Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-07-28
SEX IN INDUSTRY.
Significant Facts from Report of Mas
 sachusetts Labor Statistics

sachusetts Labor Statistics.
 Part IV of the report for 1908 of the Massa chusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor has just been issued under the title Sex in Industry" It shows that in 1900 according to the national cen sus, 32a,033 females over ten years of age were employed in the Bay State in various trades, ma1ufactures and professions, 38,555 of them being mar ried women.
 This shows an increase of 200, ,732, or 156.45, in the number of female em- ployes since 1870, the first year in which definite attempt was made to distinguish sexes in the labor reports. The earliest official figures regarding the presence of women in manufactur- ing employments appeared in 1851, when 10,67S out of the 13,343 persons i'll the cotton mills of the state be- longed to the gentler sex.
 An interesting section tells of the first boom in the employment of wo- men. During the reaction from the great industrial and manufacturing expansion following the war of 1872 an unskilled laborer, a bod carrier, a wood sawyer or wood piler in a city was fortunate if he received 75 cents for twelve hours work and found ena- ployment for 800 days in the year. Hundreds were glad to work for 37 and 25 cents a day in winter who in spring and summer could earn -621a or perhaps s71a cents by toiling for 14 hours. It was not uncommon during the winter for men to work for their board. Nothing but perfect, steady work, sobriety the strictest economy, and the help of his wife could enable a married man to live on such wages. It was at this time that women of all classes entered the industrial field in large and rapidly increasing numbers. Their earnings, naturally were less than those of men. Many trades and occupations which either had no exist ence or were confined to men were then opened to them, and they joined the army of workers.
 The broadening of won1an's field of work was gradual. Lydia Maria Child wrote in 1885 that "a large pro portion of schools throughout the coun- try are kept by women. and 1t is not uncommon for them to keep shop for the sale of English and French goods. toys, confectionery, etc. Mantua- making and millinery are, of course, their peculiar province, and many of them are employed to tend looms in factories. to set type in printing offices and fold sheets for the book binders. By far the largest proportion of them do not work for support, but to gain additional luxuries which their parents cannot afford to furnish" alb, o41I plies even more strongly to-day, when woman has entered trade with a ven- geance. aG & f ag @
 There are several intimate family and household occupations naonopolized by women in Massachusetts. HOW few are the employments still entered upon by men exclusively may be judged by the partial list given of many trades and professions in which Bay State women are engaged in vary ing number--dfty-eight in all--ranging from auctioneers, blacksmiths. and brickmakers to whitewashers and 1 wocdchoppers.
 The invasion is not in all cases very | considerable. Thus there are only three women carpenters out of 23,57S, six women engineers in 9,035, twenty 1 female machinists in 13,122. five ire men in 3,365, twenty-five women paint, | CTS in 14,2S1, and one woman black smith in 6604.
 As being of interest in connection with the other subjects treated, the report calls attention to facts thus sulnmarized:~ s+ '~
 In 1851 there were about 2S births per thousand of the population, about 23 marriages and nearly 19 deaths. li 1901 the ratio of births fell to about 20, marriages to about IT and deaths to nearly IT.
 Tn 1882 the number of marriages was 17,6S4, at the. rate of 1917 peI thousand of population; the number o1 divorces was 515, or one divorce to ev' cry 34 marriages. h 1901 the mum Der of marriages was 24,S9l, or I.34 per thousand of population. while the divorces increased to 1876, or one al vorce to every IS marriages. There were 421,0S2 marriages during the twenty years and 17.8S7 divorces. This gives ration of one divorce to about | +ryor+r- -fo117. N1ala rfi9 opS +.