The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1884-11-23
Women Workers.

| III IS WltDln CveTyDOuyB ODSOTVatlOn tnhb
OF recent years women have been entering
into many occupations from which they were
formerly shut out, or which their own prcju-
dices prevented them from pursuing. Mr.
FRANCIS KING CAREY, In a paper In tho last
Princeton Repien, gives comparative statis-
tics from the censuses Of 1870 and 1880 to show
how great was the Increase in the employ
mcnt Of female labor during the ten years.
II socms that In 1880 women wero engaged
In 222 Of the 265 different gainful occupations
enumerated In the census, tho whole number
OF females employed having been 2Gi7,157,
ns compared with 1i,74i.9i2 males. The total
population was thus divided as to sex:
Males. 25.5ls. $50; females, 24.69G,963. Moro
| than one-half OF tho women employed were
| engaged In professional and personal SER
| vices" nearly ono million OF them being
| domestic servants, an occupation which
they almost monopolize, there being nine
| times us many women IA men so engaged.
The total number of women in gainful oc-
| equations was 1,ss6,2ss in 1870 md 2,Gi7,15 in
| 1880. the relative increase being greater than
tho increase OF tho whole population by
277,795. That last total therefore represents.
80 far us the census can give II, the positive
addition to tho host of women engaged in
such occupations. During the ten years, for
| instance, women began to DO employed in
| shops as attendants as mover before, 80 that
| In 1880 the number of such female workers
increased to 23,722. They became telegraph
| operators until 1871 We're 80 employed;
and 2432 were engaged in medical practice.
AS domestic servants they were, rs always,
occupied far moro numcrously than mon;
and there were nearly twice as many women
Us men who were cassed as teachers and
| scientists" or the millinery and dressmak-
Ing trades they continued to have almost a
monopoly; and in tho cotton mills thirteen
thousand more women than men were en-
ployed. OF the professional nurses over
twelve Thousand wcro women and only about
fifteen hundred men.
We must not forget. too, that OF late years
the number OF female workers at rcmu-
nerative cmploymen,s has been increased
largely in ways Of which the census can take
no account. Worry many women who work at
home at various gainful occupations, earning
their pin money or increasing the household
income, arc never enumerated in census.
Some OF them are the wives or daughters of
tradosincn and farmers, and they earn money
by working for clothing houses in their odd
moments. Others do fancy work, or design
ing and painting and many arc occasional
writers for newspapers and magazines.
Such women nrc scattered all over the coun-
try, and in the aggregate their number must
be very great. And yet tho census probably
puts few OF them among those engaged in
gainful occupations.
1t appears, too, from Mr. CAREY's statistics
that within the last ten years the number OF
Institutions for the superior instruction OF
women has nearly doubled and the number
Of students in them has more than doubled.
In 1871 thorc We're 1876 such institutions with
1851 students. as against 226 institutions
and 2G0il students in 1881. And in the COM
mon schools.oi the Union the boys and girls
are nearly equal in NUMBER 100, $50 boys
and 4, s2j, sol girls.
We cannot agree with Mr.. CAREY, how
ever that this education is altogether adj
vantagcOu3 to women. let our women
feel their intellectual power, and hold them
back If you can" no cxcaims. But, unfor-
tnnately very much OF the education he OK
tolls is not adapted to the wants OF women
and to their mental and physical conditions
II IS usually too general, whereas they need
specific instruction to fit them to engage
with mon In the contest for livelihood Our
Normal College, for instance, drives the girls
too hard and even then turns them out pre-
pared for no other calling than that of teach
ing, "a calling already ovorcrowdcd. 1t is
not lack OF intellectual power which handi-
caps women in the race for employment, but
their physical limitations and their lack OF
special training for particular work for
which there Is demand.