The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1939-01-26
Wo7nen's s Work
1nvdded By Men!
Director of Wornen's Bureau
Cites Encrouchment In
MdnY Lines
URGES TRAINING
Adequate Vocational Study
In New Fields Needed
By Women

elC LfeIluS Ill WOmenS S employment
continue. The Government should
take emergency steps along these lines
to promote the health and welfare of
it's women citizens and safeguard the
future of the country.
These conclusions are reached by
Mary Anderson, Director of the
Women's Bureau of the United States
Department of Labor, in her annual
report for the fiscal year ended June
80, 1888, submitted to Secretary of
Labor Frances Perkins.
"Women can not be restricted to
machine feeding and household en-
ployment," the report states. avail
able data indicate that men are en-
croaching in women's traditional fields
of retail trade, hotels and restaurants,
laundries, office work, textiles, mems
clothing, and confectionery. More at
tention must be given to women's vo-
cational training and guidance. Com
munity needs that could be met by
women entering entirely new lines of
employment should be studied and de-
veloped."
In spite of "very real progress" in
the past year, old problems of women
workers continue, the report points
out. Adequate wages and equal pay
for equal work still are far from re-
alization; industrial accidents and
disease remain uncontrolled; house
hold employment and agricultural la
Dor are almost wholly unregulated
seasonal employment, home work, lack
of vocational training and problems
unsolved; women's organization and
participation in the labor movement
are extremely backward; there still
are citizens who consider that married
women should not be gainfully en-
ployed no matter how low the family
income may be. These and others too
numerous to cite are matters pressing
for attention if the Women's Bureau
is to be wholly successful in it's job
of promoting the welfare Of wage
earning women"
A plea for more funds with which
to meet the increasing demands made
upon the Bureau is included in the re-
port. The past year saw great
growth in demands from labor unions
for help in workers education pro-
grams, it was pointed out. Workers
also need more factual information
for use in collective bargaining. "Much
material has been supplied to these
organizations and careful thought
given to their needs" the report
states. educational guidance coun-
selors are another group making in
creasing use of Women's Bureau data
which they find valuable in realistic
analysis"
Consumers groups also should be
kept better informed of women's
working conditions, if their cooper
alton in improving such conditions is
to be effective, the report points out
Studies should be made of such con-
troversial matters as the employment
of married women, the wage at which
women become unemployable, and
womens stability or inability as
measured by time spent in an indus
try.
The report of the years work shows
wide sweep of women workers ac-
tivity in the United States, touched
upon at various points by the Women's
Bureau. Studies were made Of certain
woman-employing industries for the
Public Contracts Division; Of women
with family responsibilities; of dis
ordinations against women in State
laws regarding property and civil
rights; of Negro women workers.; of
the effects of a minimum wage; and
of women's wages and hours of work
in Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky and
Utah. Among the reports issued dur
ing the year were studies of women
unemployed and on relief, of women
injured in industry, and of labor laws
protecting women.
A millinery study was under way at
the close Of the fiscal year, at the re-
quest of the Millinery Sterilization
Commission, which is seeking to put
the industry on firm basis through
cooperative program between en-
ployers and workers. While marketing
problems are being studied by other
research organizations, the Women's
Bureau is considering manufacturing
methods and costs in the industry in
IA States scattered from coast to
coast and from North to South.
Another nationwide study was being
conducted in the canning and dried
fruit industries. Findings will be made
available to State Labor departments,
and to the Public Contracts, and Wage
and Hour divisions of the United
States Department of Labor for use
in establishing wage and hour stand
ards for the industry. The results will
also be turned over to the Social Sc
curity Board for use in making unem-
ployment compensation regulations.
A major activity of the Bureau, that
of encouraging and coordinating the
development of State minimum-Wage
legislation, was greatly expanded dur
ing the year, Miss Anderson reports,
The continuing need for such laws is
seen in the wage surveys made, which
showed women's average earnings to
be $40 to SIS a week in the States and
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