(2) The standard of the living wage, with due consideration to types of character, ability, and nationality. (3) The conditions, opportunities, and possibilities of the women operatives in certain industries (each a subject in itself). (a) The shoe and glove industry, with special atten tion to the effect of these industries on the future of the operatives. (b) The wool and silk mills. (c) Machine operating in all its phases. (d) Jewelry manufacture, printing and publishing. II OPPORTUNITIES OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRY. (Based on a study of 95 firms representing different industries. in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston). The foregoing discussion has suggested that women are of right and necessity in industry, but that the social and economic value of most of their present industrial occupations is low, and only under most favorable conditions is the knowledge or skill or responsibility which home life formerly afforded being developed. If then industrial life is to elevate and not debase the power and character of woman, she must be prepared to enter a better class of industries than she now seems to be in, as indicated by the census of 1900. In approaching a study of the opportunities for women. in industry, four questions confront us: (1) Is woman to be found in skilled occupations todaythat is, does experience show that she is capable of performing such operations in the industrial world as will develop a sufficient wage carning power and an ability and character to make her an efficient member of society? (2) Is the opportunity sufficient to warrant training large numbers of women for such positions—that is, are employers demanding skilled women? (3) Can the efficiency of women of the type which is today occupied in semi-skilled work be so increased as to result in an enlarged earning capacity and an improved social condition? (4) How can efficiency in either case be secured? The answers to these questions must determine the course of both sociological and educational effort. Finality is impossible without extended study. It must be understood that the data and conclusions here presented are tentative only, and it is earnestly hoped that they will prove the necessity and point out the way for continued and exhaustive investigation. Before attempting to determine whether there is or can be opportunity for woman to earn a living wage, and whether the occupations which she must enter will develop power and ability to make her an efficient member of society, the question of what is meant by a living wage must be faced squarely, and a definition of desirable occupations must be formulated. 1: What then is a living wage and on what basis is it to be determined? Is it the minimum on which a girl can meet the necessities of life when she is living with her own family, or in a family group, or when she is living independently so that she pays adequately for what she receives? The family must be the basis of determination of the man's wage, but it should be remembered that while it presupposes that the support of the entire family falls on the man, the man's income is supplemented by the unpaid labor of his wife in the home, thus saving the necessity of certain expenditures; and often, too, it is supplemented by the wages of his children. The definition of the living wage for woman is subject to a long array of modifications. She may live at home, or in a family group or in a subsidized boarding house; she may do for herself many of the domestic necessities during the night hours, weary as she may be, or on Sundays and holidays. Moreover the likelihood of having aged parents or sick brothers or infant nieces and nephews to support, must not be passed over in silence, nor the danger overlooked of resort to immoral means of securing the otherwise impossible pleasures if not necessities. It may be worth while in this connection to note that the single woman is unable to maintain respectability on as low a wage as the single man, and hence the minimum wage of the unmarried woman more nearly approaches that of the married man. If then the same conditions do not exist, the same standard can not be applied to woman as to man. Her wage can not be considered in relation to the family unless she is the breadwinner of a family. The living wage for woman must be that of the independent woman, and it must provide respectable and healthful support however simple it may be. In proposing any scheme of education, should the motive be to prepare the worker merely to earn a minimum living wage, or should it aim to fit her to earn sufficient income, so that an opportunity for self improvement might mean a gradually increasing wage earning power? Even if the law of the industrial world does not demand that the efficiency of the worker gradually increase, and therefore that the wage be sufficient to enable such development, social law does. Otherwise labor deadens the laborer and reduces her to a mere machine. Under former conditions development came through the occupation, usually in the home, now, with the introduction of machines and the division of labor, it is the more essential that it should come not only through the industry but also through the opportunities afforded by the margin of income and of leisure hours. For a woman to devote her Sundays, holidays and evenings to sewing and laundry, leaving no time for study or refreshment, is to withdraw this possibility of growth. Again, shall woman's earning capacity be gauged by the least wage upon which she can sustain herself, or by the value of her productive power to her employer? Certain it is that woman should be trained to have sufficient productive power to make her worth a living wage to her employer, and then if she does not receive that wage, she should follow the example of man and enter into combination to secure it, while society by means of such efforts as the Consumers' League and leg islation should combine to protect her and to guarantee fair play and good conditions. It is necessary for the purpose of this duscussion to determine upon some basis for estimating the value of certain occupations, and in the absence of authority on the subject, to set a standard arbitrarily. That variations in social type and in individual type should be considered is essential, but it is evident that a certain absolute minimum must be set. Furthermore the great danger of considering good conditions and pleasant associations as compensations for adequate pay-as is so apt to be done in the discussion of women's wages-must be avoided by holding tenaciously to the standard decided upon. In this study, therefore, it has been determined to estimate only that wage as a living wage which shall bring to the mature worker of ordinary efficiency $10 to $15 per week, or $500 or more per year, and to estimate as unsatisfactory any occupation in which there is not a fair opportunity to reach such a wage after a reasonable length of time. The length of time should not exceed five years. 2: A definition of a desirable industry is more easily formulated than a definition of a living wage, but the application is far more difficult. An occupation to be desirable, should tend to make the woman an efficient member of society, whether she continues in the industry or becomes a home maker. Three principles may be laid down with regard to the desirability of woman's work. First, the occupation must not deaden the natural powers nor reduce the individual to the position of a mere machine; second, it must develop that kind of efficiency which will be of value to the woman as a home-maker; and third, it must not be detrimental physically or morally. For an understanding of the oportunities for women in industry the sources of knowledge are twofold, and from these sources only can reliable information come. First from the industry through the employer and employee, we must learn whether women are already in certain desirable occupations and whether employers want them there, or would place them there were they sufficiently equipped. Second, we must learn of the opportunities for the trained girl from those agencies which have endeavored to develop efficiency in the industrial worker, that is, the technical and trade schools. Such methods have been used in this preliminary study. A list of the industries in which women are found has been made from the National Census of 1900, and the occupations at which they are employed have been listed from Sex in Industry, a discussion by the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor and Statistics. This list has been revised and corrected from the reports and experience of the Boston and Manhattan Trade School for Girls and from the report of the Massachusetts Commission on Industrial and Technical Education, 1906. Following these lists, a representative number of firms in each industry have been visited and studied in four large manufacturing centers of the United States-New York, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia, and the returns from these investigations have been corroborated and corrected as far as possible by inquiries among employers, schools, and communities, and by reference to returns of the Census and the union scale of wages. This study undertakes to deal only with industrial occupations in the narrow sense, omitting the great groups of agricultural and professional service which employ 15.9% and 8.9% of the 4,833,630 women 16 years of age and over in gain 1See Women at Work, p. 32. STATISTICS. Domestic and personal service.. Manufacturing 40.4% .24.8% 95% of the women employed are in 47 occupations, in each of which more than 5,000 women are employed; of these, ten leading occupations include 74.1% of all women at work: |