The changing genderization of bookkeeping in the United States, 1870-1930

Business History Review

Volumn 70, Issue 4, 1996, Pages 541-586

  Wootton, Charles W ^a   Kemmerer, Barbara E ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0030327633     PISSN: 00076805     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3117315     Document Type: Article

References (215)

1. United States Census Office, Ninth Census-Volume I. The Statistics of the Population of the United States (Washington, D.C., 1872), Table 29, 706.
2. United States Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, Population Volume V (Washington, D.C., 1933), Table 3, 49.
3. John L. Carey, The Rise of the Accounting Profession From Technician to Professional 1896-1936 (New York, 1969), 45-46.
4. James Morrison, A Complete System of Merchants' Accounts Containing the Principles and Modern Improvements of Book-Keeping; In Various Sets of Books by Single and Double Entry (Edinburgh, 1808), 1.
5. Levi Fulton and Geo. W. Eastman, A Practical System of Book-Keeping by Single and Double Entry: Containing Forms of Books and Practical Exercises, Adapted to the Use of the Farmer, Mechanic, Merchant, and Professional Man (New York, 1851), 5.
6. Carey, The Rise of the Accounting Profession, 15.
7. A. C. Littleton, Accounting Evolution to 1900 (University, Ala., 1981), 205.
8. Littleton, Accounting Evolution to 1900, 366.
9. Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business (Cambridge, Mass., 1977), 109.
10. Chandler, The Visible Hand, 109-110.
11. Chandler, The Visible Hand, 109-121. In the section entitled Accounting and Statistical Innovation, Chandler presents a vivid picture of the many accounting innovations developed and implemented by the railroads that were adopted by other large corporations. Many of these innovations dealt with the areas of financial and capital accounting. "Innovations in a third type of accounting - cost accounting - came more slowly" (p. 115).
12. James Don Edwards, History of Public Accounting in the United States (University, Ala., 1978), 33.
13. Theodore M. Porter, Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life (Princeton, N.J., 1995), 91. For public accountants, Porter writes: "The crucial ingredients here are independence and expertise," 91. In contrast, to bookkeepers or accountants whose responsibility is to their employer (the company), the public accountant's responsibility is to investors, creditors, and the public.
14. Paul J. Miranti, Jr., Accountancy Comes of Age: The Development of an American Profession, 1886-1940 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1990), 30.
15. Harold S. Roberts, Roberts' Dictionary of Industrial Relations, 4th ed. (Washington, D.C., 1994), 155.
16. "Profession," Webster's Third New International Dictionary of The English Language Unabridged (Springfield, Mass., 1981), 1811.
17. Harold L. Wilensky, "The Professionalization of Everyone?" The American Journal of Sociology 70 (Sept. 1964): 145-146.
18. Magali Sarfatti Larson, The Rise of Professionalism: A Sociological Analysis (Berkeley, Calif., 1977), 14, writes that "in the formative period (of a profession), most of the markets for professional services had to be created."
19. Jeremiah Lockwood, "Early University Education in Accountancy," The Accounting Review 13 (June 1938): 135.
20. Gary John Previts and Barbara Dubis Merino, A History of Accounting in America (New York, 1979), 93.
21. Carey, The Rise of the Accounting Profession, 38.
22. Paul J. Miranti, "Birth of a Profession," The CPA Journal 66 (April 1996): 14-20, 72. This article written for the one hundredth anniversary of the passage of the first CPA designation in the United States presents an interesting account of the organizations and politics involved in the passage of the first CPA law in New York. The article also traces the evolution of the American Association of Public Accountants into today's American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
23. Carey, The Rise of the Accounting Profession, 86.
24. H. Thomas Johnson and Robert S. Kaplan, Relevance Lost: The Rise and Fall of Management Accounting (Boston, Mass., 1987), 12.
25. Wilbert E. Moore, The Professions: Roles and Rules, In collaboration with Gerald W. Rosenblum (New York, 1970), 56.
26. Ileen A. DeVault, Sons and Daughters of Labor: Class and Clerical Work in Turn-of-the-Century Pittsburgh (Ithaca, N.Y., 1990), 22.
27. Carey, The Rise of the Accounting Profession, 16.
28. Margery W. Davies, Woman's Place is at the Typewriter: Office Work and Office Workers 1870-1930 (Philadelphia, Pa., 1982), 164.
29. Lee Holcombe, Victorian Ladies at Work (Hamden, Conn., 1973), 142.
30. Davies, Woman's Place is at the Typewriter, 16.
31. Elyce J. Rotella, "The Transformation of the American Office: Changes in Employment and Technology," The Journal of Economic History 41 (March 1981): 52.
32. Wilmer L. Green, History and Survey of Accountancy (Brooklyn, N.Y., 1930), 181.
33. Green, History and Survey of Accountancy, 182.
34. Lisa M. Fine, The Souls of the Skyscraper: Female Clerical Workers in Chicago, 1870-1930 (Philadelphia. Pa., 1990), 10.
35. Alba M. Edwards, Sixteenth Census of the United States: 1940, Population, Comparative Occupation Statistics for the United States, 1870-1940 (Washington, D.C., 1943), Table 10, 129.
36. Helen L. Sumner, "History of Women in Industry in the United States," Volume 9 in Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage-Earners in the United States 61st Cong., 2d sess. (Washington, D.C., 1910), 240.
37. The creation of the modern office included the creation of a hierarchical structure of authority. Davies, Woman's Place in at the Typewriter, 166-67. Prior to the 1870s, offices largely were not marked by stratification, but generally depended upon personal relations between employees and employer. Fine, The Souls of the Skyscraper, 10. In one of the first major books on office management, Lee Galloway sets forth the purpose of the office manager, "to keep the employees and machines working harmoniously." Lee Galloway, Office Management Its Principles and Practice Covering Organization, Arrangement, and Operation with Special Consideration of the Employment, Training, and Payment of Office Workers (New York, 1919), vii.
38. The creation of the modern office included the creation of a hierarchical structure of authority. Davies, Woman's Place in at the Typewriter, 166-67. Prior to the 1870s, offices largely were not marked by stratification, but generally depended upon personal relations between employees and employer. Fine, The Souls of the Skyscraper, 10. In one of the first major books on office management, Lee Galloway sets forth the purpose of the office manager, "to keep the employees and machines working harmoniously." Lee Galloway, Office Management Its Principles and Practice Covering Organization, Arrangement, and Operation with Special Consideration of the Employment, Training, and Payment of Office Workers (New York, 1919), vii.
39. The creation of the modern office included the creation of a hierarchical structure of authority. Davies, Woman's Place in at the Typewriter, 166-67. Prior to the 1870s, offices largely were not marked by stratification, but generally depended upon personal relations between employees and employer. Fine, The Souls of the Skyscraper, 10. In one of the first major books on office management, Lee Galloway sets forth the purpose of the office manager, "to keep the employees and machines working harmoniously." Lee Galloway, Office Management Its Principles and Practice Covering Organization, Arrangement, and Operation with Special Consideration of the Employment, Training, and Payment of Office Workers (New York, 1919), vii.
40. "Women in Business: II," Fortune 12 (Aug. 1935): 50.
41. Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., "The Beginnings of 'Big Business' in American Industry," Business History Review 33 (Spring 1959): 4.
42. The historical close relationship between the bookkeeper and owner is illustrated in the early history of R. H. Macy and Company. Ralph M. Hower writes: "Also to the rear (of the store) were the cashier's desk and an office occupied by Macy and a bookkeeper." Ralph M. Hower, History of Macy's of New York 1858-1919 (Cambridge, Mass., 1946), 43.
43. Chandler, The Visible Hand, 109.
44. JoAnne Yates, Control Through Communication: The Rise of System in American Management (Baltimore, Md., 1989), 2-3.
45. JoAnne Yates, Control Through Communication, 10.
46. DeVault, Sons and Daughters of Labor, 13-14.
47. Grace L. Coyle, "Women in the Clerical Occupations," in The Annals of The American Academy of Political and Social Science Volume CXLIII May, 1929 (Philadelphia, Pa., 1929), 184.
48. Holcombe, Victorian Ladies at Work, 144.
49. Sharon Hartman Strom, Beyond the Typewriter: Gender, Class, and the Origins of Modern American Office Work, 1900-1930 (Urbana, Ill., 1992), 174.
50. Graham S. Lowe, Women in the Administrative Revolution: The Feminization of Clerical Work (Toronto, 1987), 135.
51. Richard N. Current, The Typewriter and the Men Who Made It (Urbana, Ill., 1954), 19. Although C. Latham Sholes usually is given credit for the invention of the typewriter, the two original 1868 patents for a "type writing machine" were issued in the names of Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel W. Soule, and all three men were involved with the machine's early development. However, after the patents were received, Glidden and Soule withdrew from the enterprise, and it was Sholes (occasionally helped by Glidden) who developed the first practical model, the Sholes and Glidden Type Writer. Another important person in the development of the typewriter was James Densmore who largely financed its development and manufactured the first machines. Current, The Typewriter, 12-65.
52. Richard N. Current, The Typewriter and the Men Who Made It (Urbana, Ill., 1954), 19. Although C. Latham Sholes usually is given credit for the invention of the typewriter, the two original 1868 patents for a "type writing machine" were issued in the names of Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel W. Soule, and all three men were involved with the machine's early development. However, after the patents were received, Glidden and Soule withdrew from the enterprise, and it was Sholes (occasionally helped by Glidden) who developed the first practical model, the Sholes and Glidden Type Writer. Another important person in the development of the typewriter was James Densmore who largely financed its development and manufactured the first machines. Current, The Typewriter, 12-65.
53. Bruce Bliven, Jr., The Wonderful Writing Machine (New York, 1954), 94.
54. Joel Shurkin, Engines of the Mind: A History of the Computer (New York, 1984), 94.
55. Strom, Beyond the Typewriter, 180.
56. Shurkin, Engines of the Mind, 92.
57. Jeannette Eaton and Bertha M. Stevens, Commercial Work and Training for Girls (New York, 1915), 206.
58. Ethel Erickson, The Employment of Women in Offices Bulletin of the Women's Bureau, No. 120 (Washington, D.C., 1934), 16-17.
59. In 1915, only five companies (two railroads, a factory, a wholesale house, and a utility) in Cleveland employed tabulating (statistical) machines whereas an estimated forty companies employed bookkeeping machines. Eaton and Stevens, Commercial Work and Training for Girls, 215-216.
60. Strom, Beyond the Typewriter, 181-182.
61. JoAnne Yates, "Co-evolution of Information-Processing Technology and Use: Interaction between the Life Insurance and Tabulating Industries," Business History Review 67 (Spring 1993): 1-51, describes the interrelationship between insurance companies and the tabulating industries in the development of tabulating machines and the modernization of insurance firms' business processes.
62. Erickson, The Employment of Women in Offices, 16.
63. Rotella, "The Transformation of the American Office," 54.
64. "The Loose-Leaf Revolution in Bookkeeping," The World's Work 13 (Nov. 1906): 8248-8249.
65. Charles A. Sweetland, Loose Leaf Book-Keeping and Accounting 4th ed. (Chicago, Ill., 1905), 9.
66. Although there was a significant increase in the total number of bookkeepers in the United States, the introduction of bookkeeping machines and improved bookkeeping procedures resulted in the elimination of several individual bookkeeping positions and affected many individual lives. Jurgen Kocka, White Collar Workers in America, 1890-1940: A Social-Political History in International Perspective (London, 1980), 127-131 [citing W. Carlton (pseud.) One Way Out, A Middle-Class New Englander Emigrates to America (Boston, Mass., 1911)], relates the impact of office mechanization on one family's life; changes at a woollen company that ultimately result in the loss of a dozen bookkeeping positions due to the introduction of adding machines and the loss of another dozen positions due to a new bookkeeping system.
67. Although there was a significant increase in the total number of bookkeepers in the United States, the introduction of bookkeeping machines and improved bookkeeping procedures resulted in the elimination of several individual bookkeeping positions and affected many individual lives. Jurgen Kocka, White Collar Workers in America, 1890-1940: A Social-Political History in International Perspective (London, 1980), 127-131 [citing W. Carlton (pseud.) One Way Out, A Middle-Class New Englander Emigrates to America (Boston, Mass., 1911)], relates the impact of office mechanization on one family's life; changes at a woollen company that ultimately result in the loss of a dozen bookkeeping positions due to the introduction of adding machines and the loss of another dozen positions due to a new bookkeeping system.
68. Strom, Beyond the Typewriter, 185.
69. C. Wright Mills, White Collar (New York, 1953), 207.
70. Not only was there a significant increase in the percentage of women that worked, but there also were significant changes in the industries in which they worked. For example, in 1890, 17.3% of women workers were employed in agriculture, 27.6% in manufacturing, and 41.2% in domestic and personal services; however, by 1930, the percentage of women employed in agriculture, manufacturing, and domestic services had fallen to 8.5%, 17.5%, and 32.3% respectively. In contrast, the percentage of women employed in clerical jobs increased from 3.1% in 1890 to 18.4% in 1930. H. Dewey Anderson and Percy E. Davidson, Occupational Trends in the United States (Stanford, Calif., 1940), Table 6, 19.
71. Claudia Goldin points out that questions have been raised about the accuracy of pre-1940 labor force figures, especially figures from Censuses in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Moreover, during this period, accurate labor participation rates for women (especially white married women) were difficult to determine due to the employment of many women in non direct paid work, such as, on family farms, in household production, and as boardinghouse keepers; which were numerous in the cities. Following a re-analysis of the 1890 data, Goldin concluded that white married women participated in the labor force at a rate approximately equal to their rate (12.5%) in 1940. Claudia Goldin, Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women (New York, 1990), 219-227.
72. Edwards, Sixteenth Census of the United States, Table XIV, 91.
73. Davies, Woman's Place is at the Typewriter, 59; Fine, The Souls of the Skyscraper, xv; Lynn Y. Weiner, From Working Girl to Working Mother: The Female Labor Force in the United States, 1820-1980 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1985), 19.
74. Davies, Woman's Place is at the Typewriter, 59; Fine, The Souls of the Skyscraper, xv; Lynn Y. Weiner, From Working Girl to Working Mother: The Female Labor Force in the United States, 1820-1980 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1985), 19.
75. Davies, Woman's Place is at the Typewriter, 59; Fine, The Souls of the Skyscraper, xv; Lynn Y. Weiner, From Working Girl to Working Mother: The Female Labor Force in the United States, 1820-1980 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1985), 19.
76. Ray Marshall and Paulin Beth, "Employment and Earnings of Women: Historical Perspective," in Working Women: Past, Present, Future, ed. Karen Shallcross Koziara, Michael H. Moskow, and Lucretia Dewey Tanner (Washington, D.C., 1987), 7-8.
77. Ruth Milkman, Gender at Work: The Dynamics of Job Segregation by Sex during World War II (Urbana, Ill., 1987), 3.
78. "Women in Business: I," Fortune 12 (July 1935): 50.
79. Fine, The Souls of the Skyscraper, 42-43.
80. Janet M. Hooks, Women's Occupations Through Seven Decades Women's Bureau Bulletin No. 218 (Washington, D.C., 1947), 10. Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States (Cambridge, Mass., 1959), 288.
81. Janet M. Hooks, Women's Occupations Through Seven Decades Women's Bureau Bulletin No. 218 (Washington, D.C., 1947), 10. Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States (Cambridge, Mass., 1959), 288.
82. Carroll D. Wright, The Working Girls of Boston 1889 reprint (Boston, Mass., 1889), 76-77.
83. United States Department of Labor-Bureau of Labor Statistics, Hours, Earnings, and Duration of Employment of Wage-Earnings Women in Selected Industries in the District of Columbia, Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics No. 116, (Washington, D.C., 1913), 21.
84. United States Department of Labor-Bureau of Labor Statistics, Hours, Earnings, and Conditions of Labor of Women in Indiana Mercantile Establishments and Garment Factories, Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics No. 160 (Washington, D.C., 1914), 195.
85. Although women employed in clerical positions, on the average, earned more than those employed in manufacturing, the gap between clerical wages and manufacturing wages lessened from 1890 to 1930. This decline is discussed in Paul H. Douglas, Real Wages in the United States 1890-1926 (Cambridge, Mass., 1930), 366. Douglas attributes the decline to a greater mechanization of office work, an increased number of high school students with vocational backgrounds, and the increased employment of women which "served to dilute the industry with comparatively low-salaried workers." Women who worked in clerical jobs normally earned more than women who worked in manufacturing jobs; however, women working in clerical areas earned substantially less than men working in similar clerical jobs. Thus, as women acquired a larger percentage of clerical jobs, the overall average earnings of clerical workers declined. However, Claudia Goldin "The Historical Evolution of Female Earnings Functions and Occupations," Explorations in Economic History 21 (Jan. 1984), 13-14 points that the gap between clerical and manufacturing wages not only declined for women it also declined for men, but at a even faster rate. For women, the earnings ratio of clerical to manufacturing jobs declined from 1.75 in 1890 to 1.27 in 1930, while for men the ratio declined from 1.89 to 1.03.
86. Although women employed in clerical positions, on the average, earned more than those employed in manufacturing, the gap between clerical wages and manufacturing wages lessened from 1890 to 1930. This decline is discussed in Paul H. Douglas, Real Wages in the United States 1890-1926 (Cambridge, Mass., 1930), 366. Douglas attributes the decline to a greater mechanization of office work, an increased number of high school students with vocational backgrounds, and the increased employment of women which "served to dilute the industry with comparatively low-salaried workers." Women who worked in clerical jobs normally earned more than women who worked in manufacturing jobs; however, women working in clerical areas earned substantially less than men working in similar clerical jobs. Thus, as women acquired a larger percentage of clerical jobs, the overall average earnings of clerical workers declined. However, Claudia Goldin "The Historical Evolution of Female Earnings Functions and Occupations," Explorations in Economic History 21 (Jan. 1984), 13-14 points that the gap between clerical and manufacturing wages not only declined for women it also declined for men, but at a even faster rate. For women, the earnings ratio of clerical to manufacturing jobs declined from 1.75 in 1890 to 1.27 in 1930, while for men the ratio declined from 1.89 to 1.03.
87. Strom, Beyond the Typewriter, 205.
88. Emilie Josephine Hutchinson, Women's Wages: A Study of the Wages of Industrial Women and Measures Suggested to Increase Them (New York, 1919), 48; Coyle, "Women in the Clerical Occupations," 181; Lowe, Women in the Administrative Revolution, 19; Davies, Woman's Place is at the Typewriter, 64-65.
89. Emilie Josephine Hutchinson, Women's Wages: A Study of the Wages of Industrial Women and Measures Suggested to Increase Them (New York, 1919), 48; Coyle, "Women in the Clerical Occupations," 181; Lowe, Women in the Administrative Revolution, 19; Davies, Woman's Place is at the Typewriter, 64-65.
90. Emilie Josephine Hutchinson, Women's Wages: A Study of the Wages of Industrial Women and Measures Suggested to Increase Them (New York, 1919), 48; Coyle, "Women in the Clerical Occupations," 181; Lowe, Women in the Administrative Revolution, 19; Davies, Woman's Place is at the Typewriter, 64-65.
91. Emilie Josephine Hutchinson, Women's Wages: A Study of the Wages of Industrial Women and Measures Suggested to Increase Them (New York, 1919), 48; Coyle, "Women in the Clerical Occupations," 181; Lowe, Women in the Administrative Revolution, 19; Davies, Woman's Place is at the Typewriter, 64-65.
92. Rotella, "The Transformation of the American Office," 57; Fine, The Souls of the Skyscraper, 44-45: DeVault, Sons and Daughters of Labor, 60.
93. Rotella, "The Transformation of the American Office," 57; Fine, The Souls of the Skyscraper, 44-45: DeVault, Sons and Daughters of Labor, 60.
94. Rotella, "The Transformation of the American Office," 57; Fine, The Souls of the Skyscraper, 44-45: DeVault, Sons and Daughters of Labor, 60.
95. During this period, several articles and books were published that dealt with the often bleak conditions that women and children faced in the factories and mercantile establishments. "Perhaps the best known of the journalistic exposes on working women" was by Helen Stuart Campbell who wrote a series of articles on the working conditions of women in department stores and the needle trades for The New York Tribune. Weiner, From Working Girl to Working Mother, 37. These articles were collected and published as Helen Campbell, Prisoners of Poverty: Women Wage-Workers, Their Trades and Their Lives (Boston, Mass., 1887). In a later book, Helen Campbell, Women Wage-Earners: Their Past, Their Present, and Their Future (Boston, Mass., 1893), 191, describes the life of the unskilled woman factory worker. "In unskilled labor there is little difference among the workers. All alike are half starved, half clothed, overworked to a frightful degree; the report specifying numbers whose day's work runs from fourteen to sixteen hours, and with neither time to learn some better method of earning a living, nor hope enough to spur them on in any new path." Working conditions in a factory, as experienced by a middle-class reporter, is presented in Dorothy Richardson, The Long Day: The Story of a New York Working Girl as Told by Herself (New York, 1906). Florence Kelley, General Secretary of the National Consumers' League, presents a picture of working conditions of women in eighty-two textile mills, fifty-nine rag shops, and five dealers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in a 1919 article: Florence Kelley, "Wage-Earning Women in War Time: The Textile Industry," The Journal of Industrial Hygiene 1 (Oct. 1919): 261-283.
96. During this period, several articles and books were published that dealt with the often bleak conditions that women and children faced in the factories and mercantile establishments. "Perhaps the best known of the journalistic exposes on working women" was by Helen Stuart Campbell who wrote a series of articles on the working conditions of women in department stores and the needle trades for The New York Tribune. Weiner, From Working Girl to Working Mother, 37. These articles were collected and published as Helen Campbell, Prisoners of Poverty: Women Wage-Workers, Their Trades and Their Lives (Boston, Mass., 1887). In a later book, Helen Campbell, Women Wage-Earners: Their Past, Their Present, and Their Future (Boston, Mass., 1893), 191, describes the life of the unskilled woman factory worker. "In unskilled labor there is little difference among the workers. All alike are half starved, half clothed, overworked to a frightful degree; the report specifying numbers whose day's work runs from fourteen to sixteen hours, and with neither time to learn some better method of earning a living, nor hope enough to spur them on in any new path." Working conditions in a factory, as experienced by a middle-class reporter, is presented in Dorothy Richardson, The Long Day: The Story of a New York Working Girl as Told by Herself (New York, 1906). Florence Kelley, General Secretary of the National Consumers' League, presents a picture of working conditions of women in eighty-two textile mills, fifty-nine rag shops, and five dealers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in a 1919 article: Florence Kelley, "Wage-Earning Women in War Time: The Textile Industry," The Journal of Industrial Hygiene 1 (Oct. 1919): 261-283.
97. During this period, several articles and books were published that dealt with the often bleak conditions that women and children faced in the factories and mercantile establishments. "Perhaps the best known of the journalistic exposes on working women" was by Helen Stuart Campbell who wrote a series of articles on the working conditions of women in department stores and the needle trades for The New York Tribune. Weiner, From Working Girl to Working Mother, 37. These articles were collected and published as Helen Campbell, Prisoners of Poverty: Women Wage-Workers, Their Trades and Their Lives (Boston, Mass., 1887). In a later book, Helen Campbell, Women Wage-Earners: Their Past, Their Present, and Their Future (Boston, Mass., 1893), 191, describes the life of the unskilled woman factory worker. "In unskilled labor there is little difference among the workers. All alike are half starved, half clothed, overworked to a frightful degree; the report specifying numbers whose day's work runs from fourteen to sixteen hours, and with neither time to learn some better method of earning a living, nor hope enough to spur them on in any new path." Working conditions in a factory, as experienced by a middle-class reporter, is presented in Dorothy Richardson, The Long Day: The Story of a New York Working Girl as Told by Herself (New York, 1906). Florence Kelley, General Secretary of the National Consumers' League, presents a picture of working conditions of women in eighty-two textile mills, fifty-nine rag shops, and five dealers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in a 1919 article: Florence Kelley, "Wage-Earning Women in War Time: The Textile Industry," The Journal of Industrial Hygiene 1 (Oct. 1919): 261-283.
98. During this period, several articles and books were published that dealt with the often bleak conditions that women and children faced in the factories and mercantile establishments. "Perhaps the best known of the journalistic exposes on working women" was by Helen Stuart Campbell who wrote a series of articles on the working conditions of women in department stores and the needle trades for The New York Tribune. Weiner, From Working Girl to Working Mother, 37. These articles were collected and published as Helen Campbell, Prisoners of Poverty: Women Wage-Workers, Their Trades and Their Lives (Boston, Mass., 1887). In a later book, Helen Campbell, Women Wage-Earners: Their Past, Their Present, and Their Future (Boston, Mass., 1893), 191, describes the life of the unskilled woman factory worker. "In unskilled labor there is little difference among the workers. All alike are half starved, half clothed, overworked to a frightful degree; the report specifying numbers whose day's work runs from fourteen to sixteen hours, and with neither time to learn some better method of earning a living, nor hope enough to spur them on in any new path." Working conditions in a factory, as experienced by a middle-class reporter, is presented in Dorothy Richardson, The Long Day: The Story of a New York Working Girl as Told by Herself (New York, 1906). Florence Kelley, General Secretary of the National Consumers' League, presents a picture of working conditions of women in eighty-two textile mills, fifty-nine rag shops, and five dealers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in a 1919 article: Florence Kelley, "Wage-Earning Women in War Time: The Textile Industry," The Journal of Industrial Hygiene 1 (Oct. 1919): 261-283.
99. During this period, several articles and books were published that dealt with the often bleak conditions that women and children faced in the factories and mercantile establishments. "Perhaps the best known of the journalistic exposes on working women" was by Helen Stuart Campbell who wrote a series of articles on the working conditions of women in department stores and the needle trades for The New York Tribune. Weiner, From Working Girl to Working Mother, 37. These articles were collected and published as Helen Campbell, Prisoners of Poverty: Women Wage-Workers, Their Trades and Their Lives (Boston, Mass., 1887). In a later book, Helen Campbell, Women Wage-Earners: Their Past, Their Present, and Their Future (Boston, Mass., 1893), 191, describes the life of the unskilled woman factory worker. "In unskilled labor there is little difference among the workers. All alike are half starved, half clothed, overworked to a frightful degree; the report specifying numbers whose day's work runs from fourteen to sixteen hours, and with neither time to learn some better method of earning a living, nor hope enough to spur them on in any new path." Working conditions in a factory, as experienced by a middle-class reporter, is presented in Dorothy Richardson, The Long Day: The Story of a New York Working Girl as Told by Herself (New York, 1906). Florence Kelley, General Secretary of the National Consumers' League, presents a picture of working conditions of women in eighty-two textile mills, fifty-nine rag shops, and five dealers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in a 1919 article: Florence Kelley, "Wage-Earning Women in War Time: The Textile Industry," The Journal of Industrial Hygiene 1 (Oct. 1919): 261-283.
100. Lee Holcombe, Victorian Ladies at Work, 148.
101. Susan Estabrook Kennedy, If All We Did Was to Weep at Home: A History of White Working-Class Women in America (Bloomington, Ind., 1979), 107; Fine, The Souls of the Skyscraper, xvii.
102. Susan Estabrook Kennedy, If All We Did Was to Weep at Home: A History of White Working-Class Women in America (Bloomington, Ind., 1979), 107; Fine, The Souls of the Skyscraper, xvii.
103. In the early 1800s, textile mills in New England began to recruit young rural women as workers. In the beginning, nearly all of the women recruited were native born. Kennedy, If All We Did Was to Weep at Home, 46. Moreover, many "came from the middle ranks of rural farming families." Thomas Dublin, ed., Farm to Factory: Women's Letters, 1830-1860 (New York, 1981), 18. Often, the companies recruited these women by "emphasizing the moral and educational advantages of factory work." Thomas C. Cochran and William Miller, The Age of Enterprise (New York, 1961), 19. Or as Benita Eisler writes: "From the outset, the Boston Associates (textile mills) could demonstrate reassuringly to fearful fathers, doubtful divines, and radical reformers that their new factory system matched propriety of upbringing with the exemplary milieu their responsible stewardship provided." Benita Eisler, ed., The Lowell Offerings: Writings by New England Mill Women (1340-1845) (Philadelphia, 1977), 22. However, by the time of the Civil War, the recruitment of the "Yankee girl" often had been replaced by the hiring of newly arrived immigrants, often poor. For example, in 1836, only 4% of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company's (Lowell, Massachusetts) workforce were foreign born, but by 1860, 62% of the workforce were immigrants. Kennedy, If All We Did Was to Weep at Home, 47. With this change in the workforce, by 1870 any middle-class status that factory employment had for women was lost. Lynn Weiner writes: "Domestic work and factory labor no longer offered a mantle of rectitude through the extension of middle-class domestic values. These occupations became provinces of the immigrant, black, and poor women . . . " Weiner, From Working Girl to Working Mother, 17-18.
104. In the early 1800s, textile mills in New England began to recruit young rural women as workers. In the beginning, nearly all of the women recruited were native born. Kennedy, If All We Did Was to Weep at Home, 46. Moreover, many "came from the middle ranks of rural farming families." Thomas Dublin, ed., Farm to Factory: Women's Letters, 1830-1860 (New York, 1981), 18. Often, the companies recruited these women by "emphasizing the moral and educational advantages of factory work." Thomas C. Cochran and William Miller, The Age of Enterprise (New York, 1961), 19. Or as Benita Eisler writes: "From the outset, the Boston Associates (textile mills) could demonstrate reassuringly to fearful fathers, doubtful divines, and radical reformers that their new factory system matched propriety of upbringing with the exemplary milieu their responsible stewardship provided." Benita Eisler, ed., The Lowell Offerings: Writings by New England Mill Women (1340-1845) (Philadelphia, 1977), 22. However, by the time of the Civil War, the recruitment of the "Yankee girl" often had been replaced by the hiring of newly arrived immigrants, often poor. For example, in 1836, only 4% of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company's (Lowell, Massachusetts) workforce were foreign born, but by 1860, 62% of the workforce were immigrants. Kennedy, If All We Did Was to Weep at Home, 47. With this change in the workforce, by 1870 any middle-class status that factory employment had for women was lost. Lynn Weiner writes: "Domestic work and factory labor no longer offered a mantle of rectitude through the extension of middle-class domestic values. These occupations became provinces of the immigrant, black, and poor women . . . " Weiner, From Working Girl to Working Mother, 17-18.
105. In the early 1800s, textile mills in New England began to recruit young rural women as workers. In the beginning, nearly all of the women recruited were native born. Kennedy, If All We Did Was to Weep at Home, 46. Moreover, many "came from the middle ranks of rural farming families." Thomas Dublin, ed., Farm to Factory: Women's Letters, 1830-1860 (New York, 1981), 18. Often, the companies recruited these women by "emphasizing the moral and educational advantages of factory work." Thomas C. Cochran and William Miller, The Age of Enterprise (New York, 1961), 19. Or as Benita Eisler writes: "From the outset, the Boston Associates (textile mills) could demonstrate reassuringly to fearful fathers, doubtful divines, and radical reformers that their new factory system matched propriety of upbringing with the exemplary milieu their responsible stewardship provided." Benita Eisler, ed., The Lowell Offerings: Writings by New England Mill Women (1340-1845) (Philadelphia, 1977), 22. However, by the time of the Civil War, the recruitment of the "Yankee girl" often had been replaced by the hiring of newly arrived immigrants, often poor. For example, in 1836, only 4% of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company's (Lowell, Massachusetts) workforce were foreign born, but by 1860, 62% of the workforce were immigrants. Kennedy, If All We Did Was to Weep at Home, 47. With this change in the workforce, by 1870 any middle-class status that factory employment had for women was lost. Lynn Weiner writes: "Domestic work and factory labor no longer offered a mantle of rectitude through the extension of middle-class domestic values. These occupations became provinces of the immigrant, black, and poor women . . . " Weiner, From Working Girl to Working Mother, 17-18.
106. In the early 1800s, textile mills in New England began to recruit young rural women as workers. In the beginning, nearly all of the women recruited were native born. Kennedy, If All We Did Was to Weep at Home, 46. Moreover, many "came from the middle ranks of rural farming families." Thomas Dublin, ed., Farm to Factory: Women's Letters, 1830-1860 (New York, 1981), 18. Often, the companies recruited these women by "emphasizing the moral and educational advantages of factory work." Thomas C. Cochran and William Miller, The Age of Enterprise (New York, 1961), 19. Or as Benita Eisler writes: "From the outset, the Boston Associates (textile mills) could demonstrate reassuringly to fearful fathers, doubtful divines, and radical reformers that their new factory system matched propriety of upbringing with the exemplary milieu their responsible stewardship provided." Benita Eisler, ed., The Lowell Offerings: Writings by New England Mill Women (1340-1845) (Philadelphia, 1977), 22. However, by the time of the Civil War, the recruitment of the "Yankee girl" often had been replaced by the hiring of newly arrived immigrants, often poor. For example, in 1836, only 4% of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company's (Lowell, Massachusetts) workforce were foreign born, but by 1860, 62% of the workforce were immigrants. Kennedy, If All We Did Was to Weep at Home, 47. With this change in the workforce, by 1870 any middle-class status that factory employment had for women was lost. Lynn Weiner writes: "Domestic work and factory labor no longer offered a mantle of rectitude through the extension of middle-class domestic values. These occupations became provinces of the immigrant, black, and poor women . . . " Weiner, From Working Girl to Working Mother, 17-18.
107. In the early 1800s, textile mills in New England began to recruit young rural women as workers. In the beginning, nearly all of the women recruited were native born. Kennedy, If All We Did Was to Weep at Home, 46. Moreover, many "came from the middle ranks of rural farming families." Thomas Dublin, ed., Farm to Factory: Women's Letters, 1830-1860 (New York, 1981), 18. Often, the companies recruited these women by "emphasizing the moral and educational advantages of factory work." Thomas C. Cochran and William Miller, The Age of Enterprise (New York, 1961), 19. Or as Benita Eisler writes: "From the outset, the Boston Associates (textile mills) could demonstrate reassuringly to fearful fathers, doubtful divines, and radical reformers that their new factory system matched propriety of upbringing with the exemplary milieu their responsible stewardship provided." Benita Eisler, ed., The Lowell Offerings: Writings by New England Mill Women (1340-1845) (Philadelphia, 1977), 22. However, by the time of the Civil War, the recruitment of the "Yankee girl" often had been replaced by the hiring of newly arrived immigrants, often poor. For example, in 1836, only 4% of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company's (Lowell, Massachusetts) workforce were foreign born, but by 1860, 62% of the workforce were immigrants. Kennedy, If All We Did Was to Weep at Home, 47. With this change in the workforce, by 1870 any middle-class status that factory employment had for women was lost. Lynn Weiner writes: "Domestic work and factory labor no longer offered a mantle of rectitude through the extension of middle-class domestic values. These occupations became provinces of the immigrant, black, and poor women . . . " Weiner, From Working Girl to Working Mother, 17-18.
108. In the early 1800s, textile mills in New England began to recruit young rural women as workers. In the beginning, nearly all of the women recruited were native born. Kennedy, If All We Did Was to Weep at Home, 46. Moreover, many "came from the middle ranks of rural farming families." Thomas Dublin, ed., Farm to Factory: Women's Letters, 1830-1860 (New York, 1981), 18. Often, the companies recruited these women by "emphasizing the moral and educational advantages of factory work." Thomas C. Cochran and William Miller, The Age of Enterprise (New York, 1961), 19. Or as Benita Eisler writes: "From the outset, the Boston Associates (textile mills) could demonstrate reassuringly to fearful fathers, doubtful divines, and radical reformers that their new factory system matched propriety of upbringing with the exemplary milieu their responsible stewardship provided." Benita Eisler, ed., The Lowell Offerings: Writings by New England Mill Women (1340-1845) (Philadelphia, 1977), 22. However, by the time of the Civil War, the recruitment of the "Yankee girl" often had been replaced by the hiring of newly arrived immigrants, often poor. For example, in 1836, only 4% of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company's (Lowell, Massachusetts) workforce were foreign born, but by 1860, 62% of the workforce were immigrants. Kennedy, If All We Did Was to Weep at Home, 47. With this change in the workforce, by 1870 any middle-class status that factory employment had for women was lost. Lynn Weiner writes: "Domestic work and factory labor no longer offered a mantle of rectitude through the extension of middle-class domestic values. These occupations became provinces of the immigrant, black, and poor women . . . " Weiner, From Working Girl to Working Mother, 17-18.
109. Karen Shallcross Koziara, "Women and Work: The Evolving Policy," in Working Women: Past, Present, Future, ed. Karen Shallcross Koziara, Michael H. Moskow, and Lucretia Dewey Tanner (Washington, D.C., 1987), 375, notes that in the late 1800s, women who found work in factories often had to work "long hours at low pay in substandard conditions." Robert W. Smuts, Women and Work in America (New York, 1959), 48-49, states: " . . . a (middle-class) daughter could not be permitted to suffer the drudgery, dirt, noise, and even danger of unskilled factory work. Nor could she be allowed to associate with the uncouth immigrants who worked in factories." The likelihood of middle-class daughters with high school degrees working in factories can be see in a 1911 study of women employed in seven major industries in Kansas City, Missouri. Of 2,430 women employed in these industries, only 3.5% had a high school degree. Kansas City (Mo.) Board of Public Welfare Bureau of Labor Statistics, Report on the Wage-Earnings Women of Kansas City and the Annual Report of the Factory Inspection Department for the Year 1912-1913 (Kansas City, Mo., 1913), Table 16, 26.
110. Karen Shallcross Koziara, "Women and Work: The Evolving Policy," in Working Women: Past, Present, Future, ed. Karen Shallcross Koziara, Michael H. Moskow, and Lucretia Dewey Tanner (Washington, D.C., 1987), 375, notes that in the late 1800s, women who found work in factories often had to work "long hours at low pay in substandard conditions." Robert W. Smuts, Women and Work in America (New York, 1959), 48-49, states: " . . . a (middle-class) daughter could not be permitted to suffer the drudgery, dirt, noise, and even danger of unskilled factory work. Nor could she be allowed to associate with the uncouth immigrants who worked in factories." The likelihood of middle-class daughters with high school degrees working in factories can be see in a 1911 study of women employed in seven major industries in Kansas City, Missouri. Of 2,430 women employed in these industries, only 3.5% had a high school degree. Kansas City (Mo.) Board of Public Welfare Bureau of Labor Statistics, Report on the Wage-Earnings Women of Kansas City and the Annual Report of the Factory Inspection Department for the Year 1912-1913 (Kansas City, Mo., 1913), Table 16, 26.
111. Karen Shallcross Koziara, "Women and Work: The Evolving Policy," in Working Women: Past, Present, Future, ed. Karen Shallcross Koziara, Michael H. Moskow, and Lucretia Dewey Tanner (Washington, D.C., 1987), 375, notes that in the late 1800s, women who found work in factories often had to work "long hours at low pay in substandard conditions." Robert W. Smuts, Women and Work in America (New York, 1959), 48-49, states: " . . . a (middle-class) daughter could not be permitted to suffer the drudgery, dirt, noise, and even danger of unskilled factory work. Nor could she be allowed to associate with the uncouth immigrants who worked in factories." The likelihood of middle-class daughters with high school degrees working in factories can be see in a 1911 study of women employed in seven major industries in Kansas City, Missouri. Of 2,430 women employed in these industries, only 3.5% had a high school degree. Kansas City (Mo.) Board of Public Welfare Bureau of Labor Statistics, Report on the Wage-Earnings Women of Kansas City and the Annual Report of the Factory Inspection Department for the Year 1912-1913 (Kansas City, Mo., 1913), Table 16, 26.
112. Aimee Buchanan, The Lady Means Business (New York, 1942), 107.
113. In a 1895 study, insurance companies categorized bookkeepers along with copyists, office clerks, librarians, lawyers, and corporation officers in the highest (exposed to the least risk) of six insurance occupational classifications for indemnities purposes. Katharine Pearson Woods, "Accidents in Factories and Elsewhere," American Statistical Association New Series No. 32 (Dec. 1895): 303-321.
114. Leslie Woodcock Tentler, Wage-Earning Women: Industrial Work and Family Life in the United States, 1900-1930 (New York, 1979), 3.
115. In addition to women's recruitment by businesses, the federal government increased its hiring of women. This increase was spurred by (a) an increase in the size of the federal bureaucracy, (b) an expansion of the number of federal agencies that were authorized to hire women, and (c) women earned less which "offered a way to solve the continual and pressing demand for more workers without over extending the budget." Between 1859 and 1903, the number of workers employed in the executive departments increased from 1,268 to over 25,000, and many of these positions were clerical. Cindy Sondik Aron, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Civil Service: Middle-Class Workers in Victorian America (New York, 1987), 70-71.
116. Davies, Woman's Place is at the Typewriter, 55.
117. Fine, The Soul of the Skyscraper, xvii.
118. Elizabeth Faulkner Baker, Technology and Woman's Work (New York, 1964), 215.
119. Smuts, Women and Work in America, 49.
120. United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Biennial Survey of Education in the United States, 1950-1952 Chapter 1 Statistical Summary of Education 1951-52, comp. Rose Marie Smith (Washington, D.C., 1955), Table 15, 22.
121. Francine D. Blau and Marianne A. Ferber, The Economics of Women, Men, and Work (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1992), 30.
122. Goldin, Understanding the Gender Gap, 106.
123. Sketches and Business Directory of Boston and its Vicinity: For 1860 and 1861 (Boston, Mass., 1860), 323.
124. The difficulty of defining a clerk is addressed in Allen Mead Ruggles, A Diagnostic Test of Aptitude for Clerical Office Work (New York, 1924), 1. "It is not difficult to distinguish between the work of an office clerk and that of a teacher, a policeman, a machinist, or any of the numerous other occupations listed in a census report of similar publication. And yet, when we attempt to define clerical office work, we are impressed with the uncertainty of its limitations. . . . An accountant; a statistician, or an executive secretary may be performing almost the same type of work as other employees who are called clerks."
125. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the use of the term "accountant" sometimes was restricted to individuals who reviewed or audited financial records of other individuals, private companies, or public corporations. In other cases, the term accountant might refer to individuals who were responsible for overseeing the work of "bookkeepers" or who were responsible for the preparation of the financial statements. The uniqueness of accountants in the 1800s is illustrated the 1880 Williams' Cincinnati Directory Embracing A Full Alphabetical Record of the Names of the Inhabitants of Cincinnati, A Business Directory, Municipal Record, Etc. June, 1880 (Cincinnati, Oh., 1880), 1150-1156. In contrast to over 700 listings for attorneys or law firms, the Cincinnati Directory lists only 4 accountants or accounting firms, the same number as for astrologists [sic].
126. This twelve percent share of the workforce was the high point of the employment of women for several years and was created by a unique situation (World War I). During the War, due to the shortage of men, several accounting firms temporarily hired women as accountants. When the war ended, some of the firms retained women as workers; however, they hired men for all new accounting positions. By 1930, women constituted less than nine percent of the accountants/auditors. United States Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, Population Volume V (Washington, D.C., 1933), Table 3, 49. An interesting account of the influence of World War I upon the employment of women in the Federal Government can be found in Bertha M. Nienburg, Women in the Government Service Bulletin of the Women's Bureau No 8 (Washington, D.C., 1920).
127. This twelve percent share of the workforce was the high point of the employment of women for several years and was created by a unique situation (World War I). During the War, due to the shortage of men, several accounting firms temporarily hired women as accountants. When the war ended, some of the firms retained women as workers; however, they hired men for all new accounting positions. By 1930, women constituted less than nine percent of the accountants/auditors. United States Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, Population Volume V (Washington, D.C., 1933), Table 3, 49. An interesting account of the influence of World War I upon the employment of women in the Federal Government can be found in Bertha M. Nienburg, Women in the Government Service Bulletin of the Women's Bureau No 8 (Washington, D.C., 1920).
128. United States Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1920: Volume IV Population 1920 Occupations (Washington, D.C., 1923), Table 4, 43.
129. Catharine Oglesby, Business Opportunities for Women (New York, 1932), 198.
130. Carey, The Rise of the Accounting Profession, 15.
131. Edwards, Sixteenth Census of the United States, Table XIX, 98.
132. "About Wages," The Revolution 45 (20 Oct. 1870): 146.
133. Eudice Glassberg, "Work, Wages, and the Cost of Living, Ethnic Differences and the Poverty Line, Philadelphia, 1880," Pennsylvania History 46 (Jan. 1979): 17-58.
134. Wright, The Working Girls of Boston, 5.
135. Wright, Working Girls of Boston, 76-82, 109.
136. "Looking into the Books," The New York Times 35 (8 Nov. 1885), 4.
137. United States Census Office, Report on Population of the United States at the Eleventh Census: 1890. Part II (Washington, D.C., 1897), Table 116, 530-627.
138. A vivid description of the working conditions, hours worked, and wages of women working in the slaughtering and meat-packing houses of Chicago is presented in Edith Abbott and Sophonisba Breckinridge, "Women in Industry: The Chicago Stockyard," The Journal of Political Economy 19 (Oct. 1905): 609-654. In 1905, slightly over 11% of the workforce in meat-preparation houses were women, usually recent immigrants. Abbott and Breckinridge reported that in a typical Chicago stockyard plant women earned from S2.96 a week working as a meat packer to $6.18 as a feeder.
139. Office of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of Illinois, "Working Women in Chicago," in Seventh Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of Illinois 1892 (Springfield, Ill., 1893), XIII-XV.
140. Average wages of full time bookkeepers and stenographers were determined from workers' wages presented in Tables I and III of the publication: Office of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of Illinois, "Working Women in Chicago," in Seventh Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of Illinois 1892 (Springfield, Ill., 1893), IV-354.
141. "Working Women in Chicago," 150.
142. DeVault, Sons and Daughters of Labor, 56.
143. In 1890, the average annual earnings of men and women workers in the United States were $498.71 and $267.97 respectively. United States Census Office, Twelfth Census of the United States, Taken in the Year 1900 Manufactures Part I Volume VII (Washington, D.C., 1902), Table XXXIX, cxv.
144. Louise Marion Bosworth, The Living Wage of Women Workers: A Study of Incomes and Expenditures of 450 Women in the City of Boston (New York, 1976), 2, 8-9; Table 1, 16.
145. Bosworth, The Living Wage of Women Workers, 11-12.
146. United States Bureau of the Census, Statistics of Women at Work (Washington, D.C., 1907), Table XXIII. 34; Table XXV, 38; Table 17, 162.
147. Army G. Maher, Bookkeepers, Stenographers and Office Clerks in Ohio 1914 to 1929 Bulletin of the Women's Bureau, No. 95 (Washington, D.C., 1932), Table 6, 13.
148. Maher, Bookkeepers, Stenographers and Office Clerks, Tables 7-9, 15-16.
149. United States Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States Colonial Times to 1970 Part I (Washington, D.C., 1975), 172.
150. United States Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1920: Volume IV Population 1920 Occupations (Washington, D.C., 1923), Table 4, 43.
151. Although across the United States women held the majority of bookkeeping positions, there were exceptions. One exception was the City of New York. In a 1918 study made for the Civil Service Reform Association of New York, Fannie Witherspoon and Anna Martin Crocker found that only 7 of 175 (4%) bookkeepers employed by the city were women. In contrast, 199 of 438 clerks were women (45.4%), 231 of 311 typewriters (typists) were women (74.3%), and 628 of 1,145 stenographers were women (54.8%). Fannie M. Witherspoon and Anna Martin Crocker, Opportunities for Women in the Municipal Civil Service of the City of New York (New York, 1918), 47.
152. Edwards, Sixteenth Census of the United States, Table 8, 112; Table 10, 129.
153. Although the majority of bookkeepers in Massachusetts were women, the majority of upper wage positions were held by men. A 1926 study of 5,195 bookkeepers/ accountants (1,889 men; 3,306 women) in Massachusetts reported that 34.9% of the men earned $40 or more a week, whereas, only 2.8% of the women did. However, of four office categories (clerical, stenographic, office machines operators, bookkeeping), women bookkeepers reported the highest average earnings. "Salaries of Office Employees in Massachusetts," Monthly Labor Review 24 (Jan. 1927): 141-143.
154. United States Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1920: Volume IV Population 1920 Occupations (Washington, D.C., 1923), Table 15, 72-127.
155. Carol Aronovici, Women in Industry in Minnesota in 1918 Field Investigation Carried on by Women in Industry Committee Council of National Defence [sic] and Bureau of Women and Children (St. Paul, Minn., 1920), 7.
156. Aronovici, Women in Industry in Minnesota in 1918, 8, 19-23.
157. Maher, Bookkeepers, Stenographers and Office Clerks, Table 6, 13.
158. M. Ada Beney, Wages, Hours, and Employment in the United States 1914-1936 (New York, 1936), Table 3, 48.
159. A 1922 study of 34,655 women employed in 31 industries in New Jersey reported that the median weekly earnings for all women were $14.95. Women in New Jersey Industries: A Study of Wages and Hours Bulletin of the Women's Bureau, No. 37 (Washington, D.C., 1924), Table 3, 13.
160. In general, women office workers earned more than women employed in other occupations. A 1923 study (25,598 factory, 2,389 store, and 2,586 office workers) of women's wages in Hamilton County (Cincinnati) by the Ohio Industrial Relations and Industrial Commission reports that while only 16.6% of office workers had weekly earnings of less than $15.00 a week, 40.8% of store workers and 50.9% of factory workers earned less than $15.00. Frances Ivins Rich, Wage-Earning Girls in Cincinnati (Cincinnati, Oh., 1927), 15.
161. "Situations Wanted/Help Wanted," The New York Times 69 (16 Feb. 1920): 25, 26. "Situations Wanted/Help Wanted," The New York Times 69 (15 March 1920): 29, 30. "Situations Wanted/Help Wanted," The New York Times 69 (15 April 1920): 28, 29.
162. "Situations Wanted/Help Wanted," The New York Times 69 (16 Feb. 1920): 25, 26. "Situations Wanted/Help Wanted," The New York Times 69 (15 March 1920): 29, 30. "Situations Wanted/Help Wanted," The New York Times 69 (15 April 1920): 28, 29.
163. "Situations Wanted/Help Wanted," The New York Times 69 (16 Feb. 1920): 25, 26. "Situations Wanted/Help Wanted," The New York Times 69 (15 March 1920): 29, 30. "Situations Wanted/Help Wanted," The New York Times 69 (15 April 1920): 28, 29.
164. "Women in Accountancy," The Certified Public Accountant 15 (April 1935): 244.
165. National Industrial Conference Board, Inc., Clerical Salaries in the United States 1926 (New York, 1926), 7.
166. Alice Rogers Hager, "Occupations and Earnings of Women in Industry," in The Annals of The American Academy of Political and Social Science Volume CXLIII May, 1929 (Philadelphia, Pa., 1929). Table III, 71.
167. Margaret Elliott and Grace E. Manson, Earnings of Women in Business and the Professions Michigan Business Studies Volume 3 No. 1 (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1930), 4-5; Table 10, 22.
168. Harriet A. Byrne, Women Who Work in Offices Bulletin of the Women's Bureau, No. 132 (Washington, D.C., 1935), 10.
169. In 1926, of 287 (105 factory, 109 store, and 73 office) randomly selected "working girls" in Cincinnati, 40% of the women who worked in offices had some college education while 5% of the store workers had some college education; however, none of the women factory workers had attended college. Frances Ivins Rich, Wage-Earning Girls in Cincinnati (Cincinnati, Oh., 1927), 6; Table XXII, 56.
170. Byrne, Women Who Work in Offices, 6, 18.
171. Rotella, "The Transformatton of the American Office," 52.
172. C. Wright Mills, White Collar, 206.
173. Davies, Woman's Place is at the Typewriter, 56.
174. Hooks, Women's Occupations Through Seven Decades, 75.
175. Davies, Woman's Place is at the Typewriter, 55.
176. Fine, The Souls of the Skyscraper, xvii.
177. Baker, Technology and Woman's Work, 215.
178. From 1870 to 1930, men were substantially less likely to graduate from high school than women. Typically, each year, less than 45% of all high school graduates and often less than 40% of public high school graduates were men. For example, for the school year 1894-95, Report of the Commissioner of Education for the Year 1894-95 Volume 1 (Washington, D.C., 1896), Table 2, 38; Table 12, 49 reports that of 42,393 public high school graduates, 15,158 (35.8%) were men and of the total 54,353 high school graduates, 21,210 (39%) were men.
179. DeVault, Sons and Daughters of Labor, 17.
180. Elizabeth Kemper Adams, Women Professional Workers: A Study Made for the Women's Educational and Industrial Union (New York, 1921), 225. Teresa Amott and Julie Matthaei, Race, Gender, and Work A Multicultural Economic History of Women in the United States (Boston, Mass., 1991), 127.
181. Elizabeth Kemper Adams, Women Professional Workers: A Study Made for the Women's Educational and Industrial Union (New York, 1921), 225. Teresa Amott and Julie Matthaei, Race, Gender, and Work A Multicultural Economic History of Women in the United States (Boston, Mass., 1991), 127.
182. Herman Melville in his short novel, Bartleby The Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street, vividly describes the duties of a law-copyist (scrivener). Melville writes: "It is, of course, an indispensable part of a scrivener's business to verify the accuracy of his copy, word by word. Where there are two or more scriveners in an office, they assist each other in this examination, one reading from the copy, the other holding the original. It is a very dull, wearisome, and lethargic affair. I can readily imagine that to some sanguine temperaments it would be altogether intolerable." Herman Melville, "Bartleby The Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street," in Shorter Novels of Herman Melville Black and Gold Edition (n.p. 1942), 118.
183. Shirley Dex, The Sexual Division of Work Conceptual Revolutions in the Social Sciences (New York, 1985), 192.
184. Eaton and Stevens, Commercial Work and Training for Girls, 214.
185. In his seminal work on human capital theory, Gary S. Becker, Human Capital A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education (New York, 1964), 7-33, distinguishes between two basic types of training and skills, general and specific. Firm-general skills increase employee's productivity for many employers and are interchangeable among several employers. These skills often are learned outside of the firm. Firm-specific skills increase the future productivity of workers of the firms providing it. Building upon Becker's human capital theory, Elyce J. Rotella emphasizes that mechanization reduced the job-specific skill components of most office jobs. Instead, clerical work often required firm-general skills (typing, stenography, machine adding) that were learned outside of the firm (often in high schools or commercial schools). As women were willing to work for lower wages and many women possessed the required firm-general skills, companies favored the hiring of women. Moreover, "the availability of an abundant supply of cheap female labor provided an incentive to adopt the mechanized and routinized production techniques that used workers with firm-general skills." Elyce J. Rotella, "The Transformation of the American Office: Changes in Employment and Technology," The Journal of Economic History 41 (March 1981): 57.
186. In his seminal work on human capital theory, Gary S. Becker, Human Capital A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education (New York, 1964), 7-33, distinguishes between two basic types of training and skills, general and specific. Firm-general skills increase employee's productivity for many employers and are interchangeable among several employers. These skills often are learned outside of the firm. Firm-specific skills increase the future productivity of workers of the firms providing it. Building upon Becker's human capital theory, Elyce J. Rotella emphasizes that mechanization reduced the job-specific skill components of most office jobs. Instead, clerical work often required firm-general skills (typing, stenography, machine adding) that were learned outside of the firm (often in high schools or commercial schools). As women were willing to work for lower wages and many women possessed the required firm-general skills, companies favored the hiring of women. Moreover, "the availability of an abundant supply of cheap female labor provided an incentive to adopt the mechanized and routinized production techniques that used workers with firm-general skills." Elyce J. Rotella, "The Transformation of the American Office: Changes in Employment and Technology," The Journal of Economic History 41 (March 1981): 57.
187. Janice Harriet Weiss, Educating for Clerical Work: A History of Commercial Education in the United States Since 1850 (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1978), 256-257.
188. Baker, Technology and Woman's Work, 215.
189. Coyle, "Women in the Clerical Occupations," 183.
190. Strom, Beyond the Typewriter, 192.
191. Another factor that contributed to the large number of single bookkeepers was the middle-class background of many of them. For example, Lynn Y. Weiner writes: "From 1900 to 1940, middle-income white wives typically did not work outside the home." Weiner, From Working Girl to Working Mother, 83. Even if a woman worked in an office that allowed her to continue work after marriage, there often was social pressure on her to leave her job. Aron, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Civil Service, 41.
192. Another factor that contributed to the large number of single bookkeepers was the middle-class background of many of them. For example, Lynn Y. Weiner writes: "From 1900 to 1940, middle-income white wives typically did not work outside the home." Weiner, From Working Girl to Working Mother, 83. Even if a woman worked in an office that allowed her to continue work after marriage, there often was social pressure on her to leave her job. Aron, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Civil Service, 41.
193. History of the Federal Civil Service: 1789 to the Present (Washington, D.C., 1941), 27. Under the 1864 statute, women could be employed in one of four clerical classes, at a salary not to exceed $600, which was approximately half of what a male clerk earned.
194. Nienburg, Women in the Government Service, 27-28, 32.
195. Charlotte G. Liszt, "Opportunities for Women Accountants in the Federal Civil Service," The Woman C.P.A. (Oct. 1942): 64.
196. Employment Opportunities for Women In Professional Accounting, Women's Bureau Bulletin No. 258 (Washington, D.C., 1955), 9.
197. John W. Wagner, "Defining Objectivity in Accounting," The Accounting Review 40 (July 1965): 600.
198. Valerie Kincade Oppenheimer, "The Sex-Labeling of Jobs," Industrial Relations 7 (May 1968): 227.
199. In regard to the changing office place and the perception of women in it, Maurine Weiner Greenwald writes, "Mechanization and specialization resulted in a tri-level stratification of the office labor force: men trained to deal with matters invoking judgment, experience, and responsibility; semi-skilled female machine operatives; and unskilled women assigned routine tasks." Maurine Weiner Greenwald, Women, War, and Work: The Impact of World War I on Women Workers in the United States (Westport, Conn., 1980), 9-10.
200. "Women Accountants," The Accountant Volume 47 (New Series) No. 1971 (Sept. 14, 1912): 341.
201. R. W. Perks, Accounting and Society (London, 1993), 11.
202. Paul J. Miranti, Accountancy Comes of⊙Age, 29, points out that most American public accounting associations "wished to emulate" the success of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales "who earlier had succeeded in obtaining a prominent place in society for their special expertise." However, the Institute of Chartered Accountants had failed to act on suggestions that women be admitted to the Institute in both 1895 and 1909. It was only after the passage of The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of 1919, that opened professional bodies to women, that women were accepted as members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Harold Howitt, The History of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales 1870-1965 and of Its Founder Accountancy Bodies 1870-1880 (London, 1966); repr., The History of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales 1870-1965 (New York, 1984), 54, 65-66.
203. Paul J. Miranti, Accountancy Comes of⊙Age, 29, points out that most American public accounting associations "wished to emulate" the success of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales "who earlier had succeeded in obtaining a prominent place in society for their special expertise." However, the Institute of Chartered Accountants had failed to act on suggestions that women be admitted to the Institute in both 1895 and 1909. It was only after the passage of The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of 1919, that opened professional bodies to women, that women were accepted as members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Harold Howitt, The History of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales 1870-1965 and of Its Founder Accountancy Bodies 1870-1880 (London, 1966); repr., The History of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales 1870-1965 (New York, 1984), 54, 65-66.
204. Paul J. Miranti, Accountancy Comes of⊙Age, 29, points out that most American public accounting associations "wished to emulate" the success of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales "who earlier had succeeded in obtaining a prominent place in society for their special expertise." However, the Institute of Chartered Accountants had failed to act on suggestions that women be admitted to the Institute in both 1895 and 1909. It was only after the passage of The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of 1919, that opened professional bodies to women, that women were accepted as members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Harold Howitt, The History of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales 1870-1965 and of Its Founder Accountancy Bodies 1870-1880 (London, 1966); repr., The History of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales 1870-1965 (New York, 1984), 54, 65-66.
205. DeVault, Sons and Daughters of Labor, 22.
206. In addition to the perception that women were not suited to become managers, a similar perception was widely held that women could not understand management practices, and therefore, they should not write about such practices. An illustration of this perception is the case of Lillian Gilbreth, one of the major contributors to the early development of management thought. When the granting of her Ph.D. at the University of California was delayed clue to a residence requirement, Lillian and Frank (her husband) Gilbreth sought a company to publish the thesis ("The Psychology of Management"), "only to be told by several of them (publishing companies) that they could not undertake publication of a book on such a subject by a woman author." However, the journal, Industrial Engineering, agreed to publish the thesis as a series of articles (May 1912-May 1913), under the name of F. M. Gilbreth. The following year, a small publishing house agreed to publish the thesis as a book; "provided it bore the name of L. M. Gilbreth . . . and that no publicity be given the fact that the author was a woman." Edna Yost, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth: Partners for Life (New Brunswick, N.J., 1949), 213.
207. Daniel A. Wren describes the duties of the social (welfare) secretary: "The social secretary listened to and handled grievances, ran the sick room of the workshop, provided for recreation and education, arranged transfers for dissatisfied workers, administered the dining facilities, prepared nutritious menus, and looked after the moral behavior of unmarried female factory employees." Daniel A. Wren, The Evolution of Management Thought (New York, 1994), 158.
208. William H. Tolman, Social Engineering: A Record of Things Done by American Industrialists Employing Upwards of One and One-Half Million of People (New York, 1909), 51.
209. Goldin, Understanding the Gender Gap, 112-13.
210. For several decades, women would continue to find public accounting a difficult profession to enter. In 1945, Jennie Palen, one of the first women to be hired by a major accounting firm, wrote: "Vocational advisers are in agreement that it (public accounting) has been the most difficult of all the professions for women to break into." Jennie M. Palen, "The Position of the Woman Accountant in the Postwar Era," The Journal of Accountancy 78 (July 1945): 27.
211. For example, in 1924, the State of New York required five years of accounting experience of which two years had to be in the employment of a certified public accountant. In New Jersey, three years of public accounting experience were required. "C.P.A. Requirements in New York and New Jersey," The Pace Student 9 (Nov. 1924): 187-188.
212. "Editorial - Women in Accountancy," The Journal of Accountancy 36 (Dec. 1923): 443-445.
213. "Editorial - Women in Accountancy," 444.
214. Nettie A. Trail, "Women in Accountancy," The Certified Public Accountant 4 (March 1925): 140.
215. Anne B. Fischer, "Where Women are Succeeding," Fortune 116 (3 Aug. 1987): 86.