The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1948-03-04
Unions Further
w o m ems Rights
Conference Told

f" OH~H , NsStHS
Conference Told
Washington OPA)-Women in
the United States have gone long
way in the past 100 years toward
becoming useful and valuable. mem
berS of the community and of the
job world. President Truman, La
Dor Secreatry Schwellenbach, and
representatives Of organized wo-
mems groups and labor unions
agreed on this at a conference call
ed by the Women's Bureau of the
Labor Dept here this week, on the
Tooth anniversary of the first wo-
mems rights congress in the U. S.
Trade union women leaders play
ed very active and vocal part in
the conference, which brought to-
gether more than $50 women, in
cluding representatives of 43 labor
organizations. Miss Gladys Dicka-
son of the Amalgamated Clothing
Workers-CIO delivered the keynote
speech on women on the job, and
Mazda Springer of the Int'l Ladies
Garment Workers Union-AFL took
part in a panel discussion.
President Truman and Schwellen-
bach told the delegates that they
supported the equal pay for equal
work" bill now pending in Con-
gress. Director Frieda Miller of
the Women's Bureau cited figures
to show that "over eight times as
many women are in the labor force
today as there were 80 years ago.
In the last 80 years of the 10Th
century women's entry into paid
employment kept on apace. In 1900
they numbered 100000 or 18 per
cent of the total. Since the turn of
the century this number has more
than tripled, while the number of
men is some 100000 less than
double its 1900 figure. This points
up another striking change, that
while the entire labor force has
somewhat more than doubled since
1900, the women in it have tripled,
and are now '28 per cent of the
total, rather than 18 per cent.
"But mere numbers are not alone
the significant thing. In 1870 the
great bulk of working women were
single. Today only SO per cent of
them ares ingle; while 46 per cent
are married and an additional 16
per cent divorced or widowed. This
is a social and economic change of
the greatest significance"
Miss Dickson told the confer
ence that the greatest opportunity
for women workers was in a So
ciety where there was full employ
ment; she cited the numerous bene-
fits won by trade unions for all
workers, but of special Importance
to women. First among these, she
said, is the five-day week. For the
woman who keeps house, the
chance to complete her housework
and still have a Sundays rest is
the most important recent develop
ment won by unions.
Much of women's work which
was formerly done in the home is
now done in factories, she pointed
out clothes manufacturing, bak-
ing, laundry. If this was more wide
ly understood the Amalgamated of
ficial went on, women workers
would not be looked on as taking
the place of men workers, but
following into the public
places of work the jobs they were
formerly doing in the home. Wo-
men have simply changed the place
of working; the jobs they formerly
did at home are now done by men
and women in the factories"
Clara Kovac, recording secretary
of a lodge of the international
of Machinists in Cleve-
land, left some of the more ladylike
gasping when she sec
onded Miss Dickason's remarks,
adding casually that in addition to
two children she also work
ed eight hours day on 25 to 100
ton brill presses in a Cleveland fac
tory. The diminutive Machinist
member-who perhaps weighs 40
pounds-told very graphically how
it was that her union
on the "rate for the job"
Representative Myrna Wolfgang
of the Hotel & Restaurant Alliance
AFL in Detroit made an appeal
for support of child care centers
for working mothers, wartime de-
velopment that is being abolished ir |
many communities, and urged sup
port of a more adequate school
lunch program, so that working
mothers could be sure their chill
dren were adequately fed at noon.
The inclusion of non-discrimina-
tion clauses n union contracts was
described by Lillian Thatcher of
the United Auto Workers-CIO. She
explained that even in her union,
committed to no-discrimination on
the basis of race, creed, color, sex
or marital StatuS. it WAS still hard