1893 - State Library Information Center

WOMAN'S WORK AND WAGES. 83It is scarcely within the range of probabilities that the numberof female wage-earners ever will equal that of the opposite sex;nor do statistics indicate that the ratio is increasing, althoughthe absolute number of women industrial workers is continuallyadvancing. In 1880, the superintendent of the tenth UnitedStates census stated the fact that the ratio of increase, 29.03per cent, from 1870 to 1880, in the number of females pursuinggainiul occupations was higher than in that of males. The totalnumber of both sexes returned at the census of 1880 was17,392,099, of which 2,647,157 were females, or an excess of277,795 over 1870. The data tor 1890, at this writing, are notavailable, except the manufacturing statistics,* which only notethe average number of hands employed during the respectivecensus years, of males above 16 and of females above 15 years ofage, and of children under these ages, These returns show thatthe absolute number of both men and women hands engaged inthe mechanical and manufacturing industries of the countryhas largely increased; but leaving out of consideration children,whose employment the enforcement of our factory-inspectionlaws apparently haB lessened considerably, they also show thatwomen comprised 16,8 per cent, of the adult employes in 1870,20.8 per cent, in 1880, and 18,4 in 1890, It may be that differencesin classification, and inclusion of omitted industries, will,to some degree, militate against strictly just comparisons betweenthe respective census periods, but hardly to an appreciable extent,on account of the large totals involved :Year. Men, Women. Children.1870 1,615,598 323,770 114,6281880 2,019,035 531,639 181,9211890 3,745,210 845,428 121,194The ratio of increase in the number of women employes wasmuch less than that of men from 1880 to 1890; while duringthe preceding census decade it was larger ;INCREASE PER CBNT, IN NUMBER OF—Period*. Men. Women. Children1880 over 1870 24.3 64.2 58.71890 over 1880 85.5 59.0 |33.4• Extra Census Bulletin, No. 67.f Decrease; see above,