CHAPTER XIII.
Woman in Industry.

1.—Development and Extension of Female Labor.

The endeavor of women to earn their own living and to attain personal independence is, to some extent at least, regarded as a just one by bourgeois society. The bourgeoisie requires an unhampered release of male and female labor power in order that industry may attain its highest degree of development. The perfection of machinery and the division of labor, whereby each single function in the process of production requires less strength and mechanical training than formerly, and the growing competition, not only between individual manufacturers, but also between entire manufacturing regions, states and countries—causes the labor power of woman to be sought more and more.

The special causes which lead to an increased employment of female labor in a growing number of trades have been set forth in a previous chapter. One reason why employers resort more and more to the employment of women beside men, or instead of men, is, that women are accustomed to require less than men. Owing to their nature as sex beings, women are obliged to offer their labor power cheaper than men. They are, as a rule, more subjected to physical derangements that cause an interruption of their work, and owing to the complication and organization of modern industry, this may lead to an interruption in the whole process of production. Pregnancy and child-birth lengthen such periods of interruption.[125] The employer makes the most of this fact and finds ample indemnification for these occasional interruptions by the payment of considerably lower wages. Moreover the woman is tied to her particular abode or its immediate environment. She cannot change her abode as men are enabled to do in most cases. Female labor, especially the labor of married women workers appears particularly desirable to employers in still another way, as may be seen from the quotation from “Capital,” by Karl Marx on page 129. As a worker the married woman is “far more attentive and docile” than the unmarried one. Consideration for her children compels her to exert her strength to the utmost in order to earn what is needful for their livelihood, and she therefore quietly submits to much that the unmarried working woman would not submit to, far less so the working man. As a rule working women rarely combine with their fellow workers to obtain better working conditions. That also enhances their value in the eyes of the employers; sometimes they even are a good means to subdue rebellious male workers. Women moreover are more patient, they possess greater nimbleness and a more developed taste, qualities that make them better suited to many kinds of work than men.

These womanly virtues the virtuous capitalist appreciates fully; and so, with the development of industry, the field of woman’s work is extended each year, but—and this is the decisive factor—without materially improving her social condition. Where female labor power is employed, it frequently releases male labor power. But the displaced male workers must earn their living; so they offer their labor power at lower wages, and this offer again depresses the wages of the female workers. The depression of wages becomes a screw set in motion by the constantly revolving process of developing industry, and as this process of revolution by labor-saving devices also releases female workers, the supply of “hands” is increased still more. New branches of industry counteract this constant production of surplus labor power, but not sufficiently to create better conditions of labor. In the new branches of industry also, as for instance in the electrical, male workers are being displaced by female workers. In the motor factory of the General Electric Company most of the machines are tended by girls. Every increase in wages above a certain standard causes the employer to seek further improvement of his machinery, and to put the automatic machine in the place of human hands and human brains. In the beginning of the capitalistic era only male workers competed with one another on the labor market. Now sex is arrayed against sex, and age against age. Women displace men, and women in turn are displaced by young people and children. That is the “moral regime” of modern industry.

This state of affairs would eventually become unbearable if the workers, by organization in their trade unions, would not counteract it with all their might. To the working woman, too, it is becoming a sheer necessity to join these industrial organizations, for as an individual she has still far less power of resistance than the working man. Working women are beginning to recognize this necessity. In Germany the following numbers were organized: in 1892, 4,355; in 1899, 19,280; in 1900, 22,884; in 1905, 74,411; in 1907, 136,929; in 1908, 138,443. In 1892 women constituted only 1.8 per cent. of all members of trade unions; in 1908 they constituted 7.6 per cent. According to the fifth international report of the trade union movement the numbers of female members were in Great Britain, 201,709; in France, 88,906; in Austria, 46,401.

The endeavors of employers to lengthen the work day in order to extract larger profits from their workers is met with little resistance by women workers. That explains why in the textile industry, for instance, in which more than half of the workers are women the work day is longest. It was necessary therefore that government protection by limiting the hours of work should begin with this industry. Women being accustomed to an endless work day by their domestic activity, submit to the increased demands upon their labor power without offering resistance.

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PERSONS EMPLOYED IN GAINFUL OCCUPATIONS.

COUNTRIES	Year of Census	Entire Population			Gainfully employed			Persons gainfully employed in percentage of population
		Male	Female	Both	Male	Female	Both	Male	Fe­male	Both
German Empire	1907	30,461,100	31,259,429	61,720,529	18,599,236	9,429,881	28,092,117	61.1	30.4	45.5
Austria	1900	12,852,693	13,298,015	26,150,708	8,257,294	5,850,158	14,107,452	64.2	44.0	53.9
Hungary	1900	9,582,152	9,672,407	19,254,559	6,162,298	2,668,697	8,830,995	64.3	27.6	45.9
Russia	1897	62,477,348	63,162,673	125,640,021	25,995,237	5,276,112	31,271,349	41.6	8.4	24.9
Italy	1901	16,155,130	16,320,123	32,475,253	10,998,462	5,284,064	16,272,526	68.0	32.4	50.1
Switzerland	1900	1,627,025	1,688,418	3,315,433	1,057,187	498,760	1,556,577	65.0	29.5	46.9
France	1901	18,916,889	19,533,899	38,450,788	12,910,565	6,804,510	19,715,075	68.2	34.8	51.3
Belgium	1900	3,324,834	3,368,714	6,693,548	2,123,072	948,229	3,071,301	63.8	28.1	45.9
Netherlands	1899	2,520,603	2,583,535	5,104,138	1,497,159	433,548	1,930,707	59.4	16.8	37.8
Denmark	1901	1,193,448	1,256,092	2,449,540	752,559	353,980	1,106,539	63.1	28.2	45.2
Sweden	1900	2,506,436	2,630,005	5,136,441	1,422,979	551,021	1,974,000	56.8	21.0	38.4
Norway	1900	1,066,693	1,154,784	2,221,477	599,057	277,613	876,670	56.1	24.0	39.5
England and Wales	1901	15,728,613	16,799,230	32,527,843	10,156,976	4,171,751	14,328,727	64.6	24.8	44.1
Scotland	1901	2,173,755	2,298,348	4,472,103	1,391,188	591,624	1,982,812	64.0	25.8	44.3
Ireland	1901	2,200,040	2,258,735	4,458,775	1,413,943	549,874	1,963,817	64.3	24.3	44.0
Great Britain and Ireland	1901	20,102,408	21,356,313	41,458,721	12,962,107	5,313,249	18,275,356	64.5	24.9	44.1
United States of Ame­rica[126]	1900	39,059,242	37,244,145	76,303,387	23,956,115	5,329,807	29,285,922	61.3	14.3	38.4

[126] These figures include 91,219 persons of the army and navy who were absent from the country while the census was taken.

In other trades, such as millinery, manufacture of artificial flowers, etc.,[127] they reduce their own wages and lengthen their own work day by taking home extra work. They frequently do not even notice that thereby they become their own competitors and do not earn more in a sixteen hour day than they might in a well regulated ten-hour day.

The table on page 212 shows to what extent female labor has grown among various civilized nations, both in relation to the other sex and in relation to the entire population.[128] Our table shows that the number of women employed in gainful occupations constitutes a considerable percentage of the entire population. The percentage is largest in Austria, France and Italy. This may be partly due to the manner of census-taking, as not only those female persons are counted, whose principal occupation is a gainful employment, but also those who perform incidental work for wages. The percentage is lowest in the United States. It is also important to compare the growth of the laboring population with former periods. Let us begin with Germany:

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Years in which census was taken	Entire Population		Persons gainfully employed		Persons gainfully employed in percentage of population		Of 100 persons gainfully employed
	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female
1882	22,150,749	23,071,364	13,415,415	5,541,517	60.57	24.02	71.24	28.76
1895	25,409,161	26,361,123	15,531,841	6,578,350	61.13	24.96	70.25	29.75
1907	30,461,100	31,159,429	18,599,236	9,492,881	61.06	30.37	66.21	33.79

This table shows firstly, that the number of persons gainfully employed increases more rapidly than the population; secondly, that the growth of female labor still exceeds this increase; thirdly, that the male laboring population is relatively stationary, while the female laboring population shows a relative and absolute growth, and lastly, that female labor at an increasing rate displaces male labor. The number of persons gainfully employed has increased from 1882 to 1895 by 16.6 per cent.; the number of men, by 15.8 per cent. and 19.35 per cent.; the number of women by 18.7 per cent. from 1882 to 1895, and by 44.44 per cent. from 1895 to 1907. The increase of the population from 1882 to 1895 was only 19.8 per cent., and from 1895 to 1907 only 19.34 per cent. So the entire number of persons gainfully employed has increased; but as the growth of the number of men gainfully employed has approximately kept pace with the growth of the population, the number of women gainfully employed has grown mostly. This shows that the struggle for existence requires greater efforts than formerly.

From 1882 to 1895 and from 1895 to 1907 we find the following increase (+) and decrease (−) among the population of Germany:

From 1882 to 1895	From 1895 to 1907
Female persons gainfully employed
+ 1,005,290 = 23.60 per cent	+ 2,979,105 = 56.59 per cent
Male persons gainfully employed
+ 2,133,577 = 15.95 per cent	+ 3,077,382 = 19.85 per cent
Female servants
+      31,543 =   2.46 per cent	−     64,574 =  4.91 per cent
Male servants
−      17,151 = 40.35 per cent	−      9,987 = 39.38 per cent

The following table shows the number of persons gainfully employed in various trades:

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	1882		1895		1907
	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female
Agriculture, Forestry	5,701,587	2,534,909	5,539,538	2,753,154	5,284,271	4,598,986
Industry and Mining	5,269,489	1,126,976	6,760,102	1,521,118	9,152,330	2,103,924
Commerce and Traffic	1,272,208	298,110	1,758,903	579,608	2,546,253	931,373
Various kinds of wage labor	213,746	183,836	198,626	233,685	150,791	320,904
Public service and learned professions	373,593	115,272	618,335	176,648	799,025	288,311
Army and Navy	542,282	—	630,978	—	651,194	—

The following table shows the increase and decrease in various trades:

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	From 1882 to 1895				From 1895 to 1907
	Female	%	Male	%	Female	%	Male	%
Agriculture, Forestry	+  218,245	8.60	−  162,049	2.80	+1,845,832	67.04	−  255,267	4.61
Industry and Mining	+  394,142	35.00	+1,490,613	28.30	+  582,806	38.31	+2,392,228	35.39
Commerce and Traffic	+  281,498	98.40	+  486,695	38.30	+   351,765	60.69	+  787,350	44.76
Various kinds of wage labor	+    50,029	27.20	−     15,120	7.10	+    87,039	37.22	−    47,835	24.08
Public service and learned professions	+    61,376	53.25	+   154,285	33.25	+   111,663	—	+  180,690	—
Army and Navy	—	—	+   179,153	39.65	—	—	+    20,216	—
Total	+1,005,290	23.60	+2,133,577	15.90	+2,979,105	—	+3,077,382	—

Among the persons gainfully employed there were:

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	1895				1907
	Female	%	Male	%	Female	%	Male	%
Independent	1,069,007	22.1	4,405,039	31.3	1,052,165	—	4,438,123	—
Employees	39,418	0.81	582,407	4.1	159,889	—	1,130,839	—
Laborers, etc., excl. servants	3,745,455	77.09	9,071,097	64.6	6,422,229	—	11,413,892	—
Total	4,853,880	= 100.00	14,058,543	= 100.00	7,634,283	= 100.00	16,982,854	= 100.00

The following shows the increase and decrease of women holding independent positions from 1895 to 1907:

	[1907]	[1895]		[%]
Industry (domestic industry)	477,290	519,492	− 42,202	=  8.10
Commerce and traffic	246,641	202,616	+ 44,025	= 21.77
Agriculture	328,237	346,896	− 18,659	=  9.04

The greatest number of female persons were employed in the following trades:

	1907.	1895.
Agriculture	4,585,749	2,745,840
Clothing and cleaning	883,184	713,021
Commercial lines	545,177	299,829
Textile industry	528,235	427,961
Restaurants and cafés	339,555	261,450
Articles of food and luxury	248,962	140,333
Metal works	73,039	36,210
Stone and pottery	72,270	39,555
Paper industry	67,322	39,222
Wood and carving industry	48,028	30,346

The following are the trades in which more women than men are employed in Germany:

	Women.	Men.
Agriculture	4,217,132	2,737,768
Textile industry	466,210	390,312
Clothing trades	403,879	303,264
Cleaning trades	85,684	58,035
Restaurants and cafés	266,930	139,002
Domestic service	279,208	36,791
Nursing	129,197	78,520

These figures clearly show us the prevailing state of affairs in Germany. Although the number of persons gainfully employed has increased more rapidly than the population, the growth of female labor still exceeds this increase. The employment of women is rapidly growing in all lines of industry. While the male laboring population is relatively stationary, the female laboring population shows a relative and absolute growth. In fact the increase in female labor constitutes the chief portion of the general increase of persons gainfully employed in the entire population. The number of female members of families supported by men rank from 70.81 per cent. in 1895 to 63.90 per cent. in 1907. Woman has become such a powerful factor in industry that the Philistine saying, the woman’s place is in the home, seems utterly void and ridiculous. In England the following numbers of persons were industrially employed:

				For every 100 persons gainfully employed
	Total	Male	Female	Male	Fem.
1871	11,593,466	8,270,186	3,323,280	—	—
1881	11,187,564	7,783,646	3,403,918	69.59	30.41
1891	12,751,995	8,883,254	4,016,230	68.09	31.91
1901	14,328,727	10,156,976	4,171,751	70.09	29.91

Within thirty years the number of men gainfully employed increased by 1,886,790 persons = 22.8 per cent.; the number of women gainfully employed increased by 848,471 = 25.5 per cent. It is especially noteworthy that during 1881, the year of a crisis, the number of men emparent one, since most of the wives and daughters of number of women employed increased by 80,638. The relative decrease of female labor in 1901 is only an apparent one, since most of the wives and daughters of farmers are now counted as having no profession. Besides, during the last twenty years those industries have grown mostly in which male labor is chiefly employed, while the textile industry has relatively, and since 1891, positively declined.

	1881	[1901]	Percentage of increase	Female workers among these
Stone and pottery industry	582,474	805,185	53	5,006
Metal works and manufacture of machinery	812,915	1,228,504	52	61,233
Building trades	764,911	1,128,680	47	2,485
Textile trades	1,094,636	1,155,397	5	663,222

Nevertheless female labor has again increased at the expense of male labor. Only the share in increase of female labor that was 12.6 per cent. from 1851 to 1861 and 7.6 per cent. from 1871 to 1881 was reduced to 1.8 per cent. from 1891 to 1901. In the year 1907 the following numbers were counted in the textile industry: 407,360 men = 36.6 per cent. and 679,863 women = 63.4 per cent. In the clothing trades and in commerce female labor has increased much more. But it is furthermore seen that older women are displaced by younger ones, and as women under 25 are mostly unmarried and the older ones are mostly married, or widowed, it is seen that women are displaced by girls.

The following are trades in which more women than men are employed in England:

	Women	Men
Domestic service	1,690,686	124,263
Clothing trades	711,786	414,637
Textile trades	663,222	492,175
Among these cotton	328,793	193,830
wool and yarn	153,311	106,598
hemp and jute	104,587	45,732
silk	22,589	8,966
embroidery	28,962	9,587

In almost all the branches women receive considerable less pay than men for the same amount of work. A recent inquiry showed that the average weekly wage in the textile industry was 28 shillings 1 penny for men, and only 15 shillings 5 pence for women.[129] In the bicycle industry where female labor has rapidly increased as a result of the introduction of machinery, women receive only from 12 to 18 shillings per week, where men received from 30 to 40 shillings.[130] The same conditions are met with in the manufacture of paper goods and shoes and in binderies. Women are paid especially low wages for the manufacture of underwear; 10 shillings per week is considered a good wage. “As a rule a woman earns half or one-third of a man’s wage.”[131] A similar difference in remuneration between men and women is met with in the postal service and in teaching. Only in the cotton industry in Lancashire both sexes working an equal length of time earned almost equal wages.

In the United States we find the following development of female labor:

	1880		1890		1900
Agriculture	594,510		678,884		977,336
Learned professions	177,255		311,687		430,597
Domestic and personal service	1,181,300		1,667,651		2,095,449
Commerce and transportation	63,058		228,421		503,347
Manufacture	631,034		1,027,928		1,312,668
		%		%		%
Total, women	2,647,157	14.7	3,914,571	17.4	5,319,397	18.8
“     men	14,774,942	85.3	18,821,090	82.6	23,753,836	81.2
	17,422,099	100	22,735,661	100	29,073,233	100

Here we see that the number of women gainfully employed has grown from 3,914,571 in 1890 to 5,319,397 in 1900. It has increased more rapidly than the population which increased from 62,622,250 persons in 1890 to 76,303,387 in 1900; only by 21 per cent. In the same inexorable way the number of employed men is decreasing, since they are being displaced by women. Now for 100 persons gainfully employed there are 18.8 women, while in 1880 there were not more than 14.7 per cent. Of 312 occupations there are only 9 in which no women are employed. According to the census of 1900, we even find among them 5 pilots, 45 engineers and firemen, 185 blacksmiths, 508 machinists, 11 well-borers, 8 boilermakers. “Of course these figures are not of great sociological importance, but they show that there are very few occupations from which women are absolutely excluded, either by their natural capacity or by law.”[132] Women are especially numerous in the following occupations: Servants and waitresses, 1,213,828; dressmaking, 338,144; farm labor, 497,886; laundresses, 332,665; teachers, 327,905; independent farmers, 307,788; textile workers, 231,458; housekeepers, 147,103; salesladies, 146,265; seamstresses, 138,724; nurses and midwives, 108,691; unqualified trades, 106,916. In these 12 occupations 3,583,333 = 74.1 per cent. of all bread-earning women have been counted. Besides there are 85,086 stenographers; 82,936 milliners; 81,000 clerks; 72,896 bookkeepers, etc., together 19 occupations, comprising over 50,000 women = 88.8 per cent. of all women breadwinners. Women predominate in the following trades:

	For every 100 persons employed.
Manufacture of underwear	Women	99.4	Men	0.6
Millinery	“	98.0	“	2.0
Dressmaking	“	96.8	“	3.2
Manufacture of collars	“	77.6	“	22.4
Weaving	“	72.8	“	27.2
Manufacture of gloves	“	62.6	“	37.4
Bookbinding	“	50.5	“	49.5
Textile trades	“	50.0	“	50.0
Housekeeping	“	94.7	“	5.3
Nursing	“	89.9	“	10.1
Laundry work	“	86.8	“	13.2
Domestic service	“	81.9	“	18.1
Boarding	“	83.4	“	16.6
Stenographers	“	76.7	“	23.3
Teachers	“	73.4	“	26.6
Music teachers	“	56.9	“	43.1

Of 4,833,630 women employed in gainful occupations aged 16 years and more, 3,143,712 were single, 769,477 were married, 857,005 were widowed, 63,436 were divorced. The American report says: “The increase in the percentage of persons gainfully employed was greatest for the married women, since it was by one-fourth greater in 1900 than in 1890. In 1890 there was only one married working woman among 22; in 1900 there was one among 18.” The number of widowed and divorced women is very great, both relatively and actually. In 1900 among 2,721,438 widowed women 857,005 = 31.5 were earning their living, and among divorced women the percentage was still greater. Of 114,935, these 49 per cent. were earning their own living in 1890 and 55.3 per cent. in 1900. Thus more women became self-supporting each year. Among the 303 occupations in which women are employed there are:

79	with	less	than	100	women
59	“	“	“	100 to   500	“
31	“	“	“	500 to 1000	“
125	“	more	“	1000	“
63	“	“	“	5000	“

Among 100 persons from 16 years up we find the following wage-scale:

Men		Women
Less than    7 dollars	18	Less than    7 dollars	66.3
7 to   9 dollars	15.4	7 to   9 dollars	19.6
9 to 20 dollars	60.6	9 to  15 dollars	13.2
20 to 25 dollars	4.8	15 to 20 dollars	0.8
More than 25 dollars	2	20 to 25 dollars	0.1
Average weekly wage	$11.16		$6.17

We see that 60.6 per cent. of the men earn more than $9, while only 13.2 per cent. of the women earn more than $9, and more than two-thirds (66.3 per cent.) earn less than $7.[133] The average weekly wage for men is $11.16; the average weekly wage for women $6.17, almost half of the man’s wages. Among government employes the difference is equally great. Among 185,874 persons engaged in civil service there were 172,053 men = 92.6 per cent., and 13,821 women—7.4 per cent. In the District of Columbia, the seat of the national administration, the percentage of female labor amounts to 29 per cent. And yet 47.2 per cent. of the women earn less than $720, while only 16.7 per cent. of the men earn less than $720.[134]

In France, according to the census of 1901, the laboring population amounted to 19,715,075 persons, 12,910,565 men and 6,804,510 women. They are distributed among various trades as follows:

	Men.	Per Cent.	Women.	Per Cent.
Agriculture	5,517,617	72	2,658,952	28
Commerce	1,132,621	65	689,999	35
Dom’tic service	223,861	23	791,176	77
Learned prof.	226,561	67	173,278	33
Industry	3,695,213	63.5	2,124,642	36.5

“The female laboring population amounts to one-half of the male laboring population.”[135] As in all other countries, fewest women are employed at those occupations that require greatest physical strength (In mining 2.03 women for 100 men; in quarries 1.65; in metallurgy, 1.06). The greatest number of women are employed in the textile trades, 116 women for 100 men—in the clothing trades, in laundries, 1,247 women for 100 men, and in the manufacture of underwear 3,286 women for 100 men.[136] It generally holds true, as Mme. C. Milhand states, that the greatest number of women are employed in those industries where the hours of work are particularly long and wages particularly low. “It is a sad fact that while the industries, where the hours of labor are short, only employ a few thousand women, those where the hours of work are long, employs hundreds of thousands of them.”[137] In regard to the wage scale E. Levasseur says that a woman’s wage rarely amounts to two-thirds of a man’s wage and more frequently only to one-half.[138]

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