classified as unemployed in the last census had spent some part of their lives in industry, yet from the point of view of training this is a most significant thing. According to the Census study cited above, "not less than one-half of the native white women who were bread winners 15 to 24 years of age in 1890.....had given up their gainful occupations" before 1900. It is obvious that a constantly increasing number of women are obliged to spend anywhere from three to ten years at work before marriage. The importance of the occupation which women enter, in helping or hindering their development, is emphasized by the fact that nearly one-third (30.6%) of all the women between the ages of 15 and 24 are gainfully employed.

The educator is thus confronted with a two-fold problem as far as woman's education is concerned: (1) Opportunity must be given for women who are never to become wage earners to gain a knowledge of industrial conditions and processes through the introduction of technical and scientific schools and courses; (2) Opportunity must be given for women who are obliged to become wage earners at an early age to receive training which will enable them to enter some specific industry where continued development is possible. In other words, greater opportunities for the study of industrial problems and the understanding of industrial conditions should be given to girls who have the time and the means to devote to such study, and at the same time those who have neither time nor means to remain in school, because of the pressure of earning a livlihood, should be enabled to make such connections with the skilled industries as would insure increased efficiency.

With the first situation it is comparatively easy to deal, it is the second which is so puzzling and yet of such vital importance. What can be done for the girl who must go to work at fourteen, fifteen, sixteen? What industries offer the greatest opportunities for her development? What training must she have in order that the doors of these industries may be opened to her? When shall this training begin? Can this training be combined with training for home making? It is impossible to answer these questions

without a more thorough study of the situation than has yet been made. Are there not certain industries which have a definite relation to the domestic life for which all girls should be trained; and are there not other industries which take the girl directly away from the home and cultivate in her tastes and habits which more or less destroy the home instinct? Since conditions of society make it necessary for so many girls to work for pay, must they not be trained to work at occupations which require a constant growth in skill and intelligence, that they may make the best possible use of their lives in whatsoever field they are placed? Otherwise will they not be forced into occupations of inferior grade which, because they require little ability and offer no incentive for growth, will mean a distinct lowering of the woman's standard?

While the census shows that of the 303 industries which are at present carried on in the United States, 205 employ women as well as men, it does not furnish us with any adequate data regarding the occupations at which these women work in the various industries. It is, however, the general opinion of those who have been careful observers in the field, that in the development of the minute division of labor system, women who enter the manufacturing industries at an early age are more and more being relegated to the unskilled parts of the work, those which require merely repetition and manual dexterity, and offer little or no opportunity for intellectual development. If this is true inefficiency must be the inevitable result and woman cannot hope to maintain her standard unless a remedy is possible.

The investigation of the Massachusetts Commission on Industrial and Technical Education, 1906, amply confirms this general opinion, so far at least as the State of Massachusetts is concerned. Only a very small per cent of the total number of girls investigated, were found to be in employments which seemed to offer any opportunity for training, except perhaps in some one mechanical line, and employers agreed in saying that it was due to the fact that they had had no education which fitted them to take up skilled work. They were found

to be employed in large factories, doing work of a very low

order of skill, such as packing crackers and pickles, feeding machines for folding paper and boxes, dipping candy, running errands in stores, and performing unskilled occupations in the mills, such as doffing and spinning. The general opinion of all employers is, that girls who come directly from the schools have no idea of work, are irresponsible, incompetent and unreliable, and in consequence are given very low wages, become dissatisfied, and drift from place to place, either gradually picking up enough knowledge to secure something better, or become shiftless, and a burden to society. It is only the exceptional girl who under present conditions has a chance to gain any technical knowledge which is at all worth while.

From the ever increasing number of employment tickets issued to girls in all of our large cities; from the apparent retrogression of the home; from the complaint of employers that women are a constantly changing factor in industry because of marriage; from the general report that girls are inefficient and irresponsible in their work; and from the ever increasing demand for women who can take positions of trust and responsibility, it would seem that the industrial education of woman had a most important bearing on the progress of society. The following brief study of the opportunities for women in industry has been made with a view to discovering what training the schools should give to fit girls to work at occupations where constant growth is possible. It is obviously only suggestive as to the duty of the community at large, and of the public school in particular, toward the girl wage earner, and is given with the hope that it may point the way to further study along similar lines in both the skilled and the unskilled industries. A comparison of the effects of various occupations upon the future lives of girls who enter them, may throw some light on the present laissez faire attitude of the public schools regarding the specific trade training of girls-an attitude due to the fear that they will be driven away from the home and into industry.

It has already been proved that wherever high schools offering practical training for the home have been introduced, they have made a most successful appeal to girls who would

probably not otherwise have gone on to school. In Brooklyn, New York, St. Louis, Indianapolis, and many other cities of the Middle West where such schools are maintained they have proved their usefulness a thousand fold. There should be no question of the wisdom of these schools, since it is no longer possible for the home to give the girl the training which she formerly received. Every city and town should offer opportunity for girls to gain a knowledge of the production and preparation of food and clothing, of lighting, heating, water supply and sanitation, of household care and decoration such as would mean a distinctly higher standard for our homes.

Thus far it has been left to private philanthropy to deal with girls for whom the economic necessity of earning a living make the high school impossible. The three and four year course, and the general character of the training which it. offers, puts this way beyond their reach. Just how large this number of girls is no one knows, but it would seem to be a very high per cent of the girls in our public schools. Because girls are allowed to go to work at fourteen in many states, and because all employers agree that they are unfitted to enter skilled industry, and must therefore go into employments which are harmful, is no reason why we should give trade. training in the grades, but it is a reason why we should look carefully to our grade work to see whether our manual training cannot be more closely related to industry, and whether it. is not possible to give more and better vocational training in the upper grades. It is a reason also why the schools might well offer short courses of one or two years in some specific training at the completion of the grammar grades, that girls who are obliged to work might be prepared to enter employments where they could earn a living wage, and where they could have the constant incentive to improve their opportunities and become responsible and efficient women.

Opportunity for women to work in all kinds of industry. is becoming greater every year, and the same conditions. which are bringing this about are acting to make training less and less possible. Moreover these conditions, brought about by the tendency to divide and subdivide every operation, mean

that girls can go to work at a very early age, at the same time learning only one minute part of their work and having no chance to see its relation to any other part. Thus they find their progress retarded and growth and development impossible.

However helpful and suggestive any present experiments in industrial and trade training for women may be, they only make more apparent the need of greater knowledge before any successful system of training can be introduced which will meet the needs of the various groups of society.

When we can know first, what effect the unskilled work of women is having on industry; what effect it is having upon women themselves in determining their standard of living; and how it is influencing the homes which they make; second, what opportunities there are for women in the skilled indus tries; what training they need that the doors of these industries may be open to them; and what effect such work has on the kind of homes they make; and finally, what per cent of all women are spending some years of their lives in industry-we shall see more clearly how to make education hit the mark.

The attempt has here been made to sketch briefly the history of woman in industry; to show that industry still plays an important part in her development, and that the industrial training which formerly came to her in the home must now be received in other ways; to emphasize the difficulty in securing this for all classes of society in the same way; and to make plain the necessity for further study, in determining the nature of training which must be given to girls who are obliged to earn a living.

In this study, specific difficulties have been met because of ignorance of certain questions, and while it is hoped that the investigation may be suggestive, special phases of the subject must be approached separately. The preliminary character of the discussion has made it impossible to do more than to outline some of these subjects, and it would prove a great contribution, were an intensive study of the following questions made:

(1) The home condition, occupation, and wage of employees in the various industries.