New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-08-27

business end of broom or scrubbng brush.
Having practically taken over the Job Of
buying merchandise that goes to feed and
clothe her family and TO furnish the home in
which they live, the next step was naturally to
take over the buying of the merchandise for the
stores themselves. This is exactly what ia
happening at the present time.
From standard publication that lists the
buying stats of the largest department stores
of the country the evidence is presented that in
five of the biggest stores in ten cities 423 per
cent of the buying stats are women.
(Amthority: Sheldom's DIRECTORY of Re-
tail Stores, Neao York;
Disconcerting, is it not? If the issue of this
same publication for the year 1917 is taken
and similar comparison is made it will be
found that Bis per cent of the stats were
women at that time. In other words. at the
rate of per cent year the women have
been taking over the best paying jobs in the
department stores. | will not be SO rash as TO
predict what will take place within the next
ten years if these delicate feminine creatures
continue their assault upon mans stronghold
the business world.
These figures do not mean, of course, that
423 per cent of the buying for all retail stores
is done by women. The percentage is proba-
bly, highest in the department store and special
ty shop held. But it must also be remembered
that hundredssof millinery stores, candy shops.
lunch counters, etc, are run entirely by
women.
It has long been one of mans boasts aseevi-
dence of his own superiority that women could
not even design their own clothes and that
men had to run the women's departments of
the stores. According to present tendencies.
however, man may find himself limited to the
buying and selling of his own clothing and q
few similar lines that do not now appeal to
women. Who knows but that some day we men
may have to buy our clothes from store run
by woman and with women buyers and
clerks. How horribly ignominious!
With greater or less unanmty, a sort of
mob action, the women have evidently decided
that the retail field belongs to them from start
to finish, and judging from present conditions
it may not be so long before this is actually So
Women are storming the gates of other lines
of business and also the professions, de-
manding entrance in increasing numbers. In
New York City at the present time, one doc
tor or surgeon in seventeen is woman; among
the lawyers and Justices there is one woman
to every forty-four men.
In the business world outside of the retail
field the increasing thousands of stenogra-
piers, bookkeepers, typists, ETC., give evidence
of the attractiveness of these fields The num-
Der of stenographers and typists in New York
City has more than doubled in the last ten
years, having increased from 33, 100 to ~ ,531.
GU. S. Census) 1t is indeed said that of all
the workers in the business field these women
could the least easily be spared In only one
field, domestic and personal service, has the
number of women workers decreased in the
last ten years, as far as New York State is
concerned at least Fields more remunerative
aad that have more social standing are PROV
ing more attractive
Thus the cycle swings around. In the from
tier days the woman was of necessity a very
able-bodied person, capable of doing days
work in the home or, in an emergency, in the
field
AS the struggle for existence grew less keen,
women had the opportunity of developing
themselves and of becoming that ideal com
bination of frankness and reserve, gentle
ness and strength, femininity and capability
that is known throughout the world as the
American woman. But now the struggle is
growing again more tense and more the women
being thrown ION their own
In the frontier days it was mainly a strur
gle of strength and courage Now it is a
test of brain and wits. Men, we must be on
our guard least they leave us sitting high and
dry About the woman in business this II,
general can be said: "When she is bad she
is awful, but when she is good she is q
wonder A large number of them 4 saan..