The new enterprise. (Madison, Fla.) 1901-1908, 1907-08-08
Women Who Work.
About Five Million Breadwinners,
According TO Census Report.


portion at work increased by almost
one-fourth.
Family Relationship.
For the purposes of this report the
women at work in the principal cities
of the United States were classified
with respect to their relationship to
the heads of the families in which
they lived. The total number of wo.
men included in this classification
was l,2S,26S, and of this number
79S,711, or CAS- per cent, were liv.
ing at home or with relatives, while
493,557, or $50 per cent. were either
boarding or living with their employ
ers. The Importance of the latter
class is greatly increased by the
large number of servants living with
their employers. The majority of
the widowed and divorced-64.4 per
cent. of the total number included in
this tabulation-were returned as
heads of families. Naturally, com
paratively few single women were so
returned-only Al per cent.-while
43.5 per cent. were returned as liv-
ing with fathers.
1t is rather significant that 1919,
or 16.1 per cent, of the 97,477 mar
ried women included in this tabula-
ton were returned as heads of fami-
lies, because this indicates that at
least that number were living apart
from their husbands. In the census
enumeration no woman living with
her husband would be designated as
the head Of the family, however
strong her claim to that distinction
might be. 1t Is probable, moreover,
that many of the 23,S30 married
women returned as living with faith
ers or mothers, or as boarding, were
likewise separated from their hus-
bands. On the whole, then, a study
of these figures points to the conclu-
sion that to a considerable extent the
employment of married women rep
resents wife desertion, through which
the wife is compelled to rely upon her
own exertions for a living.
Some idea of the extent to which
the wages earned by women are sup
Elementary to the earnings of other
members of the family, and repre-
sent. therefore, only part of the to-
tai family income, is obtained by
classification of the women who are
breadwinners in the family. This
classification, like that by family rela-
tionship, is presented for the prlnci-
pal cities OF the United States. Not
counting servants and mattresses, the
total number of female breadwinners
included in this classification was
904,695. OF this total 632,S04, or
almost seventy per cent, were living
at home in families in which there
were other breadwinners; of these
2G,3OO, or twenty-five per cent,
were living in families in which there
were at least three other breadwin-
ners, making a total of at least four
breadwinners in the family. These
represent the cases in which the earn
ings of the woman who was a bread
ner were presumably supplementary
TO those of other members of the fam
lily. Under such circumstances her
earnings might not be sufficient for
her own support, but would neverthe-
less contribute something to the total
family income, either lessening the
burden resting upon other breadwin-
ners in the family or providing her
self with personal comforts or luxur-
les which she might otherwise have to
forego. The effect which the situa-
ton revealed by these statistics may
have upon the wages which women
receive is, of course, an interesting
question, but is one which is not dis
cussed in the present report.
OF the whole this analysis indi-
Gates that only a small minority of
the working women are entirely de-
pendent upon their own earnings for
their support and that still smaller
number are supporting families unas-
sisted.
Occupations of Women.
In the reports of the Twelfth Gen.
sus (1900) the detailed classification
of breadwinners with respect to the
kind of work in which they were en-
gagged distinguishes sos occupations.
Women are represented in all but
nine of these occupations. Naturally
no women were reported as United
States soldiers, sailors or marines;
nor were any reported as members of
the fire department or as street car
drivers Though two were reported as
motormen), or as telegraph and tele-
phone linemens or as apprentices or
helpers to roofers and skaters, or as
helper to steam boilermakers or to