Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1903-09-12
THE WOMAN WHO WORKS.
How Fem mime Toi1ers In Chicago Com
pare in Number with Males.

pare in Mum Der with Males.
One hundred and sixty thousand wo-
men In Chicago every morning march
ing to work in shop and mill and store
and factory is the army Of the city's
employed in petticoats. Against this
army in skirts is an army of 100000
men in all lines of professional and
manual work. But steadily the army
in skirts is gaining upon the army in
trousers until there is scarcely an en-
ployment open to man which has not
woman representative somewhere In
it, competing with man in his own
once exclusive field:
Perhaps no one work of man has
been encroached upon by woman as
has the. business Of the stenographer.
The time was in the beginning when
only men were regarded as at all com,
petent for the general work Of taking
shorthand notes and transcribing them
to paper in long-hand. With the COM
ing OF the machine and the spreading
Of the liberal regard which men In
public began to assume toward women
in office work, woman took up the bus
mess of the stenographer as her own,
and so steadfastly has she held to it
that in Chicago to-day there are S,113
women stenographers to the 1862 men
in the work, and these women are in
creasing in the schools in the proper
ton Of three to one.
Not only has the woman taken to
the typewriter and the shorthand note
book, but in the systems Of accounts
she has made a place, and from the
foothold already gained she is en-
crOaching steadily upon the demand
and supply for women bookkeepers
and accountants, and wherever she
has been tried she has not been found
wanting. To take up the average Sun
day paper of to-day and look over the
want advertisements of women seek
ing places and Of advertisers seeking
women for places, there is little sug-
gestfOn from the numbers to indicate
which portion of the paper Is set aside
for the female wants and which for
the males. AS much space in the main
seems to be given to the one as to the
other. More women stenographers will
be wanted. than male;s scarcely more
bookkeepers and clerks will be found
among the male wants than among
the females; in the miscellaneous
classification quite as many women
will seek positions and be sought for
positions as there will be men.
Women as statesmen are taking a
front place in the great stores of the
city. The last census for Chicago
showed more than one-third women as
statesmen compared with men. The
figures were 22,O12 men, as against
1916 women filling like positions, and
even with this showing 1t is remarked
year after year that the numbers of
women are growing steadily.
Teaching has been in woman's
sphere for all time, and in Chicago the
proportion Of women to men as teach
ers and as professors in the schools of
all classes is 1900 to a paltry 1891;
and more women are binding books.
making boxes, making gloves and sew.
ing in all the lines of seamstress work
than there are of men. At the same
time there are 79 dentists, 722 artists
and teachers Of art, 142 journalists,
PSI literary and scientific women, 54S
physicians and surgeons, and 2,O35
musicians and teachers of music.-Chi-
cago Tribune.