The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1923-03-03
NEARLY half OF
ALL WOMEN WORK
Seek Not Luxuries, but Necessi-
ties, Census Bureau Shows.
INTERESTING FACTS ADDUCED

AWity otatuS OF women 0FedOWlO
ners In One Representative City
Necessity Rather Than Desire fol
Career Seems to Guide tho Woman
Workers, Is Conclusion Drawn.
A ray of light has just been shed OF
some widely discussed questions about
the woman worker. 1t is often assert
ed that large proportion of married
women now work in stores and Offices,
and that many Of them do so merely
in order to buy luxuries. The criti-
cism is made that these women, whose
husbands could support them, are
holding positions needed by men and
single girls.
The person making statement of
this sort always glibly quotes at least
one case of wife who works, so that
she can spend her vacation at an ex-
pensive resort, and who is brought to
work by her husband in a palatial mo-
torcar. But these outstanding cases
what percentage of married women
do they really represent?
And, to take another controversy,
do the majority of working women
spend their money on themselves, or
do they have dependents and response
bilities, as it is assumed that the ma
jority of men workers have?
The minimum wage is supposed to
give a woman a living wage for her
self alone. No thought is given to the
possibility of the working girls hav-
ing dependents. And yet, it is eco
just, as matters are today,
to assume that she has no one but her
self to take care of. and that there
fore her thin pay envelope really
equals g. mans fat one?
These questions are argued back
and forth, but facts have always been
hard to locate. There has never been
Il national table showing the personal
and family liabilities and assets of
men workers. and no such table of
y women workers has been made in the
asst 20 years, so that the controver-
sizes about women workers cannot be
settled at present.
But just to show what the tendency
S, the women's bureau Of the Depart
pent Of Labor has made study of
he family status of women bread |
winners in one representative city, |
oassaic, n. j.
Census Data Used.
The woman's bureau went to the
ensus bureau and obtained permits
ion to use the punch cards of Passaic
working women for statistical study.
This was departure. Ordinarily the
ensus records are used only by the
ensus bureau. The bureau collects
n enormous mass of valuable in
ormation, and from all this informa-
ion it Sits out certain statistical facts |
nd makes up tables that will be of
lost Importance to the country. Funds
re limited and time is limited. The
Employees work at high speed to make
p tables OF manufa ct1res, popuIa-
on, crime, occupations, and so on.
hen the bulk of the material is left
the census files.
These files contain data on the eco
omic status of families that would be
great value to all sorts of social
elfare organizations, to city boards
nd local governments. But the cen
is bureau has no funds allotted for
the statistics. The wom-
rs bureau, however, being a section
the Labor department, made an ar
lngement to have access to the rec
DIS of one city, with interesting re-
Its.
Passaic was chosen because it was
rye enough for statistics to be IL ,
and yet it was too large
+ the bureau to study with the I
nds available. .
Nearly 10000 women work for 8
ages in Passaic. This means that q
arly half of the women IN that city,
d probably in many other cities, are o
ige earners. What Is more signif- /,
Mt of the trend of the times, four :
tbs of the women work outside Of ;.
Q home =
If you think back only a few genera ! =
ms to the time when both father and :,
'ther worked about the home doing =
: work of the butcher, baker tailor, :,
rpenter, farmer, and cook, you can ! .
llize that women are only a few :,
cades behind men in leaving the N
me to make living. A more COM q,
X civilization soon took the men :,
of the home to run machinery and ~
sit at office desks. The exact causes
It are taking the women away from
chens and nurseries are less obvi- L
:. That they are being drawn away,
vever in larger and larger numbers IT
Indicated by the statistics.
'hus, it is shown that one-half Of
women workers in Passaic are or la
re been married. The report fur NJ
r shows that 80 per cent of the to
I3 married women workers have at
bands who are employed What M
more. nearly three-fourths of the Gu
nen who are or have been married Sa
e children to care for, and while in
It cases the families are small, the w
dren are young More than half mt
the working mothers of Passafc inf