The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1918-07-27
FACTORY Girl
IS CHOSEN FOR
FEDERAL OFFICE
Mary Anderson, Shoe Worker, Is
Assistant Chief Of New
Woman'S Bureau.

WASHINGTON July 26.-The as
sistant chief of the new Woman's bu-
reau in the United States department
of labor, Miss Mary Anderson, whose
appointment has just been announced,
is the first trade union woman ap-
pointed to an administrative office in
national executive department. She
is a member of the executive board of
the International Boot and Shoemak-
ers' union and has been for seven
years organizer for the National
Women's Trade Union legue, with
headquarters in Chicago. At present
she is also vice chairman of the
Washington committee of the Nation
al Womens Trade Union league.
For Is years Miss Anderson, who
is of Swedish birth, worked as
stitcher in Chicago shoe factories.
During much of that time she was
president of the Chicago Boot and
Shoe oWrkers' local and for a year
when she was working in a factory
at Lynn, Mass, she was president of
the women's local there.
Knows the Labor Story.
Miss Anderson enters her new posi-
ton from the ordnance bureau of
the war department where she has
been supervisor in the woman's
branch of the industrial service Sec
ton. In this capacity her work con-
sisted chiefly of conferences with
workers and employers in connection
with the enforcement of the govern
ment's labor policy in munition fac
tories
Mary Anderson knows the labor
story because she has lived it. Nee
essarily does she know the labor
woman's problems.
1.-The need for the woman's bureau
and our great hopes as to what it will
do" says Miss Anderson, "grow out
of the fact that the peculiar prob
lens surrounding women in industry
| have never received enough attention..
The reason they have not received
enough attention is, think, that the
woman's point of view has never been
! presented in the policy making boards.
Coming Into Their Own.
Until traditions are broken and
| men acquire the habit of putting
! women in administrative and consult
alive positions as readily and as fire.
quently as they put men in such
| places the woman's bureau has a big
| work cut out for it. Women have
been left out of labor councils here
tofore. Not even in the executive
/ council of the American Federation
f.; of Labor are women represented
There is no woman on the national
war labor board. The greatest thing
in the future of the woman's bureau
will be the fact that it's chief, WON
an, will be a member of the war labol
policies board. This means that sh'
will have equal authority with any
man on the board, not only with re-
gard to the women, but with regard
to men also-bring ing to bear in tn
government for the first time in tn
history of this country woman's poin
of view on labor questions"
Equal Pay for Women.
Miss Anderson expresses hersel
strongly in favor of writing the gov
ernment's labor standards into al
government contracts. The creates
problem of all the new bureau will
have to deal with, she says, is tn
! problem of securing equal pay TO
equal work by women and men. Il
scores of factories, according to he
observations, women are now doin
mems work for less than men al
paid. '~
I'VE must focus attention on sue
things as this, and on the 10-hou
shift that prevails for women in som
factories, both day and night. Wome
know what such conditions mean t
~f
these and all other labor question
we hope to make the woman's burea
the expression of the labor woman
point of view in the governments Ia
Dor administration
LET N0NE RI: GlINIY 0E