Arizona republican., 1918-02-10
By Frederick j. haskin


has recently been gathered by the de-
partment of labor.
II has long been an accepted fact
about women as workers that their
average working life is only five years, (
and seldom exceeds seven. This work.
ing period was considered to be merely
an inteTlude between school and mar
riage.
These late Investigations have put
decidedly new face on the matter.
Whether it is because women are be-
coming more fond of freedom or be-
cause the rewards of industry are for
them becoming higher, or because OF
the rising price OF keeping house or
the growing reluctance OF the male to
marry, the fact remains that many
women are found who have had ten or
more years of industrial experience and
still show no tendency to wed. Then
| too, that versatile woman who both
marries and holds her job is on the in
| crease. 1t is to be hoped that she,
rather than the bachelor working wom-
an, is the coming type, But the sig
/ nificant thing is that the majority of
women now entering industry are en-
tering to stay.
Since the war women have been
pouring into Industries that formerly
employed only men; the number OF
women in industry mas increased by
one million during the past year. Wom-
en- are running elevators, clerking in
drug and grocery stores, carrying tele-
grams, operating wireless instruments.
driving trucks, making munitions, and
handling freight in railroad yards. All
| these things they are performing eff
! GENTLY, albeit so ccmplacently, that
people are already beginning to CON
| slider the industrial status of women
| after the war.
As an important and permanent fig
ure in our industrial life, she requires
| special study. What particular lines
| of work attract women. What sort of
work are they best fitted for? How
do working women live; what do they
earn, and how do they spend their
money? These questions are answered
| in part by a recent study Of wage
earning women made in the District of
/ Columbia
The District of Columbia is not, Of
course, a representative American
community. A large percentage of its
inhabitants. both men and women, are
employed by the government. II has
few manufacturing industries, with the
exception Of small plants, such as bak-
cries. ice factories, laundries, and box
making, tailroing and printing estab-
lishments. Nevertheless, it presents
some interesting evidence.
The cases of six hundred women
were embraced in this investigation.
They consisted of government clerks.
office employees, salesWomen, telephone
operators, factory workers, mattresses
and laundry workers. These were the
seven occupations attracting the great
est number of women.
OF the 500, 542 were unmarried; IS
I1p1 II
owed. divorced or separated at the time
of the investigation, and fifteen of
these married workers had children to
suppotr. The age of the women under
consideration ranged from sixteen to
thirty, although several We're above
thirty. There was one woman seventy
five years old and crippled with rheu-
matism who was maintaining her eco
nomic independence by dressmaking
About five per cent of the women had
been wage earners for twenty years or
more.
The majority about GA per cent OF
the total number-were receiving less
than $500 year. or approximately Sill
q week. Indeed, as many as 46 per cent
were making only $500 or under, while
only thirty-five women out of the six
hundred were making as much as $1f
a week
As might be expected, most of these
women workers lived at home. Out OF
1873 earning less than $500 year, fol
instance, 100 lived at home: of the rest
Is lived in private families: 10 lived il
rented rooms and light-Very light
housekeeping, while five lived in home;
for working girls
The amount of home assistance re.
ceived by women in industry is al
extremely important phase of the Who'll,
feminine industrial question. For witt
such assistance a woman is able to of
fer her services in the labor marke
at much lower wage than the woman
entirely dependent upon her own earn
ings for support. A girl who is sup
ported by her parents can afford t.
take a job at four dollars-a week, whicl
will pay for her cosmetics and sodas
but no woman can be decently self
supporting on such a wage.
For many years popular opinion ha
held that a woman who lives at hom
should be willing and grateful to worl
for small wage-an economic fallac,
that is now the greatest menace to in
dustrial women. Under its protectin:
influence many charlatan concerns
have lived and flourished, reared OF
the cheap labor of girls who were sup
ported by home subsidies. Now peopl
are beginning to realize that if a WON
an is worth hiring at all, she should b
paid supporting wage regardless
of where she lives. If she is wort
ten dollars week, then she should de
mand and get ten dollars a week 70
her labor, even if she happens to b
an heiress to millions
In the District of Columbia investi
CATION, also, it was shown that man
young women were handicapped b
home assistance. That is. they CAV
UP opportunities to secure better posi-
tons and larger salaries to remain a
home on a small wage because the
believed that their services or com
panionship were needed. Women wag
earners never do achieve the emancipa
ton from home responsibilities ths
men do, it appears. Many women VIII
work eight hours in business office
stores and factories, it has been shown
go home to another two or three hour
of homework. Thus it was recent
discovered by a city social worker ths
girl of eighteen who worked fI' min
and a half hours in a large departmer
store then went home and cooked dir
ner for her father and three brother
after which she washed both the break
fast and dinner dishes and put the re:
of the house in order.
This girl was making such a To-
wage that she could not have support
ed herself anywhere but at home. An
VI this is often what the home subSid
really is-a payment for equally al
duous but less independent labor tina
that which the girl does outside Il
home
Since the war the situation of wome
in industry has improved. Wages ha,
risen, new industrial opportunities hay