WOMEN ARE HALF TO TWO-THIRDS OF THE WORKERS Continued

Occupations with 100,000 or more

women-Continued

Occupations with less than 100,000

women-Continued

Women's Advancement to Upper-Level Jobs

Women's advancement to high-level positions is a subject of keen interest, not only to women workers, but to educators, women's organizations, and many others. A significant number of women fill top-level positions successfully. Numerous examples can be found in the field of management, among business proprietors, in most professions, and in government. Nevertheless, the proportion of women usually is much smaller in the upper levels of an occupation than in the occupation as a whole. Or, to put it another way, in almost every occupation, a much larger proportion of men than of women reach the high-level positions.

Employers, unions, and the public can further women's advancement by discarding attitudes and practices prejudicial to women workers and by promoting their acceptance on the basis of individual qualifications for the job.

Women proprietors, managers.-Nearly 1 million women are classified by the census as proprietors or managers (including a very small proportion who are company officials). This is almost twice as many as in 1940. However, women are only about one-tenth of all proprietors and managers, and the proportion has changed very little since 1940. Over half of these women are proprietors running their own businesses. Many are operators of restaurants, food stores, or apparel shops. Others head personal service establishments, manufacturing plants, and stores. A small, but growing, number are in the real estate or insurance business.

Over 2 million women performing professional and technical work in 1956 comprised the fourth largest group among women workers, following after clerical workers, operatives, and service workers. This number was one-third higher than in 1940, although the proportion of women among all professional and technical workers declined from 45 to 35 percent during this period.

Fully four-fifths of professional women are estimated to be concentrated in seven occupational groups, on the basis of 1950 data avail

able for individual jobs. Teaching continues to be the major professional activity for women, with nursing second in importance. Other occupations with large numbers of women are musicians and music teachers, medical and dental technicians, accountants and auditors, social workers, and librarians. The remaining women are found in a wide variety of jobs-as diverse as airplane pilot, optometrist, radio operator, veterinarian.

Women have made significant gains in numerous professions, according to the decennial censuses of 1940 and 1950. As accountants and auditors, their numbers increased from 18,000 to 56,000. There have also been notable gains in the number of women employed as professional engineers; the eightfold increase recorded in 1950 raised the number to almost 6,500 and indicates continued encouragement for women to enter this critically short field. Although these estimates may include some subprofessional workers, there is little doubt that women are sharing in the expanding demand for qualified personnel with professional skills and are finding greatly improved employment opportunities in new fields.

With teaching as the largest professional occupation of women, it might be expected that women would hold the great majority of the upper educational jobs, but this is not the case. Women are threefourths of all elementary and secondary school teachers, but they represent a much smaller proportion of school administrators and college faculty members.

A survey of 164 cities by the National Council of Administrative Women in Education (1950) reported that it is much more usual to find women as principals in elementary schools than in high schools. At least a few women were employed as elementary-school principals in over 90 percent of the cities, as junior-high principals in nearly 40 percent, and as high-school principals in about 15 percent. Less than one-tenth of the junior and senior high-school principals, but well over one-half the elementary-school principals and about half of the supervisors and department directors were women. In 1,200 rural areas, about a third of all administrative positions were held by

women.

As to institutions of higher education, the National Education Association reported on the position of women in nearly 1,000 colleges (1952). Women held about three-fourths of the administrative positions in women's colleges. Most of these were substantial jobs. They held about one-fifth of the administrative positions in coeducational colleges. The dean of women was almost always a woman, as were the great majority of the directors of food services and of residence, and the librarians. In these colleges also, women were a third to one-half of the registrars, bursars, auditors or accountants, and the

directors of student guidance, health, student activities, practice teaching, alumni contact, and student personnel. Over nine-tenths of the women's colleges and about two-thirds of the coeducational colleges had women members on the boards. However, they were less than one-tenth of all board members in coeducational colleges having any women on the board, and just over a third of those in women's colleges. Women in Government.-Some outstanding women hold high and responsible positions in the executive branch of the Federal Government. In the legislative branch, 17 women, including one Senator, were elected to the 84th Congress, more than in any previous session.1 The Congresswomen are about evenly divided between the two political parties. (For a biographical sketch of each woman in Congress see the Women's Bureau report, Women in the 84th Congress.)

About one-third of the Federal white-collar workers are women, but relatively few are in positions of a policy-making level. (See discussion on Federal employees under chief industry groups.)

In 1956, all except 5 States (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma) have 1 or more women in their State legislatures. The total reported was 277 women members of lower houses, and 21 in the upper houses. The States are reported to have almost 6,000 women in top-level appointive positions, and 38 in statewide elective positions. For the first time in the history of the country 1 State (Vermont) has a woman as lieutenant governor. Women hold the position of secretary of state in 7 States and that of superintendent of public instruction in 4 States. Lists of women in responsible State positions are kept current by the Women's Division of the Republican National Committee and information is also available at the Office of Women's Activities of the Democratic National Committee. (See ch. 7 for their addresses.)

Industry Groups

Distribution of Women by Industry

Almost two-thirds of the women employed in 1955 were in three industry groups-manufacturing, retail trade, and professional services. (See table 5.) An industry may employ women in a wide variety of occupations. For example, a manufacturing firm may have, in addition to operatives employed in production, salespersons of several types, clerical office forces, and technical and research employees.

1 One Congresswoman died in November 1955, and was replaced by a man.

Table 5.-EMPLOYED WOMEN IN EACH INDUSTRY GROUP, 1955 and 1940

More than a fifth of all employed women are in manufacturing industries. In spite of a recent slight decline in number of women employed (from 4.5 million in 1953 to 4.4 million in 1955), they still employ more women than any other industry group.

Manufacturing industries are considered in two major classes: Durable-goods and nondurable-goods industries. Figures on the number and percent of women workers in the chief manufacturing industries, both durable and nondurable, taken from reports to the Bureau of Labor Statistics for January 1956, are shown in table 6. Nondurable-goods, or consumer-goods, industries employ 42 percent of all factory workers, but about 60 percent of all women factory workers. The majority of women are concentrated in three industries-textiles, apparel, and food products.

The durable-goods industries employed relatively few women prior to World War II. But as these industries have expanded, and as improvements in processes have been adopted which tend to lighten the physical demands on the worker, the number of women employed in them has increased. They employed 33 percent of the women factory workers in 1950, and about 40 percent in 1956. The electricalmachinery industry employs more women than any other durablegoods industry.

These figures include women working in factory offices, as well as production workers. The proportion in different kinds of jobs varies from industry to industry. When last reported (1947) about fourfifths of all women in factories were production workers. However, in some of the primary metal industries, the proportion in production

Table 6.-WOMEN WAGE AND SALARIED WORKERS IN CHIEF MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES, 1956 AND 1950

Source: U. S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment and Earnings (formerly Employment and Payrolls) (January figures.)

jobs was less than half, while in industries long known as important employers of women, such as the apparel and textile industries, it was over nine-tenths.

Women as Federal Employees

More than half a million women are at work in the executive branch of the Federal Government. About one-fourth of all Federal em