The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-08-31
Practically Barred Out of Govern
ment Service al Washington.
ONLY MEN ARE WANTED
VARIOUS EXCUSES GIVEN BY
HEADS OF DEPARTMENTS.
Greater Amount of Extra Work Can
Be Secured From Male Clerks,
sideration and Are Unable to
Grasp Quickly Details of Duties.

New York. Aug. 30.-A special to the
Herald from Washington says: Wo-
men are practically barred OUT of the
| government service in the departments
at Washington. There is no concerted
action among the heads of departments
and chiefs of bureaus here to exclude
women from appointment, but when
ever there is a place to be filed the
head of the office almost invariably
asks for a man. This right to discrimi-
nate between the sexes is recognized
! by the civil service regulations and
when a requisition is made for a male
clerk, stenographer or typewriter, the
commission certifies only the names of
men.
Civil Service Commissioner Harlow
said that the commission had a long
list of women stenographers and type
writers eligible for appointment, but
they could not get the appointing off,
GERS to take them.
There are many little reasons" said
Mr.. Harlow, which seem to influence
the heads of government offices to
prefer men to women. The principal
one, perhaps, is that while women may
do as well during the regular working
hours. the work can be crowded on the
men better than on the women. The
women are not so willing to work over
hours and the heads of offices feel more
reluctant in asking them 20 do so than
is the case with men,
Men Can Be Worked Harder.
Chief Examiner Servin of the civil
service commission, says there were
many reasons, small in detail. but i'm
portant in the aggregate, which infiu-
enced heads of government offices TO
prefer men to women.
THE heads of Offices said he, pre-
fer men partly because in the event of
rush they can work the men harder
than they would like to work women.
In addition to this it is found that
women cannot adapt themselves to as
great variety of work as can men.
They may be all right in a certain line,
but when they are put to something
else, ii is very hard for them to get
the hang of it. They are also inclined
not only to insist on having all the
privileges in the way of vacations and
sick leave to which they are entitled,
but they often expect special considera-
ton and special favors. OF course
there are exceptions, and many women
are very efficient, but the heads of
offices where both men and women are
employed almost invariably ask for a
man when they are filling a vacancy"
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
NdHueIHp, WHO mas general supervision
of the clerical force in the treasury de-
partment. Endorsed practically all that
the officials of the civil service COM
mission had said. He said it was I'M
doubtedly true that women could not
be driven as hard as men in a rush of
work and the heads of offices in the
treasury department almost invariably
asked for men rather than women to
fill vacancies in their offices.
Women Growing Old.
He said this was probably in part
due to the fact that there were in al
most every office some women employ
ed who were far from being efficient.
Some of them had grown old in the
service. They were dependent upon
their work for their support. Heads
of offices were probably more reluctant
to recommend the dismissal of a wo-
man than man for incompetency.
In the auditors Offices" said Sec
rotary Vanderlip, men are generally
preferred to women for the reasonrthat
women do not seem to have the faculty
of exercising as we'll as men that judg-
ment which must be used in dealing
with many matters in these Offices In
the office where most of the work is
done directly for the secretarys office, |
we have two stenographers-a man and |
a woman-and they are both very eff /
cient, but the general tendency seems /
to be to prefer men, largely because /
they can do more work under pressure |
and because of their greater adapta- |
bility to varieties of work"