cities had installed women as conductors on the street cars. In
N.Y. State alone 2,180 were substituted for men on the steam
roads and 1,346 on the electric roads. In this state a law was
passed limiting hours of women on street cars to nine a day and
prohibiting night work between 10 P.M. and 6 A.M. In Wisconsin
hours were limited to eight a day and night work was prohibited
between 5 P.M. and 8 A.M., which practically prevented the
employment of women on street cars during the rush periods.
Other large cities employing women and limiting their hours were
Chicago and Boston as ticket agents, and Kansas City, Detroit
and Cleveland as conductors. In the latter city a controversy
occurred over their continued employment, involving several
hearings before Federal authorities. The men's union was
strongly opposed to them and finally secured an agreement
with the company to dismiss all the women and reinstate the
men which was carried out early in 1919. A similar situation
arose in Detroit with a similar result, but in Kansas City the
union did not oppose the women and the War Labor Board
ordered equal pay for equal work. In most cases the women
were out of the service by 1921, but on railway work 81,000
were reported as still employed in Jan. 1920. The majority of
these were in clerical positions, but there has been also a perma-
nent increase in the number of women employed as station
agents, ticket sellers, watchmen, and in the business offices.
When the roads were under Federal control, the minimum
monthly salary for clerical positions was fixed at $87.50, while
executive positions often commanded as much as $225 a month.
Efficiency. The new fields of work tested, as never before, the
abilities of women. Although before the war women were employed
in practically every kind of work, they were usually occupied on
routine or standardized processes. But the war opened to them a
new door. " Instead of ' tending ' or ' tripping ' or ' feeding work,'
measured and marked for her, into a machine especially adjusted
or constructed to perform a specialized or standardized process,
the emergency created by the war forced the experiment of teach-
ing the woman worker to read blue prints, to understand the char-
acters of different metals, to grasp the purposes and capabilities of
various machine tools, to adjust their mechanism, to set up, to
measure and to mark her own work and be responsible for its quality
as well as for its quantity." In these new fields there were of course
failures, due sometimes to personal defects but more often to
ill-advised assignment of tasks, lack of proper instruction and super-
vision such as was so successfully carried on in English munitions
work, and also because of lack of proper equipment and accommo-
dations for women. It must also be pointed out that because of
America's shorter war period there was but little time for technical
training. Although a few trade schools were utilized, reports indi-
cate that training was usually done by the " foremen, " " forelady,"
" skilled operators," or " the gang boss." On the whole, however,
testimony of manufacturers from all parts of the country, as reported
by several independent investigations, agreed that the women were
unquestionably successful. The output of women, according to 66
firms out of 99 in the important metal trades, " was equal to or
greater than that of men in the operations in which both were
employed." In another investigation from 50% to 90% of the
managers in a variety of industries reported that the production,
attendance, and promptness of women was equal to or greater than
that of men. Employers stated: "On our 24-in. Fellows gear
shapers the women turn out from 20 to 30 more pieces in a g-hour
day than men." " In our filling and burring machines . . .
they overrun the men about 250 pieces." "On our drill press work
. . . they have increased the production 1,200 pieces in a g-hour
day." The president of a recording and computing machine stated :
" In the machine department women became expert and got out much
greater production in running turret lathes, punch presses, bench
lathes, milling machines, drill presses, grinding machines and
engraving machines, and in addition to the operation of these
machines we taught them to grind their tools, to act as job setters,
and to superintend some of the departments. In the inspection
department practically every inspector was a woman. In the
assembly departments, as well as in the inspection departments,
all were women, and they did better work and got out more produc-
tion than men whom we tried on the job at various times without
success. We found, too, that we could place as much, if not more,
dependence on women in coming to their work and remaining on
the job, which accounts for our having the lowest turnover in help
in any factory ever heard of, which was less than 4% per year.
We taught women to inspect tools and check them over according
to the drawings after they came from the tool shop, in which depart-
ment women became expert." Although much of the work done by
women was repetitive and semi-skilled, requiring mainly dexterity
and lightness of touch, yet testimony shows that they frequently
and successfully competed with the highly skilled men.
Standards of Work. In Oct. 1918 the Women in Industry Serv- ice (later the Women's Bureau of the Labor Department) formu- lated certain standards intended to govern the employment of women. These standards were indorsed by the War Labor Policies Board and after the Armistice were revised to serve as a basis for a programme for reconstruction. The recommendations included the 8-hour day, Saturday half-holiday, one day of rest in seven, and the prohibition of night work between 10 P.M. and 6 A.M. They urged equal pay for equal work and an occupational, rather than sex, determination for wage rates, with a minimum which would cover the cost of living for dependents as well as for the individual. Proper conditions of work were specified, and included the pro- hibition of employment where poisons which are more injurious to women than to men were used. The standards also urged that joint negotiations between employers and employees be established for enforcement purposes. The War Labor Policies Board ordered all contracts of the Federal Government to require full compliance with the labour laws of the state in which the goods were manu- factured.
Hours, Wages and Conditions. With but few exceptions pressure of work did not reach the high pitch which England experienced, and, on the whole, hours and conditions of employment in the United States did not greatly change as a result of the war; the United States' profited also by England's experience in regard to the futility of excessive hours of labour, and although many attempts were made to enact state laws which would abolish or lower the existing standards, public opinion was against this movement and on the whole these attempts failed. Less than a dozen states had laws prohibiting the night work of women and the practice of the Federal Government of referring to the state labour departments for investigation any request for permission to exceed legal hours, resulted in a fairly general conformity to existing legislation. In a few cases where night work was not prohibited by law, women did take their turn in the night shift.
Rates of wages during the war fluctuated greatly and several intensive studies were made. One of the larger studies reported only wage rates and showed that in the majority of cases women's wages were admittedly lower than men's. Probably the most exhaustive study was made in N.Y. State by the Women's Bureau of the Labor Department. This study covered 117 plants and 13,643 women who replaced men. Of these women 56 % received only two- thirds to three-fourths of the wages paid the men for the same work. Two-thirds of the women received less than $15 a week, and only 190 received $20-^25 a week. From this study it appeared that wages had practically no relation to production or to efficiency. In II plants reporting that women produced more than men not one woman received as much as the men and the majority received about three-fourths of the men's wage. Several states and the Federal Government established minimum wage rates in certain occupations for the war period ranging between $13 and $16 per week. A Federal report indicated that in practice the time-rates of women seldom equalled those of men. Piece-rates were frequently the same for both sexes, but the guaranteed wage for the worhen was usually lower than for men. Another report stated that women's wages ranked about with those of boys and often with pre-war standards for boys.(
General Results. An important test of woman's efficiency was her permanence in these newer occupations. On this point one investigation reported that " of all plants employing women in men's places over one-half are going to retain every woman so employed, second that 82 % are going to retain all or part of the women so employed." In the leading war agency and implement industries the proportion of women per 1,000 wage earners in 1914 was 65; in Oct.-Nov. 1918, 139; in Aug. 1919 the proportion was 100. The reasons for retaining women were of course varied. In addition to questions of efficiency other factors entered. It has already been pointed out that women's actual wages were almost universally lower than men's. Many employers frankly gave as their reasons for retaining women : ' greater production at lower wages "; " better work at lower wages "; " they produce more and demand less"; "to fight the union." One report stated that " women are staying at their new posts primarily because they per- mit manufacture at less cost per unit of production and with less friction between management and workers."
On the whole, and particularly in c6mparison with England, there was very, little special machinery created during the World War to deal with problems of women in industry. Canteens were set up here and there, an occasional day-nursery was established, employment management and personnel work were stimulated, welfare work and supervision were frequently introduced, but there was no large movement to direct and supervise " dilution," no munitions tribunals with their " leaving certificates " and but few attempts on the part of the Government, either state or Federal, to regulate wages. Except in a few cases there were no serious clashes with men's trade unions, and the post-war problem of women in men's places adjusted itself without state interference.
The principal sources of information are: (i) The New Position of Women in American Industry, published in 1920 by the Women's Bureau of the .U.S. Department >of Labor, Washington, D.C. ; (2) The Industrial Replacement of Men by Women in the State of
