New-York tribune., 1907-05-24
WORKINGVOHFN.

! Persons alarmed at the intrusion OF women
into the business world will be much inter
ested in the latest census bulletin as the op-
| tmists are who rejoice at the growing economic
| emancipation of the once weaker sex The Cen
sus Bureau has Just published careful study
| Of the census returns of 1900 concerning the
character and scope of work done by women
| In this country, and brings to light facts
pleasant and unpleasant
| Roughly reckoned, OF all the twenty-three and
a half million American women who confessed
! in 1900 to having passed the age of sweet six
teen, about one out Of five earns her daily
chewing gum by the perspiration of her fair
brow. The other four of each quintet either
tend the baby, read His Hazel Eyes" wiring
ragtme from the piano or hunt servant girls
Just what the expert statstician will conclude
from this fact it IS hard to say; the women
who work at home are. OF course, doing inst
as much, from the economic point Of view as
their employed sisters. so that 1t is hard to
attach any great significance to the proportions
just stated.
Perhaps the safest conclusion is the obvious
one that some of the jobs Of the world are
being reshufed, the women and men exchang-
ing places. Women may now be found In all but
nine Of the 8O3 listed occupations, but this
fact cannot be used to good advantage by those
who would have us tremble before the fer
] n
dusrial and commercial world. For the vast
majority of women are pursuing lines of work
cOgnate to those traditOnally assigned to them
About one-quarter of the workingwomen's army
sticks to domestic service; 1898 IA are dress
makers, 32T PCS are teachers, 32S 935 look after
the nations laundry, 307,7O6 either helm the
farmers wives or run farms for themselves. and
146,929 are housekeepers and stewardesses
Thus the three million mark is almost touched
] Inv fInn ne
IN upon any of the occupations long monopoIized
by men. When we further consider that nearly
five hundred thousand of the remaining nm
domestic workers are negro and poor white"
field hands In the South, and that this class is
not new one, there remains only one other
group OF women toilers whose occupation and
size may be the theme of anti-femaIe orations-
that Is, the 231 45S textile mill operatives Tn
each of about one hundred and twenty occu-
pations more than one thousand women heva
'.ntruded" upon the men, and in nearly sixty
Of these more than five thousand women have
committed the same henous crime When these
figures are compared with the total number of
persons pursuing the various occupations where
"intrusions" have occurred the statistics lose
much OF their specifically alarming character
The most important statistics in the report
are those showing the kinds of women who are
at work. Out of every one hundred there are
Sixty elgnt under tllrIy-llVe years or age, forty
four under twenty five years, and twenty six
under tWenty-One years. These figures, how
ever are probably not altogether safe argtl-
ments in favor of the theory that the vast
| majority of women give up work because of
marriage. For it must be remembered that the
| economic conditions driving American women
to work have grown up only in the last
twenty years; the relatively small number of
elderly workingwOmen is doubtless partly to
| be accounted for by this fact a census taken
| to-day would surely show a somewhat smaller
percentage of young women, unless the total
number OF female laborers has been greatly
swelled by young immigrants. But the best
| disproOf of the foregoing theory is found i'm
the great increase OF married wOrkingwouIen
In 1890 only one married woman in twenty
| two worked, whereas In 1909 one In eighteen