L 13.12:Am 3/2 WORKING WOMEN'S GAINS AND GOALS By · ,, Gladys Dickason ; Amalgamated Clothing .Workers of .America Adr:tress Tuesday Afternoo.n,. •· February_ 17-, to_ the Women'ss Bureau Conference 1948, "The American WOMAN ·Her Changing Role as Worker, Homemaker, Citizen," -February 17, ·18, 19, Washington, D. C. I am happy that the chairman of tnis conference the Director of the Women's Bureau of the United States government, is Miss Frieda ·Miller. The conference commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Women' 's Rights C_o.nvention held ·at Seneca Falls,:.· New York in 1848. At this conference the· woman's suf­frage movement was first launched. I know of no woman in American public life ·who· more fully exemplifies the contribution which women could make to our democratic way of life that was envisioned by these women of 1848. and their successors ·in the fight ·for women's rights than does Miss Miller. It was my ·privilege to know something of her work as Industrial Com issioner of the State of New 'York, and to be associated wi th her as a member of an· advisory • group in certain undertakings of her department Miss Miller 's skill in find­ing,. tue. . common denominator of apparently dissimil lar points .of view, her profound understanding of. the _basic problems of our democracy her generosi ty of spirit and her breadth of vision make her one• o.f the outstanding women .of our_day. . . ,, . . .. · Those women, scorned by many as dangerous extremists, who met in ·.1848 to .sound the battle cry o:f women ' s -rights, would be proud indeed today to see this ·conference; called under the auspices of an agency of the .United States government to assess the gains that have been made and to consider What lies ahead. It was no doubt outside the scope of their furthest dreams · that their ·granddaughters. should not only. enjoy full rights-of.~-suffrage, and have broad opportuni ties for. gainful employment and for participation in all aspects of· our poli tic.ctl and cultural life but that, in addition, a special agency of the federal government would have been-created to give c.ontinuous study and. attention to tne problems of working women. The Women' s Bureau was established 1918 . As those :of. us who de.al with women' s problems from day to day are well aware, -it has made an im­ . portant c.ontribution toward the economic and social, advacement t of working women. Under Miss Miller 's able guidance, the :Bureau has been_ in close touch with .the problems of women in industry The -Bureau has rendered important public service:by its collection, analysis and dissenination of facts relating to these problems and to their solution. Today, when.nearly -eight·een million women are employed outside their homes, when tthe_. number _of employed women and their proportion to .all. women and ·to_ the total of gainfully employed •persons .is steadily increasing, and when the effects of _the continuing entry of great nunbers ..of womeninto the labor force are. so intimately related to the health and prosperityty of our nation, the Women' s :Bur eau stands as an indispensable agency of good governnent. The conference of 1848 which ·it is part of our purpose here to commemorate met in a· period of a groat upsurge of democracy We meet today in a time when democracy has been threatened and when our utnost efforts must be devoted to strengthening it,. A favorable posi·tion for women economically politically, and socially, is intimately ·bound up· with the democratic fom of government It is intinately associated with a liberal and progressive demo­cratic government As fascism and dictatorship are the ,enemies of women as they are the enemies of society, so is r,eaction . the enemy of women. lt is essential in today's turbulent world and in this period of post-war reaction that we re-evaluate· our concepts of wor.1en Is role in an indus­.. trialized democracy so that these concepts may be .clear and distinct. We cannot afford to be vague confused 'in our views about wonan' s role today·. ·we cannot afford to forget tne lessons of the last two ·decades. In grea.t spaces of the earth where women had made headway toward a fuller.· life for themselves and toward contributing effectively to the life of their countries, they were summarily returned to the role of inferiors: The countries in which women were thrown 'backward in status in ' job opportunities and in ability to live as individuals were those countries where dictatorship replaced the ways of democracy Women did not flourish under nazism or fascism The women of, 1848 who were accustomed to the accu­sation of making "clamorous and unfeminine declarations of personal rights which it is obvious a wise Providence never destined her to exercise" would have been familiar with many of. the slogans of nazi sn as· to women' s proper sphere. Wl.1.at is woman's role in democratic industrialized society? That is the q_uestion on which our views must be well-defined. if we are to set goals for ourselve:s ·which will enable women to lead fuller lives and to make an ever increasing contribution· to a happy and prosperous nation • . ·we are accustoned to the woman as voter. That is an outstanding gain of thepast century.. It is a: gain which was made only .by decades of struggle and the ultimate achievement of which offers encouragement for. the reaching of other goals if our· thinking is clear. as to our aims. Increasing opportunities for entry into occupations and professions to which women were not adr.1i tted even a .generation ago., ·to say nothing of a century ago, is another great gain of recent _years . But that is a gain not so solidly established as the rignt to vote. Shall ·we forget the cries of the. depression ·years, 11fire the narried women"? And, although women are admi tted to almos t all the pro­fessions and to alnost all types of jobs in trade, industry, and personal service, it cannot be said that women ye,t have equal opportunityty wi th nen for advancement or even for the· same pay for the same amount of work. A hundred years ago., there was small doubt in the minds of the great majority of the people of the United States as .to woman' s role in society. "WomanI s place is in the home 11 • Thatt phrase summed up the prevailing thoughtt quite succinctly The women of 1848 meeting in Seneca Falls formulated an answer to that view in a manifesto in which they proposed to amend the Declaration of Independence to read, 11All men and women are created equal ." Time and a changing econony have been on the side of the women of 1848. Women have always performed a major productive function in society in add i tion to child-nearing and child-rearing. This has been true fromprimi­tive times until the present. Rapid. industriali zationhas, however, brought about a revolution in the way of women Is lives in that it has transferred a largeportion of that prducti ve function fromthehome to the factory. Bak­eries, canneries, packing plants, laundries textile mills, and garment fac­tories now do a large part of the work which women performed in the home. And women have followed their work from the home to the factory. Women' s roles of. homemaker and co-producer were better integrated when both were carried on in the ho me. With increasing industrializatioi1, however, it is not likely that woman future is to be found in a return to the home. Industry needs the woman worker if the standard of living which Americans seek is to be achieved, and women need jobs since so large a portion of their work has gone 0ut of the home The goals of women today, then, --and the worthwhile goals of women are also the goals of the society insofar as the special problems of women are concerned --are a clearer orientation of their rights as workers and a better integration of their responsibilities as homemakers with their duties as wage earners. "Woman' s place is in the home" was a.nswered with "equal rights". Industry, commerce and the service trades answered with jobs --more or fewer ,jobs depending on the state of business activity. Better or worse jobs depen­ding on current practices as to conditions of work, the strength of trade unions, the labor supply, and a variet;y of other factors. Long hours, sweatshop wages, dangerous places of work, and other causes of unwholesome strain, were more quickJ.y recognized. as threatening to the nation's welfare when affecting women, and when greater numbers of women were enployed, than they had been when the working force was largely composed of men. This fact, together wi th the fact that the fundamental law of the country pernitted the states to act with respect to the employmentconditions of women and minors, brought about protective legislation. for women. Row does protective legislation for women -square with "equal rights"? "Equal rights" has· been a valuable slogan in the fight for women's rights for a century. Has not time, however, made amore ·spacious concept essential f.or today'? Have not the gains of a hundred years made 11 equal status" the dynamic road to progress., not ''equal rights"? In 1848.,. the: question of whether or not women were inferior beings co.uld still be seriously _argued. Today, such an argumentwould be advanced only .at any man' s peril! That battle has been won . The residue of that stream of thought still obtains in the economic sphere in limitations on womenI s entry into certain professions, in their opportunities for advanceoent in: many line:; of work, · and in inequali ties in pay .for the same amount of work, but it is probably true. that this residue remains, not because-of any, convic­tion that women are inferior in ability as workers, but, rather , because of fear of conpetition of women for better jobs or because of the simple desire of employers to obtain cheaper labor. •. · That women are equals of men is no longer a topic of debate ---even by men. No· matter how much clearing away of outworn laws regulating women to a status inferior to that of men in respect to property rights 'and other ·sub­jects renains to _be done, the issue today is not inferiority ·or superiority E•quality .is recognized if not always practiced But equ,ali ty does not make wouen .the sameas men. Equal 'but, not identical entitled to equal status-, equal opportuni ties for gainful employ­ment equal participation in the national life, equal scope for self-.deve1op­ment --equali ty as human beings, the equali ty supported by such di_fferentiation in the factory and in ·legislative halls as natural differences and lack of identity deternine:· that would seen to be the goal for women of 1948. Dif­ferentiation is the basic concept of democracy. The public interest might, however, be s erved by securing equal rights for men in some of the aspects of work in which women now have protec­tion. Ntght work cannot be considered as conducive to the better health or happier home life of men any more than of women. It exists in industries where it_ is not necessary. As a nation:al aim, it. would seem to be more constructive to work toward. elimination of all unnecessary night work, rather than to .strive f.or the right of women to share equally with men in the disadvantage of work­ing at night. Substandard wages are no nore contributory to well-fed children when earned by menthan when earned by women. Cons ti tutiona1 amendment,if necessary to .enable states to set minimum wages for men as well ·as for women in intra-state occupations is a more serviceable objective than a demand for the equal rigLt of women to be exploi t od . Protective legis1ation begins with the· weakest gr:oup_, children, whose labor is now prohibited in most occupations. It has been ex tended to women. That minimumwage and maximum .hour legislation applying to both men and women has been enacted by the federal government with respect to jobs affecting interstate commerce is evidence .of the fact thri t it is 'recognized that \he establisbuent of minimumstandards .of work for both men an women are deemed essemtial to national welfare and: -prosp-erity. Let us have equal protection .for men not the ..destruction of protec­tion -for women if inequalities exist due to protective legislation• .An extension not a diminution of ·existing protective ·legislation·· is as a matter of fact urgently needed for the strengthening of our econonic system anc1 our democratic way of life. Minimum wage legislation should be ex­panded to tnose intra-state occupations not now covered in states where some coverage exists and to all intra-state occupations in those states without minimum wage laws. Established minimum rates also need reviewing to be brought into a closer relation to present price levels and living costs where this has not already been done. Many thousands of workers, the majority· of them wonen, work in laundries and other intra-stat0 businesses today for as lit:,le as 25¢ an hour. Within the past ten years, Just before the Fair Labor Standards Act was ::,assed, tens of thousands worked long hours for as li ttle at 10¢ an hour. And within the past fifteen-, years, only as far back as 1933, men and women in vast numbers earned as little as $2 and $3 per week for fifty nours and. more of work. These facts mist not be lost sight of in the discussion of protective legislation. The expansion of trade union membership and t he i ncreasing number of women in trade unions has contributed in no small measure to improved conditions for working women. Wages substantially above t he legal minimum, paid holidays paid vacations health insurance, maternity benefits, rest periods, reasonable speed of work, protection against favori tism and unjustified discharge, a method for adjusting grievances: provision for some of these terms of work is universal in all union agreements, and t h e others a re common, if not uni­versal, in such contracts. Progress has been made through coll ective bargaining in securing equal pay for equal work. Tne fact that not all working women are members of trade unions, and that existing practices of discrinination in pay are so deep­rootecl, makes the right of women to equal pay a proper and urgent subject for legislation. Trade unions can r.1ake a further contribution to equali ty of oppor­tunity for wonen workers by assuring that better~paid and more skilled jobs which they are hysically qualified to perform are open to them on an equal basis wi th men. It remains tne policy of the federal government as set forth by statute, to protect the right of workers to organize and to encourage· the for­mation of unions, despite the obstacles to tne enjoyment of that right which are contained in the TA.ft-Hartley law. Continued improvement of the working conditions of the greatt mass of working women can be promoted by the encourage­ment of women to join and take an acti ve part in the establi$hed unions in the industries in whicn tney work. Womenwere among the cnief beneficiaries of the Wagner Act. They have a signal stake in the repeal of the ,Taft-Hartley law .anc: the genuine protection .of the rignt to organize, Extension of old age and unemployment insurance laws to occupations not now covered would make an important contribution to the welfare of working wonen. Because so large a proportion of them are enployed i :1 domestic and personal service jobs which, to a large extent, are not covered by social se­curity laws, the extensior1 of coverage would be a major benefit to women workers. Great prog:ress was made during the war in giving attention to im­proving the integration of homemaking and job-holding for women. In order to II Ill lllll Ill llllll Ill lllll II IIIIII IIII II lllll 111111111111111111 3 9352 08056257 2 -6­ reduce absenteeism and alleviate the strain of ctouble work. in the home and in the factory, laundries, grocery stores; order-taking for. standard household and clothing items, ·and many other service enterprises were conducted at the fac­tory site in numerous instances. The federal government aided in the opera­tion of nurseries for the care of childr.en. These were steps in the right · direction not only during the war emergency but for normal times. Continued attention on the part of industry, organized, .labor, and government to, the._ problems of combining home and job responsibilities will be advantageous to the health of women and · the welfare of children and home. Much could be said about the goals of wor.-1en in professional and executive field~, but time does not permit. In conclusion, it may be emphasized that· women need make no apology for being at work. They need not feel embarrassment now or in the future when jobs may be less plentiful that they are filling jobs which men should have. Women are not taking men's jobs: they are following into the office, the hospital the school, and the factory the jobs which_ they formerly performed at home. Largely duo to the influence of tne Women s :Bureau, tho old notion that women work for "pin money" has been di spelled. The vast majori ty of women work because they must support themselves or their families or because their income is needed to supplenent the earnings of the chief wage-earner. And with reference to that relatively smal; number of women who could be supported in comfort if they did not work, but who work because they are hap­pier doing so, let it be remembered that we have no convention that men who nave innerited sufficient resources to live without working, or whose fatners are able to support themand their families should wi thdraw from the labor force when there are not enough jobs for all, American wonen have come a long way since that historic meeting in Seneca Falls a hun.dred years ago. They have won political equality and ex­tended their legal rights; they now enjoy most of the educational advantages formerly restricted to men' and the steadily increasing number of working wor.1en has gained some measure . .of econcmic security through greater ·job oppor­tunities through legislation regulating their working conditions and support­:ing the right of workers to· organize, through the narrowing of the differences between their wages and the wages paid to men doing conparable work, and .. through other forms of job security. These gains must be r.1aintained and ex­tended. It is only through equal opportunities, adequate protections, the exterisive developnent of facilities for child care and aid with domestic duties, and above all, full employment at wages sufficient to maintain a high standard of li ving for all workers that women wi 11 achieve thei_r· real goal -­full part:icipation in our: country's political, economic and cultural life.