Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1907-08-29
American Women at Mems Work.

Married women. of course lave always
done their share OF die worlds work. In
deed. 1t is open to argument whether they
have not done more than their fair share
of it. 1t is doubtless true that If upon
!le.l. as we now know them. were sudden
~ devolved the burdens of child-bearing
and collaborating, to say nothing of the
cares OF the household. families would be
considerably smaller than they now are.
1t is cer.ain that married women. who
nave discharged the duties of maternity.
have never been supported" by men in
any just sense of the word SUPPORT"
Nay, II all men, married and single, were
20 labor every hour of the day. thev
could, rot DO all the worx of the world.
y fsw worthless women. married or single.
t'ere may be. but even they are not so
inch supported by the men of their famil-
les as by the ovorworh of the ..sweated"
women at The other end of the social lad
der. l':om cieltion's dawn women have
performed their fun quosa of the worlds
WORK; and usually they have not been
paid for 1t. Unpaid work, however sell
oom commands respect. it is the paid fe-
male worker who has brought home to the
plplic mind conviction of woinan's worth
in the worlds economy. The spinning and
weaving done BY our sreat-grandmoihers
ana by their great-grandmothers in their
respective homes were not reckoned as n
contribution TO the nations wealth until
the work vas transferred to factories and
there organized: to factories, where the
women who pursued a particular calling
We're rs.1unorated according to the COM
mercia! value of their products. 1t is UNI
douotedly the women of the industrial
class. the wage-earners, reckoned no
longer by units. but by hundreds of thou
sands. the women whose work has been
submitted TO a money test, that nave
been the means of bringing about the al
tered attit1fa of r,,blic nr{nfon to-.o,l
woman's work in every sphere of life.
From this point of view a singular in
terest attaches to the report recently is-
sued by the census bureau, which sets
forth some belated statistics regarding the
number of feminine wage-earners found
by the census enumerators seven years
ago in occupations formerly regarded as
exclusively suited to men. The number of
women. indeed, engaged In agriculture and
the rougher kinds of labor is small in the
United states. as compared with the mum.
Ter relegated to such toll in parts of con-
tinental Europe. Nevertheless, the sta
tistics now put forward show tina in 1900
there were no fewer that $4,000 women
farmers and farm laborers in this unit
indeed, there were more Of these by IFS. 900
than there were who pursued the relative
~ feminine occupation of ~dressmaking. It
Will surprise many persons who look upon
the female sex as by comparison physi-
cally feeble to learn that there were 1856
women engaged In blacksmithing and COS
as 'machinists." Indeed, there were eight
employed in boiler-making, than which no
occupation imposes a greater strain upon
the muscular system. Forty-fve women
were classified in 1900 as locomotive enzi-
neers and firemen: thirty-one as brakemen.
and ten as baggagemen on railways. Many
more were earning a livelihood as switch
men and fiagmen. There were even six
women ship-carpenters and two state
rQofers. Indeed. one or more women had
invaded all of the 3G3 occupations once
mopopolized by male breadwinners-ex-
cept nine. Among the very few callings
a. yet exempt from feminine competition
were those Of United States soldiers, ma
rines. and sailors. mempers Of city Ara de-
partments. or Of the .lineman" depart
msnt Of telegraph or telephone compas,sA