Evening star., 1944-05-07
The Women Want Their Jobs
Continuance in Industry After War to Present Problem

A special problem of the postwar
period is being created by the influx of
women into the labor market as a
result of the war emergency.
Henry j. Kaiser, the shipbuilder, said
recently at Chicago that one spot
check" in his plants indicated that 80
per cent of the woman workers wanted
to continue in their jobs after the war.
He viewed the prospect without alarm.
Added numbers of women in peacetime
employment, he said, would simply mean
that the country would produce more
and have that much more to divide up.
The problem is seen in the same
light by John D. Durand, statistician
of the Census Bureau, who wrote re-
Gently in the International Labor Review
that eff full employment can be OBJ
taiped by providing jobs for all who
wish to work, rather than discouraging
to cut down the labor force, the expan-
sion resulting from the war can mean
greater prosperity than the Nation has
ever known"
These statements, of course, tell only
part of the problem, which has to do not
only with the number of women en-
ployed but, among other things, with
the types of jobs they will seek, the
equal-pay- -for-equal-work principle, the
relation of women workers to organized
labor, and the social effects of women's
increasing exodus from the home.
100000 Over Normal.
So far as numbers are.concerned, the
problem has not been accentuated by the
war so much as one might think After
all, women were playing large role in
industry before the war. They numbered
at that time, according to the Census
Bureau, about Is per cent of the coun-
trys total labor force (persons employed
and seeking employfnent); the per-
centage now is 325. Their share of the
total labor force is now 16,600,O00 and
the number of those actually employed
is 100000 These figures represent
an excess Of about 100000 over the
number of women who would now be
employed or seeking employment under
normal peacetime conditions. Normally,
the number of women in the labor force
would not reach 16,5oo,0O until 1885,
At the peak, in July, 1943. the num-
Der of women employed or seeking en-
ployment was 18,500,000. The decrease
since then is due mainly to the return
to school of girl students who worked
during vacation and the seasonal de-
cline in farm employment. An addi-
tional recent factor has been the ten
dency in certain areas to dispense with
more women than men when cutbacks
in war production take place A re-
cruiting campaign has recently been
started by the War Manpower Commits
sion to bring the number of woman
workers back to 100000 by July of
this year, when there will again be a
peak demand for help on the farms.
For the future. the significant figures
are the normal expectancy of 16,500,-
600 woman workers by 1850, plus a
carry-over, according to Census Bureau
estimates, of from 100000 to 100000
from the abnormal" war-created en-
ployment Of the present period. If
there is 100000 excess, the Census
Bureau estimates that it will be COM
posed of 100000 of the present teen-age
working girls, who will then be in their
2Os; 100000 women 30 to A years of age
and 100000 women over A. The pres
ence of so many older workers in this
rry-over-assuming the correctness of
the forecast-will pose an obvious spe-
cial problem.
Disagree on Prospects.
There Is wide disagreement as to the
number of women who will voluntarily
leave the labor market when the war
ends. Henry Kaiser's findings has been
cited. Similarly, the Women,s Advisory
Committee of the War Manpower Com
mission says that relatively small pro-
portion of the women now employed will
quit their jobs. On the other hand,
Secretary of Labor Perkins recently told
the woman students of Catholic Uni
versity that the wars end would see a
sharp reduction in the number of en-
ployed women, and her testimony ap-
pears to be supported by recent survey
OF the Bureau of Labor Statistics in six
areas where war production had been
cut back
In virtually all cases where employ
ment declined because of a cut-back,
the bureau reported, number of wom-
en- released did not seek other work. In
the st. Louis area, for example, out of
1000 women who were laid off and Of
fered new jobs month later at the
same rates of pay, only $50 responded.
1t has also been found that in most
cases women whose work in war plants
has been terminated decline to migrate
to other areas.
just as after the last war, there will
undoubtedly be strong pressures to limit
women to the jobs they have tradition
ally filled. "Womanpower," says a re-
port of the International Labor Con-
-