New Britain herald., 1922-12-29
LABOR DEPARTMENT
 MAKES 4TH REPORT
Women's Bureau Gives Statistics
 on Employment Of Women

Washington, Dee. ea,-The 10 hour day. the 6b hour week, and less than q living wage are conditions which prevail for women employed in indus try in many sections of the country, according to the fourth annual report of the director of the Women's
 Bureau of the U. s. Department of Labor. During the past year the |. bureau has made investigations of the
 wages. hours and conditions of work
 of more than 46,n00 women In ITS
 establishments in five states: Ken lucky, South Carolian, Alabama Ar
 kansas and Missouri. In connection
 with these investigations the report states:
 'These state studies have shown
 that long hours Of work and low
 wages are the rule rather than the exception for large numbers of women, and that these conditions are
 so widespread as to constitute very
 definite challenge to the constructive
 action of all groups interested Tn these
 subjects
 The bureau emphasizes the fact that
 during it's investigations 1t finds many employers who are running their plants under most modern efficient
 and satisfactory conditions, but be-
 cause these forward looking employ
 CTS are in competition with others
 whose standards are not high, it be-
 comes particularly necessary to estab-
 fish legal minimum standards.
 | In the South.
 Tn Alabama more than one-half
 and in South Carolina more than four
 fifths of the women were scheduled
 for 10 hours or more day and 55
 hours or more week. Tn Kentucky
 the 55-hour week was in force for 10
 per cent. of the women surveyed, and
 another 10 per cent. were scheduled
 for more than 55 hours. In examin-
 ing the general trend of hours in the
 five states it is significant to see that
 Missouri, which had the most strict legal limitation of hours, had also by
 far the largest number of women
 whose scheduled hours were day
 and 4S week. standard far better than that set by law. The figures
 for Kentucky also show that the s
 hour day and 4s-hour week is not a standard which can only be enforced
 by stringent legislation, but is one
 which is adoptetd voluntarily in many
 cases in the interests of efficiency and
 better administration"
 Standards of wages were even lower than those of hours. For practically full time work half of the women in-
 vestigated made less tthan s11.60 in Kentucky, s11.s5 in South Carolina | A JaI ty pI co c and s13.90 in Missouri. Such stan- dards as these the Women's Bureau considers "so low as to be serious menace to the health and we'll being of a very large number of wage . earning women.' It has also been
 found that "the situation is further complicated by the fact that many of those women were found to be sup porting or contributing to the support of others"
 Negro Women.
 During it's investigations the Wom- ems Bureau has found negro women employed in many different industries, but after studying their occupations it \ has reached the conclusion that: s ." on the whole. the industrial 4 developmont of the south does not < seem to have touched the negro wom- T en to any great extent Several more \ or less isolated instances of their em- ployment at new or unusual occupa- < tions indicate, however, that it will < not be long before this large group < of potential industrial workers will be q used for general industrial purposes. V The report concludes with discus
 sion of the blanket amendment to the constitution which has been proposed by some groups of women in order tc ' remove all civil and legal disabilities from women.
 '"There are many civil and legal
 matters in which women undoubtedly do not receive equitable treatment H under the law, and which should be 5 altered without delay, but there are X also many fields in which special pro. E lection is given to them which I @ would be very serious matter te ieopardize. An amendment to the
 Federal Constitution removing al a civil, legal and political irregularities E and disabilities for women would bf so far-reaching in it's effect, would bt SD uncertain in it's operation ant N would involve such endless litigation N that it cannot seem to be practicable & for any purpose and is certainl! R fraught with great danger for womer in industry"