The Economic Position Of Women - free ebook by Academy of Political Science in the City of New York

PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK

THE ECONOMIC POSITION OF WOMEN The Academy of Political Science Columbia University, New York 1910...

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INTRODUCTION

Of all the problems that have come in the train of the industrial revolution none are more perplexing than those that concern women. It is a wearisome commonplace that the factory has taken over much of the industrial work of the home, and that women have followed their work into the factory; but the fundamental change thus introduced into their life has not always been clearly seen. Formerly home and industry were synonymous terms for them; training for industry was training in household manage

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MARRIED WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

FLORENCE KELLEY General Secretary, National Consumers’ League Throughout all history married women have carried on productive industry, feeding and clothing the race. And in that coöperative commonwealth which some of us hope to see, they will undoubtedly again participate largely and beneficently in the industrial work of the community. It is perfectly easy to conceive of a prosperous village in New England or the state of Washington, with coöperative intensive culture of gardens and orchards,

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THE ECONOMICS OF “EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK” IN THE SCHOOLS OF NEW YORK CITY

JOHN MARTIN Board of Education, New York City For some time the Interborough Association of Women Teachers in New York City has conducted a vigorous agitation under the banner “Equal pay for equal work”. This motto has won wide acceptance. Taken literally “Equal pay for equal work” is self-evidently just and reasonable, and persons or governing bodies who oppose it are put on the defensive. But in connection with the schools the phrase is not to be taken literally. It is a factory phrase. For ma

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SEWING TRADES

In the sewing trades there are many sub-divisions, including such varied groups of workers as these: home finishers, coat makers, pants makers, vest makers, shirt, collar and cuff makers, overall makers, white goods workers, corset makers, shirtwaist makers, skirt makers, cloak and suit tailors, button-hole makers, lace makers and embroiderers. All employed in these occupations can belong to one of the two great national unions, the United Garment Workers of America and the International Ladies’

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GLOVE WORKERS

In this trade the union has abolished the practice of compelling a girl to pay for her sewing machine (perhaps $60 for a $35 machine) or else to rent it at 50 cents a week. Under non-union conditions she has to buy her own needles and oil, pay 40 cents a week for power, and stand the cost of all breakages. The organization has abolished all these causes of complaint, has reduced hours from twelve to nine and eight and a half, and has established a Saturday half holiday. This union has been very

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BOOT AND SHOE WORKERS

Here the union has increased wages by 40%. Unionized women shoe workers are entitled when sick to $5 a week benefit for thirteen weeks in one year. There is also a death benefit of $50, after six months’ membership, and $100 after a two years’ membership. All members are entitled to $4 a week strike pay....

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LAUNDRY WORKERS

In one city organization has reduced the hours of work from eighteen and twelve (in the rush season) to nine, and has increased wages 50%. In another city the union has reduced the hours of work from eighteen and twelve to nine, and has increased wages from $15 a month to $9 a week minimum and $15 a week average....

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BEER BOTTLERS

The work done by women and girls in breweries involves standing all day. If they are washers they cannot keep themselves dry, and in winter the open doors keep the great bottling rooms very cold. Broken glass and exploding bottles are constantly injuring the faces and cutting the hands of both washers and labelers. In Chicago organization has reduced the hours from nine to eight. The wages run from $3.50 to $5.50 in non-unionized establishments. In one city where the girls are unionized they are

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CIGAR MAKERS

There is a great contrast between union factories and some non-union establishments. The union has successfully insisted upon good ventilation, clean floors, walls and toilets, clean paste in little individual jars (to fasten the ends of the cigars), an eight-hour day and no child labor. Among all cigar makers the death rate from tuberculosis is 61% of all deaths, according to government statistics. Among union cigar makers according to the last obtainable report (1905) the tuberculosis death ra

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ELECTRICAL WORKERS

The electrical workers’ trade is one into which women are coming in increasing numbers because, as one foreman said, they receive 40% less wages than men and do 25% more work. This trade is a long way yet from the ideal of equal pay for equal work, but the union established for the girls a minimum wage scale of $5 a week at the very first, and last year this was increased to $6. Hours have been cut from ten a day to eight and a half on five days of the week and four and a half on Saturday....

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BINDERY WOMEN

It would be vain for an individual girl to go to the foreman or the manager in a bindery and refuse to use bronze powder for lettering because it is deadly to the lungs, or to explain that for a girl to work on a numbering machine with her foot at the rate of 25,000 impressions a day is dangerous to her health. But this is just what the locals of bindery women through their delegates are explaining to employers the country over, and employers are heeding them. These organized girls have an eight

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TEACHERS

The teachers of Chicago in the year 1902 could look forward to a maximum salary in the primary grades of $800, in the grammar grades of $825. The efforts of their organization, the Teachers’ Federation, have raised the maximum salary in the primary grades to $1,075 and in the grammar grades to $1,100, an increase of $275. The money to meet this additional expense has been found for the board of education through the successful tax suit promoted by the Teachers’ Federation itself. Teachers’ pensi

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MUSICIANS

The American Federation of Musicians has greatly improved conditions for its membership, which includes women. A non-union player at a dance gets from $2 to $4 a night and may have to play until daylight. Not so union players. They can ask $6 until 2 a. m. and $1 for every hour thereafter. The Chicago and St. Louis locals have established regulation uniforms for their members, which is a great economy....

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VAUDEVILLE ARTISTS

Vaudeville actresses have to be grateful for the safer and more decent conditions which their mixed union has brought to them. Separate and sanitary dressing rooms are now to be found in the unionized five and ten-cent theaters in Chicago. An act which formerly might have had to be repeated fifteen times, cannot be asked for more than eight times on a holiday and four times on other days....

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WAITRESSES

Unorganized waitresses often have to work seven days a week and sometimes fourteen hours a day; they have to provide their own uniform and pay for its laundering. Organized waitresses have a ten-hour day and a six-day week. Their wages have risen from $5 and $6 to $7 and $8 per week and meals. Their uniforms and laundry expenses are found for them. They enjoy a $3 sick benefit for thirteen weeks and the union pays a $50 death benefit. There are some trades which have been organized and which yet

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A WOMAN’S STRIKE—AN APPRECIATION OF THE SHIRTWAIST MAKERS OF NEW YORK

HELEN MAROT Women’s Trade Union League, New York City. The usual object of monographs on strikes which appear in economic journals is to state impartially both sides of the controversy, so that students and a public more or less remote from labor struggles may estimate their merits. Such monographs are presentations of well-defined facts which are reducible at times to mathematical certainties. They recognize that passionate human feeling has swayed action on both sides and the endeavor is to li

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VOCATIONAL TRAINING FOR WOMEN

SARAH LOUISE ARNOLD Dean of Simmons College, Boston Popular discussions of industrial training are rendered difficult by the fact that the subject has as yet no fixed vocabulary. Professional training, vocational training, industrial training, manual training, are often used interchangeably. We shall use the phrase “vocational training,” and shall understand it to include such education as aims to secure efficiency in the occupation followed for self-maintenance, whether such occupation be the m

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Systems to be Found at Present in Europe and America

MARY SCHENCK WOOLMAN Professor of Domestic Art, Teachers College, Columbia University, and Director of the Manhattan Trade School for Girls At the present time, even though the work has been but lately begun, excellent examples of trade and vocational education for girls can be seen in both Europe and America. The European schools have long since passed the experimental stage and are usually a regular part of the system of public instruction, supported by governmental grants. On the other hand w

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I

A brief survey of the American legislation for the protection of women in industry will facilitate the discussion of the constitutional principles by which the action of legislatures is controlled. The following types of statutes should be distinguished: 1. Those which provide that no person shall be precluded, debarred or disqualified from any lawful occupation, profession or employment on account of sex. Illinois and Washington so provide by statute (making exceptions for military employment a

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II

When we compare these statutes enacted on behalf of women workers with the general body of labor legislation, we note the almost total absence of any interference with purely economic arrangements: there is nothing analogous to store-order or weekly-payment acts applying to women in particular, nor any attempt to control the rate of wages. The most controversial field of labor legislation from the constitutional point of view has thus been avoided. Health, safety and morals have always been undi

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III

If the validity of some particular form of regulation for a particular purpose be conceded, another difficulty arises in determining the proper range and scope of the proposed law. The equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the fourteenth amendment does not demand a mechanical equality of treatment of all persons irrespective of the conditions of their occupation or employment; but this equality is inconsistent with arbitrary or partial discrimination. Ever since the Supreme Court of the Uni

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IV

Attention has been called to the conflicting views of the courts of New York and Illinois, and the federal Supreme Court, with reference to the constitutional rights of women. Similar differences may appear with regard to drawing the line between legitimate and arbitrary discrimination. It is important to observe that the more liberal view in favor of the legislative power held by the Supreme Court of the United States is not binding on the states. It is different where the state courts take the

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