ful occupations. In the group of trade and transportation comprising 10% of the women breadwinners, all occupations but that of salesmenship are omitted as being commercial rather than industrial. These are largely typewriters, stenographers, and clerks. The occupation of salesmanship, classified in this group, is, however, not so easily disposed of. It is without doubt one of the greatest problems of the subject, but its consideration may be postponed until the question of the uncertain outlook in a number of the industries is discussed. But even with the elimination of these three great occupational groups, there are left to us over three-fifths of the women at work in gainful occupations.

To domestic and personal service, including launderers, housekeepers, servants, and waiters much attention should be given, but it is apparent that three distinct changes must occur before this group can come under consideration in connection with industrial education. First, the education of housekeepers in technical subjects must proceed to a point where they will be able and willing to give proper training to domestic helpers within their homes, so that it may be possible for them to become trained workers. Second, this education must be accompanied by regulations as to time, length of hours, and specifications of duties which will conform to the conditions in the industrial world, so that the better grades of labor may be attracted to the industry; and finally, an effort must be made to develop a taste for domestic occupations in order that the industry may be dignified. In other words, when the economic sense of the woman who is to direct the home has been developed so that she exercises the same principles in her home that she would in her business, then may we be in a position to attack this problem. Domestic service will then become a trade. But not to omit all reference to such a necessary feature of education, let it be noticed that the introduction of technical courses into our colleges, the establishment of industrial colleges or high schools, and the effort to develop a knowledge of both production and consumption on the part of all of our women has been urged in the previous section as equally vital with the specific training of those who are to become wage earners.

To the group of manufactures, therefore, must be devoted the remainder of this discussion. The publication, Sex in Industry,1 already referred to, has carefully tabulated for Massachusetts the industries which women enter as stated in the census of 1900, giving the occupations in each industry. Since it affords information on the same industries in which 86% of the women are employed according to the National Census, it has been found the best basis for this investigation. The number of women employed in an industry serves as an index of the place of that industry in our problem, but of far greater importance is the grade of occupation of the women in that industry and the proportion they bear to men in both the occupations and the industries.

The manufacturing industries in which women are largely employed may be classified in three divisions:

(1) The industries which appear to be least desirable are paper mills, cotton mills, cordage and twine mills, confectionery and paper box plants, and packing of all kinds. These employ 19% of wage earning women in manufactures in the United States.

(2) The industries which are doubtful as regards desirability are hosiery and knitting mills, woolen and worsted mills, and silk mills, employing 8% of the wage earning women in manufacture in the United States.

(3) Industries which promise opportunities are the manufacture of all kinds of clothing from cotton, woolen, and silk goods, when carried on in factories or in strictly high grade work rooms; the manufacture of boots and shoes, and gloves, straw hats, jewelry, and printing and publishing. The proportion of women in manufacture found in these is 64% in the United States.

As regards the first group, there are four times as many women as men in Massachusetts in the packing of food stuffs and in the manufacture of paper boxes. In cotton, cordage and twine, and confectionery plants the proportion is almost equal and in paper mills the ratio is one to two. Turning

1 Report for 1902 of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics and Labor, Pt. IV.

from the least desirable group of occupations, we find that, in the second group of industries, there are three times as many women as men in hosiery and knitting mills, with about the same proportion in worsted mills, and onethird as many in the woolen mills. In the third group may be placed the manufacture of all kinds of clothing, employing four times as many women as men, the straw hat business, with double the number of women, and the boot and shoe factories with one-fourth women, although there are seven times as many women as men employed in the occupations of stitching and vamping. In printing and publishing onehalf of the book binders are women and almost one-half of the compositors, while one-third of the employees in jewelry concerns are women. The competition with men is not so keen in this group, women are not doing so largely the unskilled work, the occupations are more distinctly light in physical strain, and in general more closely associated with the home. Is not this the best field for women?

A few industries not included in these three groups employ women for certain occupations, but it is notable that these are the most unskilled and the lowest paid parts of the work, and that no other occupation in these industries is open to them. Thus in the manufacture of leather goods, women stitch purses, belts, and small articles; in metal work they are found at the lighter tasks of making tin, nails, wire and rivets, and are often packers only; and in tobacco, women are largely strippers, although they are increasing in numbers as makers.1

But what are the industries in which women are not employed? Again the list is significant. It reads as follows: Arms and ammunition, building, carriages, light and heat, electricity, glass, leather, lumber, machinery, metals, patterns, musical instruments, print and dye works, ship building, stone tools, wooden goods.2

Place this list by the side of the industries enumerated above and several points of comparison are at once suggested.

1See Edith Abbott, Employment of Women in Industries; CigarMaking, in The Journal of Political Economy, January, 1907.

2As in leather, a few women are employed in the unskilled occupations in the manufacture of musical instruments, and in the mill occupations of print and dye works.

Women are not now and never will be in industries which require the heavier manual labor, and this has meant the separation of the sexes on the basis of materials used and tools employed. Thus large numbers of women are in those industries which use textile fabrics, such as cotton, wool, flax, hemp, silk, and leather or rubber, while men generally handle woods and metals. Women employ the needle, whether hand or machine, men the larger tools of the carpenter or iron worker, whether hand or machine. Another line of differentiation is equally fundamental, in that women are found. successful in the occupations requiring artistic sensibilities or powers, and fineness of touch, while men are employed in the pursuits demanding a comprehension of and a genius for machinery and mechanics.

With these distinctions in mind it is necessary to test the industries in which women are employed. The mills of lower order mentioned in the first group-cotton, cordage, twine,claim large numbers of women and especially of young girls, but they fail to meet any of the requirements for a desirable industry as defined above. The wages in cotton mills never reach $10, and three-quarters of them are not above $7.50 per week, while in cordage and twine the wage opportunity is not so great.1 On the other hand, there is no point of contact with a more desirable industry, and the continuous increase in the less desirable foreign operatives, in addition to the noise. and dust of the occupation, leads to the conviction that the industry is one from which women should ever shrink.

It must be remembered that the management of a larger number of looms is possible for men, and may give them an opportunity for advancement, while the management of machinery, the making of patterns, and the work of the dyeing department affords an outlook for the more ambitious boy which can never be possible for the girl. It is distinctly noticeable that in the city of Lowell many boys are able to advance to work in machine shops from the cotton mills. That cotton may become a desirable industry for men but not for women is therefore possible.

1See Twelfth Census of the United States, Employees and Wages, 1903, p. 34.

One other occupation found in every industry and claiming very many girls is that of packing. Everywhere throughout the Census appears the packer with an average maximum wage of $6 or $8. Confectionery, food stuffs, and paper factories demand the largest proportion of this kind of labor, In two of the largest food product companies, between onehalf and two-thirds of the employees are women, but they are the packers, and the maximum wage for two-thirds of the employees is less than $10, probably about $8, while one in six or seven may earn a maximum of $12 or $14 in the best firms. The only advancement is to the position of demonstrator, one chance in forty, or to forewoman, one chance in 150. As a result, employers complain of the inferior class of the help which they are able to secure, and because of the scarcity of labor, one of our largest factories declares it must move into the city in order to find 700 new girls to satisfy its needs. In confectionery the wage for packing is still lower, and the class of employees less desirable. Here in all except the best factories the maximum wage is $4.50 or $5, while in the highest grade factories the maximum is commonly $6, with an exceptionally swift worker earning $8 or $10. Only in one large business, which has numerous retail establishments, is there any opportunity for a living wage or for promotion to the better occupation of salesmanship. Packing has one virtue, that of being clean, but from the wage consideration, or from the view of opportunity for development, it is as pernicious as mill work.

Candy-dipping offers between $5 and $7, seldom permitting the most expert to rise to $10, and because of the untidiness of the work, the dippers are almost altogether Italians. Wages in box factories are but little higher, ranging from $6 to $8, with the advantage that there are opportunities for advancement to the work of fancy box makers or for running machines, which pay $10 to $12 or $14. But the proportion of such positions is so very small that it is almost negligible—perhaps one in ten employed receiving that amount, although it must be remembered that with the constant shifting of operatives it is hardly one in twenty or more of those who enter the industry who can expect to attain