The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1947-10-06

- Today wom-
almost 20 percent of those al
work in the United States and
are the great majority of work
ers in number of occupations.
IThey form SO per cent of the Sec
retaries and typists, 80 per cent
OF the medical laboratory techni-
clans, SO per cent of the profess
sional nurses, So per cent of the
oookkeepers, accountants and
cashiers, AZ per cent of the store
clerks, 40 per cent of the tele-
phone operators, n per cent of
the laundry operatives, AZ per
cent Of the operatives in cotton
manufacture, a8 per cent Of the
dressmakers and seamstresses
tontside factories, Sc per cent of
the operatives in knit goods and
80 per cent of the boarding
house keepers.
Computations on the num-
bers of women in the teaching
ranks vary from rs TO as per
cent but they are unquestion-
ably in a big majority. In the
fields of higher education wo-
men now serve as president Of
"a colleges I'll per cent of the
college and university tataD,
and as presidents of So junior
colleges t13 per cent?. In 1899,
40429 Cor Is per cent of the
totaD received doctorates.
Some standouts climbed to
stellar positions as the heads of
corporations, department stores
and other fields of commerce,
while thousands more served as
their able 4departnaent heads and
aids. Other thousands did out
standing and valuable work in
the fields of social welfare, home
economics, nutrition, Libraries
and in such medical occupations
as that of occupational therapists
and X-ray technicians. In jour-
nalism, art and music women al
SO made their mark.
In the field of politics and gov
eminent, which women entered
after World War !, they were
extensively criticized for not
having accomplished more in
their first AZ years of franchise
rights. Today there are only
seven women in the House OF
Representatives and none in the
Senate much smaller per-
|eentage than that in the British
and French parliaments. Never
theless women have been incras-
ingly active in the lower and in
termediate rungs of the politi-
cal party ladded In the fall of
l947 there are 234 women in
state legislatures, and several in
the revision of state constitq.
tions. S!f{
They are represented in almost
every branch of the iudieiary,
serving as judges in the Y. S.
Tax Court, U. S. Customs Court,
IU. S. Circuit Court of Appeals
and as municipal judges, probate
Judges, domestic relations and
juvenile court judges. Many
have served long terms.
In many professions, how
ever, current college enrollments
indicate that the next census
may reveal stable increase in
those figures.
Many factors contributed to
American women's working adj
vance in the past three decades,
but one of the most outstanding
was an increasing necessity for
women to- earn their own living
due to combination of SOCIAL
and economic> factors. The Wo-
mems Bureau of the U. s. Dept.
| of Labor, after interviewing
more than $4,000 women ems
ployed in 1944-45 in ten war
congested areas located throug-
out the country, found that 81
per cent of those who wanted to
work after the war had to sup
port themselves and sometimes
others. In 1910, married women
constituted more than SO per
cent of the female labor force
and women were the heads of Is
per cent of the country's fami-,
lies. Many experts expect the
1850 census to reveal a marked
increase in these figures.