatively small percent had any special training, though a large proportion attended high school. As the kind of work determines the size of the pay envelope to a large extent, education is basic to women's earnings. Experience and Earnings. Once the full-time job has been obtained, experience leads to advancement. Among the general clerical group in Cleveland, girls with less than 5 years of experience have median earnings of $75, those with 5 and under 10 years $89, and those with 10 years and more of experience $117. Among teachers the step up is graduated. Cleveland nurses with under 5 years of work average $100, those with 5 years' experience earn $129, and those with 10 or more years' experience $134. In Cleveland stores the more experienced full-time women workers have a median of $71, the least experienced $63; in Utah the difference is $71 to $61 among saleswomen. In factories experience after the fifth year is not of additional earnings value. In Cleveland factory girls with less than 5 years' experience have a median of $75, those with 5 and under 10 years' experience $81, and SALIENT FACTS 13 those with 10 or more years' experience $79.50. In Utah the least experienced group have a median of $62, and those with 10 or more years of experience $64. In domestic and personal service, while advancement is possible with experience, only a few attain the better paying positions. Earning Power and Marital Status. Marital status and earning power are not related directly, except as public or private officials restrict the employment of women because of marriage. As the single women in this survey are a younger group, with better educational background than the married women or widows, they are employed in larger number in occupations with higher earnings. However, when the married woman or the widow is employed in the same occupations as the single woman, she averages more in earnings, probably because of her longer experience. I t would seem, therefore, that if marriage is deferred until education is completed, it is no deterrent in the matter of earnings except as social misconceptions set up artificial hindrances. IN CONCLUSION The extent to which the results of this study are typical of the family environment of all wage-earning women lends signal importance to certain facts developed by the survey. Such facts have a direct bearing on the current controversy over women workers as a factor in the Nation's employment problem. Among the facts developed are these: 1. The family environment of three-fifths of the women earners is distinctly not that envisioned by the public as "the normal American family"—father, mother, sons, and daughters. The households to which these women workers belong are made up of families once normal but now broken by misfortune or shredded by the normal processes that run the accustomed span of family life. Homes without fathers, or with disabled or aged fathers and husbands; homes without either parent; homes to which married son or daughter, or sister or brother and their children, or father and mother have come when their own homes have collided with misfortune or disaster; homes whose duties for mother and homemaker are over—such is the family environment of the majority of wage-earning women. 2. While the mother, the wife, the sisters, are drawn into the ranks of earners, numerically speaking the unmarried daughter is the most important woman earner whether the family be a normal family or a broken and composite one. 3. Unmarried daughters may be the sole support in normal as well as broken families, or they may have the sustaining advantage in a normal family of a father who carries the chief responsibility for family support. Even so, very few daughters keep their entire earnings, no matter how limited, for their own use. In families with unmarried sons and daughters, daughters supply more of the family supporting income than sons supply, though earning less than their brothers earn. 4. The employment of married women is occasioned both by the low annual earning power of the husband, because of irregularity 23 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT or uncertainty of employment, and by demands of relatives for financial assistance. The majority of married women seek employment after experience has demonstrated the family need of their earnings; in about a third of the families the wife's or mother's earnings comprise one-half or more of all contributions to the family, and in a larger proportion of families they form from a fourth to a half of all contributions. The joint earnings of husband and wife are lower than joint earnings in families in which the two earners are father and daughter. 5. The social significance of married women's employment is minimized by the fact that the majority are not employed during the period of child bearing and child care. 6. Widowhood brings women into the labor market, usually after many years of homemaking. Though many widows have the responsibility for children or for dependent adults, their families have the lowest income, no matter whether the woman is the sole earner or has the assistance of daughter or son. 7. Regardless of marital status, the wages of working women are not casual nor supplemental sources of family support. They are supporting pillars in the homes in which such earnings are found. 8. The home without an able-bodied man earner is handicapped because women's earnings generally are lower than men's. 9. Denying employment to married women in teaching, nursing, or clerical positions closes to them the positions paying the highest wages to women. Once the position has been obtained, experience leads to advancement regardless of marital status. 10. Women are drawn into the ranks of earners at all ages by the exigencies of life. All must be prepared through their formal education to support families as well as themselves. 11. Women must be prepared also to carry on household tasks, for the very circumstances that bring them into the labor market after marriage prevent the employment of full-time services to care for the home. 12. The long working life of many women and the stability of employment of others with a short earnings span warrant the preparation of women for positions of responsibility both by schools and by employers. CLEVELAND WOMEN WORKERS IN THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Cleveland women breadwinners earn about $96,000,000 annually. Their earnings comprise nearly one-fifth of the earned income of all the city's workers. While this is a smaller proportion than women's numerical representation in the ranks of labor, it is a very important contribution to the city's producing and buying power. The largest sum is earned by women employed in offices of all kinds, the second largest results from factory production. Women teachers, nurses, social workers, librarians, and other employed professional workers are estimated to earn about $18,000,000, while saleswomen and others in trade, and the thousands employed in personal and domestic service, which includes such large groups as hotels, restaurants, laundries, and so forth, add millions to the total sum of women's earnings.1 The value of the contribution of Cleveland's 100,000 women workers in production and services to the community, and the importance of their $96,000,000 resultant buying power to community prosperity, are obvious. Does the family benefit by these earnings or do they represent the measure of support women earn for their own care? The purpose of the study was to report the family economic environment in which Cleveland's working women live; to indicate the part their earnings are of family income, and what other responsibilities they share; to distinguish the load carried by the younger daughter, the older daughter, the mother, the wife, or other women relatives as a group, from the load carried by men members of the household. And having pictured the family conditions, to learn by what education and through what experience Cleveland women have attained their present positions and earning power. THE WOMEN WORKERS The Sample. Answers to the questions raised could be obtained only from individual working women themselves, and from a cross-section sample of women workers, since obviously not all Cleveland's employed women could be interviewed. At the request of Cleveland social agencies, home visiting was done in each census tract of the city, with interviews obtained only in those families where some woman member or members were employed or were seeking employment. After 4 percent of the families in each tract had been visited, this method of reaching the women was found to be too costly for the number of schedules obtained, and it was superseded by visits to factories, stores, offices, hotels, hospitals, restaurants, and other places of employment, and by group meetings, where considerable numbers of workers could be interi For bases of estimates, see appendix B. 15 16 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT viewed. A constant check was kept on the occupational representation, using that as a basis of selection in visiting places of employment. A large proportion of all the interviews secured were obtained in the home visits. The sample includes a proportional representation of every major occupational group except domestic workers in private homes, omitted because living conditions and earnings are on a distinctly different basis from those of women in organized industry. The representation of each occupational group is in nearly the same proportions as shown in the 1930 Census of Occupations for Cleveland. At the time of making this survey, only the 1930 Census of Population was available to check the representativeness of the sample as to marital status and age. As it is believed the proportions of older women and of married women employed have increased since 1930, a somewhat larger sample of married women and of older women was expected than was indicated by the 1930 figures. However, the proportion of married women workers in the sample is fairly comparable to that of the census. In the matter of age, conditions had changed. Since 20 percent of the women in the sample, compared to 15 percent in the 1930 census, are 25 and under 30 years of age, and 26 percent in the sample, compared to 22 percent in the census, are 30 and under 40 years and are 40 years and over, the sample shows a much smaller percentage at 16 and under 25 years, the figures being 41 percent for the census and 29 percent for the sample. This smaller proportion of younger women workers may be due to the fact that young people have been most generally affected by unemployment in recent years. Histories of 4,533 women were obtained. There are in the sample 3,184 women working, 491 seeking work, and 858 who worked in the past but are not now seeking employment. The women at work or seeking work represent 2,921 families, of which 556 are 1-person families. The sample is about 5 percent of the number of employed women in Cleveland as shown in the 1930 census when the large group of domestic workers in private homes and the few women employed in agriculture and the extraction of minerals are excluded. (See appendix table I, p. 65.) Age and Marital Status. Slightly less than three-fourths (71 percent) of the single women included in the survey are under 30 years of age. Just over three-fifths (61 percent) of the married women are 30 and over, and well over half (56 percent) of those widowed, separated, or divorced are 40 or more. Except for an insignificant number of those with broken marital ties and a minor proportion of the married women, the girls at work under 22 years and those 22 and under 25 years are single. Between 25 and 30 years the number of married women at work increases greatly and from 30 to 40 years it is almost four-fifths the number of single women. (See appendix table II, p. 65.) Age at Beginning Work. Naturally, the employment of these women began under various economic and social conditions. Those who started work before they were 16 are chiefly among the women who today are 30 years of age or older; only 5 percent of the girls who are now under 22 years of age began to work before they were 16. Well over two-fifths of those who began work between the ages of 16 and 18 are among the women now CLEVELAND WOMEN WORKERS 17 30 years old or more, and only a sixth are among the group now less than 22. The largest group began work between 18 and 20; this is especially true of women who entered employment in the last 10 years. About 1 woman in 10 in Cleveland entered on her first job when she was 25 years of age or older; a few women, less than 2 percent of the total, began at 40 years and over. (See appendix Table III, p . 66.) In general, the ages at which these women began to work correspond to the grades at which they left school; more than half (55 percent) of the 4,119 women reporting had finished the tenth, eleventh, or twelfth (high school) grades, and nearly as many (52 percent) went to work at 16 and under 20 years of age. The greater the amount of formal education, the older the women before going to work. For example, two-fifths of the college graduates were 22 and under 25 when they began work, whereas about three-tenths of those whose schooling ended with the eighth grade or less were under 16 at the time of their first job. Between these extremes, practically two-fifths of those who attended but did not finish high school went to work at 16 and under 18 years, just over two-fifths of the high-school graduates began work at 18 and under 20, and over a third of those who attended but did not finish college began their employment at 20 and under 22, as did those who went to normal school. Among those with European schooling only, and those with less than sixth-grade education, are found the most striking variations from the general correlation between schooling and age at going to work. Here are found the highest proportions of those who went to work comparatively late in life. One-sixth of the group first named began work at 30 and under 40 years of age, about 1 in 7 of them at 40 or older. Of those who did not finish the sixth grade, about oneseventh went to work at 30 and under 40. In the proportion of women entering employment at 40 or older, the women with eighth-grade schooling or less rank second to, but far below, those with European schooling only; 13% percent of the latter, compared to only 3% percent of the former and less than 1 percent of any other group, began work at 40 years or older. Those having special occupational training are found chiefly among the high-school graduates and those who went to college. Such training did not delay entry into the business world to any great extent, though in most cases a smaller proportion of specially trained women than of those without training went to work before they were 18, and for the most part a larger proportion began at 18 and under 25. (See appendix table IV, p. 66.) Length of Work Experience. More than 3,000 women reported on their employment history, including the length of time they have been employed. Two-thirds of them have been working for at/least 5 years, almost one-fourth for 15 or more years, and 11 percent for 20 years or longer. This is the total amount of employment; it may have been continuous or interrupted, in one type of occupation or in several. As a matter of fact, for 2 in 3 of all the women their entire experience has been in one type of work; one-half of them actually have been employed continuously in the same kind of work without a break in employment of as long as 3 months at any one time, Of these having continuous employ- 18 WOMEN WORKERS IN THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT ment in the same type of work the largest single group, nearly twofifths, have been employed less than 5 years, but practically a fifth have had continuous experience in the same line of work for 15 years or longer, one-tenth for 20 years or more. A third of all the women have not stayed in one type of work but have been in two or more unrelated occupations. Just over a fifth of those now in clerical occupations have done other kinds of work, as have a fourth of those now in professional occupations. The women in these two groups have done the least shifting from other types of work. A little less than two-fifths of the women now in factories or in stores, well over two-fifths of those in the domestic and personal service group, and half of those now in transportation or communication positions have tried other lines of work. The proportion of those who shifted from other kinds of work is highest of all in the miscellaneous group, which includes those now running their own businesses as well as those in public service such as N. Y. A. or W. P. A. jobs. Position in the Family. Four in every 10 Cleveland women at work are unmarried daughters living with one or both parents. A little more than half of these daughters are under 25 years of age, but slightly more than a fifth are 30 or older. One in every 8 Cleveland women workers are single women living away from their families. In this group are the more mature women, for over half are 30 or older; only 1 in 16 are under 22. One in every 7 of the Cleveland^ women workers are wives living with husbands but with no children in the household. Nearly two-thirds of these working wives are 25 and under 40 years old. Working mothers, who constitute not quite a tenth of all the women workers, are an older group, two-fifths of them being 40 or more, a similar proportion being 30 and under 40. Widowed mothers living with children comprise 5 percent of the women workers, and widows living apart from relatives comprise 3 percent. Both these groups are chiefly women 40 years of age or older. The unmarried sister living in her brother's or sister's family constitutes 4 percent of the total; in most cases she is at least 30 years of a e g Women having other relationship to the family comprise less than a tenth of the total. These women are daughters, married or with broken marital ties; daughters-in-law; married, widowed, separated, or divorced sisters; sisters-in-law; or any one of a variety of other relatives. (See appendix table V, p. 67.) THE FAMILIES OF WOMEN WORKERS The 2,921 households surveyed reflect fairly well the 1930 census figures showing distribution of Cleveland families according to size. Nineteen percent are 1-person families,2 22 percent are 2-person families, 19 percent are 3-person, 16 percent have 4 members, 10 percent 5 members, and 13 percent 6 or more members. Obviously, the fact that the study deals only with women workers and their families necessitates caution in making comparisons. 2 In the 1930 census most of the 1-person families represent persons living alone, but in this survey women living alone include those sharing living quarters with a friend or friends rather than with relatives. CLEVELAND W O M E N WORKERS 19 Composition of the Families. Less than a third of the Cleveland families are of the type commonly regarded as a "standard" or "normal" family with father, mother, and children and no other relatives. Nearly two-fifths of the "normal" families with children under 16 years of age have three or more such children living at home. About a seventh (14 percent) of all the households are composed of husbands and wives with no children and no relatives living with them. Almost a fifth are employed women living alone. This leaves well over a third of the families that might be designated as "composite" or "broken" families, having relatives other than their own children living with them, families composed of various degrees of relationship, families lacking one or the other parent. Over one-fifth of the husband-and-wife families, for example, have relatives living with them. There are many families where one or both elderly parents live with a married son or daughter, and on the other hand families whose young married sons or daughters have brought their spouses home to live, or families where divorced or separated children have come home with their young ones. Nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, and cousins all are to be found in this large group of composite families. The following summary shows the type of family covered by the survey: All families—Number Percent Type of family 1 2, 921 100. 0 Percent 1-person families Father, mother, own children Husband and wife 19. 0 31. 6 13. 8 Broken and composite families 35. 6 Mother and own children Father and own children Sister and brother Husband, wife, and relatives Father, mother, own children, and relatives Mother, own children, and relatives Father, own children, and relatives Sister, brother, and relatives Other relatives 14. 3 1. 4 2. 4 3. 9 8. 6 3. 4 .5 .3 .7 i Own children m a y be under 16, or adults, or both; relatives m a y be adults, or children, or both; sisterand-brother families may be sisters only. Responsibilities of These Families. What are some of the responsibilities of these families? Eighteen percent of the 2,365 families of 2 or more persons have ill or entirely dependent adults. Thirty-three percent have children under 16 years of age. In the matter of contributions to persons not living in the household, in which the 1-person families undoubtedly have an important part, the proportion making such contribution, and based on the total 2,921 households visited, is one-fifth. The families reporting assist an average of 1.67 persons, not taking into account the giving of outside assistance to relatives or friends in numerous ways other than financial. 2 0 WOMEN WORKERS IN THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT Family Breadwinners. Who are the workers in these families? In the 2,315 3 families of 2 or more persons, well over half of all the earners are women. (See appendix table VI, p. 68.) According to unpublished data, in nearly three-tenths of such families women are the only earners, and in most of them one woman is carrying the total responsibility. To show the picture in another way, over onefourth of these families have only 1 wage earner, and in three-fourths of the cases the wage earner is a woman. In families with 2 wage earners, which constitute about half of all families having more than 1 member, men and women usually share the responsibility. In the 3-wage-earner families, constituting about 16 percent of the families under consideration, men and women are the earners in fairly equal numbers, though the total for women is a little the larger (584 women to 529 men earners). In families with 4 wage earners women again exceed the men (219 to 177), but in the small group of families having from 5 to 7 earners the men workers exceed the women in each instance, though by small numbers. What Positions Do Breadwinning Women Hold in the Family? Women earners are numerically important in these families. They are wives or mothers in about a third of the families reporting on earners; in nearly one-tenth of the families the wife or mother is the only earner. They are daughters or daughters-in-law in over twofifths of the reporting families, and in 14 percent these daughters or daughters-in-law are the only earners. A small group of families, 4 percent of the total reporting, have both mothers and daughters as earners. Somewhat less than a tenth of the families have no women earners, though in all these there are women seeking work. In the rest of the families, less than a tenth of the total, the women earners are sisters, nieces, cousins, or some relative other than wife, mother, daughter, or daughter-in-law. Family Income. Why are these women working? Why especially should these wives and mothers be employed outside their homes? Part of the answer to these questions has been given or implied in the description of the families of these women. The facts are that over a third of the families are of the kind where doubling up has taken place or where one or both of the parents are absent, that a considerable number of families have dependent adults or children within the family group, and that many have dependents or partial dependents outside the group. An examination of the family earnings may throw further light on why women in these families are working. Of the 2,365 families of 2 or more persons, 2,206 reported on earnings. Information in regard to family earnings was obtained for the month preceding the interview, a specific period so recent as to insure accuracy and wide coverage. No attempt was made to obtain yearly earnings of family members; and in view of the effect of seasonal and irregular employment on year's earnings, no estimate of family income 3 Excludes 47 families with no wage earners and 3 not reporting the number of wage earners. CLEVELAND WOMEN WORKERS 21 can be computed from these monthly figures. It should be noted also that families in which the male breadwinners are employed on relief projects, with incomes in the lower brackets, are not represented to any extent, as customarily work relief is not allotted to those who have other members of their families, such as wives and daughters, regularly employed. The month's earnings of these families range from an average of $155 for families of 2 members to $259 for families of 7 or more. (See table 1.) In addition to these families with earnings, there are a number—2 percent of the total—that had no earnings in the month preceding the interview.4 These families are omitted from the discussion that follows, as no tabulation has been made of supplements or income other than earnings. Of the families that reported on their earnings for the month preceding the interview, 9 percent had other income in the nature of annuities, dividends, interest, or rent, though rent usually is low or even minus after house upkeep is deducted. A few families that receive rent find it necessary to accept aid from relatives or friends. Eight percent of the families had their earnings in the month supplemented by relief, aid from relatives or friends, unemployment insurance, oldage assistance, pensions, workmen's compensation payments, savings— that is, by others than women. The 2-person families with average monthly earnings of $155 are weighted by those composed of husband and wife, which constitute three-fifths of all such families and have average earnings of $174. Mothers with one child 6 comprise the next largest group, over onefourth of the 2-member families. The average earnings of this group, $109, are predominantly women's earnings and usually represent the earnings of one person. The total husband-and-wife families average 1.7 workers to a family, while the mother-and-child families average only 1.1 workers to a family. Sister-and-brother families, which, like the husband-and-wife families, average 1.7 workers, have the highest average earnings of all 2-member families—$180. The majority of these families are composed of sisters only. However, these sisterand-brother families constitute only 6 percent of all the 2-member families that reported on their earnings. Slightly less than threetenths of all 2-person families earned under $100 in the month, this group being weighted by the mother-and-child families. Over half of all the 2-person families earned less than $150 for the month reported. The month's earnings of families of three members average $165. A little less than three-tenths of these have earnings below $100; over one-half earn less than $150. Families of four members and of five members have earnings that average almost the same amount, $195 and $196, respectively. A little over one-fifth of the 4-person families and nearly one-fifth of the 5-person families earn less than $100, while nearly two-fifths of each earn less than $150. Even in the families of six members and those of seven or more, a surprising proportion have less than $100 a month on which to live— nearly a seventh of the 6-member families and a tenth of those with seven or more members. Three-tenths of the 6-person families and 4 Of these 47 families that had no earnings, 16 had 4 or more members, fi "Child" may be an adult. WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY 22 ENVIRONMENT a fifth of the families larger than this earn less than $150. The average monthly family earnings of these two groups are $221 and $259, respectively. The families comprising the 17 percent of the total that have some kind of supplement or addition to their earnings average considerably less in earnings than the group not having such supplements. Average monthly earnings range from $120 for families of three persons to $236 for families of seven or more. The average earnings of families of two members exceed those of the 3-member families by more than $3 a month, and the average monthly earnings of the 5member families are lower than those of the 4-member families— $154 compared to $155. These figures are not illogical, however, when it is remembered that they do not include the supplements or additional income and that in this group unemployment or partial employment of earners is the predominant characteristic. Taken as a whole, the earnings figures of these families leave no room for doubt that economic need is the basic reason that their women members work outside the home. TABLE 1.— Total earnings in working women's families for month preceding the interview, by size of family—CLEVELAND All families reporting earnings Size of family Number Average of fam- earnings ilies for month Percent earning less than— $100 All families 2, 723 1 person 2 persons 3 persons 4 persons 5 persons 6 persons 7 or more persons. 517 620 533 432 279 161 181 103 155 165 195 196 221 259 Income in Families With Employed Married Women. Criticism of the employment of women is leveled most frequently at married women, on the grounds that their husbands' earnings are sufficient and that they should yield their jobs to other women or to men. I t so happens in this survey that families composed of sisters or sisters and brothers having two or three members have higher average earnings than any other type of 2- or 3-person families; in fact, except for six families—three of seven or more persons each and three of five persons each—the sister-and-brother families of three members have the highest average monthly earnings of any and all groups. Of all families of three members, those in which all members are employed are to be found most in the sister-and-brother families, not far from one-half of such families compared to about one-eighth in the father-and-children families, one-tenth in the husband-wifeand-relative families, 6 percent in the mother-and-children families, and 2 percent in father-mother-and-child families.6 «Families of more than two persons which are designated as "mother-and-child," "father-and-child," "sister-and-brother," may be composed of mother and two children, father and two children, two sisters and a brother or vice versa, or sisters only; or may be composed of mother, child, and relative, father, child, and relative, and so on. This applies also to father-mother-and-child families of four or more members. Husband-and-wife families of three or more members include relatives other than their own children. CLEVELAND WOMEN WORKERS 23 However, the number of sister-and-brother families is comparatively small—only slightly more than 3 percent of the total—and in any case public opinion and the law recognize the necessity for sisters to support themselves and do not assign to brothers the same degree of responsibility for their families as they assign to husbands. Since criticism is so centered on married women workers and especially on those who have no dependents in their immediate families, it is of interest to study in some detail those husband-and-wife families where both members are working and where earnings are higher than the average for all 2-person families—that is, higher than $155 a month. A total of nearly 400 families composed only of husband and wife, with no one else in the household, reported on their joint earnings. In more than half of these families the combined earnings of husband and wife exceeded the $155 averaged by all 2-member families reporting. It is worth while to examine this group having these higher earnings. Nine families had additional income in the form of dividends or rent ranging from $1.50 to $20 for the month. In 3 of these 9 families the husband earns $75 or less; in the other 6 the earnings of the husband range from $125 to $325, but only one receives this maximum and all the rest earn less than $152. In the 190 families that have no additional income, not far from one-half of the husbands earn less than $125 a month, seven-tenths earn less than $150, and only a tenth earn as much as $200. When these figures of husbands' earnings are related to the reasons given by the wives for working, the apparent economic security of these families becomes less certain. In the nine families having additional income, four wives are working because the husband's salary plus the additional income is insufficient for two persons; in one family the husband's earnings are not adequate because he does not always get full time and the wife wants to save for the future; in one the wife, a woman with professional training and interested in her work, wants to help so as "to make it possible to buy a house and furniture and modern conveniences before starting a family;" another wife has put 8 years of education and training into her profession and wishes to continue in it; still another is giving money toward the support of her parents; and the last of the nine is saving for old age. Over a third of the wives in the 190 families having nothing but earnings to depend on are working for more than one reason. Aid to relatives plus insufficiency, irregularity, or uncertainty of husband's salary is the leading combination, with aid to relatives plus getting a home started ranking second. More than half these wives are contributing to relatives, some contributing such substantial amounts as $70 or $80 a month. The majority of those who reported on the approximate amount of their contributions give $20 or more a month. However, there are some husband-and-wife families not contributing to relatives whose total earnings exceed the average for families of two members. The reasons that the wives in these families are working may be illustrated by the following individual cases: Mrs. A, 31 years old, is an inspector in a plant making hardware supplies; her husband, 35, is a punch-press operator and die setter. Mrs A has had to help her family for many years. Her father has been unemployed a long time, one brother is a cripple, one is still in school. Mrs. A had to delay her marriage in 24 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT order to help her family. Finally her father obtained a W. P. A. job and she was able to marry in the fall of 1939, continuing work for the 6-month period allowed by her firm. In March 1940 her father lost his W. P. A. job and the family went on relief. Mrs. A's husband received approximately $100 for the month preceding the interview; she received $60. At the time of interview she was not contributing regularly to her relatives. Occasionally she buys food for her parents or clothes for her brother but in general she and her husband are free to spend their money as they choose, for the time being. They have an electric refrigerator, a gas stove, and a vacuum cleaner. They live in a multiple house, and Mrs. A, though doing all the housework, sends the washing out when she is employed. With the possibility of having to resume support of her father, mother, and brother, Mrs. A dreads the loss of her job. Mrs. B, aged 27, likewise is an inspector in a metal-parts factory. She made about $87 in the month preceding the interview. Her husband, also a metalfactory employee, got less work than she did and earned only about $78 that month. They have no dependents, live in an apartment, and Mrs. B does all her own work. Only occasionally does she send a little money to a sister. Mrs. B had continued working after marriage in spite of a company rule prohibiting it. A fellow worker finally reported her and she had to quit. Mr. B's work was very seasonal and they had a hard time to get along. They lived with Mr. B's mother for a number of years, getting deeper and deeper into debt until they owed her $400. Mrs. B managed to get a little odd work now and then, very temporary and for very short periods, so Mr. and Mrs. B moved into a one-room home in o-rder not to impose on Mother B to any further extent. Then Mrs. B had to have an operation and a $200 additional debt ensued. Finally, Mrs. B obtained her present work and in 4 years has managed to pay off all debts except a final $100 to Mother B. She has also been able to buy some furniture and is still making payments on an electric refrigerator. Lest the interviewer consider an electric refrigerator an extravagant luxury, Mrs. B explained t h a t they "had to buy a refrigerator anyway and they felt it would be best in the long run to have this kind since they both were away from home all day." Mr. B's work is still seasonal; he had been getting about 3 days a week in January, February, and March, and by April was being cut down to 2y2 and 2 days a week. Though Mrs. B had full time when interviewed she is not always so fortunate. Mrs. C, 32 years old, is a telephone operator. Her husband is a railroad fireman. During the month prior to the interview their combined earnings were $228: $76 by Mrs C, $152 by Mr. C. They have no dependents. They make no contributions to relatives. The long finger of public opinion undoubtedly is pointed at Mrs. C—a working wife. They live in a multiple dwelling, have an electric washer and an electric sweeper, do all their own work. Why should Mrs. C take employment? For 10 months after her marriage in 1929 Mrs. C stayed at home. Then she found t h a t her husband's salary, fluctuating with part-time work, did not allow them " t o live and save a penny." So when she had an opportunity to do some extra work a t her trade she seized it, and for 2 years worked intermittently "to make a little extra money and save up a little something." Then Mr. C began to earn more money so Mrs. C again stayed home, this time for 2 years, until one day her husband broke the news that he had lost his job. Mrs. C then shouldered the support of the family for 2 years. When her husband secured a job she quit work again, but she was home only 3 months when her husband was laid off. Back to work went Mrs. C and for 2 years now she has been working. Her husband, too, has been working for nearly as long, but his work has been intermittent. Though for the month for which information on earnings was obtained Mr. C had full time, he had averaged not more than 3 days a week in the past year. Now when he has full time Mrs. C's earnings go toward paying accumulated bills. WOMEN WORKERS' MONEY CONTRIBUTIONS The discussion thus far has centered on the combined earnings of family members, both men and women. What do women earners do with their money? Do they keep their earnings for themselves or turn them over to the family fund? How important are women's earnings to their families? Of the total cash contributions to the CLEVELAND WOMEN WORKERS 25 family general expense fund in this study, what proportion comes from women earners? In 2,027 families 7 the amounts contributed by the various earners were reported. In one-third of these families the women earners give all that is contributed, in well over half they give 50 percent or more. Women earners in over a fourth of the families give 25 and under 50 percent of the total amount turned in to the family fund. In only 3 percent of the families do the women earners make no contribution; in a little less than a sixth of the families does their share amount Chart L — N U M B E R O F F A M I L I E S R E C E I V I N G S P E C I F I E D C O N T R I B U T I O N S F R O M W O M E N W A G E E A R N E R S — C L E V E L A N D. Women's share In total family contributions (percent) Number of families n Each complete <Hfl. = 50 families to less than 25 percent of the total contributed. (See appendix table VII, p. 69.) The 678 families where women workers make the entire contribution are of course largely those families having only women earners. In a comparatively few families there are men earners who make no contribution; most of these are families where employed sons are saving their money for schooling or marriage. In the 500 families where the employed members are father and mother or husband and wife, the majority of the women contribute 25 but under 50 percent of the money that goes to the family fund. In not quite a third of these families the wives and the mothers—31 percent in each case—contribute half or more of all that is turned in to the family exchequer. 7 These families are exclusive of 556 1-person families composed of women earners, and of 194 families having male earners only; 50 families that had no earnings for the month preceding the interview; and 94 that did not report on total contributions. 292469°—41——3 26 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT Where the employed members are father and daughters (306 families), women's part of the contribution is not so great. In onetenth of these families the daughters make no contribution to the expense fund, and in nearly two-fifths their contribution is less than 25 percent of the total. There are no cases where the employed father makes no contribution, hence no instance of daughters giving all that is contributed. In the 143 families where more members are employed, and these members are fathers, sons, and daughters, the proportion given by the daughters to the family fund naturally is even less. There are fewer families where daughters make no contribution (7 percent), but more families (57 percent) where the daughters' share is less than 25 percent of the total, and no families in which the daughters' share amounts to as much as 75 percent of the total. Comparison of Sons' and Daughters' Contributions. In the 148 families whose only earners are daughters and sons, the daughters' share is outstanding. In two-thirds of these families the daughters give half or more of all that is contributed; in 5 percent of the families they give all that is turned in. In only 2 of the 148 families do they fail to contribute. It is possible to make a more detailed comparison of the responsibility of sons and daughters for family support. There are 302 families that have both unmarried sons and unmarried daughters working (362 sons, 398 daughters). Examination of the contributions made by sons and daughters in these families discloses that 20 percent of the daughters, in contrast to 15 percent of the sons, give all they earn to their families. Twelve percent of the sons give nothing, but only 7 percent of the daughters fail to contribute. Nearly one-third of the daughters but only one-fifth of the sons give twothirds or more of their earnings to their families. The month's earnings of the daughters average $75, their contributions average $40. Sons' earnings average $86 in the month, their contributions $37. (See appendix table VIII, p. 70.) These sons and daughters fall into approximately the same age groups. The main differences are a slightly larger proportion of daughters at 21 and under 30 years, and slightly smaller proportions who are 30 and over or under 21. Examination of the earnings and contributions made by those in the various age groups reveals that sons have higher average earnings than daughters in every group but the exceedingly small one of 40 years and older, and that daughters' average contributions are higher in every age group. WOMEN WORKERS' SERVICE CONTRIBUTIONS All discussion thus far has been of money contributions. Women make a tremendous service contribution to their families as well. Even when women work outside the home, the responsibility for household management and a great deal of the housework falls on them. This is shown clearly in reports from 734 families with male heads in which the wife or mother is employed and which give detailed information on household management. Three-fifths of these families have no outside help with their housework; and in such families the employed wife or mother does all the work in two-fifths of the cases, in half of them other members help the wife or mother with the CLEVELAND W O M E N WORKERS 27 housework, and in one-tenth of them other members relieve the employed wife or mother of all housework. Only 3% percent of the 734 families have a full-time household employee. The others with outside help (36^ percent of the 734) have it chiefly for laundry work, usually for all of it. Some families have part-time maids and a few (3 percent) take their meals out. (See appendix table IX, p. 70.) Care of Children. In 90 families where the mother works there are children too young for school. How are these children cared for while the mother works? In 76 of the families arrangements are made to care for the children at home. In 36 of these families adult relatives living in the home take care of the small children and in another 36 paid helpers do so. In only 1 family has an older child and in 3 families has a neighbor this responsibility. In less than a sixth of these families are the preschool children cared for outside the home; only 6 families take them to day nurseries or nursery schools, the rest board them with relatives or friends. It should be noted that those boarding their young children are, with one exception, families where the mother is the head of the family as well as an earner. In 146 families where the mother works there are children under 12 who are going to school. Two constant problems facing these working mothers are seeing that the child gets to and from school and seeing that he has his noonday meal. In only 5 of these families are the children boarded away from home, and in a few there is no report on their care. In almost two-fifths of the remaining families the children are old enough to get themselves ready and to go to and from school alone. In nearly three-tenths of the families the mother gets the children ready but they are old enough to go to school by themselves or with other children. In a fourth of the families this responsibility is carried by relatives or paid helpers. In only a few families (6$ percent) do the working mothers get the children ready and take them to and from school. In a great majority of the 133 families reporting, school children under 12 have their lunch at home and in most cases this lunch is hot. Hot or cold, carried to school or not, the lunch usually is prepared by older persons, over one-third of whom are working mothers. In only one-sixth of the families do children under 16 prepare the lunch. The evidence is impressive that the earnings and the services of women workers, especially of those that are married, are of vital importance to their families. IN WHAT POSITION ARE CLEVELAND WOMEN TO MEET FAMILY NEEDS? Work Available. Women in Cleveland who must take jobs in order to help their families and support themselves find that clerical work of one kind or another offers the widest field of employment. Positions for general office clerks, stenographers, and typists lead all other kinds, followed by those for bookkeepers, office-appliance operators, and secretaries. Next in numerical importance are factory jobs in a variety of industries—clothing, textiles, electrical equipment and supplies, auto parts, metal parts, food, paper and printing, to mention 28 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT the most important. Positions in domestic and personal service (household employment not included), in professional occupations, and in stores are available in nearly equal proportions. In the domestic and personal service field these Cleveland women are employed chiefly in laundries, hotels, restaurants, and beauty parlors, with a few in miscellaneous jobs such as charwomen or practical nurses. Teachers, trained nurses, social workers, and librarians lead in the professional services, which include also nursing supervisors and instructors, dietitians, research workers, lawyers, library, medical, and dental assistants, laboratory workers, and numerous other specialized technicians. Saleswomen form the largest group among the store employees, which include also seamstresses, stock markers, messengers, models, elevator operators, wrappers, sales demonstrators, maids, and so forth. In addition to these main occupational groups, Cleveland women find employment in the field of transportation and communication, mainly as telephone and telegraph employees, and in miscellaneous occupations as milliners, dressmakers, boarding-house keepers, home demonstrators, agents, canvassers, and so on. Some are employed in public service such as N. Y. A. and W. P. A. A few are in executive or managerial positions in stores, laundries, or offices, while some run their own dress shops, beauty parlors, grocery, fruit, or dry-goods stores, lunchrooms or cafes, and an even smaller number have their own manufacturing or professional offices. About an eighth (13 percent) of the Cleveland women workers included in this survey do not have full-time employment. This part-time group includes women reporting themselves as regular part-time workers as well as those full-time workers who lost as much as a week in the month for which earnings are reported. Because of the practice of retail stores to employ extra women for busy periods during each week or day the proportion of part-time workers in this occupational group is high, over a third of the total women store employees. Nearly a fifth of the factory and domestic and personal service jobs also were part-time or undertime. On the other hand, only about one-twentieth of the clerical, professional, and telephone and telegraph employees had part-time or undertime employment. Monthly Earnings by Marital Status and Occupation. Though wives and mothers in general contribute a larger share to the family fund, are their earnings higher than those of single women? The answer, broadly speaking, is "No." It was possible to tabulate the full-time earnings, in the month reported, of 2,743 women according to marital status and occupation. The married women, like those widowed, separated, or divorced, have average earnings lower by $6 than the average for the single women. (See appendix table X, p. 71.) This is significant in view of the fact that women in both these categories are an older group than the single women, and in certain occupations it is chiefly among older women that the higher earnings are found. Not far from three-fifths of the married women are 30 years of age or older, well over half of those widowed, separated, or divorced are 40 or older, whereas practically two-thirds of the single women are less than 30. The month's earnings of the single women, all occupations combined, average $96, those of the married women $90, those of the widowed, separated, and divorced women $90. CLEVELAND W O M E N WORKERS 29 What accounts for this difference in average full-time earnings between single women workers and the two other groups? The reason is chiefly that single women have an overwhelming majority in that small group of women workers with relatively high earnings, and have a larger representation than the married, widowed, separated, or divorced women in those occupations that pay the most. One in ten of the single women, compared to only 1 in 20 of the married women, earned $150 or more in the month reported. Chart I I . — P E R C E N T O F W O M E N SINGLE, M A R R I E D , W I D O W E D , SEPARATED, OR D I V O R C E D W I T H F U L L - T I M E E A R N I N G S AS S P E C I F I E D IN T H E M O N T H REPORTED—CLEVELAND. //idowed, separated, J | Married or divorced! I Single I Under $50 Percent 6.3 $50, under $75 7.« $75, under $100 $100, under $125 $125, under $150 $150 and over The proportion of those earning $200 or more is low for all groups, but it is lowest for the married women—1% percent of them, compared to 2% percent of the widowed, separated, or divorced, and just over 4K percent of the single women. To put it in another way: Of the relatively few women (99) who earned $200 or more in the month, eight-tenths are single, one-tenth are married, and one-tenth are widowed, separated, or divorced. It is not, however, the young single women who have such earnings; two-thirds of the single women with higher earnings are 40 years old and more, and only 1 is under 30. Nearly two-fifths of the single women are doing clerical work, in which average earnings for the entire group are higher than in any other field but the professional. In contrast to this, only a little over a 30 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT fourth of the married women and a fifth of those widowed, separated, and divorced are in clerical occupations. A slightly higher proportion of single women than of those in the two other groups (4 percent compared to 2 percent and 1 percent) are in secretarial work, which has the highest average earnings of the clerical occupations. Twenty-one percent of the single women in this survey are in professional occupations—a somewhat higher proportion than is the case with either of the other groups (18 percent for the married, 13 percent for those widowed, separated, or divorced)—and the professional occupations as a group lead all others in earnings. The earnings of teachers average considerably higher than those of any other occupation, especially the earnings of single women teachers—$184 for the month, including a few part-time teachers. The average for all women teachers is $179, single women constituting more than four-fifths of all the teachers in the study. This is approximately the same proportion in which they are found in the 1930 census for Cleveland. The nursing profession has the heaviest representation in this sample of all the professional occupations and the lowest average earnings—$105 for the group, including a small proportion of nurses who had part-time work. This is the only professional occupation where single women have a lower full-time average than the married, widowed, separated, or divorced—$104 compared to $115 and $118, respectively, and this is accounted for by their comparative youth and inexperience. Over two-thirds are less than 30 years old, with average earnings of $97. Those who are 30 or more have a much higher average, $119. More than half the nurses who are or have been married are 30 years of age or older, more than a fourth are 40 or more. Higher average earnings are found in other professional occupations, such as research worker, technician, or specialist in the medical or health field, teacher in specialized fields such as art, music, and nursing, or various other professions. The average monthly earnings of all women in these miscellaneous professional occupations are $148, this average being considerably lowered by a relatively large proportion (11 percent) of women who have only part-time work. The proportion of single women found in these occupations slightly exceeds that of the other groups combined. With one exception, single women in this group of occupations earn more than any married, widowed, separated, or divorced woman. The average full-time monthly earnings of single women in this group are $170. Social workers rank third in earnings, with an average of $115 for all women, including a small proportion of part-time workers. Though there are more married women than single women or than those with broken marital ties in this group (which like the miscellaneous professional group is not very large), nevertheless their average full-time earnings for the month are lower by nearly $10 than the full-time average for all social workers. No married woman earns so much as $200 in this occupation, whereas five single women and one other earn this much or more. All but two of the married women employed full time earn $75 but under $150 a month. Discussion thus far has been of the relatively few better-paid occupations that account for the higher earnings of single women. As a matter of fact, women's earnings in general are not high. Aside from the higher-paid occupations, the full-time earnings of single, married, and widowed, separated, or divorced women are very similar. For CLEVELAND W O M E N WORKERS 31 all occupations combined, well over a third (36 and 38 percent, respectively) of the single and of the married women, and more than twofifths of those widowed, separated, or divorced, had full-time earnings of less than $75 in the month reported. Nearly two-thirds of the full-time women workers reported, regardless of marital status or occupation, earned less than $100 for the month. The same proportion (30 percent) of single women and of married women earned $50 and under $75; the proportion of the other group earning these amounts was higher (35 percent). A slightly greater proportion of single women than of either of the other groups earned $75 and under $100. In the group of women earning $100 and under $125 the proportion of married women is greater than that of other women, but in the next category—$125 and under $150—the proportion of women with broken marital ties exceeds that of both single and married women. The proportion of women earning less than $50 a month is not high, but in this group the proportion of married women exceeds slightly that of the other groups, while among those earning $150 or more it is the lowest of all. It is in occupations in domestic and personal service, clerical work other than secretarial and office-appliance operating, trade, and manufacturing that most of the women earning less than $75 a month are found. More than four-fifths of all the full-time workers in domestic and personal service occupations received cash wages of less than $75 in the month reported, as did well over four-fifths of those in laundry or dry-cleaning establishments, and over three-fifths of those in beauty parlors, personal service occupations that carry no possibility of meals as part payment. It is in the domestic and personal service group that one-fifth of the married women and those with broken ties, in contrast to less than a tenth of the single women, are employed. Three-fourths of the women employed full time in stores receive less than $75 a month, as do well over two-fifths of those working full time in factories. Average earnings of all women employees reporting, including those who have only part-time work and regardless of marital status, are as follows: For factory workers, $72; for women in stores, $56; for beauty-parlor employees, $67; for laundry and dry-cleaning workers, $58; for hotel and restaurant workers, $55; and for miscellaneous service occupations such as charwomen, $34. Part-time or undertime earnings fall far below full-time earnings. They range from an average of $26 a month in domestic and personal service occupations to $47 in professional work. Part-time employees in factories average $38 a month, those in stores only $28. Employment History of Women Who Have Been Married. Why are the earnings of married women lower than those of single women? Generally speaking, the difference in wage levels is not great; for example, in the earnings class $50 and under $100 are found 57 percent of the single women and 56 percent of the married women, and in the earnings class $100 and under $150 are found 26 percent of the single women and 31 percent of those married. It is the residual groups below and above these that affect the averages: At under $50 there are 6 percent of the single women and 8 percent of the married women, and at $150 and over there are 10 percent of the single women and only 5 percent of those married. 32 WOMEN WORKERS IN THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT Most married women work because of economic necessity. Persons pressed by responsibilities and economic need cannot pick and choose among various occupations or professions, they must take whatever they can get. It is no accident that married women are concentrated in domestic and personal service occupations. Moreover, to most women marriage has meant a break in their work experience that counts against them, especially in those higher-paid professions where experience is important. As many as 1,180 married women and 421 widowed, separated, or divorced women reported on their work history. (See appendix table XI, p. 71.) Nearly half of all these women worked before and after marriage, over two-thirds of this group, or a third of the total, stopping work at marriage but returning to work later. There is a marked difference on this point between the married women and the other group when considered separately— the fact that about 45 percent of the women with broken marital ties, compared to only 28 percent of the married women, gave up their jobs on marriage. All these women found it necessary to return to work later, but for two-fifths of the married women and over twothirds of the widowed, separated, and divorced the break in employment was 5 years or longer. (See appendix table XII, p. 72.) The proportion of women who remained in their jobs after marriage is not high—less than one-sixth of the combined groups. As just indicated, it is much lower for the wiaowed, separated, or divorced women than for the married, 8 percent compared to 18 percent. In the latter group, changing customs and economic conditions apparently made for greater continuation of employment after marriage. Nearly one-sixth of the married women and two-fifths of the widowed, separated, or divorced—or over a fifth ot all these women— had tneir first paid jobs after they were married. A considerable proportion of the married women who are now employed or seeking employment began their working careers after 1929 when they were 25 years old or more; indeed, a large number of these were at least 30 years old—a late start that would affect both the chance of getting a job and the chance of a higher-paid job. The same is true also for the widowed, separated, or divorced. Not far from two-fifths of the married women interviewed worked only before marriage. The proportion of the widowed, separated, or divorced women who never returned to work after marriage naturally is low—less than 6K percent. Of the married women workers, 643 gave some information on whether their employment was interrupted because of the birth of children. (See appendix table XIII, p. 72.) For about three-fourths of them this factor did not affect their employment, as nearly twofifths had no children and over a third stopped work some time before the arrival of children and not because of it. So the arrival of children affected the employment of only about a fourth of the married women reporting; for a tenth it meant the end of their employment outside the home, for nearly a sixth 8 employment was interrupted for periods averaging from less than a year to 10 years or longer. Education of Women Workers by Occupational Group. Regardless of marital status the vast majority of women workers seek employment because of economic necessity. They play an 8 Six percent for less than a year, somewhat less than 10 percent for periods of 1 to 10 or more years. CLEVELAND WOMEN WORKERS 33 important part in the economic life of their families whether in their parents' home or in building up and maintaining their own homes. What preparation have these women had for their responsibilities? Has their education or experience any bearing on their earnings? Nearly 2,700 women workers reported on both their education and their present occupation. About one-half not only completed high school but took special occupational training while there or afterward or went on to college. A little less than a tenth of the total are college graduates, not far from one-half are high-school graduates. Only about one-eighth did not go beyond the eighth grade. The amount of educational training of this group in general is relatively high. How does it vary among the different occupational groups? The professional group naturally outstrips all others in the proportion of college graduates: Over a third of the women workers in this group were graduated from college; including those who attended college but were not graduated, or attended or were graduated from normal school, the proportion approaches three-fifths. Practically all the rest of the professional group not only completed high school but took special occupational training. Every one of the teachers is at least a high-school graduate, and almost three-fifths are college graduates; in fact, all but about 3 percent attended, and the majority were graduated from, college or normal school. Three-fourths of the nurses were at least graduated from high school before taking their 3year training course, and almost one-fourth went beyond high school before taking their training. Well over four-fifths of the social workers are college graduates; all but 4 percent of them were graduated from or at least attended college or normal school, as is true of four-fifths of the women in the miscellaneous professional occupations. The women in the clerical group are predominantly high-school graduates. Over two-thirds of them completed high school, over half took special occupational training either in high school or in business school, and more than a tenth went on to college or normal school. There are decided differences among the clerical occupations in the matter of college training. The women with either partial or complete college education are found among the secretaries and the group composed of bookkeepers, stenographers, and typists, not among the office-appliance operators. Only just over 1 percent of the last named, compared to 16% percent and 12 percent of the others, were graduated from or attended college. A little less than a sixth of the clerical group attended but did not complete high school; about half of these took special occupational training. Only 2 percent had neither special occupational training nor any highschool education.9 The educational training of women in trade, that is, store employees, resembles somewhat that of the clerical group, since more than half are high-school graduates. However, not nearly so high a proportion have had any occupational training, and the proportion of those attending or completing college or normal school is much lower—only 4 percent. Over a tenth did not go beyond the eighth grade. The chief difference in formal education between the women in trade and those in transportation and communication (chiefly tele9 Two women had European education only—extent not reported; for 16 women, all schooling was within the first 8 grades. 34 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT phone operators) is in the proportion who are high-school graduates and those who attended but did not complete high school. Over two-fifths of the women in transportation and communication attended but did not complete high school; less than two-fifths are high-school graduates. A somewhat smaller proportion in these occupations than in trade took special occupational training, and there are no college graduates, though a few (3 percent) attended college or normal school. A slightly larger proportion than in the trade group finished only the eighth grade or less. This picture of educational training is one that shifts in emphasis from one occupational group to another. The picture becomes less clear-cut for the factory and the domestic and personal service groups. For example, in the factory group, almost three-tenths finished only the eighth grade or less, but not far from the same proportion were graduated from high school, and nearly two-fifths attended but did not complete high school. Only a small proportion (11 percent) had any special occupational training; 5% percent had their formal education in Europe; none finished college, but just over 1 percent attended college or normal school. In the domestic and personal service occupations three-tenths of the women finished only the eighth grade or less, about the same proportion attended but did not finish high school, and nearly a fourth are high-school graduates. A much larger proportion of the women in this class than in the factory group took special occupational training, due chiefly to the inclusion of beauty-parlor operators, nearly four-fifths of whom had special training. A few women attended or finished college or normal school; with one exception these were women in hotel and restaurant occupations. Nearly a third of the miscellaneous group—charwomen and others—of domestic and personal service employees, over a third of the laundry workers, and three-tenths of the hotel and restaurant workers had only eight grades or less of schooling. Education Related to First Job. Over 4,000 women who reported on the amount of their formal education reported also on the first regular job they obtained. Practically four-fifths of the women who did not finish the eighth grade began their employment in factory or in domestic and personal service occupations; not quite 10 percent began work in stores; a small fraction (2 percent) started out in clerical occupations. It is among the eighth-grade graduates that any appreciable proportion of women whose first job was clerical is found. Over a sixth of the eighth-grade graduates started in clerical occupations, but the single largest group of these graduates, nearly two-fifths, began in factory jobs, and nearly a fifth began in domestic and personal service. Of those who attended the tenth and eleventh grades, more than one-fourth in each case began their employment in clerical positions, about one-sixth started their business life in stores, and considerably more than two-fifths started in factories or in domestic and personal service jobs. The largest proportion of the high-school graduates found their first regular positions in clerical work; well over two-fifths were so reported. A sixth went into trade; a few more than that, but a very marked decrease in proportion from those who did not finish high CLEVELAND WOMEN WORKERS 35 school, went into factory or domestic and personal service jobs. Among high-school graduates, too, is found the first appreciable proportion of women whose entrance to the business world was in a professional occupation, one-seventh of the high-school graduates starting out in some professional capacity. This proportion rises to considerably more than two-fifths among the women who attended but did not finish college, and to well over three-fifths of the college graduates. While the proportion of those whose beginning job was professional rises with the amount of formal education, the proportion of those entering factory or domestic and personal service occupations for their first regular job dwindles to insignificance with increase in schooling. The proportion whose first job was clerical likewise decreases, but not so strikingly. Three-tenths of those who attended college but were not graduated, and one-fifth of those who were graduated, began their first job in clerical positions. The women whose education was acquired in Europe had their first jobs almost exclusively in factories (43 percent) or in domestic and personal service occupations (39 percent). Over two-fifths of the women who reported on first job and education had special occupational training. As would be expected, most of these (71 percent) began work in clerical or professional occupations. (See table 2 following.) TABLE 2 . — E x t e n t of schooling, by first regular Extent of schooling job—CLEVELAND Percent of women reporting extent of schooling whose first regular job was m— Women reporting amount of TransDomeseducation portaClerical Profes- tion and first Manu- tic and Misceiand perregular facturTrade occupa- sional ing sonal tions service comjob municaservice tion 1 nyr- 1 lnnpnns iaiicuuo Total reporting—Number. _. Percent 4,169 787 18.9 686 16.5 586 1,206 14.1 28.9 Completed— Less than sixth grade Sixth, less than eighth grade.._ Eighth grade. Ninth grade ______ Tenth grade Eleventh grade Twelfth grade or high-school graduate 91 242 553 272 417 227 44.0 46.3 38.6 32.4 23.0 16.7 6.5 1.6 44.0 29.8 i8.6 23.2 20.6 28.2 10.6 3.2 5.5 11.2 13.2 16.9 17.0 16.7 16.5 9.2 1.2 42.8 1.2 38.9 4.6 7.8 Attended college Attended or completed normal school Graduated from college European schooling only _ __ No schooling _ Special occupational training 3 100.0 1,620 251 42 258 180 16 1,803 1 Principally telephone operators. 2 Percent not computed; base too small. 3 Distributed in details above. 2 () (2) 7.8 7.2 2.2 2.1 17.5 16.2 26.9 28.6 45.5 31.9 11.9 20.2 3.9 10.9 46.0 4.8 571 13.7 1.1 1.1 .7 1.9 2.6 14.2 45.0 81.0 64.3 2.8 24.7 142 3.4 3.7 5.1 4.8 8.6 4.8 2.5 1.6 .4 191 4.6 3.3 7.0 6.0 5.9 2.0 2. 2 4.2 7.6 2.4 5.0 2 4.4 () 2.2 3.7 The 3 groups had respectively 10, 5, and 1. Experience and Earnings. Generally speaking, years of experience have a direct bearing on earnings. Where earnings are higher, it is found that the proportion of women having more years of experience is higher; where earnings 36 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT are lower, the amount of experience is small for a greater proportion of the women. More than three-fifths of the women with earnings below $50 a month have had less than 5 years' experience. About nine-tenths of those who earn $150 or more have had at least 10 years' experience and only just over 2 percent have worked less than 5 years. A little over two-fifths of the women earning $75 and under $100, and more than half of those earning $50 and under $75, have been employed less than 5 years. About two-fifths of the women with monthly earnings of $100 and under $125, and as many as two-thirds of those earning $125 and under $150, have worked 10 years or longer. Reversals in these general trends are found in very small groups in domestic and personal service and factory occupations at various wage levels. In domestic and personal service, one-fourth of the women earning less than $50 a month have been employed 10 years or more, as have a third of those earning $50 and under $75. Among the women earning $75 and under $100, more than half of those in domestic and personal service occupations have been employed for 10 years or longer, a much higher proportion than is found in any other occupation. Another outstanding variation from the general trend, and in a different direction from that just cited, is found in professional occupations, where nearly three-fifths of the women earning $100 and under $125 a month have had less than 5 years' experience, and only a little more than a tenth have worked for 10 years or more. UTAH WOMEN WORKERS IN THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Women workers in Utah as in Cleveland play an important role in the economic life of their communities and families, but because of certain pronounced economic pressures in the State this tends to be more or less overlooked, especially in the case of married women workers. Utah is chiefly a farming State—nearly a fourth of its gainful workers are in agricultural employment where cash income generally is low. It is in a thinly populated area with scattered communities. Only the capital, Salt Lake City, has a population of more than 100,000; in fact, in all the State there are only three additional cities with population greater than 10,000. There is very little manufacturing in Utah; the most important woman-employing industries, located almost entirely in Salt Lake and Ogden, are food products, clothing, and textiles. In these two cities also are the largest offices of banks, insurance companies, railroads, public utilities, and the State government. Opportunities for women's employment outside of these two cities are limited to stores, laundries, hotels, restaurants, schools, and similar fields. Utah is a State with a comparatively high birth rate, a low death rate,1 and a relatively high proportion of large families.2 Unemployment and economic depression have been serious problems in the State for a number of years.3 While on the one hand opportunities for industrial and commercial employment are limited, on the other hand lively traditions of social service and self-betterment call for an expanding economy. Utah is unique in having a dominant church in whose well-organized activities a large proportion of members take part, especially in the system of tithing and in the support by families of relatives on church missions for a period of 2 or 3 years. In the study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of money disbursements in families in 1934-36, just cited, Salt Lake City families were found to make exceptionally large contributions to religious organizations—a yearly average of $31.79 per family compared to averages of $10.48, $11.67, $14.06, and $15.20 in the four other cities, namely Denver, Kansas City, MinneapolisSt. Paul, and St. Louis.4 1 In 1937 the birth rate was 24.5 and the death rate 9.6 per 1,000 estimated population. For the whole United States in 1937 the birth rate was 17.0 and the death rate 11.2 per 1,000 estimated population—U. S. Bureau of the Census, Vital Statistics of the United States, 1937. Part I, p. 6, table J. 2 38.9 percent of Utah families compared to 30.5 percent of all United States families have five or more members—U. S. Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census, 1930: Population, vol. VI, pp. 7 and 1332. 3 For example, about one-fifth of the white families in Salt Lake City were on relief in February 1935, a proportion considerably higher than in four other cities surveyed at that time. The net money income per white family was lowest in Salt Lake City, reflecting the depression in business conditions.—U. S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bui. No. 641, pp. 8, 9, and 23. Money Disbursements of Wage Earners and Clerical Workers in Five Cities in the West North Central-Mountain Region, 1934-36. 4 Ibid., pp. 260-265. 37 38 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT Besides participating extensively in welfare and religious activities, Utah families make every effort to keep their sons and daughters in school. In 1930 the proportion of young persons of 16 to 20 years who were attending school was very5 high, being approached by only a few States and exceeded by none. The scarcity of jobs and the economic and social pressure on Utah families in general are such that the public has begun to take a forcible hand in the problem of income distribution. For some years the school boards in Utah have closed the teaching profession to married women, with few exceptions. In 1939 agitation against the employment of married women in public agencies resulted in a bill presented to the State legislature prohibiting employment by the State of any married person whose spouse was regularly employed in private industry or otherwise who received compensation therefor in excess of $800 per annum.6 Though this bill failed to pass, a joint resolution was adopted declaring that it was the State's policy to give preference in employment to persons not having employed members in their family who live with them (brothers or sisters not mentioned), and to replace employees of the State, its subdivisions, boards, commissions, counties, cities, and school boards whose spouses, children, or parents living with them are employed in private industry or otherwise. This resolution is applicable to State employees regardless of sex or marital status, but it has been used chiefly against married women employees. Naturally, women's clubs and organizations throughout the State have been concerned about the attempt to solve serious economic problems by restricting employment on the basis of marital status and sex. Because of the specific concern in this subject in Utah, the Women's Bureau extended its study of the woman worker's economic participation in family and community life to this State in the summer, fall, and winter of 1939. To officers and members of many women's organizations throughout the State, the Women's Bureau is indebted for suggestions and assistance in reaching groups of employed women. The women were interviewed at their places of employment through the generous cooperation of private employers and supervisory officials of various State, county, city, and school offices. Since the majority (58 percent) of Utah's employed women are found in Salt Lake City and Ogden, the sample is mainly from these two cities, but other cities and towns throughout the State are represented also, from Logan in the north, through Brigham, Park City, Tooele, Provo, Nephi, Price, Mt. Pleasant, and Richfield, to Cedar City in the south. THE WOMEN WORKERS The Sample. As many as 1,421 women, or nearly 6 percent of Utah's women workers as reported in the 1930 Census of Occupations exclusive of household and agricultural employees, are included in this sample. The representation of each main occupational group varies little from this proportion. (See appendix table I, p. 72.) The proportions of employed women who are married, single, 8 6 U. S. Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census, 1930: Population, vol. II, p. 1105. This proposed act did not apply to members of school boards, legislators, election judges, registration agents, or others temporarily employed in elections. The salary stipulation as originally introduced was $600 per annum. This was amended up to $1,000 and then down to $800. UTAH WOMEN" WORKERS 39 widowed, separated, or divorced are very nearly the same in this sample as in the 1930 Census of Occupations: In the sample 26 percent are married, 56 percent single, and 18 percent widowed, separated, or divorced, compared to 24 percent, 56K percent, and 20 percent, respectively, in the census. In age groups the sample varies from the 1930 census in two respects: The sample has a smaller proportion of women of 16 to 24 years and a larger proportion of women of 30 to 39 years. Not quite a third of the women in the sample are under 25 years, while in the census the proportion is a little over two-fifths; nearly a fourth of the women in the sample are in the 30 -to-39-year group, while in the census only a little over a sixth are in this range. This age distribution in the sample may reflect the trend in unemployment among young people and a tendency to retain the more mature worker. In the proportions who are 25 to 29 years and 40 years or more, the sample resembles the census fairly closely—that is, onesixth to one-fourth. Age and Marital Status. Almost two-thirds of the single women included in the survey are under 30 years of age. Almost two-thirds of the married women are 30 years and over, and almost two-thirds of the working widows are 40 years old or more. While there are a few widows and a few more married women under 22 years of age at work, for the most part girls under 22 years, and those 22 and under 25 years, are single. Between 25 and 30 years the number of married women at work almost doubles, and from 30 years to 40 years they are not far behind the single women. At 40 and thereafter, women with broken marital ties outnumber each of the other groups. (See appendix table II, p. 73.) Age at Beginning Work. As the women included in the survey are of all age groups, their work histories began under various economic and social conditions. Those who started work before they were 16 years of age are today chiefly among the older women. Only about one-seventh of the girls who are under 22 years began work before they were 16. The larger proportion of those who began work at from 16 to 18 years are also among the mature women. However, a small proportion of younger girls have entered earning ranks between these ages. The largest group entered upon work at from 18 to 20 years. This is true of the entire number surveyed but especially of girls employed in the last 10 years. Less than 1 in every 10 women in Utah entered on the first job at 25 years of age or older; yet a few women began at 40 years and over. About one in three of the Utah employed women who did not go beyond the eighth grade began work before they were 16 years of age. In the group with this amount of schooling are the larger proportion who began work at or after 30 years of age, indicating that education was ended for reasons other than the economic ones that later brought the mature women into the earning ranks. Of all those who finished the tenth grade, 24 in every 100 went to work before 16 years, and 35 in every 100 at from 16 to 18 years of age. The largest number completed the twelfth grade; while 39 in every 100 of such graduates 40 W O M E N WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT began work at 18 or 20 years of age, 21 in every 100 began at 16 and under 18. Of the women who graduated from college, 26 in every 100 began work at 20 and under 22 years, 18 in every 100 at 18 and under 20, and 23 in every 100 at 22 and under 25 years. (See appendix tables I I I and IV, pp. 73 and 74.) Length of Work Experience. This cross-section view of women workers shows work histories that have just begun as well as those that have been extensive. Less than half the women have worked 10 years or more, with a fourth working 15 years or more. Two-fifths of the women reporting have been continuously in the same line of work. The causes of interrupted work histories are many. Among the women who are or have been married and who worked before and after marriage, more than three-fifths stopped work at marriage and later returned to their employment. More than two-fifths of the married women and nearly three-fourths of those with broken marital ties who stopped work when married stayed at home for 5 years or longer. In fact, over a fourth of the married women and well over two-fifths of the other group stayed at home 10 or more years. The advent of children did not interrupt married women's employment to any great extent. One-tenth that report stopping because of children, stopped for less than 5 years. (See appendix tables XI, XII, and XIII, p. 79.) Position in the Family. Three in every ten Utah women at work are unmarried daughters living with one or both parents. While more than half of these daughters are under 25 years of age, a fourth are 30 years or older. About 1 in every 6 Utah women workers are single women living away from their families. In this group are young women, for over a fifth are under 22 years of age, and also mature women. Because the women in this survey are at work in all sections of the State, some are from farm families and had to seek employment and board in neighboring towns. The next largest group of Utah women workers are married mothers, women largely 30 years of age and older. Wives, that is, married women living, with husbands who have no children in the household, form a little over one-tenth of the working group. These are a younger group than the mothers, for a fifth are 22 and under 25 years of age, a fourth are 25 and under 30 years, and a fourth are 30 and under 40 years. Widowed mothers living with children comprise 9 percent of the working women, and widows living without any members of their families 5 percent. Both these groups are chiefly mature women. The unmarried sisters living in a brother's or sister's family comprise 6 percent of the total. Such a woman usually is 30 years of age or older. A few working widowed sisters live with sisters or brothers, and widowed daughters and married daughters, daughters-in-law, and women in other relationships live in various family groups. (See appendix table V, p. 74.) THE FAMILIES OF WOMEN WORKERS The 1,165 family groups represented by the 1,421 women included in the survey are distributed by size somewhat differently from the families in census reports for Utah generally. The proportion of U T A H WOMEN" WORKERS 41 1-person families—which in this survey means women living apart from relatives though not necessarily living alone—is higher in the sample than in the population as a whole. This is due to the fact that many girls from farming families go to town or city to earn money to contribute to their own or family support and must live apart from their families. Naturally the absence of employed women on the farm almost eliminated farms from the survey and decreased the proportion of larger-sized families. The proportions of families with 2, 3, and 4 members in the sample are fairly close to the proportions so reported in the entire population. Composition of the Families. The general concept of the family is that it is composed of father, mother, and children. The homes in which women workers live show considerable variation from this standard. Only three-tenths of the Utah families follow the standard. About one-tenth are husband-and-wife families, one-fourth are women living alone, and the largest proportion of working women are from "broken" or "composite" families lacking one or both parents or enlarged by the inclusion of relatives not members of the immediate family. The following summary shows the type of family covered by the survey. All families—Number Percent Type of family 1, 165 100. 0 1 Percent 1-person families Father, mother, own children Husband and wife 24. 7 29. 6 11. 2 Broken and composite families 34. 4 Mother and own children Father and own children Sister and brother Husband, wife, and relatives Father, mother, own children, and relatives Mother, own children, and relatives Father, own children, and relatives Sister, brother, and relatives Other relatives 16. 0 .8 3. 2 2. 6 7. 1 3. 3 .3 .8 .4 i Own children may be under 16, or adults, or both; relatives may be adults, or children, or both; sisterand-brother families may be sisters only. Responsibilities of the Families. A considerable proportion of the families of women earners have special responsibilities. Among families of two or more persons, over two-fifths have children under 16, one-seventh have ill or entirely dependent adults, and over one-fifth have others outside the household for whom they feel some degree of financial responsibility. Husband-and-wife families more than any other type make these outside contributions; over two-fifths of them carry such responsibility and those reporting on its extent assist an average of 1.5 persons. Women living apart from their families likewise are carrying family responsibilities; well over a third of them contribute to the support of others, and like the husband-and-wife families those that report on the amount of support assist an average of 1.5 persons. The households making these contributions do not include a large number that 292469°—41 4 42 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT have no definite or regular responsibility but contribute occasionally or provide food, clothing, or furniture. Family Breadwinners. Who are the earners in these families? A grand total of 2,018 earners are included in the 1,165 households covered. In 875 families of 2 or more members who reported on cash earnings there are 1,731 earners, of whom over three-fifths are women. (See appendix table VI, p. 75.) The majority (54 percent) of these families with 2 or more members have 2 earners, but over a fourth have only 1—in every case a woman—and a seventh have 3 wage earners. In families of 3 members and those of 7 or more members, that had 2 and 3 earners, the number of women employed exceeds the number of men. In the relatively few families with 4 or more earners the number of men workers is somewhat greater. In nearly three-fifths of the 2-person families both members work. These 2-person families are weighted by those composed of husband and wife. It is worth noting that though the great majority of husband-and-wife 2-person families in this survey have both members working, such families constitute only a little over one-eighth of the 2-or-more-person families included. In 3-person families less than a tenth have all three members working, but well over half have two earners. Only 1 percent of the 4-person families have all members employed, but three-fifths of them have two earners. Families of five or more members show no instance where all members work, but the vast majority of families of this size have two or more earners. What Positions Do Women Breadwinners Hold in the Family? In over one-third of the families women are the only earners, and as such they are almost evenly divided between wives or mothers and daughters or daughters-in-law, with a small group composed of sisters and another small group of mothers and daughters working simultaneously. Wives or mothers are earners in half of the 875 families of 2 or more persons. These families include those mentioned above, where wives or mothers are the sole earners, and a larger group, over one-third of the total, where they as well as other members of the family are employed. Daughters or daughters-in-law are earners in nearly two-fifths of the families. They are the sole earners in one-seventh, and in another seventh they share the responsibility with the father, while in the remaining families they share it with sons or sons-in-law, or with these and the fathers, too. The proportion of families where mothers and daughters and also male workers are employed is small—only 3 percent. In one-twentieth of the families sisters, or sisters with brothers, are the earners. Family Income. Why are these women, especially these married women, working? Part of the answer to this question has been implied in the description of these families with their responsibilities both in and outside the household. Who, the earnings of these families are studied the answer is mevenenre obvious. U T A H WOMEN" WORKERS 43 As many as 1,045 families reported their total earnings for the month preceding the interview. Because of the unknown but important factor of seasonal or irregular employment on the part of many family earners, these figures cannot be used as a basis for any estimate of yearly income. Earnings for all families, irrespective of size, averaged $150 for the month. For more than a third of the families earnings fell below $100, for three-fifths they were lower than $150. One-fifth of these families had supplements of one kind or another to their earnings; about a tenth had rents or income from investments, just over 3 percent had supplements in produce, as they lived on farms, and 6 percent received aid from relatives or friends or drew on savings because earnings were too low to cover expenses. Earnings ranged from an average of $96 a month for 1-person families to $253 for those of seven or more. Of the 2-person families, those of husband and wife have the highest average earnings, those of mother and child the lowest, respectively $160 and $104. All husband-and-wife families average 1.9 earners per family, mother-and-child families only 1.1 earners per family. (See appendix table VI, p. 75.) For 2-person families of sisters or sister and brother the average is 1.6 earners per family, the majority of these families being composed of sisters only. The sister or sisterand-brother families average $138 for the month. Over three-tenths of all these 2-person families earn less than $100 a month; in motherand-child families the proportion earning such low amounts is more than half—53 percent. Three-fifths of the 2-person families have earnings of less than $150; for mother-and-child families this proportion is more than four-fifths, for husband-and-wife families it is more than two-fifths, of the total. The month's earnings of families of three members average $157. Over a fourth of these have earnings below $100; over half earn less than $150. Families of four members and of five members have average earnings of respectively $170 and $205. Over a fourth of both these groups have earnings of less than $100, and well over two-fifths of the 4-member and nearly two-fifths of the 5-member families earn less than $150. In families having six and seven or more persons the proportion earning less than $100 a month drops markedly; only a tenth of such families have earnings so low as that. The proportion earning less than $150 a month also drops considerably, less than a fourth having such earnings. The average family earnings of these two groups in the month reported are respectively $217 and $253. Because of the impossibility of obtaining exact data in many cases, especially among families living on farms, no attempt was made to tabulate the amount of supplemental income received by one-fifth of the families. Family earnings are low for a considerable proportion of the families of working women—so low, in fact, that almost a fifth of the families of two or more members are given aid by relatives or friends or have todraw on savings. However, earnings of certain families, including some of those composed of employed husband and working wife where there are no dependents in the household, are relatively high and the wives are criticized for working. 44 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY TABLE ENVIRONMENT 1.—Total earnings in working women's families interview, by size of for month preceding the family—UTAH All families reporting earnings Size of familyNumber of families All families. 1 person 2 persons3 persons. _ 4 persons. 5 persons 6 persons 7 or more persons . ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ . Average family earnings for month Percent earning less than— $100 $150 1,045 $150 35.0 58.9 277 240 189 158 81 48 52 96 138 157 170 205 217 253 59.6 32.1 26.5 27.2 25.9 10.4 9.6 88.4 59.6 52.4 46.2 38.3 27.1 21.2 Earnings of Husband-and-Wife 2-Person Families. There are 106 husband-and-wife families included in this study in which both husband and employed wife reported on cash earnings. Their combined earnings show an average for the month of $176. If the wives were turned out of their jobs, what would be the situation? In the first place, a large proportion of these families would have a difficult time making both ends meet. One-fourth would have less than $75 a month, a third would have $85 a month or less. And $85 is only 85 cents above the amount found necessary as a minimum for one woman worker in a cost-of-living survey in Utah in 1939, based on a "respectable, wholesome standard 7 of living acceptable to the society" in which the woman worker lives. The average amount that two persons would have to live on would be $104 a month, and well over two-fifths of the families would have less than $100 had the husband only earned. In the second place, the assistance given by these families to mothers, fathers, grandparents, sisters, brothers, or other relatives would be greatly diminished if not completely eliminated should these wives be denied the right to work. Well over two-fifths of these husband-and-wife families are making cash contributions to relatives. Approximately $16.75 a month is given to relatives by families who reported the amount contributed. Practically none of these 106 families have income in addition to earnings, and in 1 such case this income is temporary insurance payments. As would be expected, the chief reasons these wives are working are to supplement the husband's inadequate income and to assist relatives. In nearly a tenth of the families the husband's job is irregular or seasonal, so that such earnings as are reported for the month cannot be counted on as a regular thing. Another large group of these wives work to enable the family to get ahead; they are helping to buy a home or furniture, or are trying to raise the standard of living generally. In many of the families the wives are working for a combination of these various reasons. It should be noted that in more than a tenth of these families the wives began to work when the husband's earnings were eliminated or reduced through unemployment, illness, injury, pay cuts, or business failure. 7 Report of the Minimum Wage Division of the Industrial Commission of Utah on Cost of Living Survey and Wage Studies, 1939, pp. 5 and 29. UTAH WOMEN" WORKERS 4 5 In a little less than a sixth of these husband-and-wife families the husbands earn from $150 to $200 in the month, though none earn more than $200. Why were these wives working? In more than half of these cases the families are contributing to relatives an average of over $35 a month; in some cases this includes support or substantial aid to elderly and ill relatives. In some families the husband's earnings are not steadily at this level, as his work is seasonal or irregular. Other families are trying to buy a home while helping ill relatives or while the husband's work is seasonal. In a third of these few families with earnings of $150 to $200 the wives want to help their families to get ahead, or they are working to raise the family living standard, or they feel the need of providing for the future. One of these wives spent 3 years in special training for her profession and wishes to "keep in practice" as well as to provide for the future. Another wife first entered employment to support herself and her husband while he was in training, and is continuing, now that he has a job, to help a relative and to buy a home. Married Women in Public Employment. Because of the action of the Utah Legislature in passing a joint resolution concerning the State's employment policy, there is a special group of families extending into and beyond these 2-person employedhusband-and-wife groups at which criticism is directed. Though not having the force of law, Senate Joint Resolution No. 13, passed by the State legislature in March 1939, affects a large number 8 of the families included in this survey. Most particularly it affects that small group of families in which the wife or mother is employed in public service, for though the resolution applies equally to married men and women and to single men and women it has been used almost exclusively against married women. There are 69 families in this survey in which the wife or mother is employed in public service. A little less than two-fifths of these families have only 2 members, while a tenth have 5 to 8 members. In one-fourth of these families the husband is unemployed, ill, or absent from the household and unable to contribute to it. In well over a third the husband's earnings are either nonexistent or not over $95 a month and there are 3, 4, or 5 members in the family. In onesixth of the families the husband earns from $100 to $160 a month and there are 3, 4, and 8 members in the family. In only a tenth of the families does the husband earn $200 a month, and all but 2 of these have 3 or more members. In the families of only 2 members over two-fifths of the husbands either have no earnings at all or earnings of $70 or less; in well over half of these families the husband's earnings are either nonexistent or less than $96; in practically seven-tenths they range from $115 down to nothing. More than one-sixth of the families with the wife or mother employed in public service have income or supplements in addition to earnings, but except for an insignificant proportion these are cases where there are no earnings from the husband and there are three or more members to support. Well over half of these families with wife or mother in public employment make cash contributions to relatives outside the household. These families contribute an average of approximately $23 a month per family. s Over a third of all families of two or more members. 46 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT Though statistics tell the general story of the economic insecurity and responsibilities of these families, the reasons why married women work may be more vividly presented in a few representative case histories of families in several cities in Utah. To avoid identification minor details have been changed or omitted in some cases, but the basic facts of every case are as reported. CASE HISTORIES There are six members in the K household—Mr. and Mrs. K, two children aged 5 and 6, Mrs. K's mother, and Mr. K's brother. Both Mr. and Mrs. K are working. If Mrs. K stayed a t home, the family income would be $90 a month instead of $200 as a t present. Brother K is 18, a student. I n summer he gets odd jobs, in winter he works for N. Y. A. With this he gets along without calling on the family for more than room and board. Mother-in-law K takes care of the children while; Mrs. K is a t work and helps with the cooking and laundry. A part-time helper comes a couple of days a week to do most of the laundry and cleaning. The housework is lightened by modern conveniences which Mrs. K's earnings have helped to buy, such as mechanical refrigerator, gas stove, vacuum cleaner, electric washer, and telephone. Mrs. K took u p her present work with one of the public welfare organizations 5 years ago, when her husband was unemployed. She had to leave a young baby to do this, but with her mother a t home this was arranged. In the period just before t h a t she had taken part-time substitute work with one of the school boards. As a matter of fact, Mrs. K, who is 30, has worked for a t least 15 years. Though Mr. K is again employed, his earnings are inadequate for a family of six. Mr. and Mrs. M are a young couple who have been married about 4 years. Mrs. M was a salesgirl when she married and had to give up this job because of the firm's policy against the employment of married women. But she managed to get another job very soon, which was necessary because her husband was going to school. After a little more than a year a t that job she obtained a better one in the State service and has been there about 3 years now. Her husband had just obtained work as a salesman on a commission basis a t the time of the interview, but his only earnings for the month scheduled were for 2 weeks on a special job in which he earned $40. Mrs. M earns $90 a month and this has been the family's main support. Mrs. M has managed to take a 6-month business course while working and from her earnings has sent about $5 a month to her father to help pay for medical care. She does all the housework in their apartment, with some assistance in marketing and cleaning from her husband. The apartment has modern conveniences such as washing machine, vacuum cleaner, electric stove, and refrigerator, which lighten the work. Mrs. L has a clerical job with the State, Mr. L is a salesman. They have two sons, 9 and 8, and Mr. L's mother lives with them. This household of five has a monthly income of $215, of which Mr. L supplied approximately $75 in the month preceding the survey. This is due to the fact t h a t his health did not permit him to p u t in full time. As a matter of fact, a large part of his earnings goes for doctors' bills. This family has been under heavy medical expense for a t least 3 years, as one of the children has required special care also. Mrs. L has worked practically all the 15 years she has been married. When first married she was working in a temporary job and when t h a t ended she obtained other employment in order to help her husband get ahead. After about 5 years, when he had got his start, she quit work to have a family. She was home for 3 years or so, when the depression struck the family, her husband lost his job, and she had to go back to work. For a period of 6 or 7 months all Mrs. L could get was part-time employment, then she obtained her present work. Her husband now has work too, but Mrs. L is very worried t h a t as a married woman she may be deprived of her earnings, and the medical care now required by both husband and child will have to be given up. Under present arrangements Mrs.L and her mother-in4aw divide the household duties and care of the children. Mrs. L senior does the major part of the cleaning and laundry, some of the cooking, and looks after the children while their mother is a t work. The household duties are made lighter for her by modern conveniences such as a vacuum cleaner and electric washer. Without Mrs. L's share in providing family income these household aids would not be possible. More than UTAH WOMEN" WORKERS 47 this, the family provides Mrs. L senior with a small monthly sum ($15) for her own use for clothing and incidentals, since she has no other income. And Mrs. L manages to send to her own mother assistance to the amount of about $5 a month. When Mr. and Mrs. N were married 7 years ago, Mrs. N gave up her job with the city government. Mr. N was regularly employed and family finances were such t h a t 3 years later they could provide room and board for an unemployed brother of Mrs. N. Then in another year Mr. N lost his job. Mrs. N was fortunate enough to obtain employment with the State. She has been there 3% years now, Mr. N is again employed, and her brother is no longer with them. But Mr. N's line of work is very seasonal, very irregular. He had part-time work for the month preceding the survey and earned approximately $27. Under these circumstances Mrs. N does not feel t h a t she can safely give up her earnings of $90 a month. She and her busband share the housework in their apartment. When he has work they get a part-time helper in to clean for 3 or 4 hours a week. The apartment has the chief modern conveniences t h a t make housekeeping easier for a working wife. WOMEN WORKERS' MONEY CONTRIBUTIONS The vital share that working wives contribute to their family's economic life is well illustrated by individual cases. Do women earners as a group, whether married, single, widowed, separated, or divorced, play such an important part in their families' economic life? Do women earners in general keep their money for themselves or turn it over in any substantial amount to their families? Of all the cash contributions made to the family fund, what proportion comes from women earners? Chart I I I . — N U M B E R O F F A M I L I E S R E C E I V I N G S P E C I F I E D C O N T R I B U T I O N S FROM W O M E N WAGE EARNERS—UTAH. Women's share in total family contributions (percent) Number of families 75, under 100 n i l Under 85 Each complete = 50 families 48 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT In well over two-fifths of the 773 families reporting on contributions to the family fund, women earners give all that is contributed. Wives and mothers lead this group of women who make the entire contribution, with daughters a very close second. In three-fifths (59 percent) of the families women earners give 50 percent or more of all that is contributed. In one-fourth of the reporting families the women earners' share is 25 and under 50 percent of the total contributions. This represents mainly the contributions of wives and mothers in families where the husband also is employed. Women earners' contribution is less than 25 percent of the total in only a little more than one-tenth of the families reporting. Those who make this amount of contribution are mostly daughters with employed fathers or with both fathers and brothers employed. In only 4 percent of the families do women earners fail to make a cash contribution to the family. These women are sisters-in-law, daughters-in-law, married daughters, as well as daughters working with fathers or with fathers and sons. (See appendix table VII, p. 76.) Comparison of Sons' and Daughters' Contributions. In one-third of the families with both son and daughter employed, they are the only earners; in the other cases the father, mother, or other relatives also are employed. In those families reporting on contributions where sons and daughters are the only earners, the daughters' share in family contributions is outstanding. It amounts to 50 percent or more in over three-fourths of the cases; it is 100 percent in nearly a fourth of these families. None of the daughters give less than 25 percent of the total contributed. As already noted, the daughters' share in contributions is a different story from this in the families where either father or father and son are employed also. To compare the responsibility assumed by daughters with that assumed by sons, the earnings, contributions, and ages of sons and daughters have been tabulated for a small group of families having both son and daughter earners and giving full information on their earnings. (See appendix table VIII, p. 77.) In these families the largest comparable group of son-and-daughter earners are those 21 and under 30 years of age. The numbers in other age groups are too small for comparison. I t should be noted that the sons are a younger group in general, almost one-third of them, compared to less than one-tenth of the daughters, being under 21 years, and a smaller proportion of sons than of daughters being 30 and under 40. When the sons and daughters in the 21-and-under-30-year group are compared as to earnings and contributions, it is seen that the daughters earn less but contribute more, both proportionately and absolutely, than the sons do. The daughters' earnings average $71 for the month, the sons' $88; the daughters' contributions average $24 for the month, the sons' $21. In this age group 11K percent of the daughters compared to 9.1 percent of the sons give all their earnings to their families; only one-eighth of the daughters but nearly a third of the sons give none of their earnings. Contributions of Women Teachers. Contributions to their families made by women teachers in Utah are here analyzed briefly because of a suggestion by men teachers in U T A H WOMEN" WORKERS 49 some parts of the State that a preferential rate of pay be introduced in their favor on the grounds that men have families to support. Women teachers also have families to support and to assist, as shown by the records obtained in this survey. Single women teachers living away from home, as well as those living with their families, carry this responsibility. Teachers in 201 households reported their contributions to families and to relatives outside the household. Onethird of these are teachers living apart from their families, and 37 of these who live away from home and reported on contributions send a total of over $835 a month, or an average of about $22.50 a month per teacher, to relatives. There are 140 families of 2 or more persons in which an employed woman is a teacher, and 128 of these reported on the specific amount given to the family. Not far from one-half of these women teachers contribute their entire salary to the family fund, such contributions aggregating $8,000, or $133 per family. Almost 3 in 10 of the women who do this are the sole support of their families. In well over two-fifths of these families the women teachers contribute a definite monthly sum—though not their entire salaries— which amounts to an average of about $40 a month per family. Less than a tenth of the 140 families receive no contribution from the woman teacher member. WOMEN WORKERS' SERVICE CONTRIBUTIONS The contributions of women earners to their families do not stop with cash payments. This is strikingly demonstrated by reports from 337 families with male heads present in which the wife or mother works. Well over two-fifths of these families have no outside help with the housework; and in all but 4 of such families the wife or mother earner does at least part of the housework, in more than half she does it all. Even where the household consists of 4 or more members, the wife or mother earner does all the housework in over one-third of the families. In less than 3 percent of these families having no outside help is the wife or mother earner relieved of all housework by other members of the family. Only 6 percent of all the families have a full-time household employee, and these are mostly families with children under 12 years of age. Roughly speaking, the average weekly sums spent by these families with children under 12 whose mothers are working is about $3.50 in the case of part-time help and about $5 in case of full-time help. ^ Other families using outside help, practically half of the total reporting, have it chiefly for part or all of the laundry work, usually for part of it. Even in families having part-time help, in more than three-fifths of the families it is the wife or mother who does all the other housework. (See appendix table IX, p. 77.) Household Conveniences. Since women earners do a large part of their housework too, they are especially interested in having household conveniences. Utah families spent over 58% million dollars in 1938 for public utility services. This sum went for telephone service, for gas, and for electricity. It does not include the amounts spent for household appliances such as stoves, refrigerators, electric washers, and so torth That the homes where there are women earners play a large part in 50 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT putting this sum into circulation is demonstrated by the proportion of families in this survey using various household conveniences. Some 660 families in which there were working wives, mothers, or daughters reported on certain main household conveniences. Of these families, 70 percent had the use of gas or electric stoves, 66 percent used mechanical refrigerators, 65 percent had telephones, 73 percent had vacuum cleaners, and 68 percent used electric washers. These figures mean that three-tenths of the families still use a coal or wood stove, a third have no mechanical refrigerator, a third get on without a telephone, a little over a fourth have no vacuum cleaner, a third have no electric washer. In husband-and-wife families with wife working is found the most marked variation from this general picture. As would be expected, fewer of these small families use electric washers—less than two-fifths of them, compared to more than three-fourths of the families having working mothers or daughters. A smaller proportion of the husbandand-wife families have telephones—somewhat over two-fifths have them, in contrast to more than half of the larger families with the mothers working and four-fifths of those where the daughter works. The proportion of husband-and-wife families having the use of a gas or electric stove is higher than it is for the other types of families. There is little variation from one type of family to another in the proportion using mechanical refrigerators; about two-thirds of each type use them. Care of Children. Working mothers with young children have to carry another family responsibility besides that of keeping house. The extent of this problem is not great, as only a sixth of all the families of two or more members have working mothers with children under 12 years, and of this small group of families the majority have children 6 to 12 years old. In these families what provision is made for the children while the mother works? Fifty-two families with children under school age whose mothers are employed, comprising 6 percent of the family groups of two or more members, reported on the arrangements made. In all but a very few families the children are cared for at home, in over half of them by paid helpers, in the rest by other members of the household, such person being an adult in every instance but one where an older child has the responsibility. In the three families where the children are cared for away from home, one, a broken home, boards the child out, while the other two use a day nursery or a nursery school. Thirteen percent of the families of 2 or more persons, or 118 families, where 9the mother works, have children under 12 who are attending school. The children of 3 families are cared for away from home entirely. Of the remaining 115 families, 113 reported on the arrangements made for the school attendance and noonday meal of their children. In nearly half of the families the children require no special care in the matter of getting ready and going to and from school. They dress themselves and go alone or with other children to school and back. In nearly two-fifths of the families the child goes to and from school unattended, but the mother or a relative gets him ready. In not quite one-seventh of the families the mother, • These families include 23 that have children under 6 also. UTAH WOMEN" WORKERS 51 relative, or a paid helper gets the child ready and takes him to and from school. These same 113 families reported on how the noonday meal problem is handled. In a little less than three-fourths of the families the children have lunch at home, in most cases a hot lunch prepared by an older person, usually a paid helper. In only 2 families do children under 16 prepare the hot lunch; in more than a sixth of the families the working mother does it. When the arrangement is for a cold lunch the working mother usually prepares it; in fact, in three-tenths of the cases where the arrangement is for the children to lunch at home, the working mother prepares it, whether hot or cold. In one-fourth of the families the children carry their lunches, prepared by the employed mother in all but 2 instances. To sum up, working mothers prepare their children's lunches, to be taken to school or eaten at home, in well over two-fifths of the families. In very few families do children under 12 buy their lunches at school. When all the facts are weighed regarding women workers' contributions in time, effort, and money, there is no doubt about the indispensable role they play in their families. IN WHAT POSITION ARE UTAH WOMEN TO MEET FAMILY NEEDS? Work Available. Utah's women faced with the need of finding employment by which to support themselves and aid their families find their opportunities for obtaining a job limited except in the two largest cities in the State: Salt Lake City with a population of 149,934, and Ogden with a population of 43,688.10 The chief exception to this is in the case of unmarried women prepared to enter the main professional occupation, teaching. Opportunities for single women to teach—not for married women—exist fairly generally throughout the State. There is concentration, of course, in Salt Lake, where the University of Utah is situated, and in Ogden, as well as in Logan, home of the State Agricultural College, and in Provo, where Brigham Young University is established. Nearly three-fourths of all the clerical jobs in the State are in Salt Lake and Ogden, where the offices of the public utilities, the Union Pacific Railroad, insurance companies, and banks are located, as well as the offices of the largest stores and factories in the State. Fifty-seven percent of the domestic and personal service jobs, exclusive of household employment, are found in these two largest cities, because though each town may have its beauty shops, cafes, restaurants, and a hotel or two, the workers employed in each are few, and not every town has a laundry or dry-cleaning establishment— in fact, over two-thirds of the latter jobs are in Salt Lake and Ogden. Utah stores generally are small, the largest ones, naturally, being in the trade centers such as Salt Lake, Ogden, Provo, Logan, and Price, the last named a town of 4,000 inhabitants in the coal-mining section of the State. Well over half of the employment opportunities in the retail selling field are in Salt Lake and Ogden. Factory jobs are even more concentrated geographically than other types, the chief plants, which are those making cotton or wool garments, Figures from U. S. Census of Population, 1940. 52 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT knittea wear, and food products (chiefly candy and bakery products), being in Salt Lake, Ogden, and Logan. The largest telephone exchanges are in Salt Lake and Ogden, where there are three-fifths of the telephone-operator positions. Earnings of Women Workers. A total of 1,327 women who had found employment in these various occupations reported their earnings for the month preceding the interview. The average amounts earned by all women, including fulland part-time workers, range from $47 for hotel and restaurant employees 11 to $122 for teachers. Women in professional occupations have higher average earnings than women in other occupations, the only exception being nurses, whose average of $103 is $10 lower than the average for a small group of secretaries, all of whom are full-time workers. A few employed in professional occupations have part-time or undertime work. The average earnings for all professional occupations combined are $119. Women clerical workers as a group rank next in earnings to women in professional occupations. The average for the entire group is $96. The two largest clerical groups are stenographers and typists, with average earnings of $89, and one composed of general office workers, office-appliance operators, office managers, and assistant managers, whose monthly earnings average $101. Very few clerical workers are employed part time. Except for a small group of store employees—buyers, department managers, personal shoppers, floor girls, and so forth—whose average earnings of $78 include a few part-time workers, telephone operators rank third in earnings. Their average of $75 a month includes no part-time or undertime workers. Saleswomen in stores, with an average of $62 for the month, bring the average for all store employees down to $65. Six percent of the saleswomen included in the study are part-time workers. Women factory employees average as much as saleswomen—$62 a month—but there are few part-time workers among them. Excepting a small group of beauty-parlor operators, women in domestic and personal service occupations have the lowest earnings of all. The beauty-parlor group averages $70 for the month. Laundry and dry-cleaning employees average $56 and hotel and restaurant workers $47. The group last named has more than a sixth who are part-time or undertime workers, and of course it includes some whose cash earnings are supplemented by meals. (See appendix table X, p. 78.) Comparison of Full-Time Earnings by Marital Status and Occupation. Wife and mother earners carry a larger share of family responsibilities than do daughters or sisters or other women. In what occupational group do these married women find employment and what effect does this have on their earnings in general? Married women workers are concentrated in the three occupational groups with the lowest average earnings, three-fifths of them being in store, factory, or domestic and personal service jobs. On the other hand, three-fifths of the single women and nearly half of those widowed, separated, or divorced are in the two groups having the highest average 11 Including one caterer, four matrons, and one custodian. UTAH WOMEN" WORKERS 53 earnings, professional and clerical occupations. Only a seventh of the married women, but over a third of the single, and nearly a fourth of the widowed, separated, or divorced, are in professional occupations where the average monthly earnings for all women are highest—$120 a month, or more than twice as high as the average for all women in domestic and personal service. Married women not only have a smaller representation in the professional group—being almost entirely excluded from the teaching profession—but their average full-time earnings of $112 in professional occupations are lower by $8 than the Chart I V . — P E R C E N T O F W O M E N S I N G L E , M A R R I E D , W I D O W E D , SEPARATED, OR D I V O R C E D W I T H F U L L - T I M E E A R N I N G S AS S P E C I F I E D IN THE MONTH REPORTED—UTAH. Single I Under $50 Widowed, separated, r or divorced I | I Percent 7.3 10.6 6.6 $50, under $75 7////////A #75, under $100 #100, under $125 •125, under #150 $150 and over full-time earnings of the single women and lower by $13 than those of the widowed, separated, or divorced women. Well over a fifth of the married women are employed in stores, where the average monthly earnings of all full-time workers, $68, are next but one to the lowest occupational average. Only about an eighth of the single women and those with broken marital ties are in these store occupations. One-sixth of the married women, compared to about one-tenth of each of the other groups, work in factories. The full-time average for all women factory workers is $63, for those who are married it is $62. Over a fifth of the married women are in domestic and personal service, where the monthly cash earnings for all average $56, the lowest for any occupational group. Less than a tenth of the single women, but a fourth of the widowed, separated, or divorced, are in these occupations. 54 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT This concentration of married women in the lower paid occupations accounts for the fact that though married women earn more than single women in some occupations, their average full-time earnings as a group are decidedly less than those of single women or women who are widowed, separated, or divorced. Married women in clerical occupations have full-time average earnings of $101, which is $10 higher than those of the single women, though $6 lower than those of the widowed, separated, or divorced. This is the case also of married women in stores, where their average full-time monthly earnings are $69 compared to $64 for the single women and $75 for those with broken marital ties. In domestic and personal service, married women's full-time earnings average $58 a month against $54 for single women and $57 for the other group. But because of the weighting of married women in the lower-paid occupations, the average monthly full-time earnings of all married women reporting are only $79, compared to $90 for single women and for those with broken marital ties. (See appendix table X, p. 78.) A total of 1,265 women reported their full-time earnings. A larger proportion of the married women than of either of the other groups have earnings below $75 a month, even below $50. Well over half the married women, compared to approximately two-fifths of each of the other groups, earn less than $75. Married women have the lowest representation in every earnings interval from $75 a month up. Just over one-tenth of them, compared to approximately one-fifth of each of the other groups, earn $125 or more; less than one-twentieth, in contrast to nearly a tenth of the single women and of those widowed, separated, or divorced, earn $150 or more. (See chart, p. 53.) Less than a tenth of the 1,265 women reporting have full-time earnings as high as $150. Over two-thirds of these are single women, nearly a fifth are widowed, separated, or divorced, while less than a seventh are married. The occupational distribution of these relatively few women varies with marital status. The single women and those with broken marital ties are concentrated in professional occupations, mostly in teaching, while the few married women are evenly divided between professional and clerical occupations, except for one woman owner of a business. Well over two-fifths of the women workers in this study earn less than $75 a month for full-time work. Single women in this earnings group are found chiefly in stores, factories, domestic or personal service, and clerical occupations, in descending order, while married women are concentrated in domestic or personal service and store occupations, with factory employment a fairly close third, and women with broken marital ties are found overwhelmingly in domestic and personal service jobs, with factory and store employment a rather poor second and third. Age and Occupation. In the occupations in this study where single women's earnings average less than those of the other two groups, the single women are a considerably younger group, a larger proportion of them being under 30 than is true of all the single women in the study. Employed single women are generally a much younger group than married women workers or those widowed, separated, or divorced. Nearly two-thirds of the single women are under 30 years of age, while nearly as large a proportion of the married are 30 or older and more than UTAH WOMEN" WORKERS 55 three-fifths of the widowed, separated, or divorced are at least 40. The single women in clerical, trade, and domestic and personal service occupations are predominantly young women, the proportion under 30 ranging from 72 percent to 84 percent of the total in these occupational groups. In the clerical group the single women are concentrated in stenographic and typing jobs, and these women are much younger than those in any other clerical group. Over nine-tenths of the single women in beauty parlors and in hotels and restaurants are under 30, though in contrast to these two personal service groups a little Less than half of the single women in laundries and dry-cleaning establishments are under 30. Four-fifths of the single women factory employees are under 30, and in this occupational group their average monthly earnings are only $1 higher than those of married women. Among single women teachers is found the most marked deviation in age groups from single women as a whole. Three-tenths of the single women teachers are 40 or older, more than two-thirds are at least 30. For both married women and those who are widowed, separated, or divorced, this occupation, with the highest earnings, has a larger proportion of women who are 40 and older than any other. Of the widowed, separated, or divorced teachers, over four-fifths are 40 or older, and over three-fourths of the few married women teachers are at Jeast 40. In most occupational groups the widowed, separated, or divorced women are chiefly 40 or older. The main variation from this is in clerical occupations such as stenography and bookkeeping, where they are more concentrated in the 30-to-40 age group. This is true also of a very small group of telephone operators. The beauty-parlor employees are evenly distributed in the three age groups. Married women, generally speaking, are fairly evenly distributed in the age groups under 30, 30 to 40, and 40 and older. In most of the clerical occupations and in' professional work other than teaching they tend to be in the 30-to-40 age group; among store employees they are well distributed; but in factory occupations the largest proportion, about two-fifths, are under 30. Though well over two-fifths of the married women in laundries are under 30, a considerable proportion—over a third—are 40 or older. In hotels and restaurants nearly half of these married women are 40 years or more. Employment History of Women Who Have Been Married. Employed married women are a more mature group than the single women, but the earnings of the entire group average lower than those of other women because of their concentration in the low-paid occupations. This concentration occurs because they labor under definite handicaps. The largest professional occupation, teaching, is practically closed to them in Utah under discriminatory rulings by many county school boards. Exceptions are made only occasionally on the basis of special training, ability, or more rarely family need. This discrimination has been increasing in other lines of public service, bolstered by a legislative resolution aimed at all State employees regardless of sex who may have other members of their family working, but thus far used only against married women. Marriage may be a handicap also to women's earning power because of the break it may cause in their employment, or because it may delay their employment and thus place them at a disadvantage in experience when it later becomes necessary for them to go to work. 56 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT A total of 305 married women and 205 widowed, separated, or divorced women reported on their work history. Practically four-fifths of all these women worked before and after marriage; nearly two-thirds of this group stopped work at marriage but later returned to work. Six-sevenths of the married women and seven-tenths of those with broken marital ties worked before and after marriage. To the majority of both groups marriage had meant a turning aside from the business world—a definite plan to give up work. A larger proportion of the widowed, separated, or divorced women than of the married stopped work upon marriage, 82 percent compared to 55 percent. More than two-fifths of the married women and nearly three-fourths of those with broken marital ties who had stopped work when married stayed at home for 5 years or longer; in fact, over a fourth of the married women and well over two-fifths of the other group stayed at home for 10 or more years. (See appendix tables XI and XII, p. 79.) Nearly a third of the combined groups remained in their jobs after marriage. The proportion of the widowed, separated, or divorced women who stayed at work is much lower than that of the married women, 13 percent compared to 43 percent. One-seventh of the married women and three-tenths of those widowed, separated, or divorced had not worked before their marriage, and of these a substantial proportion were 30 or older when they first sought employment. This is a late start which would seriously affect their chance of obtaining a higher-paid job. The advent of children did not interrupt married women's employment to any great extent. Somewhat less than a fifth reported that they stopped because of having children, and most of these stopped temporarily or for less than 5 years. Nearly half had no children, while well over a third had not been working when children came. (See appendix table XIII, p. 79.) Education of Women Workers by Occupational Group. In Utah as elsewhere the vast majority of employed women, whether married, single, widowed, separated, or divorced, are working for a livelihood for themselves and their families. How well prepared have they been for this responsibility? Has their education or experience any bearing on their earnings? The general educational level of these Utah women workers is high. Three-fifths not only completed high school but took special occupational training while there or afterward, or went on to college. A total of 1,158 women reported on their education and occupation. Nearly a fifth are college graduates, a similar proportion attended college or normal school or were graduated from the latter, a little over twofifths at least completed high school. Less than a tenth did not go to high school at all. What relation is there between education and occupation, or between education and earnings, among these women workers? Naturally the women in professional occupations lead all others in the proportion of college graduates; over half of them were graduated from college. If to these are added the women who attended but did not finish college, and those who attended or completed normal school, the proportion is nearly nine-tenths who have some amount of higher education. Every one of the teachers attended college or normal school, and over three-fifths of them were graduated from college. Two-fifths of the nurses reporting attended college or U T A H WOMEN" WORKERS 57 normal school, though only a few are college graduates. Every one of the nurses is a high-school graduate, and of course all have had the regular 3-year training course in addition. Over three-fourths of the rest of the professional group, which includes social workers, library workers, laboratory technicians, and so forth, went to college or normal school, and over half were graduated from college. This group of professional workers is the only one with a few women who neither completed nor attended high school. Not far from nine-tenths of the clerical workers at least finished high school—in fact, three-tenths went on to college or normal school, though not more than 6 percent completed a full college course. Stenographers and typists resemble all clerical workers in the proportion going on to college or normal school, but those who finished college comprise only 3 percent of all. The clerical group with the highest proportion of college graduates—8 percent—are general clerical workers such as office clerks, office managers, office-appliance operators, file clerks, and so on. Only 2 percent of the clerical workers had neither special occupational training nor any high-school education. Over three-fourths of the women in stores at least completed high school. Like clerical workers, well over half are high-school graduates and 6 percent finished college. Only 7 percent of them did not go beyond the eighth grade nor take any special occupational training. There are no college graduates among the telephone operators and only 6 percent of them attended college or normal school, but the proportion who completed high school is very high—four-fifths of the total. Only 6 percent did not attend high school nor take any special occupational training aside from that received on the job. Among women in factories and in domestic and personal service the proportion with high-school graduation is considerably less, except in the case of a small group of beauty-parlor employees. This latter group has a large proportion of women who at least completed high school—over four-fifths of those reporting. Well over half of the women factory workers at least finished high school. One-half went no farther than this, but 6 percent went on to college or normal school and one woman completed the college course. A little over one-fifth attended high school, and about the same proportion either did not go beyond the eighth grade or had all their schooling in Europe. In this occupational group is found the highest proportion of the few women whose only formal education was in Europe—not quite 5 percent of all women factory workers. Of the domestic and personal service employees, the hotel and restaurant group rank next below factory workers in the proportion of women who at least finished high school. Not quite half the women in this occupational group have this much education. On the other hand, hotel and restaurant workers have a much higher proportion than factory workers of women with no schooling beyond the eighth grade and no special occupational training, or with schooling obtained entirely in Europe—three-tenths compared to a fifth. Women laundry workers have the lowest proportion of high-school graduates, a third of the 48 women reporting, including 1 woman who went beyond high school. There are none who completed college. This occupational group also has the highest proportion of women, over a third of the total, who neither entered high school nor took 292469°—41 5 58 W O M E N WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT any special occupational training. One of these had all her formal education in Europe. Education Related to First Job. The women who reported on the amount of their formal education and also on their first regular occupation numbered 1,188. The majority of women who did not complete high school had their first jobs in the two lowest-paid occupational groups, domestic and personal service and factory work. Generally speaking, the less education the greater the proportion that went into these two fields. Those who completed the eighth grade resemble this group generally, except that nearly a sixth began their employment in stores. Over two-fifths began in domestic and personal service jobs, over a fourth in factories. The proportions of eighth-grade graduates who began as clerical workers and as telephone operators were almost alike, 7 and 6 percent, respectively. Of those who attended but did not finish high school the largest proportion, one-third, began in domestic and personal service, and the next largest group, over one-fifth, had their first jobs in factories. The women who began in clerical jobs were nearly one-fifth, and over a sixth began in store jobs. Completion of the full high-school course made a decided difference in the kind of job first obtained. Practically half with this amount of education went into trade or clerical occupations, the latter taking a little more than a fourth of this high-school-graduate group. Onetwentieth (5 percent) began in professional occupations. However, over a third with this amount of education went into the two lowestpaid occupations, over a fifth starting in domestic and personal service. TABLE 2 . — E x t e n t of schooling, Extent of schooling Total reporting—Number. _ _ Percent Completed— Less than sixth grade Sixth, less than eighth grade-Eighth grade... Ninth grade Tenth grade Eleventh grade _ _ __ _ Twelfth grade or high-school .graduate by first regular job—UTAH Percent of women reporting extend of schooling whose Number first regular job was in— of women reporting education DomesCleriTeleand first Manu- tic and Profes- phone cal regular factur- person- Trade occupasional operat- Miscellaneous job al ing tions service ing service 1,188 100.0 147 12.4 250 21.0 206 17.3 243 20.5 7 15 83 35 64 37 33.3 26.5 20.0 21.9 27.0 100.0 53.3 42.2 31.4 32.8 37.8 6.7 15.7 22.9 18.8 10.8 6.7 7.2 17.1 18.8 21.6 256 21.5 53 4.5 33 2.8 1.2 6.0 8.6 4.7 2.7 3.1 1.2 508 14.2 21.9 22.2 26.8 5.3 6.5 3.1 Attended college Attended or completed normal school Graduated from college European schooling only _ 222 4.1 11.3 15.3 23.4 41.0 3.2 1.8 5 204 8 2.0 50.0 20.0 6.9 37.5 9.8 12.5 10.8 80.0 65.2 .5 4.9 Special occupational training 1 720 4.7 13.6 11.3 29.3 34.4 3.8 2.9 1 Distributed in details above. College education also made a decided difference in the first job. Even if only part of the college course was taken, nearly two-thirds U T A H WOMEN" WORKERS 59 of the women with this amount of education had their first employment in the two highest-paid occupational groups, professional and clerical, and less than a sixth began in domestic or personal service or factory work. Three-fourths of those who finished college had their first jobs in clerical or professional occupations, nearly twothirds in professional occupations alone, while less than a tenth went into factory or domestic and personal service jobs. Earnings and Education. Generally speaking, Utah women workers with the most formal education earn the most. Of course there are exceptions to this, but of the relatively few women who earn $150 or more a month, nearly two-thirds are college graduates; all but a very few not only have completed high school but have taken special occupational training or gone beyond high school. The women with these higher earnings are chiefly in professional occupations, especially teaching; a little over a fifth are in clerical occupations. Education affords a choice of employment in occupation, but when once a field of employment is entered it does not necessarily guarantee higher earnings. Three-fifths of the women with full-time earnings of less than $50 a month at least completed high school; in fact, three-tenths also had special occupational training, or went to college or normal school. None, however, completed college, and more than a sixth did not go to high school. The women with these low earnings are concentrated in domestic and personal service occupations. The few women in this earnings group who are employed in stores have a higher level of education generally than the women in other occupations, all but one having at least completed high school, none having failed to attend high school. The general relation between education and earnings is shown in another way when the earnings of college and high-school graduates are compared with the earnings of those who did not go beyond the eighth grade. Nearly 30 percent of the college graduates, compared to only 3 percent of the high-school graduates, earn $150 or more a month; none of those who stopped at the eighth grade or before earn so much. None of the college graduates have earnings below $50 a month, but over a sixth of the women who did not go beyond the eighth grade, and a tenth of the high-school graduates, have such earnings. Well over two-fifths of the college graduates earn $75 but under $125, but for well over two-fifths of the high-school graduates earnings are $50 and under $75, as they are for nearly twothirds of the women with only eighth-grade education or less. Education and Age at Entering Employment. The age at which these women went to work is fairly generally related to the amount of their schooling. Of the women with eighthgrade education or less, the largest proportion, almost a third, went to work before they were 16; of those who completed the tenth grade, more than a third went to work at 16 or 17. Of the high-school graduates and those who attended but did not finish college, more than half in each case went to work at 18 to 21 years, while of those who completed college half began work at 20 to 24 years. Women with eighth-grade education show by far the greatest proportion going to work in later years; one-sixth did not begin working until 60 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT they were 30 or more; in fact, more than one-twentieth were 40 or older. Length of Employment. Women workers as a group are experienced workers. Practically seven-tenths of the 1,191 women who reported on their work history have been employed 5 years or longer; indeed, over a fourth (27 percent) have had 15 or more years of experience, one-seventh have been 20 or more years at work. Women in professional occupations have the highest proportion of those with a record of 20 or more years of service. A little over onefourth of them have worked so long, while the groups with the next highest proportion—clerical workers and domestic and personal service employees—have a little over a tenth with such experience. Store employees, telephone operators, and factory workers have the lowest proportions of employees with 20 or more years of service. They also have the highest proportions of women at work less than 5 years— about two-fifths of each of these three groups. The majority of women workers do not shift from one occupation to another. Almost three-fifths have had all their employment in the same type of work. For factory workers, telephone operators, and clerical workers this proportion is even larger; roughly two-thirds of each of these groups have been employed in only the one kind of work. Domestic and personal service employees have done the most shifting, though well over two-fifths of them have stayed at the same type of work. The proportion of women who not only have stayed in one line of work but whose employment has been continuous 12 is fairly high— two-fifths of the total reporting. The professional group has the highest proportion of women with a long and unbroken record: More than three-tenths of this group have been employed continuously for 20 years or longer. This proportion is 3 times greater than that of the next nearest group—telephone operators. The factory workers, with 1 in 25 of their number at work continuously for 20 or more years, rank the lowest, followed by store employees, with 1 in 20. The store group has its highest proportion—over half—with the shortest continuous employment. Experience and Earnings. Earnings show a general relation to length of service as well as to occupation. As many as 1,149 women in the various occupational groups reported both their earnings and their length of employment. Of women earning less than $50 a month, most of whom are in domestic and personal service, almost two-thirds have had less than 5 years' employment; but it should be noted that they also have a significant group, over one-fifth, with 10 or more years of service. At the other end of the earnings scale, women receiving $150 or more a month have nearly seven-eighths (86 percent) of their number with at least 10 years of experience, though a very few—2 percent—earn this much after less than 5 years' employment. Of women with earnings of $50 and under $75, concentrated in store, factory, and domestic and personal service jobs, well over half have had less than 5 years' experience. This is especially true of women in stores. Almost a 12 No break in employment of as much as 3 months. U T A H WOMEN" WORKERS 61 fourth of the women with earnings of this amount have been employed 10 or more years, and this group is weighted by factory and domestic and personal service employees. The women with earnings of $75 and under $100 show considerable variation by occupation in the proportions with longer or shorter employment. More than half of the predominating clerical and professional groups have had less than 5 years' experience, but in all the other occupational groups combined more than half have worked for 10 or more years. In the earnings levels from $100 a month up, which are almost entirely made up of clerical and professional workers, especially the latter, the relation between experience and earnings seems very direct. Of the women with earnings of $100 and under $125, well over two-fifths have had at least 10 years' experience; of those earning $125 and under $150, three-fourths have been employed 10 or more years; and of those earning $150 or more the proportion with such experience is well over four-fifths. APPENDIXES A.—Tables for— Cleveland, tables I to XIII, pages 65 to 72. Utah, corresponding tables I to XIII, pages 72 to 79. B.—Estimated Total Earnings of Cleveland Women Employees. 63 APPENDIX A—TABLES CLEVELAND I.—Occupational distribution of employed women according to Women's Bureau survey of 1939 and Census of Occupations of 1930—CLEVELAND TABLE 1930 Census of Occupations 1939 survey by Women's Bureau Occupational group 1 Number of women Grand total - Total reporting occupation Clerical Professional Manufacturing Domestic and personal service (exclusive of household employees) Trade Transportation and communication._ . ___ _ Entrepreneurs, managers, officials, executives __ Miscellaneous (including public service) Percent distribution Percent distribution Number of women 4, 533 4, 389 100.0 2 85,269 100.0 1, 225 696 821 27.9 15.9 18.7 24,099 i 11, 796 i 18, 799 28.3 13.8 22.0 699 535 3186 109 118 15.9 12.2 4.2 2.5 2.7 112, 617 i 10, 347 i 3,032 653 3, 926 14.8 12.1 3.6 .8 4.6 9 135 Occupation not reported N o occupation; new workers 1 Redistributed somewhat to correspond to Women's Bureau classification. Excludes women in agriculture and extraction of minerals as well as household employees. Principally telephone operators. 2 3 TABLE II.—Percent distribution by age and marital status of women working or seeking work—CLEVELAND Women reporting Marital status Total Single Married Widowed, separated, or divorced. Percent of women whose age is — Under 22 years 22, under 25 years 25, under 30 years 30, under 40 years 40 and over years Number Percent 3, 641 100.0 16.2 17.2 21.5 24.5 20.6 2, 215 942 484 60.8 25.9 13.3 25.1 2.7 1.9 23.3 10.2 3.3 22.3 25.9 9.1 19.0 35.1 29.3 10.4 26.1 56.4 65 66 W O M E N WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY TABLE ENVIRONMENT I I I . — P r e s e n t age of women workers by age at beginning Total Age at beginning work Total—Number Percent Total reporting—Number Percent Under 16 years 16, under 18 years 18, under 20 years 20, under 22 years 22, under 25 years 25, under 30 years 30, under 35years 35, under 40 years 40 years and over Never worked—Number Not reported—Number Number Percent of women whose present age is— Percent 14, 533 100.0 Un16, 22, 18, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 der under under under under under under under years 16 18 20 22 25 30 35 40 and years years years years years years years years over 2 (2) 3 4, 211 100.0 100.0 3 505 993 1,186 674 415 186 107 66 79 4 12.0 23.6 28.2 16.0 9.9 4.4 2.5 1.6 1.9 84 238 work—CLEVELAND 2 27 0.6 234 5.2 351 7.8 671 14.9 911 20.2 632 14.0 524 11.6 1,148 25.5 10 .2 173 4.1 315 7.5 634 15.1 883 21.0 612 14.5 509 12.1 1,074 25.5 .4 .8 1.6 7.8 7.4 2.6 7.8 14.7 7.6 6.7 10.6 22.8 27.2 9.9 19.0 27.2 19.6 22.0 28.2 10.8 19.8 16.6 13.1 13.5 15.4 16.7 5.6 15.7 13.5 9.0 10.5 14.7 15.6 20.6 9.0 34.1 15.8 13.4 19.3 31.8 57.0 73.8 91.0 100.0 9 8 45 16 16 20 6 31 6 22 1 19 15 1 73 1 Percents based on 4,500; 33 women did not report present age. Less than 0.05 percent. 31 woman did not report present age. * 32 women did not report present age. 2 TABLE I V . — E x t e n t of schooling and age of women workers at time of beginning work— CLEVELAND Percent of women who began work at— Number of 18, 22, 20, 25, 30, 40 women Under 16, under under under under under years report16 under 20 18 22 25 30 40 and ing years years years years years years years over Extent of schooling Total Completed— Less than sixth grade Sixth, less than eighth grade Eighth grade Ninth grade Tenth grade Eleventh grade Twelfth grade or high-school graduate. Attended college Attended or completed normal school Graduated from college European schooling only No schooling Special occupational training 2__ 12 Percent not computed; base too small. Distributed in details above. - 4,119 11.9 23.7 28.2 16.2 10.0 4.4 3.9 1.8 87 233 530 264 397 228 1,640 33.3 37.8 24.7 18.2 15.4 9.6 4.3 13.8 22.7 31.5 39.0 39.8 38.6 19.6 11.5 11.6 14.9 20.5 26.4 32.9 41.0 6.9 7.3 8.9 11.4 7.3 8.8 20.3 8.0 5.2 5.1 6.4 4.3 5.7 9.0 10.3 3.4 6.4 2.7 3.3 1.3 3.0 13.8 5.6 5.8 1.9 3.3 2.2 2.1 2.3 6.4 2.6 244 39 263 178 1 16 2.0 10.3 3.0 12.9 13.5 7.7 4.9 13.5 25.0 33.3 16.0 10.7 34.0 35.9 26.6 7.9 15.6 10.3 39.2 12.4 7.4 5. 7 12.4 2.0 2.6 4.2 16.9 6.7 20.2 32.3 21.1 13.1 3.9 2.1 1,804 .3 .9 .7 .4 ______ 13.5 .7 APPENDIX A TABLE V.—Age 67 of women earners, by their marital status and relationship to head of household—CLEVELAND Percent of women whose present age is— Marital status and relationship to head of household Total—Number Single women—Number Daughter Sister Other relative _ ___ - Married women—Number Wife -Mother Daughter Daughter-in-law Sister Other relative-- - __ _ Widowed, separated, or divorced women—Number.. Mother Daughter Sister 0 ther relative -- - - Women living alone—Number Single Married Widowed, separated, or divorced .. Number of women reporting Under 22 years 22, under 25 years 25, under 30 years 30, under 40 years i 3,153 416 565 714 814 644 1, 552 369 391 380 280 132 1,345 120 87 25.4 6.7 23.0 27.0 9.2 19.5 26.3 13.3 11.5 17.2 26.7 19.5 4.2 44.2 26.4 40 years and over 793 17 83 215 282 196 447 287 35 2 21 U 22 3.4 15.2 1.7 20.0 32.4 16.4 31.4 31.8 41.8 42.9 17.2 40.1 2.9 2.9 304 4 9 25 97 169 173 89 2 22 2 20 1.3 3.4 3.0 5.6 8.2 16.9 31.9 44.9 55.6 29.2 504 26 82 94 155 147 399 21 104 6.5 19.5 20.6 31.1 22.3 3.8 11.5 28.8 55.8 12 Wife 447, mother 460, daughter 1,469, daughter-in-law 21, sister 143, other relative 109, living alone 504. Percents not computed; base too small. W O M E N WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY 68 TABLE V I . — N u m b e r of wage earners in the family, CLEVELAND ENVIRONMENT by size and type of family— Number of wage earners Size and type 1 of families of 2 or more persons Number of families Average per family Total All families reporting Male wage earners Female wage earners.. 2 2, 315 3 4, 658 1,997 2, 661 2.0 695 199 1.7 2 persons in family.. Husband and wife. Mother and childFather and child... Sister and brotherOther relatives 3 persons in family.. Husband and wife Father, mother, and child. Mother and children Father and children Sister and brother Other relatives 4 persons in family. Husband and wife Father, mother, and children. Mother and children Father and children Sister and brother 401 183 10 42 18 6 persons in family.. Husband and wife Father, mother, and children. Mother and children Father and children Sister and brother More than 6 persons in family. Husband and wife Father, mother, and childrenMother and children Father and children Sister and brother. 70 24 565 70 288 162 17 26 2 1.1 1.1 1.7 1.3 1.7 126 472 244 30 1.8 1.6 1.5 1.8 2.3 2.0 470 34 331 82 16 7 5 persons in family.. Husband and wife Father, mother, and children. Mother and children Father and children Sister and brother 11 243 47 3 74 684 148 40 16 2.2 2.1 1.8 689 2.3 23 542 112 2.9 2 375 52 5 3 2.0 2.6 2.6 7 523 83 17 3.5 3.1 3.3 6 3.0 1 2.5 2.3 2.2 2.4 3.0 3.0 169 1 144 20 3 1 202 2 167 25 6 2 1.7 3.0 3.1 2.8 1 In each case (except, obviously, 2-person families) such terms as "husband and wife," "sister and brother," indicate the type of family, and the members not specified may be children other than their own, relatives, other sisters or brothers, or any combination not interfering with the basic "type." 2 Excludes 47 families with no wage earners (16 of them with 4 or more members) and 3 not reporting number. .. . 3 Excludes 7 wage earners (4 men and 3 women) in the 3 families not reporting total number. earners1 share in contributions to the family, by family TABLE VII.—Women Families reporting share contributed by women earners Proportion of family contributions given by women earners Number Total number. _ __ No contribution_ Under 25 percent, __ _ 25, under 50 percent ___ 50, under 75 percent __ _ 75, under 100 percent, . _ 100 percent_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ relationship—CLEVELAND Percent of families reporting women's contributions as specified where the wage earners a r e - Percent Husband and wife Father and mother Mother Mother, Mother Mother Mother, father, and daughters, son daughters and sons sons Wife i 2,027 100.0 337 163 139 67 306 579 332 65 678 3.3 15.1 28.6 16.4 3.2 33.4 1.5 7.4 59.9 27.9 3.0 .3 0.6 9.8 58.3 0.7 65 10 (22) () (22) () 27.6 3.7 99.3 100.0 ' 49 23 21.7 52.2 17.4 8.7 100.0 Daughters sons, father Daughters and father Daughters and sons 306 148 143 1.4 7.4 24.3 48.6 12.8 5.4 7.0 56.6 29.4 7.0 13 10.8 39.2 33.3 13.4 3.3 (22) (2) () Percent of families reporting women's contributions as specified where the wage earners are—Continued 1 2 _ __ __ _ _ 25 3.4 _ 96.6 4.0 48.0 40.0 4.0 4.0 18 23 4.3 43.5 52.2 (22) (2) (2) () Excludes 1-person families and 194 with only men earners in which women members were seeking work. Percent not computed; base too small. 5 52 (22) () 100.0 Family Sisters Other member and and other relatives brothers relatives 20 110 1.8 26.4 37.3 12.7 3.6 18.2 OrSIpcSip 324 Total number No contribution Under 25 percent _ 25, under 50 percent 50, under 75 percent 75, under 100 percent 100 percent. Sisters OOOOO Daughters Daughters or daugh- Daughters, Daughters, or daugh- ters-in-law, father, Daughters ters-in-law, father, father, mother, only and sons or sons, mother or sons sons-in-law sons-in-law Proportion of family contributions given by women earners Miscellaneous, complex 26 28 7.7 3.6 25.0 39.3 25.0 3.6 3.6 92.3 WOMEN WORKERS IN THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT 70 VIII.—Contributions made by sons and daughters in 802 families sons and daughters employed, by age group—CLEVELAND TABLE Age group Number with both Average monthly contributions (mean) Average monthlyearnings (mean) DAUGHTERS Total reporting. Under 21 years 21, under 30 years 30, under 40 years 40 years and over 398 $74.80 $40.35 20.4 64 271 59 4 48.20 73.70 107.50 93.10 29.80 39.05 56.80 56.65 32.8 18.1 15.3 50.0 SONS Total reporting. 1362 $86.10 $37.20 14.6 Under 21 years. _____ 21, under 30 years 30, under 40 years 40 years and over 67 226 59 8 50.60 88.70 117. 80 88. 95 24. 55 38.90 46. 25 32.50 26.9 13.7 5.1 12.5 Percent of daughters and sons contributing proportions specified Proportion of earnings contributed to family Daughters 6.8 .3 4.5 14.3 24.4 17.3 6.3 5.8 20.4 Not any Under 10 percent 10, under 25 percent. _ 25, under 3 3 p e r c e n t 33^, under 50 percent 50, under 66% percent 66%, under 75 percent 75, under 100 percent. 100 percent 12.2 .3 8.3 11.9 29.0 17.4 4.1 2.2 14.6 i Total includes 2 sons with age not reported. TABLE IX.—Accomplishment of household tasks in families where wife or mother works and male head is present, by size of family—CLEVELAND Families having outside help Total number of families reporting Size of family Number Percent of total.. 2 persons 3 persons 4 persons 5 persons 6 persons.. 7 or more persons _ With Num- full-time ber of housefamilies hold employees With parttime aid Families having no outside help All work is done Number of by wife or families mother earner All work is done by other than wife or mother earner All work is done by family members including wife or mother earner 734 100.0 294 40.1 26 3.5 268 36.5 440 59.9 175 23.8 42 5.7 223 30.4 361 161 113 64 21 14 180 61 36 13 3 1 6 10 7 2 1 174 51 29 11 2 1 181 100 77 51 18 13 106 42 17 9 2 10 14 10 4 2 73 48 46 32 14 10 1 APPENDIX A X.—Average monthly earnings of full-time women workers, by present occupation and by marital status—CLEVELAND earnings -M O e 2 2,743 S-i © -M a © otH © S P-i 83 rO | "3 © © $96 98 675 39.0 97 174 26.6 83 87 754 113 99 96 68 53 554 3.9 3.1 32.0 111 93 95 11 27 136 529 134 363 21.0 137 116 266 72 75 184 107 120 163 97 185 29 52 5.6 10.7 1.7 3.0 Transportation and communication 3 Trade Manufacturing 138 232 370 97 71 80 69 142 232 4.0 8.2 13.4 Domestic and personal service.. 366 58 159 Laundry Hotel and restaurant Beauty parlor Other domestic and personal- 114 148 43 61 60 60 69 44 38 60 ^ 61 184 81 89 5.1 Secretaries Office-appliance operators, _ Other clerical Professional Teachers Nurses Social workers Other professional Miscellaneous. 924 aES fc -u fl © o Pm $94 1,729 100.0 All occupations Clerical i-i © Average monthly earnings (mean) 1 a B Widowed, separated, or divorced Married Average monthly1 earnings (mean) a monthl y (mean)i Single Average Occupation g o £ *o 03 rO Women who are— Average monthly earnings (mean) 1 TABLE 71 654 100.0 $90 360 100.0 $90 99 75 20.8 103 1.7 4.1 20.8 107 96 4 7 64 1.1 1.9 17.8 100 119 18.2 122 47 13.0 140 184 104 131 170 15 58 35 11 2.3 8.9 5.4 1.7 115 111 4 23 8 12 1.1 6.4 2.2 3.3 118 96 69 80 41 52 98 6.3 8.0 15.0 97 74 82 28 38 40 7.8 10.6 11.1 103 73 76 9.2 55 135 20.6 60 72 20.0 62 2.2 3.5 4 3.5 61 59 4 48 54 56 4 25 8.3 8.6 4 3.8 61 60 4 60 22 32 4 18 6.1 8.9 4 5.0 56 62 77 35 5.4 86 60 16.7 84 1 Not computed where base less than 20. 2 Total excludes 409 part-time women workers. Principally telephone operators. For beauty parlor and other domestic and personal combined. 3 4 TABLE XI.—Employment of women who are or have been Women reporting married—CLEVELAND Married Employment Widowed, separated, or divorced Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent 1,601 100.0 1,180 100.0 421 100.0 Only before marriage Only after marriage 474 355 29.6 22.2 447 186 37.9 15.8 27 169 6.4 40.2 Before and after marriage 772 48.2 547 46.3 225 53.4 247 15.4 214 18.1 33 7.8 522 3 32.6 .2 333 28.2 189 3 44.9 .7 Total Did not stop working or seeking work Stopped because of marriage but later returned to work _______ Did not report on breaks in employment _. WOMEN WORKERS IN THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT 72 TABLE XII.—Breaks in employment of women who are or have been CLEVELAND Women reporting married- Widowed, separated, or divorced Married Length of breaks in employment Number Percent Number Percent Number Total 518 100.0 331 100.0 187 100.0 Under 5 years 5, under 10 years 10 years or more 253 123 142 48.8 23.8 27.4 194 65 72 58.6 19.6 21.8 59 58 70 31.6 31.0 37.4 TABLE Percent XIII.—Interruptions to married women's employment caused by childbirth— CLEVELAND Married women Interruptions to employment Number Total reporting Stopped work entirely Stopped work for under 1 year Stopped work for 1, under 5 years Stopped work for 5, under 10 years Stopped work for 10 years or longer Amount of time out not reported Had not been working when children came. No children Percent 643 100.0 65 39 l 44 2 9 36 4 230 246 10.1 6.1 6.8 1.4 .9 .6 35.8 38. a 1 2 2 1 3 took specified time out for 2 children. took specified time out for 2 children. 1 took specified time out for 3 children. UTAH TABLE I.—Occupational distribution of employed women according to Women's: Bureau survey of 1939 and Census of Occupations of 1930—UTAH 1939 survey by Women's Bureau Occupational group * Number of women Grand total Total reporting occupation. Clerical _ Professional __ Manufacturing _ Domestic and personal service (exclusive of household employees) __ Trade Transportation and communication Public service (not elsewhere classified) Miscellaneous (including public service) No occupation; new workers 1 2 Percent distribution 1930 Census of Occupations Number of women 1,421 1,368 100.0 i 24,057 100.0 309 366 166 22.6 26.8 12.1 5,835 5, 977 2,701 24.5 24.8 11.2 234 217 2 55 17.1 15.9 4.0 4,167 3,978 1,294 105 17. a 16.5 5.4 .4 21 1.5 53 Excludes women in agriculture and extraction of minerals as well as household employees. All telephone operators. Percent distribution APPENDIX A 73 IT.—Percent distribution by age and marital status of women working or seeking work—UTAH TABLE Women reporting Marital status Total Single Married Widowed, vorced TABLE Percent of women whose age is— Under 22 22, under 25, under 30, under 40 years 25 years 30 years 40 years and over years Number Percent 1,414 100.0 18.7 13.6 16.3 24.9 26.6 799 352 56.5 24.9 29.5 6.8 18.6 9.9 17.3 19.3 20.8 34.4 13.8 29.5 263 18.6 1.5 3.0 9.1 24.7 61.6 _ __ _ _ separated, or di. - -_ III.—Present age of women workers by age at beginning Total Age at beginning work Number Total reporting—Number Percent Under 16 years 16 under 18 years 18, under 20 years 20, under 22 years 22, under 25 years 25, under 30 years 30, under 35 years 35 under 40 years 40 years and over . „ __ ._ — _ _ ... — _- Never worked—Number Not reported—Number Percent of women whose present age is— 16, 18, 20, 22, 25, 30, 35, 40 Per- under under under under under under under years 18 cent 20 22 25 35 30 40 and years years years years years years years over 5 0.4 84 5.9 175 12.4 192 13.6 230 16.3 181 12.8 171 12.1 376 26.6 1,192 100.0 100.0 1 0.1 58 4.9 137 11.5 160 13.4 195 16.4 155 13.0 160 13.4 326 27.3 14.1 20.6 29.6 16.4 9.6 4.3 1.8 1.8 1.8 .5 3.6 9.4 8.2 10.1 15.5 19.3 7.1 7.1 13.1 18.1 18.4 14.0 17.9 17.6 17.8 16.8 17. 5 11.8 14.9 11.0 9.3 16.8 21.1 23.5 4.5 14.3 12.7 11.0 12.8 17.5 21.6 36.4 9.5 31.5 20.8 16.1 28.1 29.8 43.1 59.1 90.5 100.0 4 26 1 37 1 31 35 26 11 50 11,421 100.0 Total—Number Percent 168 245 353 196 114 51 22 21 22 2 2 227 1 Percents based on 1,414; 7 women did not report present age. 2 7 women did not report present age. work—UTAH 74 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY TABLE ENVIRONMENT I V . — E x t e n t of schooling and age of women workers at time of beginning work— UTAH Percent of women who began work at— Extent of schooling Number of women reporting Under 16 years 16, 22, 20, 30, 18, 25, 40 un- un- unun- unun- year der der der der and der der 18 25 22 40 20 30 years years years years years years over 1,185 14.2 20.6 29.6 16.5 9.6 4.3 3.5 1.7 Completed— Less than sixth grade _ ___ Sixth, less than eighth grade _ Eighth grade Ninth grade Tenth grade _ _ ___ Eleventh grade Twelfth grade or high-school graduate. i7 i 13 83 34 62 37 507 32.5 23.5 24.2 16.2 12.8 18.1 26.5 35.5 21.6 21.3 15.7 11.8 17.7 27.0 38.7 6.0 14.7 8.1 18.9 13.6 4.8 5.9 4.8 2.7 4.9 6.0 5.9 4.8 5.4 3.7 9.6 8.8 3.2 2.7 3.4 7.2 2.9 1.6 5.4 1.6 Attended college Attended or completed normal school _ _ Graduated from college European schooling only. ____ . . . 222 i 5 207 i8 10.4 17.1 33.8 20.3 12.6 3.2 1.8 .9 7.7 17.9 18.4 26.6 23.2 4.3 1.9 Special occupational training2 717 12.0 20.2 29.8 19.8 12.0 4.0 1.4 Total .7 1 Percents not computed; base too small. Distributed in details above. 2 TABLE V.—Age of women earners, by their marital status and relationship to head of household—UTAH Percent of women whose present age is— Number Marital status and relationship to head of household of women Under reporting 22 years 22, under 25 years 25, under 30 years 30, years under 40and 40 over years Total—Number.- i 1, 357 234 183 225 348 Single women—Number 543 161 104 100 102 76 434 78 31 33.9 6.4 29.0 21.7 9.0 9.7 19.1 16.7 12.9 17.3 30.8 9.7 8.1 37.2 38.7 Daughter Sister __ _ _ Other relative. _ --- 367 Married women—Number 346 22 35 67 121 101 Wife . . Mother - _ Daughter Daughter-in-law. 155 183 2 6 2 2 9.7 2.2 19.4 2.2 27.7 10.9 25.8 44.3 17.4 40.4 183 4 4 19 50 106 8.3 4.3 27.1 29.1 29.2 66.7 29.2 __ - __ Widowed, separated, or divorced women—Number_ Mother Daughter Sister Other relative - 117 48 27 2 11 -- - - - _ Women living alone—Number Single Widowed, separated, or divorced-_ - 6.3 285 47 40 39 75 84 212 73 22.2 17.5 4.1 16.5 5.5 29.2 17.8 14.6 72.6 12 Wife 155, mother 300, daughter 488, daughter-in-law 2, sister 85, other relative 42, living alone 285. Percents not computed; base too small. APPENDIX A TABLE V I . — N u m b e r of wage earners in the family, UTAH 75 by size and type of family— Number of wage earners 1 Size and type of families of 2 or more persons Number of families Average per family Total All families reporting Male wage earners Female wage earners.. 2 persons in family.. Husband and wife _ Mother and child._ Father and child.._ Sister and brother. Other relatives 3 persons in family.. Husband and wife Father, mother, and child. Mother and children Father and children Sister and brother Other relatives 4 persons in family.. Husband and wife Father, mother, and children. Mother and children Father and children Sister and brother. 5 persons in family.. Husband and wife Father, mother, and children. Mother and children Sister and brother 6 persons in familyFather, mother, and children. Mother and children Father and children Sister and brother More than 6 persons in family. Father, mother, and children. Mother and children Father and children 2 875 1, 731 654 1, 077 249 393 131 78 6 31 3 244 1.1 1.3 1.6 213 370 1.7 24 96 79 2 10 2 45 178 120 3 22 2 1.9 1.9 1.5 1.5 5 129 12 261 2.0 101 234 2.3 4 198 30 2 4.0 2.4 1.9 1.3 176 180 156 15 6 2.2 1.0 2.0 2.4 1.7 3.5 1.5 1.8 2.0 2.6 2.6 2.1 3.0 3.0 205 3.1 2.5 2.0 1 In each case (except, obviously, 2-person families) such terms as "husband and wife," "sister and brother," indicate the type of family, and the members not specified may be children other than their own, relatives, other sisters or brothers, or any combination not interfering with the basic "type." 2 Excludes 2 families with no wage earners. TABLE Proportion of family contributions given by women earners V I I . — Women Families reporting share contributed by women earners Number Percent 31 91 191 80 29 351 relationship—UTAH Husband and wife Father and mother Mother 103 95 Wife Mother, Mother father, and son daughters Mother and sons Daughters and father 4.0 11.8 24. 7 10. 3 3.8 45.4 o> Percent of families reporting women's contributions as specified where the wage earners are— 100.0 Total number No contribution Under 25 percent 25, under 50 percent 50, under 75 percent 75, under 100 percent 100 percent earners' share in contributions to the family, by family 2.4 69.9 21. 1 3. 3 3.3 5.8 65.0 21.4 2.9 4.9 2 ( 2) () 2 ( 2) ( 2) () 2 ( 2) () Daughters and sons Daughters, sons, father 87 30 23.0 59.8 12.6 3.4 23.3 56.7 23.1 30.8 23. 1 23.1 1.1 10.0 3.3 6.7 Percent of families reporting women's contributions as specified where the wage earners are—Con. Proportion of family contributions given by women earners Total number.. No contribution Under 25 percent 25, under 50 percent.. 50, under 75 percent.. 75, under 100 percent. 100 percent Daughters only Daughters, Daughters, father, father, mother, mother sons Sisters and brothers (22) () (2) Family member and other relatives Other relatives 10.3 2 (2 ) (2) () 12. 8 2 ( 2) () Miscellaneous, complex 39 38 122 1 Excludes 1-person families, 102 that did not report the proportion, and 2 that had no wage earners. 2 Percent not computed; base too small. Sisters 2 () w 23. 1 12.8 7.7 33.3 2 () H APPENDIX A TABLE 77 VIII.—Contributions made by sons and daughters in 51 families sons and daughters employed, by age group—UTAH Age group Number Average monthlyearnings (mean) with both Average monthly contributions (mean) Percent contributing all their earnings DAUGHTERS Total reporting. Under 21 years 21, under 30 years 30, under 40 years 40 years and over 72 $77 $27 9.7 6 52 11 3 42 71 104 162 12 24 40 55 11.5 9.1 SONS Total reporting. Under 21 years 21, under 30 years 30, under 40 years i 59 $72 $19 11.9 19 33 5 44 88 83 15 21 12 15.8 9.1 Percent of daughters and sons contributing proportions specified Proportion of earnings contributed to family Daughters Sons 12.5 1.4 20.8 25.0 23.6 5.6 Not any Under 10 percent 10, under 25 percent, - . 25, under 33H percent. 3 3 u n d e r 50 percent . 50, under 66% percent. 66%, under 75 percent. 75, under 100 percent. _ 100 percent 32.2 5.1 23.7 13.6 6.8 3.4 3.4 1.4 9.7 11.9 i Total includes 2 sons with age not reported. TABLE IX.—Accomplishment of household tasks in families where wife or mother works and male head is present, by size of family—UTAH Families having outside help Size of family Number Percent of total. 2 persons 3 persons 4 persons 5 persons 6 persons 7 or more persons Total number of fami- Number With lies refami- full-time porting of lies household employees 337 100.0 129 80 69 26 19 14 187 55.5 With parttime aid 49.3 Families having no outside help All work is Number done by of fami- wife or lies mother earner 150 44.5 77 All work is done by other than wife or mother earner All work is done by family members including wife or mother earner 4 1.2 20.5 12 18 20 78 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY X.—Average monthly earnings of full-time women workers, by present occupation and by marital status—UTAH ?fl© All occupations Secretaries Bookkeepers, cashiers, accountants Stenographers and typists. Other clerical Professional Teachers.. Nurses Librarians, social workers, and others 28 113 15 2.1 35 117 112 88 89 103 24 83 48 3.4 11.7 6.8 353 120 251 239 49 123 105 193 30 $90 91 311 100.0 62 19.9 8 2.6 88 87 94 7 19 28 2.3 6.1 9.0 35.3 120 44 14.1 27. 1 4.2 122 105 9 15 2.9 4.8 $79 101 243 100.0 Average monthly earnings (mean) 1 23.9 Percent 170 Number 711 100.0 97 Average monthly1 earnings (mean) $87 292 Percent 21, 265 Percent 'S o H Widowed, separated, or divorced Married Average monthly earnings (mean) 1 R3 0© 3 p o a g © > <1 P P Clerical Single P Number Occupation p <x> a * o © a Women who are— t» be Number TABLE ENVIRONMENT $90 60 24. 7 5 2.1 104 4 15 36 1.6 6.2 14.8 112 58 23.9 125 37 4 15.2 1.6 129 107 115 65 121 28 3.9 124 20 6.4 111 17 7.0 Telephone operators Trade Manufacturing 54 197 160 75 68 63 35 95 84 4.9 13.4 11.8 74 64 63 14 71 51 4.5 22.8 16.4 69 62 5 31 25 2.1 12.8 10.3 75 64 Domestic and personal service.. 197 56 70 9.8 54 67 21.5 58 60 24.7 57 Laundry Beauty parlor Hotel, restaurant, and other domestic and personal 50 35 58 72 19 19 2.7 2. 7 22 9 7.1 2.9 56 9 7 3. 7 2. 9 112 51 32 4.5 36 11.6 53 44 18.1 6 .8 2 .6 4 1.6 Miscellaneous 1 2 12 Not computed where base less than 20. Total excludes 62 part-time women workers. 44 54 APPENDIX A TABLE 79 XI.—Employment of women who are or have been Women reporting married—UTAH Widowed, separated, or divorced Married Employment Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent 510 100.0 305 100.0 205 100.0 Only after marriage. 106 20.8 45 14.8 61 29.8 Before and after marriage 404 79.2 260 85.2 144 70.2 141 27.6 116 38.0 25 12.2 261 2 51.2 .4 142 2 46.6 .7 119 58.0 Total Did not stop working or seeking work Stopped because of marriage but later returned to work Did not report on breaks in employment TABLE XII.—Breaks in employment of women who are or have been UTAH Women reporting Widowed, separated, or divorced Married Length of breaks in employment Total Under 5 years 5, under 10 years. __ 10 years or more TABLE married— Number Percent Number Percent Number 261 100.0 142 100.0 119 100.0 112 56 93 42.9 21.5 35.6 81 22 39 57.0 15.5 27.5 31 34 54 26.1 28.6 45.4 XIII.—Interruptions to married women's birth—UTAH employment Percent caused by child- Married women Interruptions to employment Number Total reporting Stopped work for under 1 year Stopped work for 1, under 5 years Stopped work for 5, under 10 years Stopped work for 10 years or longer Amount of time out not reported Had not been working when children came No children Percent 305 100.0 22 22 5 1 3 110 142 7.2 7.2 1.6 .3 1.0 36.1 46.6 APPENDIX B.—ESTIMATED TOTAL EARNINGS OF CLEVELAND WOMEN EMPLOYEES Estimated total earnings, by occupational group Occupational classification Total Manufacturing, sales, clerical Professional Domestic service Other Total earnings $96, 383, 000 74, 326, 000 17, 724, 000 3, 987, 000 346, 000 EXPLANATION OF ESTIMATE The bulletins of the Department of Industrial Relations of Ohio showing rates of wages, fluctuation of employment, wage and salary payments for 1929 1 and 1937 2 were used for the basic figures for total amount paid to wage earners, clerical workers, and salespeople in Cuyahoga County 1 and in the State.2 Tables I, II, and I I I in the 1929 report showing Cuyahoga County were used to compute the percent that women's pay was of the total. The numbers employed shown in tables j|I, II, and III are peak figures, since the week of greatest employment is selected as the base for these tables. These Cuyahoga County figures do not include interstate railroads, mines and quarries, or professional and other self-employed groups. They include a very minor representation of domestic service—so minor that an estimate for this group was added to the total figure. The figures for Cuyahoga County were reduced to represent the city of Cleveland. This was done by obtaining from the 1929 Census of Manufactures figures for Cuyahoga County and for Cleveland on number of establishments, salaried officers and employees, and wage earners, and the total amount of salaries and wages paid. The percent that these Cleveland figures were of those for Cuyahoga County was computed. These percents were then applied to the total wagepayment figure and the total number employed. The State figures for average number of employees were computed from tables IV, V, and VI and used, rather than the peak numbers shown in tables I, II, and III. After the total wage payments were reduced, women's share was estimated by applying the proportion women's earnings were of the total wage payments to the reduced total. These figures were then adjusted to 1937 conditions by the reduction of wage-payment figures and the increase in employment figures, in accordance with the changes shown in the 1937 report of the Department of Industrial Relations of Ohio which gives figures for the State only. The estimates for those groups not covered by State figures are based on the several following sources: 1 Ohio. Department of Industrial Relations and Industrial Commission. Division of Labor Statistics, Report No. 26. Rates of Wages, Fluctuation of Employment, Wage and Salary Payments in Ohio, 1929. table VII, p. 404. This is the latest available report showing figures by counties. 2 Ohio. Department of Industrial Relations. Division of Labor Statistics. Report No. 29. Rates of Wages, Fluctuation of Employment, Wage and Salary Payments in Ohio, 1930 to 1937, table VII, p. 932. 81 82 WOMEN WORKERS I N THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT Professional Service. In a study made of Cleveland teachers' salaries for the year 1930-31, the figure $11,400,000 is given as Cleveland's pay roll for teachers. From a sample study given in the report it is possible to compute the percent of the pay roll that went to women. This was found to be 80.7 percent.3 The estimate for nurses had to be drawn from two different sources. In order to obtain figures for all types of nursing, a study made bv 4 the American Nurses' Association and one made by the Public Health Nursing Magazine 5 were used. Figures for 1935 were obtained from these studies. On the basis of a study made by Bertha Nienburg of nursing needs in the District of Columbia,6 and on the basis of other studies showing the percent of women employed in different types of nursing, the number of nurses in Cleveland employed in each type was computed and the 1935 figures were used in calculating the total amount. To estimate women's earnings in other professional groups, average earnings for these groups, as shown by this 1939 survey, were used. These were grouped as follows: Social workers, other professional workers, semiprofessional workers, and attendants and helpers. To estimate men's earnings in other professional groups, the National Income Study of the United States Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce was relied on mainly, though numerous other sources were consulted as a check. Figures for 1929 were used. For some occupations figures from Harold F. Clark's book "Life Earnings" were used. Interstate Railroad Employees. Figures from the National Income Study for 1929 were used after being checked against a study made by Otto S. Beyer and Edwrin M. Fitch. 7 These figures were used for men. For women, figures from the Women's Bureau 1939 survey were used. Public Service. Figures from the National Income Study for 1929 were used for the men. The figure for "All Government Service" was used, as it was more conservative than the figures for city, State, and Federal service. For women, the figure for Cleveland police women in 1929, as shown by a survey made by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics,8 was used. Domestic Service. Employment service figures checked against all other known wage figures were employed. No attempt has been made to estimate income of owners, proprietors, independent trades people, executives, entrepreneurs. The estimate refers only to those receiving wages or salaries in the nonexecutive brackets. 3 Cleveland Teachers' Salaries. B y T. C. Holy, Ohio State University. 1931, pp., 82-88, 166. 4 Study of Incomes, Salaries, and Employment Conditions. American Nurses' Association. 1938. pp. 291-314. s Public Health Nursing Magazine, vol 27, p. 344. 6 Unpublished material. 7 U . S . Bureau of Labor Statistics. Monthly Labor Review, July 1935, pp. 1-12. Annual Earnings of 8Railroad Employees, 1924 to 1933. By Otto S. Beyer and Edwin M. Fitch. U . S.Bureau of Labor Statistics. Monthly Labor Review, May 1933, pp. 1116-1150. Salaries in Police Departments of Principal Cities in the United States, December 1932.
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