THE'PuBLfc Schools and Women in Office Service >„>_' > ^^ V--'-/ "^HwWi Brattleboro public ^library ^^^< ^•^ ■.i\ 4-^ ' ^ ^^ graOKS MEMOWAL BUILDING X THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES WOMEN'S EDUCATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL UNION, BOSTON DEPARTMENT OF RESEARCH Studies in Economic Relations of Women Published by LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. New York, London, Bombay, and Calcutta Volume I, Part 1. Vocations for the Trained Woman. Opportunities Other than Teaching. Introductory Papers. Edited by Agnes F. Perkins. Edition exhausted. Volume I, Part 2. Vocations for the Trained Woman: Agriculture, Social Service, Secretarial Service, Business of Real Estate. By Eleanor Martin, Margaret A. Post, Fellows in the Department of Research, Women's Educational and Industrial Union, and Com- mittee on Economic Efficiency of College Women, Boston Branch, Association of Collegiate Alumna^. Prepared under the direction of Susan M. Kingsbury, Ph.D., Director. 8vo, $1.50 net. Postage extra. (Weight, 2 lbs.) Volume II. Labor Laws and their Enforcement, with Special Reference to Massachusetts. By Charles E. Persons, Mabel Parton, Mabelle Mosps and Three "Fellows." Edited by Susan M. Kingsbury, Ph.D., Director of the Department of Research. 8vo, $L50 net. Postage extra. (Weight, 3 lbs.) Volume III. The Living Wage of Women Workers. A Study of Incomes and Expenditures of 4.50 Women in the City of Boston. By Louise Marion Bosworth, Fellow in the Department of Research. Edited with an introduction by F. Spencer Baldwin, Ph.D. 8vo, $1.00 net. Postage extra. (Weight, 2 lbs.) Volume V. Millinery as a Trade for Women. By Lorinda Perry, Ph.D., Fellow in the Department of Research. Prepared under the direc- tion of Susan M. Kingsbury, Ph.D., Director. In the press. Published by WOMEN'S EDUCATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL UNION Boston, Mass. Volume IV. Dressmaking as a Trade for Women. By May Allinson, A.M., Fellow and Associate Director of the Department of Research. Prepared under the direction of Susan M. Kingsbury, Ph.D., Director. In the press. Volume VI. The Boot and Shoe Industry as a Trade for Women. By the Department of Research. Susan M. Kingsbury, Director; May Allinson, Supervisor of Investigation; Lila Ver Planck North, Editor. In the press. Volume VII. Industrial Home Work in Massachusetts. By the Depart- ment of Research. Prepared under the direction of Amy Hewes, Ph.D., Supervisor of Investigation for the Department of Research. In co-operation with and f)ublishcd by the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics. Bound, with index, in conformity with this edition. Svo, $0.80 net. Postage extra. (Weight, 2 lbs.) Volume VIII. The Public Schools and Women in Office Service. By the Department of Research. Prepared under the direction of May Allinson, Associate Director. Published by the Boston School Com- mittee. Bound, with index, in conformity with this edition. Svo, $0.80 net. Postage extra. (Weight, 2 lbs.) WOMEN'S EDUCATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL UNION BOSTON DEPARTMENT OF RESEARCH STUDIES IN ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF WOMEN VOLUME vm CITY OF BOSTON PRINTING DEPARTMENT THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE BY THE DEPARTMENT OF RESEARCH WOMEN^S EDUCATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL UNION BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS Prepared under the direction of MAY ALLINSON, A. M. Associate Director Published by WOMEN'S EDUCATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL UNION BOSTON, MASS. HD 6073 (^3 6L5 PREFACE The report of the Commission on National Aid to Vocational Education, published June 1, 1914, recom- mends that more definite studies be made to supply information which may be used in the training of commercial workers. The report points out that there is a surprising lack of information respecting commercial conditions affecting commercial education. It is, per- haps, strange that an enterprise like commercial educa- tion which has been so largely undertaken in our pubHc schools should possess so meager a basis of concrete evidence for established procedure. Our organized information upon commercial education has been limited to statistics regarding number of pupils, teachers, schools and appropriations. The report above-men- tioned states that we need information concerning other and more important matters, such as supply and demand for trained commercial workers, distribution, selection and placement, and the changing conditions of com- merce and their consequent effects upon commercial education. During the past year three important investigations have been undertaken in and about Boston with the purpose of securing this much needed fact basis for commercial education, and this report presents the results of one of these studies. The other two investiga- tions were conducted respectively by the Committee on Education of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, and by a Committee of Commercial Teachers representing the Massachusetts State Board of Education. No reports have yet been published as the result of these latter investigations. The investigation carried on by G9()G39 VUl PREFACE. the Chamber of Commerce was intended to study primarily commercial conditions affecting the com- mercial education of boys; the investigation by the Massachusetts State Committee consisted chiefly of an examination into the business careers of boys and girls who had been out of school for some years; the investigation conducted by the Department of Research of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union and embodied in the present report, dealt with conditions applying to the commercial training of girls. Of the three investigations it is fair to state that this report presents the most far-reaching and thorough- going results. It was prepared by the Department of Research of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, from data secured by four college graduates hold- ing fellowships in research. Miss Lucy C. Phinney, Miss Jean M. Cunningham, Miss Margaret M. Lothrop and Miss Hazel Manning, working under the direction of Miss May Allinson, Associate Director of the depart- ment. The resources and experience of the makers of this report have enabled them to gather matter of value from a wide field in which conditions prevailing in the business house, in the school, and in the home are presented. There is a tone of moderation throughout the report and there is evident no spirit of unnecessary challenge or indictment of the methods and purposes of commercial courses. Commendation is freely given to successful effort on the part of the schools, and criticism with a full appreciation of hampering condi- tions is stated with the evident purpose of helpfulness and encouragement. The attitude of the report will be found dispassionate, and commercial teachers reading it will feel impelled to renew their efforts with cheer- fulness rather than with discouragement. Practical results of this investigation have not awaited its formal publication. The new Clerical School of Boston, begun in September, 1914, shows in its organi- zation, course of study and general procedure the sub- PREFACE. ix stantial principles advocated in the report. Supple- mentary commercial courses recently incorporated in our general high schools, such as salesmanship, part time plans, practice work in offices and stores, vocational guidance and placement, are instances of the recognition on the part of the schools of many of the principles which the report advocates. F. V. THOMPSON, Assistant Superintendent of Schools. Boston, Mass., November, 1914. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE vii-ix LIST OF TABLES xiii-xiv LIST OF CHARTS xv CHAPTER I — INTRODUCTORY By May Allinbon Importance of women in the commercial world. Two main lines of work. "Clerical occupations" and "trade." Rela- tive numerical importance of each group. Office service and its wide range of workers. Development of stenography. Evolution of the typewriter. Rapid increase in numbers of women in the commercial world. Evolution of "commercial education" in the United States. In Boston. Predominance of pupils studying commercial subjects in Boston high schools. Problems confronting the vocational educator. Purpose of study. Methods. Study of day high schools and their pupils. Evening high schools and their pupils. Placement agencies. Local canvass of women employed in offices. Visits to employers. Purpose. Suggestions to educators 1-24 CHAPTER II.— THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS By Lucy C. Phinney General high schools. Types of school neighborhoods. Nature of commercial courses. Comparison of academic and commer- cial pupils. Information secured from graduates. Nature of group studied intensively, as to schooling, occupation and wage. Eflfect of additional training on wage. Evening com- mercial high schools. Nature of courses. Personnel of group studied. Variation of age, education, occupation and length of experience. Proportion in office service. Occupation, school- ing and wage. Plans for improving the course. General prob- lems of commercial educators. Vocational guidance. Neces- sity for familiarity with pupils' needs and employers' require- ments. Acquaintance with development in office machinery. Importance of a broad general education. Effects of the elective system. Busine-ss demands for i)ersonality. Means of meeting general business requirements. Part-time school- ing. Suggestions from employers. Placement of graduates . 25-73 CHAPTER III.— CHARACTER OF OFFICE SERVICE By Jean M. Cunningham Number in the occujiation. Pro{)ortion of men and women. Classification of workers, clerks, bookkeepers, stenographers (xi) Xii CONTENTS. Paqe and secretaries. Factors determining opportunities. Different kinds of business. Personal attitude and business policy of the employer. Mental equipment and personality of girl. Intro- duction of office machinery. Means of securing work. Stabil- ity of the workers. Reasons for leaving positions. Temporary work. Conditions of work. Hours. Overtime. Holidays. Vacations. Slight difference between nominal and actual wage. Opportunities for women in office service . . 74-112 CHAPTER IV.— WAGES By Margaret M. Lothrop High wage scale of office service. Four factors determining wage. Occupation. Age. Education. Experience. Relation of education to length of experience. Relation of education and beginning wage. Necessity of thorough preparation for office service 113-149 CHAPTER v.— HOME LIFE AND RESPONSIBILITIES Bt Hazel Manning Neighborhoods of five schools studied. General characteristics of each. Historical change. Nationality. Home conditions. Type of family. Character of mother. Proportion of workers at home and adrift. Marital condition. Age at beginning work. Contributions to the home as indicated by father's national- ity. Father's occupation. Dependents and wage-earners . 150-171 CHAPTER VI.— SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK By May Allinson Summary and outlook 172-179 INDEX 181-187 LIST OF TABLES. XIU LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Showing increase in the number of women employed in busi- ness in the United States from 1870 to 1910 .... 1 2. Showing growi,h of private business and commercial schools and colleges in the United States from 1870 to 1910 ... 5 3. Showing relative pro{X)rtion of students in private commercial colleges and in public high schools 9 4. Showing proportion of girls in the Boston high schools, taking one or more commercial subjects, 1912 to 1913 ... 13 5. Showing the comparative annual loss of the commercial and academic students in a Boston high school .... 31 6. Showing the relation between father's occupation and high school course elected 33 7. Showing summary of information secured concerning 935 high school pupils of 14 graduating classes from 1905 to 1913 . . 34 8. Showing relation of the amount of schooling to the character of work in office service 36 9. Showing proportion of 310 former high school pupils earning less than $9 and $9 and over 37 10. Showing proportion of 310 public school pupils who have gone to business college for further training 38 1 1 . Showing relation of amount of schooling and length of experience to present wage 44 12. Showing age of girls enrolled in evening commercial high schools in 1913 to 1914 47 13. Showing previous day school training of 861 girls in evening high schools 48 14. Showing occupation of 861 girls in Boston evening commercial high schools 50 15. Showing length of working day of 682 girls in three selected occupations attending evening high school . . . 51 16. Showing the occupations of girls in office service in five Boston evening high schools 52 17. Showing previous high school and additional training of 237 evening high school girls in office service 53 18. Showing previous education, with and without additional training, of 682 girls in evening high schools .... 54 19. Showing the number of stenographers and typists placed by four typewriter agencies in Boston during the year, January, 1912 to 1913 80 20. Showing means of securing work in office service .... 96 21. Showing rea.sons for leaving positions 104 22. Showing weekly hours of work in office service .... 106 Xiv LIST OF TABLES. Table Page 23. Showing wages of women oflBce workers in Civil Service by occupation 116 24. Showing wages of office workers registered in an employment bureau in 1913 118 25. Showing wages of 1,177 women in office service by occupation . 120 26. Showing wage by age of 985 women in office service . . . 122 27. Showing schooling of 675 clerks and 439 stenographers . . 123 28. Showing schooling of G75 clerks with relation to wage . . 128 29. Showing wages of 439 stenographers and typists as influenced by schooling 130 30. Showing wages of 675 clerks and 439 stenographers by length of experience 135 3 1 . Showing wage by schooling of 1 87 stenographers secured through the schools 141 32. Comparing the present wage of 806 office workers with a working experience of six years or less with 310 secured from the schools 143 33. Comparing beginning wage of 593 women secured from offices and 305 women secured from the schools 144 34. Showing relation between the beginning wage and schooling of 187 stenographers studied from the schools .... 145 35. Showing nativity of the population of five school neighborhoods 153 36. Showing wage by age by living condition of 659 girls secured from the schools 158 37. Showing living conditions of women in office service in the United States 159 38. Showing living conditions of 310 girls in office service . . 160 39. Showing age at beginning work by occupation of father . . 161 40. Showing occupation of fathers of girls from day and evening high school records 163 41. Showing relation of the father's nationality to the age of the girl at beginning work 165 42. Showing marital condition of women in office service in Boston 166 43. Showing amount of contribution to the family income by nationality of the father 167 44. Showing contribution to the family income by father's occupa- tion 168 LIST OF CHARTS. XV LIST OF CHAETS Chart Page I. Showing comparative numbers of women by occupation employed in Clerical Occupations and ia Trade ... 3 II. Showing beginning wage by schooling of 310 cases secured from the schools 39 III. Showing present wage by schooling and length of experience of 310 cases secured from the schools 45 IV. Showing numbers of temporary and permanent workers placed by months in four typewriter agencies during the year 1913 103 V. Showing wages of 9,488 stenographers and typists placed by five typewriter agencies during the year 1913 . . . 117 VI. Showing occupation by wage of office workers from various sources — Civil Service, Employment Agencies and Offices 119 VII. Showing schooling by present wage of 675 clerks and 439 stenographers 127 VIII. Showing wages of clerks and stenographers by length of experience 133 IX. Showing relation of schooling and experience to wage . . 137 CHAPTER I.— INTRODUCTORY May Allinson Women have appeared as a large and important factor in the commercial world during the last half-century. The 20,000 women thus employed in 1870 constituted but one per cent (1.1 per cent) of the total number working for wages, while the 1,167,908 engaged in trade, transportation and clerical occupations in 1910 constituted 14.5 per cent of all the women gainfully employed in the United States. Table I. — Showing Increase in the Number of Women Employed in Business in the United States from 1870 to 1910. Women Employed in Specified Groups. YXABB. Total Number Gainfully Employed. Percentage of Increase. Number in Trade and Transpor- tation.' Percentage of Increase. Number in Office Service. Percentage of Increase. 1870 1.836,288 2.647,157 3.914,571 5,319,397 8.075,772 20.383 63,058 228.421 503,347 1.167.908 2 8,023 30,344 113,261 245.517 573.135 1880 44.2 47.9 35.9 51.8 209.3 262.2 120.4 132.0 278.2 272.0 116.8 133.4 1890 1900 1910 > United States Census. 1900. Occupations, pages 1 and li. Also United States Census. 1910. Vol. IV, Population, Occupation Statistics, pages 92-94 inclusive. 2 Combining Women in Transportation, 106,596; Trade, 468,088; Clerical Occupations, 593,224; Total, 1,167,908. This army of women numbering more than a million is engaged in two main lines of work — ''clerical occupations," employing 593,224, and "trade," employ- ing 468,088 women. Office service occupies the majority of women enumerated by the United States Census under "clerical occupations" and salesmanship employs most of those reported under "trade." 2 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. Office service, including bookkeepers, cashiers and accountants, clerks (in offices) and stenographers and typewriters, is the most important occupation, numeri- cally, emploj'ing 573,135, almost one-half (49.1 per cent) of the total number of women in the commercial world in 1910.^ Salesmanship, both wholesale and retail, employed 450,279 women reported as bankers, brokers and money lenders, clerks in stores, commercial travel- ers, floorwalkers and forewomen in stores, insurance agents and officials, real estate agents and officials, retail dealers and saleswomen, constituting more than one-third (38.6 per cent) of the total number in com- mercial occupations.^ As office workers are tucked away in remote offices in tall business buildings or in clerical departments never penetrated or seen by the public and because they are scattered throughout the city in every kind of business, educational, professional and manufacturing establishment, it is difficult to appreciate the size and importance of this large group of women workers. It is, therefore, much to be regretted that the Census does not provide official statistics concerning these workers secured from the places of business as is done in Manufactures. The only official information now avail- able is based on personal statistics gained by the house to house canvass of the Census enumerators every ten years, and published in the volume on Occupations. The women who work in offices represent a wide variation of education, ability and earning capacity. At one extreme is the secretary with a college education who may have supervision over a large office and many subordinates; who can carry on the business and decide many perplexing questions in the absence of her employer and receive a yearly salary of $1,000 and $2,000. At the other extreme is the girl or woman with only a > Several writers have recently confused the relative numerical importance of the several occupation groups. See Milea, H. E. What I am Trying to do, Outlook, October, 1913, page 607. Neystrom, Paul H. Training Retail Merchants in the University of Minne- sota, Survey, December 20, 1913, page 325. Puffer, J. Adams. Vocational Guidance, pages 215 and 232. » See Chart I, page 3. INTRODUCTORY. Chart I. — Showing Comparative Numbers of Women by Occupations Employed in Clerical Occupations and in Trade. ^ Miscellaneout Clerks. 122,66$. Buokkcepers, Cashiers, and Accountants. 187.155 Stcnograplicr; and Typists 26i.JIS Commercial Travelers and Floorwalkers, S,«J9. Women In Banks. Real Estalo Offices, and Insurance Agents. 8,22i. Miscellaneous. Retail Denlers, 67.IOi Clerks in Stores, 111.594. Saleswomen, 257.720 Clerical Occupations, 593,224. (Office Service, 573,135.) Trade, 468,088. (Salesmanship, 450,379.) > United States Census, 1910, Vol. IV, Population, Occupation Slaiistics, pp. 92-94. Since the Census confesses that " many of the ' clerks ' in stores are e\'idently ' salesmen and saleswomen,' " the whole number has been included in the salesmanship group. 4 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. grammar school education who folds circulars or addresses envelopes in a small dingy office at one dollar or less a day and for only a few days at a time. In general, all may be classified in four groups, secretaries, stenog- raphers and typists, bookkeepers and accountants and clerks. In the absence of any general name for all these workers, the term women in office service will be used throughout this report to include all who work in offices; namely, those whose work involves responsibility and judgment, like the secretary, or technical skill, like the stenographer, or perhaps largely manual work, such as that of the clerk or office girl. In 1870, the Census first reported 8,023 women in office service, seven of whom were designated as "short- hand writers." ^ One of these seven "female shorthand writers" was in Massachusetts. Let us accept without further question the history of the development of shorthand which has been formulated by the advocates of particular systems. We are informed that it was introduced into the United States during 1830 to 1840 by several exponents of as many different systems who lectured, formed classes, and developed text books. '^ By 1852, the Pitmans claim to have "had a system which answered all the requirements of the commercial amanuensis, the court reporter, and the newspaper writer of the time." The complement of stenography, the typewriter, did not supplement shorthand until some twenty years later, though several inventors had been working on such a machine for half a century.^ The Remington Company, the oldest manufacturing firm now in exist- ence, says its first machines were ready for the market in 1874, but "the public was skeptical about the value of the new machine for practical purposes, and found one great objection to its use in the fact that it wrote ' United States Census, Population and Social Statistics, page 688. ' Barker, E. Shorthand in the United States and Canada. The New vs. the Old, by an Official Instructor in Phonography in the New York High Schools. •Overleigh, Herbert. The Evolution of the Typetvriter. Pamphlet published by the Remington Typewriter Company. INTRODUCTORY. 5 capitals only." After the fundamental principle was finally evolved, however, many minor details were developed and improved during the next decade. The revival of business after the Civil War, the result- ant necessity for improved business administration, the development of the typewriter and of commercial schools to train workers for this new demand are most Table 2. — Showing Growth of Private Business and Commercial Schools and Colleges in the United States from 1870 to 1910. Number Schools Reporting. Number Instructors. Students Repobted. Dates. Total. men. women. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. 1870 14" 162 2 263 » 373 « 541' 64 618 1,593 2,112 2.936 3,055 27,146 « 78,920' 91,549 134,778 3 21,977 49,901 58,396 72,887 83.6 73.8 63.8 54.1 8 22,822 17,764 33,153 61,891 1880 1890 11.4 26.2 1900 36.2 1910 45.9 ' United States Bureau of Education, Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1870, page 529. 'Ibid, 1880, page 480. » Ibid, 1889-1890, page 1610. « Ibid, 1899-1900, page 2475. ' Ibid, 1909-1910, page 1249. • Fourteen schools not reporting by sex, 2,347 students. ' 11,255 not reported by sex. * Not reported by sex. apparent in the 278.2 per cent increase between 1870 and 1880 in the number of women employed in office service. While 22,822 women students were reported that year in the 148 business colleges in the United States giving statistics by sex, they formed but 11.4 per cent of the men and women students reported.^ In 1890 the proportion of women students had increased to more than one-fourth (26.2 per cent) and in 1900 to more than one-third (36.2 per cent) of those reported by sex. By 1910 the women constituted almost one-half ' In Boston, 100 women, 13.4 per cent of the students reported by the three commercial schools, were preparing for work in business houses. 6 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. (45.9 per cent) the total number reported. This rapid increase in the number of women in business schools seems to be due to the fact that there has been a cor- responding increase in the demand for women with such equipment as is provided by these so-called com- mercial schools and colleges, namely, primarily prepara- tion for office service. ''Shorthand writing" in 1870 was largely monopolized by men, the women forming but 4.5 per cent of the 154 persons in this kind of work. By 1890, when women "stenographers and typewriters" were next enumerated, they had increased to 63.7 per cent, in 1900 to 76.6 per cent of the total number engaged in this occupation,^ and by 1910 the women constituted more than four-fifths (83.1 per cent) of the 316,693 stenographers and typewriters employed in the United States. The continuous increase in the propor- tion of women engaged in stenography and typewriting presents an important suggestion to leaders of com- mercial education, — that stenography and typewriting as an occupation is distinctly and increasingly woman's field. Business training for men must be worked out along other lines, such as bookkeeping, for admin- istrative and managerial office positions, and for salesmanship. Since the opportunities in office service have grown by leaps and bounds during the last half century, the training of workers to meet these demands has provided an interesting chapter in the history of vocational education. Naturally the innovation in the educational world of training for business originated and was shoul- dered by private individuals who appreciated the oppor- tunities and the importance of the new demands. Pioneer commercial educators and schools were more or less evanescent, but at least twelve private business colleges were established in various cities in the United States before 1850, and more than thirty before 1860, all of which survived the Civil War and reconstruction > United States CenBua, Occupations, 1900, page 1. INTRODUCTORY. 7 period.^ Between 1860 and 1870, more than fifty new business colleges sprang up to meet the increasing demands of reviving business after the war, but only fourteen responded to the United States Commissioner of Education in 1870, reporting 3,055 students. ^ Four of those established before the Civil War were located in Boston, Sawyer's Commercial College being organized in 1838, Comer's Commercial College in 1840, French's Business College and Stenographic Institute in 1848, and Bryant and Stratton's Commercial School in 1860,3 the second and fourth being still in existence. In 1880, three of these. Sawyer's, French's, and Bryant and Stratton's, reported 795 students, of which 689 were men and 106 women. "Common English and Correspondence," Penmanship, Bookkeeping, Banking, and Commercial Law were taught in all. French's and Sawyer's offered in addition Higher Mathematics, Sur- veying, Political Economy and Phonography.'' The commercial schools developed greatly both in quality and quantity during the twenty years from 1870 to 1890, when they largely controlled the training of men and women wishing to go to work in business or commercial lines. With the appearance of such com- petitors as the Wharton School of Finance and Com- merce in Philadelphia in 1880, the commercial colleges had to improve and expand their curriculum and in 1888 the United States Commissioner of Education 1 One hundred and sixty-two Business Schools and Colleges reported to the United States Commissioner of Kduciition in 1880. (See Report for 1880, page 480.) Of 135 reporting their date of organization, 13 were establi.''hed before 18.50; 19 between 1850-1860; 57 between 1860-1870; and 47 between 1870-1880. The following cities seem to have established schools before 1850: 1829, St. Louis (Commercial Department of St. Louis University); 1831, Cincinnati (Commercial Department of College of St. Francis Xavier); 1838, Boston; 1840, Boston (cited in Report of 1885); 1841, St. Louis; 1812, >Lirion, Alabama (Commercial Depart- ment, University of Notre Dame); 1842, Notre Dame, Indiana; 1844, Philadelphia; 1846, Providence; 18-17, New York (College of St. Francis Xavier); 1848, Boston; 1849, New York; 1849, Brooklyn. 2 United States Bureau of Education, Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1870, page 529. • United States Bureau of Education, Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1880, page 480. * Ibid, page 48C. French's College offered Life Insurance and Sawyer's College offered Drawing in addition. 8 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. wrote, "There is a marked tendency among the better class of these institutions to improve the courses of instruction, making them more thorough and practical. ... To supply the increasing demand for stenog- raphers, schools of short-hand and type-writing have been established in various parts of the country, and, with a few exceptions, all business colleges now have a 'department of short-hand.'" ^ Up to 1894 three-fourths of the students seeking a busi- ness education were trained in the private commercial schools, but from that time new formidable competitors began to appear in the increasing number of universities and colleges which offered instruction in business admin- istration and in the normal schools, private and public high schools which offered clerical training with some general allied subjects. About 1893 Professor Edmund J. James- had begun to secure general public interest in his plea for "commer- cial high schools running parallel with our present literary high schools on the one hand and manual-training high schools on the other," ^ which is obvious in the increase in the proportion of commercial students reported. In 1894 the students studying commercial subjects in public high schools constituted but one-tenth (10.1 per cent) the total number and in 1895 almost one-fifth (18.2 per cent). The proportion of commercial students trained in public high schools continued to increase parallel with a decrease in the private commercial schools during the next five years, and in 1910 the high schools reported more than one-third (34.8 per cent) and the private commercial schools more than one-half (57.7 per cent) the students of commercial subjects. In 1898 the Commissioner of Education wrote, "The business course in the greater number of these (public > United States Bureau of Education, Report of the Commissioner of Educatiori, 1887- 1888, page 027. ' Now President of the University of Illinois. •United States Bureau of Education, Report of the Commissioner of Edxication, 1S95- 1896, page 722. INTRODUCTORY. high) schools does not differ widely from the business course in the private secondary schools." ^ In Boston, in 1897 to 1898, the ''so-called commercial courses were introduced into the day high schools and offered to all boys and girls who desired to take them. Special instructors in bookkeeping, phonography, and typewriting were employed." ^ The commercial course Table 3. — Showing Relative Proportion of Students in Private Commercial Colleges and in Public High Schools. ^ Number of Students Enrolled in Schools. Specified School Year. public high schools. COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS SCHOOLS. AU Other Schools.^ Grand Total. Number. Per Cent. Number. Per Cent. 1893-1894 15,220 25,539 30,330 33,075 31,633 38,134 68,890 81,249 10.1 18.2 23.0 24.7 25.5 28.9 36.1 34.8 115,748 96,135 80,662 77,746 70,950 70,186 91,549 134,778 76.9 68.5 61.1 58.1 57.3 53.3 48.0 57.7 19,537 18.689 20,942 22,927 21,330 23,198 30,259 17,613 150,505 1894-1895 1895-1896 140,363 131,934 1896-1897 133,748 1897-1898 123,913 1898-1899 131,518 1899-1900 190.698 1909-1910 233,640 1 United States Bureau of Education, Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1899-1900. page 2470. 2 Universities, colleges, normal schools, private high schools, and academies. of study, as adopted September 24, 1897, was to extend through two years and provided an almost appalling range of subjects: "First Year. — Enghsh language and literature, ancient history, phonography, penmanship and commercial forms, commercial arithmetic and bookkeeping, botany, drawing, music, physical training. ' United States Bureau of Education, Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1897-1898, page 2447. 'United States Bureau of Education, Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1897-1898, page 2461. "For many years," wrote the superintendent, "bookkeeping has been taught ... in the Enghsh High School for boys and to a less extent in the Girla' High School. Certain commercial branches have been taught in the evening high school for upward of twenty years." 10 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. '^Second Year. — English language and literature, medi- aeval history, modern history, phonography and type- writing, elements of mercantile law, bookkeeping, commercial geography, zoology, physiology and hygiene, drawing, music, and physical training." ^ Two high schools, the Girls' High and the Roxbury High, reported 117 students (of whom sevent-een were boys) taking the course out of a total of 1,635.- In October, 1899, stenography and typewriting were reported in seven Boston high schools. The Boards of Education in other cities in Massachu- setts which had been trying for some years to solve the problem of training for office service had, however, already instituted a longer course of training ranging from three to four years. ''As to the length of these courses," wrote one of the agents of the Massachusetts Board of Education, "the schools (throughout the state) are about equally divided between three and four years." He believed that the "three years' course of this kind is desirable. Much is to be learned from actual business experience, and for this reason I believe that for many the fourth year would be more profitably spent in the office or in commercial employment than in the schools."^ The three and four year courses later instituted in the Boston High Schools existed side by side until 1907 to 1908, when the commercial courses were placed on a four year basis in all the high schools. In the graduating classes of 1908 were found the last survivors of a three year course. The majority of the students had left school when they "graduated" as a matter of course, regardless of the length of time required. Thus, in a graduating class of 226 commercial students in the Dorchester High School, a little more than one-fourth (27 per cent) were graduates of a four year course. In a graduating class 1 United States Bureau of Education, Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1897-1898, page 2448. ^Ibid, page 240 1. Public high schools having 50 or more students in comtnerciul subjects only reported. • Massachusetts Board of Education, Report of, 1898-1899, page 40. INTRODUCTORY. 11 of fifty-seven in East Boston, slightly more than one-fifth (21.1 per cent) were graduates of a four year course. In 1911 an attempt was made to return to a two year course of study and an "intensified clerical course" was introduced into the Roxbury High School "to afford special vocational training to those pupils who desire to become stenographers and bookkeepers and to give them as good training and preparation as they could obtain in the best business colleges. It can be completed in two years or less by able and faithful pupils . . ." ^ A large number of girls of widely varying background flocked into the new "short course" but a very small number seemed to have survived. The names of twenty- five girls constituted the roster of the product of the course in 1913. Twelve came directly from grammar school, six had had one year and four had had two years in the high school previous to taking up the short course of two years' intensive work. Three had taken but one year of the intensive course at school and gone to work. The experience of these few pupils seemed to indicate the fallacy of adequately equipping a prospective stenographer by means of a two years' intensified high school course superimposed on merely a grammar school foundation. Two of the twelve with this preparation were holding positions of stenographers at $8 a week. Two went to private business college after completing the course, one because she "wanted more training" and the other because she was "too young to work." Another girl "could not find a position because she was too small and too young." Two were doing "general office work" and one was a salesgirl. ^ Two of the six who had one year of preliminary high school work and three of the four with two years' work before taking up the intensive course were able to secure positions as stenographers at S8, showing the advantage of the increased preliminary education. The whole question of commercial education had « Catalogue of RoxbuTu Hi(}h School, 1912-1913, page 9. "One moved to New York. Two at work not known. One unclassified. 12 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. become such a serious problem because of the large numbers of pupils involved and the large sums of money expended that Mr. Frank Thompson, Assistant Superin- tendent of the Boston Schools and in charge of the voca- tional schools, instituted a three-fold survey of the whole situation in the fall of 1913. The present study under- took to throw light on some of the problems of training girls for office service. The first and most natural question would doubtless be, how many girls are being trained for office service in the public high schools of Boston? Second, what proportion are utilizing their training and succeeding in their chosen vocation? The first question can be easily answered from the school records. The popu- larity of vocational or "practical" training, as the children and parents phrase it, is rapidly changing the whole character of the Boston high schools. Almost two-thirds (63.4 per cent) of the 5,832 girls enrolled in the Boston high schools in 1913 were studying at least one of the three so-called commercial subjects, phonography, typewriting and bookkeeping. In the more congested neighborhoods, like Charlestown and East Boston, where the economic pressure is heaviest, four-fifths of the girls were studying these technical sub- jects and in the Roxbury and Girls' High Schools, more than two-thirds. The suburban high schools, drawing from somewhat more comfortable and less congested districts, have about one-half their students in each group, the academic and the technical. The second question is, however, practically impossible to answer satisfactorily under existing conditions. The records of the public high schools do not show what becomes of the child who has left school. Nor do the existing records make it possible for the investigator to make a comprehensive canvass of the graduates. For instance, a list with addresses of 212 graduates in a class leaving June, 1913, was revised by the class secretary some six months later. The revised list showed that 39.6 per cent of the addresses on the school INTRODUCTORY. 13 list were incorrect. As a result, the large proportion "not located" in even a recent class makes impracti- cable a study of efficiency on this basis. Moreover, business depression in the winter of 1913 to 1 914 made the problem of securing employment abnormally difficult and a study of a class just graduating could not be considered representative. As soon as the time element enters, the difficulty of making a study of a class as a whole Table 4. — Showing Proportion of Girls in the Boston High Schools taking one or more Commercial Subjects, 1912 to 1913. ' High Schools. Pupils Enrolled as Specified in each High School. Total Number Girls Enrolled. STUDENTS OF COMMERCIAL SUBJECTS. Number. Per Cent. Brighton Charlestown . . . Dorchester. . . . East Boston . . . Girls' Hyde Park.... South Boston. . Roxbury West Roxbury. 272 270 1,065 322 1,887 234 501 774 507 146 224 568 260 1,320 123 287 516 255 53.7 83.0 53.3 80.7 69.9 52.6 57.3 66.7 50.3 Totals. 5,832 3,699 63.4 1 Excluding Girls' Latin and High School of Practical Arts. increases, for the numbers "not located" necessarily become larger and the girls go into other lines of work. A class of 28 girls graduating in 1911 showed the fol- lowing returns in 1913: 57.2 per cent still in office work, 10.7 per cent in lines other than office work and 32.1 per cent not located. A class of 115 girls graduating in 1908 from a school in quite a different neighborhood showed the following returns in 1913: 24.3 per cent still in office service, 13.1 per cent in lines other than office work, 13.9 per cent married, 7.8 per cent at home and 40.9 per cent not located. 14 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. A subsequent study of the product of a vocational school as a basis of measuring its efficiency is therefore necessarily confined at present to a group of young people who have survived the selective effect of the school, the selective effect of the occupation and re- mained relatively stable. This, however, does not make it an unrepresentative group for the two influences first mentioned have borne on all workers in the occupa- tion and the third, stability of residence, does not seem to have a noticeably selective effect. A comparison of the 310 girls taken from school records actually found and still working in the occupation for which they were trained, showed a very close relation in wage and advancement to the 806 of similar length of experi- ence secured from offices at large. ^ ^Vhat proportion of the pupils of a vocational school may be expected to utilize their training is a problem which has not yet been worked out. It should be worked out and can be if such schools will develop an active placement bureau and "follow up" system for keeping in touch with their pupils during the first few years out of school. The Dorchester High School has already established such a bureau and will doubtless develop within the next few years an adequate record of the pupils who have been trained in the school. Since the city public schools are becoming so largely vocational, the need of a more intimate acquaintance with the vocation for which they are training has become increasingly apparent. For the needs and requirements of this vocation of office service for which so many girls are being trained, and with which every- one is somewhat acquainted, has curiously enough never been studied or analyzed intensively and extensively from the triple standpoint of employer, worker and educator.2 Since the efficiency of vocational education is tested by the working experience and productive 1 See chapter IV, page 143. 2 MiB3 Post made a study of Opportunities for Women in Secretarial Service in 1913 limiting it to women earning $10 and over. Department of Research, Women's Educa- tional and Industrial Union, Vocations for the Trained Woman, Part II, page 113 et stQ. INTRODUCTORY. 15 power of the pupils trained, this new form of education calls for three innovations in school administration. First, a systematic effort must be made to secure an intimate acquaintance with the vocation, its needs, demands and working conditions. Second, the school must have an equally close acquaintance with the pro- spective worker, her personal and home background and her natural capacities as well as her possibilities for development. Third, the educator must assume systematic direction and supervision of the prospective or actual young worker. He must direct and super- vise her not only during the time of her preliminary preparation, but also must see that she is well placed and keep informed of her progress or failure. For through the working experience of the pupil who has been trained, the school must learn from both worker and employer what phases and kind of instruction should be strengthened, eliminated or introduced as a new experiment. The purpose of this study, therefore, is not to analyze the existing curriculum nor to attempt to plan or outline a new course of study. Such is not the problem of the investigator but of the educator. The aim of this study is to present the business, economic and social conditions which confront the public commercial high schools and which should determine the formulation of their curricula. The educator, with all these facts at his disposal, may then diagnose the situation and prescribe the course of treatment. To meet this demand the problem has been approached from the several points of attack, the school, the em- ployer and the worker. Starting with the school, five of the nine high schools providing commercial training for girls were selected from different types of neighbor- hoods for intensive study. The day high school, its organization, curriculum and equipment were first studied to provide the necessary background. Class groups of girls trained in commercial subjects, ranging from 1905 to 1913, and thus representing different 16 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. "373 b O q'C V ■UOPuJ f-1 CI CO INTRODUCTORY. 17 O 03 ^ < < t ■I 2 a d a ' 08 i o ■a 1 a 3 o i a a PQ •a o S 1 PQ ^ i o T3 O "5. S - a H a, d CO ui to t- 00 oi d 03 g_ (3 s ^ m 4) (^ S CL, K ^ 18 WOMEN IX OFFICE SERVICE. degrees of development in the school curriculum and in the experience of the worker, provided 935 cases, of which 334, or 35.7 per cent, were identified still in office service. One hundred and fifty-nine, 47.6 per cent of these, and 151 attending evening commercial high schools, with widely varying preparation, were visited in their homes and offices to secure information con- cerning their social, educational and business life and the interrelation and interdependence of one upon the other. The schedules on pages 16 and 17 were used to record the statistics secured. The five evening commercial high schools, held in the same buildings as the day schools, were studied by a somewhat different method. The students were pre- sumably employed during the day and several questions were uppermost. How and in what are these girls employed during the day? Are they attending night school to supplement their daily work or to lift them- selves out of and above their present occupation? To what extent does their personal, educational and work- ing background provide an adequate foundation for the occupation to which they are aspiring? To answer these questions, the investigators were allowed to go through the classes of the evening schools, distributing the questionnaire on page 19 which was explained to to the pupils and filled out under individual and personal supervision. Eight hundred and sixty-one completed schedules were secured, representing 31.9 per cent of the total number of girls enrolled in the evening com- mercial schools in February, 1913.^ These returns, however, represented almost one-half (43.8 per cent) of "the average number belonging," - which is a better basis of comparison. Less than one-half (40.5 per cent) of these girls worked in offices during the day and 12 per cent worked in mercantile establishments and so could be said to be 1 Annual Statistics of the Boston Public Schools, 1912. School Document No. 9, 1913, page 43. ' The school reports on "average number belonging" are securecl by adding the number belonging at the end of each month and dividing by the number of months. INTRODUCTORY. 19 "2 2^ mfH'o o UJ3 a o o M r4 I- bO m 3 o< -^'Ei K.a 2 i CO -tJ W E !^ E ss H n 0) H-iO (omx iDa.u) .2 >* ^ >. < >? a -3 >; w & ^ fc _. « o „ o 2 -a "H W 5 W Q tS Q o s J4 O : 3 : : 0«>-. ■■ a '■ ^-a 3 : o i o S ...Vrs ools : O : 3 : O • >> ■ a a M° ja ! L -S 03 ^ §;§? •« rk? other such a a 03 ; |ji d P ; a \^ ^ s ^ -^ & S " 3 : a L» O Ji 3 +^ >> Ut \ ^ y M 3 S -3 & : O : T3 O 3 3 ; S : ^ : « a ^ M c : ^- =5 ■O o t^ i-i ^ ■a S \ 1 c : o Zi 1 "o : 03 I 2 - > 3 Z OS gi 1 7 3 ■^8 .3 ^ - 3 -^ 3 t s '^ ^ J3 - I % ri 3 a 3 u 3 "^ a M >. : 3 o 2 a a- Si ! i ** > 13 .* :; =* ^^ i : & ?« -S = §. 1 : te 3 2 13 1 3 o Ki : ^ 3 3 1 ! 5 i a I 2 T3 II o 0] u q < 03 o * ! 03 3 o o fc .i: 1 J3 R 3 O e • & ■a *^ j: S 0) fe .d e-^ T3 a 'i ^ •^ u a o o i ! a o 05 1 ja 1 ; •g ua 3 O o a 1 u » J3 ^ a a i >> a O _ § 1 a T3 £ "a 4! .3 ■a t S " ^ ^ a E — o .« aj -1 = I, 3 o 3 O 03 ■s ^ a a) a o > SI .5 i 1 (u 3'a « o a C.T3 " a Q-S 03, S ^ a -.9 k 03^ §1.3 1 3 3 2 o *i a 3 og 2 o Q 4 ^ t^ 00 o> o s e^ M ■* o CO r^ 2 o> oO 20 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. supplementing their equipment for their present occupa- tion. The variety in occupational and educational background alone shows the complexity of the problem which confronts the evening schools. The degree of success and efficiency of equipment as shown in the subsequent working experience of the girls trained in the public high schools could be determined only in comparison with those engaged in the occupation as a whole. Since the United States Census provided no statistics on wages, an individual and local survey of the financial possibilities in the trade as a whole was secured through three sources, the placement records of typewriter and employment agencies, the published annual salary lists of the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission and through workers employed in the offices. The five large typewriter companies of Boston gen- erously allowed transcripts to be taken from their placement records of the year 1913, which provided the essential statistics for 9,488 cases. These records pro- vided numbers placed per month, wages at which they were placed, kind of business, and an index to their training as summarized under the following heads, "experienced," "inexperienced," "commercial school," or "public high school." The records showed the sur- prising fact that more than one-half (51.3 per cent) of this large group was placed at a wage ranging from $12 to $15 inclusive. Another source, the published list of Civil Service employees, showed 495 women engaged in office work under Massachusetts Civil Service regulations during the year 1913, and almost the same proportion (47.5 per cent) earned from $11 to $15 inclusive, though almost an equal proportion (45.5 per cent) earned more than $15. The women placed by the typewriter agencies and those working under Civil Service regulations were, however, a selected group, sifted by tests for speed and general intelligence and equipment. It was necessary, therefore, to secure a large group of workers from all INTRODUCTORY. 21 sources and representing all types of workers to afford a background for comparison. A local canvass was made with the co-operation of employers and workers to secure some of the essential statistics relative to the personal, educational and business background of the women working in all types of offices. The small lawyer's office and the corner grocery store, where only one girl worked; the large factory, the bank and the department store employing from fifty to five hundred in their offices; educational institutions and charitable organ- izations were visited and records of their experience [SCHEDULE USED FOR LOCAL CANVASS.] Single At home Age Birthplace Married Boarding School— Number Years in ( Grammar Graduate Time in ' ■■"■ l High Graduate Commercial School.. Total Total Number Business Experience — Time Office Work — Time Positions . Business of Firm Your Position Wage Time Emp. How Found First Last Yrs. Mos. Leaving 1st 2d 3d 4th 5th Hours of Present Position A. M P. M. Saturday P. M. Hour... secured from 834 women. In addition, several large offices, which kept some personal statistics of their employees, allowed transcripts to be taken from their records, which provided data concerning 343 additional women.i Altogether, therefore, the experience of 1,177 women, 8.6 per cent of the number reported for oflEice service in Boston in 1910,- provided a background for comparison and for intensive study. Employers provided the third source of information. > These records naturally did not cover all points on the small card used to record the data secured from the 834 women. For this reason, the total number of cases is not the same for all tables and in some tables there is a comparatively largo number "unclassified." > United States Census, 1910, Vol. IV, Population, Occupation Statistics, page 541. 22 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. No attempt was made to secure statistics through interviews with employers, but rather to become initi- ated into the business atmosphere and to attempt to appreciate the needs and demands of the business man, and of the conditions in a business office, that this report might show concretely (1) the kinds of office work open to women; (2) the requirements of educa- tion, maturity, technique and personality requisite for the different occupations; (3) the opportunities and the conditions determining advancement; and (4) the openings for and requisites of the beginner. All kinds of employers representing production, trade and the professions were visited and all were interested, courteous and most co-operative. Educators have frequently expressed discouragement that employers could not tell them definitely what courses in the curriculum would or would not be helpful; but why should the employer be expected to think in terms of courses or subjects? If an employer expresses despair over the fact that when he dictates a letter to IVIr. John Smith, 419 Locust street, St. Louis, his stenographer asks, "What state is that in?", has not the educator received an answer to his question? Or, if the employer says, ''The girl must have business sense" or "she must have an appreciation of the con- fidential character of the correspondence which she takes from her employer," need the educator ask what is the minimum age for satisfactory work in such an office? He knows these requirements are not easily met by the girl under eighteen or twenty years of age. The educator, therefore, must assume the attitude of the physician — asking questions which will reveal symptoms and interpreting their significance in the light of his broad and general experience. From these varied sources a mass of statistics and information has been collected for the first time on this group of workers employed in offices, and is presented in the following chapters. With this information at their disposal, educators should be able to formulate INTRODUCTORY. 23 and organize more intelligently than ever before their commercial schools and courses. Three facts discovered yield important suggestions to the educator in the formulation of a curriculum. (1) The marked influence of education in determining the occupation which the pupil is able to enter, and the salary she will be able to earn makes the question of shortened undergraduate courses of training one for most serious consideration. The present study shows so conclusively the necessity for the broadest possible preliminary education, that all applicants for these short courses should be very care- fully sifted. All should be urged to complete the four years' course if possible and the advantages of doing so made apparent. It is a question for serious considera- tion even then, whether it is advisable to attempt to train for stenographers those girls who cannot complete the four years' course. The proposed new Clerical High School for Girls seems to recognize the dubious possibility of equipping a stenographer in less than four years. The plan provides for the first two years of general work in high school. In the third year, girls who must leave at the end of that year may take a specialized clerical course of one year which aims to train them intensively and directly for a clerical position. The stenographer must, however, have four years of training which may be planned and developed to meet the needs and previous equipment of the individual girl. Again, the very apparent financial advantage resulting from the intensive technical training when added to a high school education as a foundation suggests the importance of developing and encouraging such a post- graduate course as has been established in the Dor- chester High School. (2) The demand from the busi- ness world for "general intelligence," "personality" and "business sense" shows that equipment in technique is by no means the sole problem confronting the school, if its success is to be measured by the success of its graduates. The emphasis to be placed on the various subjects of the curriculum, however, must be determined 24 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. by the local conditions and needs of each neighborhood. (3) The school must assume responsibility for and supervision of its graduates. Only through scientific and wise placement will the pupil and the employer secure the best results of the training given and, through the experience and close co-operation of both, must the educator work out an elastic and ever-changing but continually improved course of study and system of administration. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 25 CHAPTER IL— THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS Lucy C. Phinney So great has become the demand for "business educa- tion" for girls that nine of the eleven Boston high schools open to girls in 1913 to 1914 offered commercial courses.^ In these nine general high schools 5,832 girls were enrolled in 1912 to 1913, of whom 3,699 (or 63.4 per cent) elected one or more technical commercial subjects, phonography, typewriting, and bookkeeping. The pro- portion electing these subjects in the different schools varies, however, according to the type of neighborhood. In the most congested districts, more than 80 per cent elected commercial subjects as compared with about 50 per cent in the suburbs. ^ The five schools chosen for intensive study were, therefore, selected to represent the different types of neighborhoods which determine to a large extent the problems confronting the school. The Girls' High School in the South End draws from all portions of the city proper, and also admits girls from outlying districts up to the capacity of the school. More than two-thirds of its pupils were enrolled in com- mercial courses. East Boston has a high school for its own thickly populated district, and admits both boys and girls. The Charlestown High School is in a con- gested and homogeneous neighborhood, admitting boys and girls who reside in Charlestown and in the North and West Ends. In East Boston and Charlestown High Schools more than four-fifths of the girls elected one or more of the technical commercial subjects, doubtless with a desire to equip themselves for self- 1 The two other schools are the Girls' Latin School and the Practical Arts High School, which offer specialized academic and industrial training respectively. 2 See Chapter I, Table 4, page 13. 26 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. support or to meet the necessity of contributing to the family income. Roxbury High School, for girls alone, draws from a less homogeneous locality, a part of the district being densely populated in the solid blocks of buildings, while another part still has many private residences of well-to-do families. Two-thirds of the pupils elected commercial subjects. Dorchester, which represents a more suburban and residential type, admits boys and girls from an area ranging from the borders of South Boston to Hyde Park and Neponset, comprising poor as well as very prosperous neighborhoods. That the economic pressure is less marked in the Dorchester district may be presumed from the fact that only slightly more than one-half of the pupils in this high school elected commercial subjects. These high schools all offer, besides the college, general, and normal courses, a commercial course, which is largely clerical in nature. This commercial course differs, however, in the various schools, according to the emphasis on the correlation with commerce, eco- nomics and the larger aspects of business life. Some of the schools offer a comprehensive plan for all four years of commercial work, with correlation between the academic and vocational subjects, while others merely offer a ''list of subjects and the points required for the diploma," as a curriculum. The "departmental sys- tem," under which the commercial course has a separate departmental head, is followed very largely in all of the schools, although the commercial department in some has much freer scope than in others. In such schools, the commercial department usually demands a separate corps of teachers with business experience, and the efficiency of the course is increased, in consequence. Two of the schools deal with girls exclusively, but the others do not attempt to segregate the sexes, except in the salesmanship courses, where the subject matter is entirely different. The principles of wholesale business are given to boys, and of retail selling to girls, necessita- ting the separation. Some of the commercial teachers THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 27 feel that girls profit by the connection with the boys in their courses. A boy's mind reacts differently from a girl's and his point of view may be broadening. Then too, as girls are to be associated with men in their business careers, companionship with boys in the class- room cultivates poise, and a sense of proportion in their business relations. Besides the regular four year course, Roxbury High School offers two intensified courses for girls who can spend only a short time in high school. These courses, which may be completed in two years, or even less, if satisfactory work is done, offer training for stenog- raphers and for bookkeepers. Practical office work as clerical assistants in the offices of the grammar schools is given these girls as part of their course. This actual utilization and application of the principles gained in the classroom provide a valuable bit of preliminary expe- rience and acquaintance with actual working condi- tions, which gives a more real significance to the work of the classroom. Dorchester also offers special intensive courses, of one year each, to high school graduates. One is for graduates of the general course who have had no com- mercial work, and the other for graduates of the com- mercial course who wish to supplement their commercial training by further practice. The former course is strongly urged as the school feels the necessity for a broad background in order that the technical training may be put to good use. The benefit resulting from such an intensive post-graduate course of technical sub- jects, supplementing a good general education, is also seen in the increase in wage ^ resulting from the similar intensive training in business college, and is probably due very largely to the students' greater maturity and to that capacity to assimilate instruction which is the result of a well-trained mind. This course might well be introduced into those schools where the economic condition of the neighborhood makes it possible for a > Chnpter II, page 38, and Chapter IV, pages 125 to 131. 28 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. sufficient number of pupils to spend five years in high school. The second special course for a fifth year of intensive practice in addition to the four years of com- mercial work is devoted to acquiring greater speed and accuracy in shorthand and typewriting, as well as to work on special office machinery, such as the multi- graph, billing-machine and neostyle. Wherever these special courses are introduced, they should be designed, as far as possible, to fill the demands which business colleges are already meeting for a considerable pro- portion of the high school graduates.^ The Commercial Department of the Dorchester High School has made a very helpful connection with one of the large retail clothing stores which takes certain pupils of the commercial department into the office when "extra" or ''rush" help is needed. The pupils secure the very valuable experience of being initiated into actual business conditions and of measuring them- selves up to business standards. This experience has a decided effect on the quality of the pupils' work and on their attitude toward their studies, for a realization of the demands of the business world provides a stimulus to the pupils to correlate the technical and the general studies in their own minds. Almost two-thirds (GO.l per cent) of the 858 ^ girls graduating in six classes from the several high schools, and selected from a period ranging from 1905 to 1913, had studied commercial subjects. Much has been said of the comparative scholarship of the two groups, the academic and the commercial. A study of comparative grades seems to bear out the popular impression that the academic student represents a higher mental ability.^ More than two-thirds (69 per cent) of the total academic group (342), as compared with two-fifths (42,6 per cent) of the commercial students (516) received a median grade of not less than "B" in all their courses. Since proficiency in English is a requisite for both the academic ' Chapter U, Table 10, page 38. 2 The scholarship records were taken ofT for 858 of the total 935 girls. • Thompson, Frank V. Commercial Education. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 29 and commercial students, comparison of their relative standing in this common subject seemed to be a fair basis for consideration; almost two-thirds (64.3 per cent) of the academic students again and but two- fifths of the commercial girls were ranked as "A" or "B" students in their English courses. But the com- mercial students received much higher grades in their own technical subjects than in their more general and cultural work, 55.6 per cent getting at least "B." That the practical nature of these subjects evidently arouses an interest in certain types of pupils gives a significant hint to commercial educators. Correla- tion of the practical with the cultural subjects may afford the necessary stimulus to make these pupils give a better showing in all general subjects. Their mental equipment is not necessarily inferior, it is simply of a different type. Advocates of industrial education describe their pupils as "motor-minded," that is, show- ing proficiency in doing things with their hands, but perhaps having httle interest in books. May not these pupils who show proficiency in commercial sub- jects be regarded as ''practical minded"? They may feel Uttle interest in Chaucer's poems or in algebra or geometry, yet be most enthusiastic and efficient workers in the affairs of the actual world about them. In fact, the experience of these girls after leaving school proves their possibilities, for almost two-thirds (62.9 per cent) of the 310 studied from the schools were earning S9 or more, and more than one-half of these (54.4 per cent) had been at work less than three years. The relative persistence of the two types of students taking the academic and the vocational courses has also been a subject of much discussion. Vocational educators are confronted with the tendency of their pupils to leave school as soon as they have acquired a few of the principles of their subject. This tendency is verified by the record of a large class of 635 girls enter- ing one of the Boston high schools in 1909, 441 (69.4 per cent) of whom registered for commercial subjects. 30 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. IMore than three-fourths of both groups returned for the second year. Thus, both the academic and the commercial groups started in the second year at high school with a reduction of less than 25 per cent of their original number and the same proportion of loss. But the commercial students had dropped out in much larger numbers throughout the second and before the beginning of the third year. Only 52.2 per cent of the original commercial group returned for a third year's work as compared with 63.4 per cent of the academic students.^ Nevertheless, the rate of persistence up to the third year in this particular high school, which draws from a large and congested area, is higher than that reported by the Washington Irving High School in New York which, ranking highest in persistence in New York City, retained but ''46 per cent of commercial girls . . . until the third year (as) against 47 per cent of girls pursuing academic work." ^ However, a more marked difference between the loss of the commercial and academic pupils appears in the Boston high school. At the beginning of the fourth year, 42.4 per cent of the commercial and 54.7 per cent of the academic pupils in this particular Boston high school returned to com- plete their four year course. Forty per cent (40.9 per cent) of the total number enrolled in the commercial courses (441 in the entering class and 16 transfers from other schools) received diplomas. A larger proportion (57.4 per cent) of the academic group (161 original pupils and 22 transfers) graduated. The difference between the proportion of students who graduate from the commercial and from the academic course is not as great as has been supposed. Nor is the annual per- centage of loss ^ greatly different until the second year, being about one-fourth during the first year both in the commercial and academic groups. During the ' See page 31 et xeq. for further discussion and explanation. ' Thompson, Frank V. Commercial Education. ♦The term "annual loss" covers all students dropping out between September and August, inclusive, in order to account for those who do not return after the summer vacation. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 31 second year, however, the loss was almost twice as great among the commercial (30.7 per cent) as the academic students (16.5 per cent), and during the third year about one and one-half times. (See Table 5.) The average annual loss for the first three years was 24.1 per cent in the commercial group and 17.5 per cent in the academic group. This heavy loss of the commercial students during and at the end of the second year is doubtless due to various causes. In the first place, many of the girls Table 5. — Showing the Comparative Annual Loss ^ of the Com- mercial and Academic Students in a Boston High School. Pupils Enbolled and Leaving bt Specified Yeab. FIRST YEAR. 1 SECOND TEAR. THIRD YEAR. Course. Total Number Enrolled. 2 Proportion dropped out. Total Number Enrolled. 2 Proportion dropped out. Total Number Enrolled. 2 Proportion dropped out. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Commercial. . . . Academic 442 161 105 38 23.8 23.6 345 127 106 21 30.7 16.5 241 113 43 14 17.8 12.4 I See note 3, page 30 ' Number registered in September plus transfers during the year. reach the age of sixteen during the second year at high school, and can easily find employment in positions not requiring particular skill or maturity. Girls in evening school illustrate this type which has been induced to leave school by the prospect of a position, and then finds it necessary to come back for further schooling in order to advance beyond the first wage. If these girls have gone into office service, they seem to find it especially hard to advance without thorough training, for 40.5 per cent of all the girls who came back to evening school were engaged in some of the branches of office service, nearly one-half of whom had begun work before they were sixteen. These very young girls were able to find work only in the lower grades of office service, but only 32 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. one-fourth of the eighty-nine stenographers and typists had begun work before sixteen years of age. The few rudiments of commercial subjects gained by the end of the second year may also be an inducement to the girl to leave school. The curriculum provides eight hours a week of bookkeeping, which includes commercial arithmetic, penmanship, and commercial forms, and five hours of typewriting in connection with phonog- raphy, before the end of the second year. This small equipment of some of the elementary technique of office service proves a temptation to many of the girls to try to get a clerical position. Thus, more than one-half of the girls in evening schools, who were clerks and copyists or bookkeepers and cashiers, had gone to work before they were sixteen. And these girls who have started with so little back- ground and education will find it a hard and narrow road from these first low-paid clerical positions to work involving larger responsibility and larger pay. Not only is there a temptation, if not an actual necessity to go to work early w^here economic pressure is heavy or comes suddenly and unexpectedly, but also where neither the child nor the parent has been brought to realize the importance of the broadest possible education. Economic pressure, as influenced by the character of the father's occupation, may cause the larger loss in the commercial group at the end of the second year of high school. Where the father's income is small, as in the lower grades of manufacturing and domestic and personal service, all the children may be called upon to contribute to the family at any time of special stress, such as during illness or loss of position. Manufacturing and domestic and personal service occupy a somewhat larger propor- tion of the fathers of the commercial than of the aca- demic students, while the better-paid occupations of the professions and trade and transportation engage more of the fathers of the academic group. (See Table 6.) The father's occupation and income may also deter- mine the nature of the course which the child elects in THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 33 the beginning. Naturally where the economic pressure is heavy, the girl wishes to fit herself as a wage-earner. But even when in more comfortable circumstances, there is a general desire among girls to fit themselves for some useful occupation. The efficiency of vocational education must be tested by the experience of the pupils trained, and satisfactory information concerning their subsequent experience can be secured only through personal interviews. A group of 935 girls graduating from classes ranging from 1905 Table 6. — Showing the Relation between Father's Occupation and High School Course Elected. Pupils Whose Fathers are in Specified Occupations. Course. MANUF-^CTURES. domestic and personal SERVICE. PROFESSIONAL SERVICE. trade and TRAN8POR- t.\.tion. Total. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Commercial . . Academic 172 94 36.7 i 31.6 70 36 15.0 12.1 23 29 4.9 9.8 203 138 43.4 46.5 468« 297» 100.0 100.0 Total.... 266 34.7 106 13.9 52 6.8 341 44.6 765 100.0 > 48 additional commercial students were unclassified as to father's occupation. ' 45 additional academic students were unclassified as to father's occupation. to 1913 in the five high schools was, therefore, taken for intensive study. The usual difficulties of tracing children, who have been out of school some years, were intensified by the fact that the school records on the "summary" sheets kept in the office usually provided the girl's address given only at the time she first entered. Thus, as the address of a girl graduating in 190S might be that given by her in 1904, when she first enrolled in the school, the investigator sought the girl with an address nine years old.^ In spite of these handicaps, ' A list of 212 addresses secured from the "summary" record cards for a chiiw graduating in June, 1913, was revised by the cliws secretary in the following winter. This revised list showed 84 addresses (39.6 per cent) which differed from the school records, and illu.strates the great handicap in tracing even the most recent classes. 34 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. however, information as to the present occupation was secured from 542 girls, more than one-half (58 per cent) of the total number. One hundred and fifty (16 per cent) had moved and could not be traced. (See Table 7.) More than one-third (35.7 per cent) of the whole group of graduates studied from the day high schools were found to be using their commercial training and holding Table 7. — Showing Summary of Information Secured Concerning 935 High School Pupils of Fourteen Graduating Classes from 1905 to 1913.1 Classification. Pupils in Specified Occupation. Number. Per Cent of Total. 446 47.6 334 35 77 35.7 3.7 8.2 96 10.4 65 23 S 7,0 2.5 .9 150 243 10.0 20 . Total 935 100.0 ' Based on personal interviews and information secured from teachers and classmates. positions in office service at the present time. Nearly one-half, 159, of these girls in office service were visited to secure information concerning their personal history and their business experience. Sixty-four high school graduates working in offices during the day were also secured from evening commercial high schools and social centers, making a total of 223 graduates. In addition, 62 who had started in high school but had not completed the four year course and 25 girls who had not entered high school at all but were attending THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 35 the evening commercial high schools were secured from the same sources for comparison of the experience of girls with different preparation. Therefore, the experience of a group of 310 school girls, of which 223 were day high school graduates, 62 were high school non-graduates, and 25 had not attended day high school, provided the basis for the study of the efficiency of the public school commercial training. These girls were all in some one of the four branches of office service, as secretaries, stenographers, bookkeepers or clerical workers. Since secretaries are vested with a good deal of responsibility, only twenty-one of these young high school graduates had yet risen to such a position. 1 Stenographers and typists, who require the technical skill and clerical training which is the chief aim of the four year high school course, constituted the majority, three-fifths (60.3 per cent) of the 310 girls studied. So-called bookkeepers in large offices may be little more than clerks, and slightly more than one- half (54.4 per cent) of the 57 bookkeepers studied were high school graduates. For bookkeeping is being revolutionized by the differentiation of processes with the introduction of new machines and the systematiza- tion of office routine. Clerks constitute a large pro- portion of the women in office service, more than half of a group of 1,177 studied through offices being so classified. As little or no technical training is required for some of the lower grades of clerical positions, which at the same time offer little advancement, they provide the openings for girls who have not completed their high school course. A comparatively small proportion of the school group studied, therefore, were clerks, less than one-half of whom were high school graduates. The marked relationship between their schooling and their occupation is shown by the fact that only 37, or less than one-half of the 87 girls who had not graduated from day high schools, were stenographers. (See Table 8.) » See study of Opportunities for Women in Secretarial Service by Department of Research, Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Vocations for the Trained Woman Part n. 36 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE, Clerks and bookkeepers composed 56.3 per cent of the 87 who were not high school graduates, showing a large proportion who lacked the technical training necessary for stenographic work. Four-fifths (80.2 per cent) of the 187 stenographers and 20 of the 21 secre- taries had graduated from high school, which illustrates the higher degree of education necessary for these more responsible positions, and is corroborated by the larger numbers studied from offices.^ Table 8. — Showing Relation of the Amount of Schooling to the Character of Work in Office Service, i Pupils with Specified Schooling. HIGH SCHOOL GHADDATE8. HIGH SCHOOL NON-GRADU- ATES. NO HIGH SCHOOL TRAINING. OccrPATioN. With Additional Training in Business College or Evening School. Without Additional Training. 1 Total. Num- ber. Per Num- Cent. I ber. 1 Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. 12 80 14 12 57.1 42.8 24.6 26.7 8 70 17 10 38.1 37.4 29.8 22.2 1 30 17 14 4.8 16.0 29.8 31.1 21 187 57 45 100.0 Stenographers Bookkeepers Clerks 7 9 9 3.8 15.8 20.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Total 118 38.1 105 33.8 62 20.0 25 8.1 310 100.0 1 Based on 310 high school students personally visited. As the amount of schooling affects the nature of the occupation, so the occupation explains the wage. Sixty per cent of the clerks, of whom one-half were either high school non-graduates or else merely grammar school graduates, received less than the $9 minimum wage.^ * For further discussion, see Chapter IV. > Miss Bosworth, in The Living Wage of Women Workers, estimates $9 to $11 as the minimum living wage for women workers in Boston. (Pages 9 and 11.) Miss Kelsey, Manager of the Fifth Avenue .\gency, New York City, regards "the current living wage, (in ofiBce service as) about S50 per month according to New York standards." Vocations for the Trained Woman, Part I, page 208, by Department of Research, Women's Educa- tional and Industrial Union. Nine dollars, therefore, may be too small a minimum for girls in office seri-ice, whose standards of living and of dress must be high. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 37 Nearly one-half (43.9 per cent) of the bookkeepers were also earning less than S9, and almost as large a proportion of the bookkeepers as of the clerks were not high school graduates. Among stenographers and typists, however, 80.2 per cent of whom were high school graduates, only one-third received less than $9. (See Table 9.) But this does not represent all the schooling which the girls may have had. The private commercial schools were called upon to supplement the training Table 9. — Showing Proportion of 310 Former High School Pupils Earning less than $9 and $9 and over.^ Pupils Earning Specified Present Wage. Occupation. LESS than $9. $9 AND LESS THAN $12. $12 AND OVER. j Total. 1 Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Secretaries 21 57 12 8 100.0 30.5 21.1 17.8 21 187 57 45 100 Stenographers Bookkeepers Clerks 63 25 27 33.7 43.9 60.0 67 20 10 35.8 35.0 22.2 100.0 100.0 100 Total 115 37.1 97 31.3 98 31.6 310 100 1 Based on personal interviews. of a considerable proportion (28.7 per cent) of the 310 girls, no matter what their public schooling had been, for more than one-fourth (26.9 per cent) of the 223 high school graduates ^ had gone to business college for additional training. (See Table 10.) An interest- ing question as to the advisability of shortening the four year commercial course may be raised since 34.9 per cent of the girls who graduated from the three year course took additional work in business college as compared with but one-fourth of the graduates of the four year course. Naturally, among girls who have left high school before graduating is found the largest proportion who need ' That is, tho graduates of both the three and the four year course; 60 of the 223 gradu- ates went to business college. 38 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. further training, which is illustrated by the fact that more than one-third (35.5 per cent) of this group had gone to business college, about the same proportion as among the graduates of the three year course which existed previous to 1908. Such additional training has an evident effect on salaries even at the beginning of the girl's business experience. More than two-fifths (41.1 per cent) of all the girls receiving a beginning wage of $8 and over had had additional training in business school, whereas Table 10. — Showing Proportion of 310 Public School Pupils who have gone to Business College for Further Training. Pupils with Specified Training. Schooling. WITH BUSINESS COLLBOE TRAININO. WITHOUT BUSINESS COLLEGE TRAINING. Total. Number. Per Cent. Number. Per Cent. Number. Per Cent. High school graduates, 4-year course. High school graduates, 3-year course. High school non-gradu- ates. No high school training. . 45 15 22 7 25.0 34.9 35.5 28.0 135 28 40 18 75.0 65.1 64.5 72.0 180 43 62 25 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Total 89 28.7 221 71.3 310 100.0 less than one-fifth (18.2 per cent) of those starting at less than $8 had had this additional preparation. The close relation between schooling, including both the preliminary and the intensive technical training, and beginning wage is most significant. More than one-half (51.1 per cent) of those graduating from a four year course in the high school began work with an initial wage of $8 or more. Less than one-half (46.5 per cent) of the graduates of a three year high school course, less than one-fourth (24.2 per cent) of those who did not graduate and less than one-tenth (8.0 per cent) who had no high school training began with $8 or more. (See Chart II.) THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 39 Those who were able to command a beginning wage of $8 or more had to supplement their equipment with additional technical training in proportion to their preliminary schooling. Thus only one-third (33.7 per cent) of the graduates of a four year high school course, one-half (50 per cent) of the graduates of a three Chart II. — Showing Beginning Wage by Schooling of 310 Cases Secured from the Schools. (The section below the black dividing line signifies a wage of less than S8. The section above signifies a wage of ..-S or more. Additional training is shown thus : ; Unclassified: .■/:/.•.•.-.•.) 1.1% 51.1% 47.8% 100% 46.5% 53.5% 4.8% 24.2% 50.0%, 21.7% 71.0% 66.7' ''8.0% 66.7% 22.7% 92.0% 100% 21.7% High School High-School High School Non-High Graduate, Graduate, Non-Graduate. School. 4-year course. 3-year course. 62 25 180 43 year course, two-thirds (66.7 per cent) of those who did not graduate and all who did not attend high school at all had additional technical training. If parents and girls recognize the fact that additional training increases the wage, it may account somewhat for the large proportion of girls who supplement even a four year high school course by additional preparation in the private business schools. However, some very 40 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. pertinent questions may be raised as to why these girls spend money and time for further equipment, when the schools are supposed to offer adequate instruction. Various explanations were offered by the parents and pupils interviewed. Several parents prided themselves on being able to afford at least one year of business college training, even if they could not send their girls to an academic college. Others have thought their daughters too young to go to work immediately on leaving school and have welcomed an additional period of training to afford greater maturity and more prepara- tion before allowing the girls to enter the business world. The most important factor which induces high school girls to complete their training at business college, however, is the emphasis which most business colleges lay on their three months' "finishing courses." These courses are usually aimed to provide an intensive technical training in shorthand as well as a broader course either in business English and commercial forms, or in the use of office appliances. The ''oflflce appliance" course, especially, provides a very valuable part of the girls' equipment by affording famiharity with most of the devices which are used in either small or large offices to facilitate business methods. Special emphasis is also laid on penmanship in these courses, and many girls, who have shown little improvement in the pen- manship practice in high school, which is given frequently in connection with bookkeeping, show marked improve- ment after this ''finishing course." But the value of the training itself is only one inducement. The strongest influence affecting the girls' choice undoubtedly arises from the fact that graduation from such a course gives them the privilege of life membership in the Situation Department. Thus, one school advertises that "Any partially prepared student of Any System of Shorthand who is far enough advanced to enter the dictation sections and who wishes to graduate and secure the advantages of the Situation Department can do so by attending the school for a period of not less than fifteen weeks, THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 41 passing the required tests, and doing the regular work of the Office Appliance Department." ^ Such a student is given full credit for work done elsewhere and all the advantages of securing situations from the school. This aid in securing employment which the public high schools have attempted on only a very small scale is a tremendous advantage to young girls when just starting out, and it is not surprising that many of them think that the privileges of the Situation Department, together with the additional training, are worth the extra time and money. The practice of taking additional work in business colleges is by no means to be discouraged for there is every evidence that the broader and more thorough the education, the better will be the wage, and the intensive technical preparation, added to the four year high school course, has an obvious financial return. But the tendency to spend this extra period of three months or a school year in acquiring more training may well be taken into consideration by the public schools. The elective system, by which a girl in the general course may acquire a smattering of such commercial subjects as she desires to elect, might properly be more controlled to the advantage of both the girl and the occupation. Many a girl might be guided into taking a complete general course for four years, followed by a post-graduate course, such as Dorchester High School gives, if the concrete advantages were made apparent to her. A four year course of general work, supplemented by intensive technical training, would be much more effective than the present elective arrangement, under which a girl often weakens her general course by sub- stituting for her regular work a few commercial subjects which then have to be supplemented by additional training before she can get a good position. The wide range in the number of commercial points elected by high school students is shown for a total of 740 graduates who elected one or more technical com- ' Burdett College, Catalogue and View Book, page 16. 42 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. mercial subjects. More than one-fifth (22.8 per cent) of this group had taken less than 12 points, and more than one-fourth (27.3 per cent) had taken from 12 to 20 points of commercial work. Nearly one-third (31.7 per cent) had between 20 and 28, and nearly one-fifth (18.2 per cent) between 28 and 36 points. The equip- ment of these girls varied greatly, therefore, both as to their general and technical training. Would it not be better to standardize the subjects in the regular commercial course, and as far as possible keep the general course intact? Then, the general course could be supplemented by the post-graduate year of intensive commercial work which would provide the technical training. The year of post-graduate work may also afford the necessary maturity which is a requisite for success, while the actual technical training may be developed along lines similar to that of the business college. Many girls, however, are not satisfied with their preliminary high school or business college training. After they get a position they continue to supplement their training in the evening schools as well. Some of these girls are in positions where they are in danger of losing their speed in shorthand, because of the small amount of dictation given, so take the ''speed course" in evening school to keep up their practice. Other girls, however, come for general practice, not from choice, but from the necessity of meeting the require- ments of the business world. Such girls may find themselves unable to meet the standard of their employers, while others may be trying to increase their wage or better their position, by greater proficiency. Girls also come for other reasons than greater proficiency in shorthand and typewriting. Among them may be found the stenographer who, finding that a knowledge of bookkeeping will increase her wage and her value to her employer, takes a course in evening school. Civil service courses also attract girls who wish to change their positions or to add to their training in general subjects. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 43 Additional training of one sort or another appeals to girls of all degrees of schooling, even the highest. More than one-half (52.9 per cent) of the 223 high school graduates studied from the schools had gone either to business college or to evening school for further train- ing. The additional training not only influences the beginning wage/ but also equips the girl for more rapid advancement during the next few years. Three- fourths (75.5 per cent) of the high school graduates with additional training gained either in business college or public evening high school, as compared with two-thirds (68.6 per cent) without and one-third (33.9 per cent) who did not graduate from high school, were earning $9 or more, and the same proportion, about one-half, of each group had had a working expe- rience of less than three years. (See Table 11.) The commercial teachers, therefore, should give much encouragement to the pupils to avail themselves of every advantage which the public schools offer. The example of the Dorchester High School in offering post- graduate courses either for supplementary commercial work or for an intensive course for those "without preliminary commercial training should be studied and followed wherever practicable. Evening commercial high schools have already been mentioned as an important agency in commercial edu- cation. Almost as large a number, 2,886, was enrolled in the commercial courses of the evening schools as in the day schools (3,699) during the school year 1912 to 1913. But the personnel of the evening school is very different from that of the day school. The day school might be termed purely prevocational, and deals with a compar- atively homogeneous group. The evening school is both a prevocational and continuation school, for here are found not only girls who work in offices during the day and who wish to supplement their previous training gained in the day high schools and business colleges, but also girls who work in factories, stores and in domestic » See Chart H, page 39. 44 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. a u o X ba c •o c ed M C "o o e o JS "3 c^ bO c I -Or; 00 CO 00 CO to in 1 GO ^ H 5sg Tf •x* •<* «D •* u « a >< a 1 o: B. OS S c CO CO 00 CO X 3 S u IS N 1-^ S5. g IM O to o i > o a J5 "5 lO 10 CO in , O o JT in to W •< lO ■* o o i-ti in o o- c 05 u a a "i 00 C (N IN j t~ o C' in to < H O H Be o CA ^ CO in 00 t~- 05 >< 3 OJ »-* a Z^ o ■< a 5ig ^6 <* o in CO oc o CO a m i-* w « s CO X O N CO lO (C >n CO 2 d H 1^ o 00 Tt N o s CO 2 l^ CJ •* i." w •< § 00 00 oc a w W g ?r « CO e^ o 00 IT o ,J m gco (^ M (N c^ o Bi m 3 a; O S H Z^ IC ■* _ c ^ "i" ^ c oc t^ >j IN CO C£ "t CO < o J^ m cc ^ Ol in S t: (M CO ■ Circular of Iriformation relating to Evening and Continuation SchooU, 1912, page 28. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 47 taught and the methods of teaching may be best correlated with their varying social, economic and educational background. Something of this varying background was learned from a canvass of five schools/ where 861 girls, or nearly one-half of the "average number (of girls) belonging" ^ in all the Boston evening commercial high schools in 1913 to 1914, furnished information on their personal history, schooling, and business experience. Practically all (89.4 per cent) of the girls studied were at work, or Table 12. — Showing Age of Girls Enrolled in Evening Commercial High Schools in 1913 to 1914.^ Age. Pupils in Each Group by Specified Aqb. ALL SCHOOLS. Number. Per Cent GROUP studied. Number. Per Cent. Under 16 years 16 years and under 18 18 years and under 20 20 years and over . . . . Total 566 877 542 709 21.1 32.5 20.1 26.3 155 318 205 183 18.0 37.0 23.8 21.2 2,694 2 100.0 861 100.0 ' Secured from school records and from a canvass of five high schools. 2 192 not reported by age. had been at work,^ either in office service, manufacturing, mercantile or personal service. More than one-half (56.9 per cent) of the girls had gone to work under sixteen years of age, and about an equal proportion had been at work not more than one year. It is not sur- prising, therefore, to find that more than one-half of the 861 girls studied, and a similar proportion of the total number of girls enrolled in evening schools were under eighteen years of age. (See Table 12.) Thus ' See Chapter I, page 18 et seq. 'The school reports on the "average number belonging" are secured by adding the number belonging at the end of each month and dividing the total by the number of months. * 5.3 per cent idle at the time had previously worked. 48 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. it is apparent that the young girl who has left high school at the age of sixteen soon realizes that her equip- ment of one or two years in high school is inadequate. The fact that more than one-half of these girls went to work before they were sixteen years of age accounts for a similar proportion (51.6 per cent) who had not gone beyond the grammar school. More than one- third (37 per cent) had left before finishing their high school course and but slightly more than one-tenth (11.1 per cent) were high school graduates. (See Table 13.) Economic pressure may explain to some extent this large proportion of girls who have not availed them- Table 13. — Showing Previous Day School Training of 861 Girls in Evening High Schools. Pupils with Specified Day School Tkalning. Schooling. High school graduates .... High school non-graduates No high school training. . . Unclassified Total 100.0 selves of a more extended day school education, for the fathers of almost two-thirds (62.9 per cent) were engaged in manual work. Economic pressure may also result from the fact that more than two-thirds (69.8 per cent) of the 861 girls studied were of foreign-born parentage. IVIore than one-half (52.6 per cent) of these girls of foreign parentage went to work before the age of sixteen as compared with about two-fifths (42.1 per cent) of the children of native-born parents. Foreign-born par- ents from non-English speaking countries are doubtless under a greater disadvantage than those whose native language is English; 56.7 per cent of the children of the THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 49 former and 50.1 per cent of the children of the latter went to work before the age of sixteen. The personnel of the evening school is so varied as to home and business environment, age, education and length of working experience that the problem of the evening school in meeting the needs of this heterogeneous group is both difficult and unique. The home environ- ment of the large number of girls with foreign-born parents (69.8 per cent), as well as of nearly one-fifth who were themselves foreign-born, may not provide the general background and familiarity with our language and cus- toms which is an essential for success in business rela- tions. One of the school problems, therefore, is to familiarize these girls with our local customs and general business methods, as well as to increase their proficiency in the English language. The variations of age and education which are represented complicate still further the problems confronting the school. While one-half of the group studied was under eighteen years of age, the remaining half ranged from eighteen to forty-five years. Again, while one-half had but a grammar school background, the other half consisted of girls whose previous schooling ranged from one year at high school to four years at college. Besides these factors of varying home background, age and education, the schools must also take into con- sideration the fact that more than four-fifths (84.1 per cent) of their girls are engaged during the day in occu- pations which vary in the degree of fatigue, as well as in correlation with the subjects studied at night. Office service, which is most directly related to the training offered, and in which the girls feel the need of the broadest education possible, occupied the largest proportion (40.5 per cent) of the 861 girls studied in the evening high schools. Manufacturing, which demands much less education and offers httle correlation with the commercial course, nevertheless, contributed more than one-fourth (26.7 per cent) of the group studied. It would seem, therefore, that these girls were not trying to 50 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. fit themselves better for their present occupation as is true of those in office service, but were trying to Hft them- selves out of an occupation which has little future. Rather surprising is the small proportion (12 per cent) from mercantile establishments as well as the large proportion (15.9 per cent) who were "staying at home," though one-third of the latter had worked previously. (See Table 14.) The element of fatigue is an important condition which confronts the evening school, as almost one-half (43.2 per cent) the girls had a working day of eight to eight and Table 14. — Showing Occupation of 861 Girls in Boston Evening Commercial High Schools.^ Occupation. Pupils in Specified Occupation. OflSce Service Manufacturing Processes Mercantile Service Domestic and Personal Service At home Miscellaneous Total 100.0 • Secured by a canvass of five high schools. a half hours, and almost three-fifths from eight to nine hours. Almost one-fifth (17.4 per cent) had an even longer working day. A little more than one-half (50.7 per cent) left work between 5.30 to 6 p. m., but 12.6 per cent had to work until or after 6 o'clock and be at their desks in the evening by 7.30 p. m. The length of the working day varies so much with the particular occupation that the three largest groups are worthy of closer study. The greater strain and fatigue of the manufacturing processes are intensified by the longer working day, for 54.3 per cent of the girls in factories worked from eight to nine hours and 39.6 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 51 per cent worked nine hours and over. Almost four- fifths (78.6 per cent) of the girls in mercantile establish- ments worked from eight to eight and a half hours. In office service three-fourths (75.6 per cent) of the girls worked less than eight and a half hours, and one- third (33.5 per cent) worked even less than eight hours a day. (See Table 15.) Office service not only has better working conditions, but its workers represent a higher social, economic and educational status. Less than one-half (43.8 per cent) Table 15. — Showing Length of Working Day of 682 Qirls in Three Selected Occupations Attending Evening High School. Daily Hours. Girls in Each Occupation Workinq Specified Number op Hours. OFFICE SERVICE. PL. MANUFAC- TURING PROCESSES. MERCAN- TILE SERVICE. Total. Less than 8 hours 8 hours and less than 8 J 8} hours and less than 9 9 hours and over Unclassified Total 117 147 48 22 15 33.5 42.1 13.8 6.3 4.3 4.8 33.9 20.4 39.6 1.3 5.8 78.6 9.7 3.9 2.0 134 306 105 117 20 19.6 44.9 15.4 17.2 2.9 349 100.0 230 100.0 103 100.0 682 100.0 of the girls in office service, for instance, went to work under sixteen years of age, as contrasted with almost three-fourths (70.9 per cent) of those in manufacturing and (74.8 per cent) in mercantile establishments. But this large proportion of girls (43.8 per cent) beginning work in office service before the age of sixteen, which is discovered in the evening commercial high schools, must not be taken as representative of the occupation as a whole. Few of the girls in the evening schools are technically trained workers, such as stenographers and typists, but many are clerks and office girls, whose 52 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. training is sometimes very meager. Thus, only one- fourth (25.5 per cent) of the 349 office workers found in the evening schools were stenographers and typists while nearly one-half (44.4 per cent) were clerks, and nearly one-fifth (19.7 per cent) were bookkeepers and cashiers. (See Table 16.) The large proportion of clerks attending evening school is explained by the fact that more than one-half (55.7 per cent) of the pupils engaged in office service, who had attended day high school, had not gone beyond the second year, and so had picked up merely the Table 16. — Showing the Occupations of Qirls in Office Service in Five Boston Evening High Schools. Occupations. Office Workers in- Specified OCCDPATION. Number. Per Cent. Clerks 155 69 89 23 3 10 44.4 19.7 Stenographers and typists 25.5 Cashiers in department stores Secretaries 6.6 0.8 3.0 Total 349 100 rudiments of the commercial course. (See Table 17.) With this meager equipment they had necessarily entered and been limited to the lower grades of office service. As they soon discovered how ill-prepared they were even for this lower grade of work, they came back to the evening school three nights a week for further schooling. About one-third who had left after the first or second year at high school had had further training in business college or evening school previous to this present year, showing that the girls themselves have realized that they were inadequately equipped and needed additional training to make up their deficiencies. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 53 Almost two-thirds (62.1 per cent) of the 675 clerks studied in offices also had had less than a high school education or its equivalent, ^ showing that this is the natural opening for the majority of girls who enter office service before finishing their high school course. The new plan for a clerical high school seems admirably adapted to meet the needs of the large number of girls who cannot spend the full four years in high school. Table 17. — Showing Previous High School and Additional Training of 237 Evening High School Girls in Office Service.^ Pdpils with and without Additional Train- ing BY Specified Years in High School. GRi Tot Preliminary High WITHOUT additional training. WITH ADDITIONAL TRAINING. lND AL. School Training. a) a a O PL, XI a o Cl, NUMBER to . a a 2 K 6 a. 9.2 PQ o X> a 3 a 6 o 1 year 2 years 42 39 19 2 47 2 27.8 25.8 12.7 1.3 31.1 1.3 27 24 3 1 28 3 31.4 27.9 3.5 1.1 32.6 3.5 12 10 2 15 1 10 12 1 1 12 2 5 1 69 63 22 3 75 5 29.1 26.6 9 3 1 3 31.6 Unclassified 2.1 Total 151 100.0 86 100.0 40 38 8 237 100.0 ' 112 girls in office service did not go to daj* high school. There are good openings for the well-trained clerk, as well as for the stenographer, for which the school might provide special training. Thus, more than one-half (55.8 per cent) of the clerks studied in offices who were earning $15 and over were those girls who had had a full high school course. More than one-third (37.2 per cent) of the clerks who were high school graduates were earning $12 or more, as compared with 24 per cent of all the clerks. (See Table 28.) ' -Vdditional training in bu.siness school seems to give the high school non-graduate an equipment which is equivalent to that of the high school graduate, at least in so far ai it helps her to reach $12. (See Chapter IV, page 128.) 54 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. Although the previous schooling of the office workers attending evening schools is lower than that of the workers in office service as a whole, it is greater than that of the girls in the other occupations. A little less than one-third (32.1 per cent) of the girls in office service, Table 18. — ShoXving Previous Education, with and without Additional Training, of 682 Girls in Evening High Schools. Pupils with Specified Schoolino. Grand GRAMMAR SCHOOL. HIGH SCHOOL. Total. Occupations. 1 3 its h o 3 1 o •a 1 d TOTAL. 1 la 3 1 3 o •53 s a TOTAL. c (0 B 3 2 (U a o O a 6 c U 11 96 5 112 32.1 157 75 5 237 67.9 349 100.0 With additional training . . Without additional train- ing. 5 6 30 66 3 2 38 74 30.7 32.9 55 102 28 47 3 2 86 151 69.3 67.1 124 225 35.5 64.5 Manufacturing Processes . . . 26 123 14 163 70.9 63 3 1 67 29.1 230 100.0 With additional training. . Without additional train- ing. 8 18 23 100 9 5 40 123 65.6 72.8 20 43 3 1 21 46 34.4 27.2 61 169 26 . 5 73.5 5 65 2 72 69.9 29 2 31 30.1 103 100.0 2 3 14 51 2 16 56 69.6 70.0 7 22 7 24 30.4 30.0 23 80 22.3 Without additional train- ing. 2 77.7 42 284 21 347 50.9 249 80 6 335 49.1 682 100.0 as compared with more than two-thirds in manufacturing (70.9 per cent), and in mercantile service (69.9 per cent) had been through grammar school only. Again, more than one-third (35.5 per cent) of the office workers had had additional training,^ while a little more than one- fourth (26.5 per cent) of those in manufacturing processes ' "Additional training" mean.') courses in business college, attendance in evening school previous to the year of the investigation or both. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 55 and even less than one-fourth (22.3 per cent) in mer- cantile service had sought further schooling. (See Table 18.) As only one-fifth (21.5 per cent) of the evening school girls in office service had graduated from high school, and one-third had not gone even beyond grammar school, it is not surprising to find a low standard of wages. ^ Almost one-half (46.7 per cent) of these girls in office service were earning less than $8 as compared with only 18.1 per cent of the 310 day school pupils. As this low wage of the evening school girls is undoubt- edly due to lack of equipment and educational back- ground, the reason for their attendance at evening schools is apparent. Girls in office service, however, have a better wage than those in manufacturing or mer- cantile establishments, for 63.9 per cent of the manu- facturing group and 72.8 per cent of those in mercantile establishments were earning less than $8. While girls of all degrees of education and business experience take advantage of these opportunities in the evening schools, a still larger group of pupils will be attracted by a new scheme which will go into effect next year (1915). ^ ''Consideration is now being given to shorter courses which shall meet the special educational needs and wishes of clerical and commercial employees. . . . Many employees," writes the Director of Evening Schools, "realize their inability to do efficiently some portion of their work, and appreciate their lack of knowledge in some branch of the business in which they are engaged . . . (which could) be acquired very quickly if the opportunity were offered. A few weeks of inten- sive work spent entirely upon the information desired would relieve the embarrassment often experienced by a worker who is uncertain. This would increase efficiency and open up possibiUties of promotion." These unit courses, which would consist of from 9 to 15 > Seventy-five of the 349 pupils in ofBce service wore high school gniduates. ' Circular to the employers of former and prospective pupils of the public evening high schools, from the Director of Evening and Continuation Schools. April, 1914. 5t) WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. two-hour lessons, depending upon the character of the work, inchide as a tentative Ust courses with special emphasis on various divisions under commercial law, bookkeeping, merchandise, chemistrj'' and advertising, as well as special work in phonography and in the use of office appliances. Thus, a person desiring to learn something of the laws relating to corporations or con- tracts could take twelve lessons on that subject. Or, one who needs to find out something of the distin- guishing qualities or determining values in cotton goods, woolens, or leather, may elect a course of fifteen lessons in one of these divisions. "To this list (of possible courses) might be added almost any number of other courses, each one intended to meet some special need in the most direct way and in the shortest possible time." Employers, therefore, are asked to urge their employees to ''advise the director of the schools concerning the instruction which, if offered, would increase their efficiency. There should be no hesitancy in naming unusual types of instruction which previously have not been given in schools." The evening high schools are regarded by many girls who have been forced to go to work at an early age as their only means of securing further commercial educa- tion. These schools, therefore, have the responsibility of supplementing the previous education of such girls and, also, of guiding them into and equipping them for the work for which they are best fitted. The problem of meeting this responsibility may be solved through this plan for special instruction which has just been described, for an intimate knowledge of the personnel of the schools will be required in order to fit these special courses to the pupils' needs. The intimate acquaint- ance with the individual girls will provide the oppor- tunity for vocational guidance, the great need for which the Director of Evening Schools^ has already recognized, as is shown by his report. • Extract from the report of Mr. W. Stanwood Field in the Annual Report of the Super- intendent of the Boston Public Schools, 1913, page 105. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 57 ''It is probable that no class of young people stand in greater need of counsel and guidance than those in the evening schools. Only a small number of them look far enough ahead to see the need of a longer time spent in preparation for a high grade of efficiency. Many of these young people are in occupations that lead nowhere. They should choose a skilled occupation and begin to prepare for it. Those who do this should be given counsel and assistance in securing employment. Em- ployers' attention should be called to students of worth and ambition, and consideration for employment and promotion should be given to them. To this end the Director of Evening Schools strongly recommends the employment of a highly competent vocational assistant for the evening schools." The large enrollment and the general atmosphere of interest in the evening classes show that the schools are already doing much to win the gratitude and meet the needs of these girls. But employers, as Mr. Field suggests, should aid this good work and show their appreciation by giving preference to and advancing the girls who have received certificates on completion of these courses. The Chambers of Commerce in various cities abroad and in this country have already pledged themselves to co-operate with both the day and evening schools by giving advice and suggestions about the cur- riculum and by giving preference to the graduates, which will greatly aid and encourage the schools in continuing and broadening their work. Since commercial education is a distinct form of vocational education it should, as Mr. Snedden says, be organized towards a preconceived end of efficiency in useful employment.^ To accomplish this end, how- ever, commercial education, like all "Vocational educa- tion, requires the evolution of means and methods peculiar to itself, and, to a degree at least, quite dis- similar to those found in general education." ^ Com- ' Snetldcn. David. Problems of Educational Readjustment, Chapter IX, page 211. *Ibid., Chapter VIII. pago 185. 58 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. mercial educators have been handicapped in working out such methods by the failure of academic minds to conceive commercial education in its beginning as a form by itself, and not as a mere infusion to undermine the general or academic course. The grudging intro- duction of a commercial subject here and there, which may be traced through school records from the middle nineties, is sufficient indication of the handicap com- mercial educators have had from the start. With the growing interest in industrial training, which profits by more recent and far-seeing educational methods, commercial educators are forced to "take account of stock." They may well consider, therefore, what they may learn from industrial education and try to profit by this general interest in vocational training, which should have been aroused in commercial education fifteen or twenty years ago. The first lesson industrial education gives to com- mercial education is that to attain "efficiency in useful employment" all vocational education must consider the requirements of the employer, as well as the needs of the employee. In the case of office service, the most important demands of the employer are technique and personality and it is the duty of the schools to train their pupils to meet both requirements. Personality is fundamental, as it is the first test to which a girl is put when she enters an office to apply for a position. A pupil, therefore, who is physically handicapped or lacks the intellectual capacity necessary to meet the demands of the occupation, should be discouraged from spending her time in preparing for office service. Thus, vocational direction is the first step toward efficient commercial education. Having secured, as far as pos- sible, the right personnel, the methods of training these pupils must be so organized as to acquaint them with actual business conditions. A scheme providing for part time in school and part time in offices may perhaps furnish the best method. Such a scheme will correlate the technique with general subjects, just as phonography THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 59 is used only as a tool in connection with the stenog- rapher's general information and also will help develop a girl's business personality and enable her to know better how to act in all contingencies. Vocational guidance and part-time schoohng, there- fore, are two important aids to the efficiency of com- mercial education, the one dealing primarily with per- sonaUty, the other with technique and applied theory. The preliminary step in vocational direction, that is, the selection of the course of study for the girl first entering the high school, should be taken in co-operation with the teachers of the grammar schools, who through daily personal contact with the girl in various subjects, know not only the girl's mental calibre, but something of her personality as well. But not only may the high school teacher learn from the teachers of the grammar school, but so, also, must the latter know and keep in close contact with the opportunities for training offered in the high school. A preliminary attempt has been made to form a connecting link between the grammar school teachers and the high school vocational counselors. Personal data concerning the pupils' work and charac- teristics, similar to that given to the placement bureau agents, has been sent to the high schools for the pupils who are to enter, but high school teachers seem to have had little time or opportunity to make use of this mate- rial. The pupil's choice has usually been made before entering school in the fall, and in this choice the grammar school teachers might well take an inteUigent part. Vocational guidance should imply not only helping the girl to choose her vocation, but also planning and directing her studies so as best to develop her technique and general background. Vocational counselors may give intelligent direction only if they know something of the girl's environment, which determines to a certain extent her choice of a vocation and also affects her suc- cess in proportion to its limitations. If the schools are to overcome the effects of environment by the develop- ment of a broad educational background, they must 60 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. know something of their neighborhood, their pupils and their home conditions. The neighborhood of the school, as a whole, should determine the emphasis on certain branches. For instance, in a school which draws from a neighborhood where there are many foreign- born families, every effort should be made to bring the customs and business methods of the new country before the pupils. Commercial laboratories, for which the pupils assist in collecting and arranging the speci- mens of American products, have been used successfully in several schools as a means of stimulating interest. The father's occupation also throw^s light on the type of supplementary instruction which would meet the girl's personal needs and might also serve as a corner- stone for the study and development of interest in industrial and economic problems. Not only must the schools acquire familiarity with the individual's needs, but they must also study the requirements of the business world. In the specific training in stenography and typewriting, which has been chiefly emphasized, the schools seem to be satisfactory; but the constantly changing conditions caused by the introduction of new office appliances must be carefully followed by organizers of the school curriculum. More- over, the introduction of training for the various kinds of new machines in the school curriculum presents a two-fold problem. First, to what extent will these machines reduce the number which ought to be trained? Second, should the schools attempt to train prospective workers in the use of these machines? There are certain labor-saving devices, such as the multigraph, addresso- graph and neostyle, which are used in the larger offices in connection with regular office work, and with which a certain familiarity might prove very valuable. One school has a multigraph and a neostyle on which girls are trained in a special class after school, thus obviating the difficulty of introducing extra work into the regular curriculum. Other machinery, such as the comptometer and billing machines, call for regular operators with THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 61 a certain amount of definite training. Special private schools already offer training on the comptometer, bill- ing machine, stenotype and dictaphone and guarantee positions, but employers seem to agree that equal pro- ficiency could be gained by a few hours of extra work for several months at a public school. Most employers, in fact, have to give further training to many of their girls now, as there are special adaptations of the work to suit various kinds of business. These new machines, however, present another prob- lem to the school as to the justification of training girls for work which is almost purely mechanical in its monotony. One socially-minded employer recognizes the deadening effect of machine operating, and so changes the routine of his girls' work as often as possible. He also tries to appeal to their general inteUigence by keep- ing them in constant touch with the big general processes of his factory, in order that the girls may see the signi- ficance of their particular small part. Although this machine operating seems to demand little technique in the beginning, employers usually demand high school graduates as operators, because of their general intelli- gence. As the wages usually range from SIO to SI 2 per week, this occupation in office service may appeal to certain girls who have a fairly mathematical mind and whose general background or technique does not fit them to be stenographers. Such girls might well be encouraged to train for this work, if the possible effect of the monotony were taken into consideration. At all events, the schools must keep in close contact with all these changes in the organization of office service and study the effect of machinery on the occupation as a whole, as well as on the health of the individual. To the girl in office service, however, technical train- ing in phonography and in the use of the latest office devices is almost incidental. It is her ability to acquire and use with her technical training a general fund of information, which establishes her value to her employer, so that in no other occupation perhaps does the advan- 62 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. tage of a general education show more clearly.^ Every encouragement, therefore, should be given to these girls to go to school as long as possible and to acquire a broad education. Many girls may feel that a general fund of information has nothing to do with practical work and so take little interest in so-called "cultural" subjects, but careful correlation of cultural subjects with the practical usage of office service may stimulate the necessary interest in this girl's mind. History may be taught with emphasis on the growth of commerce, and lessons in phonography may include a widely varying range of subjects which may be very broadening. A topic on the history of commerce or economics may lead her to inquire into certain features of her father's or neighbor's business which may bring business interests to her attention for the first time. The correlation of her work in one course with that of another results in a most beneficial co-operation of the teachers of the several subjects. In one school, the commercial teachers meet with certain teachers of the general course and discuss the deficiencies of their pupils. If a certain girl is weak in her punctuation, her phonography teacher recom- mends that her English teacher give close attention to that point. If a history theme is poorly expressed, it is shown to the English teacher, who in turn may report poor penmanship. Misspelled words are recorded and the girl is drilled in typing those words until she has learned them. A list of difficult words, compiled from the records of all the teachers, is kept for reference, and frequent tests are given on them. Where the academic teachers are co-operative and appreciate the cultural value of practical work in which the pupil may be really interested, there are great possibilities for helpful training. Even Latin, most "academic" of subjects, has been introduced into one commercial course with the best of results on grammar, spelling and proficiency in English. If pupils could be taught to see the real relation between their study of * See Chapter II, page 42, and Chapter IV, pages 148 and 149. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 63 general subjects and their future work, many who now remain in apathy and are indifferent to poor marks in English and the cultural subjects, would endeavor to put more thought into their work. A real aid towards forming a connection and creating a stimulus would be to have on the staff commercial teachers who have had business training, and also academic teachers who can appreciate the business point of view. Commercial teachers can suggest correlation and the curriculum may demand it, but a corps of broad-minded teachers who can see cultural value in vocational subjects can best work out this plan. The teachers of general and commercial courses may also co-operate in increasing the efficiency of commercial education by pointing out to their pupils the danger of a too liberal use of the elective system. Under this system, which is now prevalent, many pupils who are enrolled in the general course intersperse a few com- mercial subjects in their regular courses. Thus, although their educational background and general information may be all that can be desired, it is not coupled with sufficient technical training to make them acceptable candidates for office service. As long as the elective system is unrestricted, such pupils will acquire a smatter- ing of commercial subjects and apply for positions as though they were well-trained workers. If a girl is discovered doing good work, in an elective commercial course, her teachers might discuss the advisability of suggesting a post-graduate year of purely commercial work, rather than letting her spoil her general course of studies in the third or fourth year by a scattered choice of commercial subjects. A tendency to mix the two courses, unless on a well considered plan, is most unfortunate and should be discouraged. Rather let the pupils complete the general course, if possible, and then concentrate on one year of intensified com- mercial work. A certain amount of correlation with the girl's own interests is also possible in her general courses. A special paper in English may have for its 64 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. subject a topic chosen from a course in economics, and if a girl shows special interest in any one line of subjects, she might do well to try and enter an office where that interest may be of value to herself and her emplo.yer. So far there seems to be little preference or thought on the part of the high school girl as to the kind of business to which she shall give her service. College girls, perhaps, recognize that their special training in chemistry may make them useful to a chemical or drug manufacturer, or a girl interested in economics may choose to work for an economics professor. On the part of high school girls, however, the offices of business men, lawyers or manufacturers, all appeal alike, regardless of the girl's natural interest in one phase or the other. May not the teachers discover a certain trait or interest which may qualify a girl for one kind of business more than for another? If girls intend to become secretaries, they ought to have the vital interest in their employer's work which makes them share his responsibilities and not be mere machines during their working day. Besides the general business requirements of technique and a broad education which the schools must meet by keeping in touch with the business world, the important demand of business men for "personality" cannot be disregarded.^ Are not the schools really negligent if they do not succeed in inculcating the proper standards of appearance and business attitude before they send their pupils to apply for positions? And appearance and a business-like manner are not all that the schools should aim to develop. Often, after a girl has succeeded in getting a position, she may lose it by her unfamiliarity with the ethics of business, and who, if not the schools, shall instruct her in these important requisites of the business world? The girl's relations with her fellow employees and her employer may also need some constructive suggestions from the school. She should realize that all friendly exchanges of confidence as to last night's good time and > See detAiled discussion, Chapter III, page 91 et aeq. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 65 the pattern of a new dress are breaches of oflfiee etiquette, and as such should be discouraged by the stenographer who would be successful. She should know that most employers have the good sense to realize that an intelligent question is often necessary during the girl's first weeks in her position, and that it is usually better to ask a certain number of questions, if she weighs the possibilities of finding them out by other means before bothering her employer, than to make grave errors. How may the schools best offer this rather intangible training in appearance, manner and business ethics? Already, the teachers claim they reiterate constantly the need for quiet dress, clean personal habits and business-like attitude, but with meager results, as employers testify. The part-time schooling plan offers a solution by allowing advanced commercial students to spend a certain amount of time in the business office of co-operative employers in connection with the regular school work. Already, this scheme has been worked out in some of the schools with excellent results. In one school the pupils are given practice in billing actual sales slips which are loaned to the school by one large retail clothing store. When the girls have become proficient in this work, they are hired by this store, when extra help is needed, for several days at a time. Reports are made to the teacher as to the girl's ability, attitude, appearance and punctuality and the teacher then emphasizes these points to the individual pupils. The impression which such suggestions make on a girl's mind is much stronger when coming from an actual business man, even indirectly, than when made by the teacher only. A different plan has worked out very successfully in another school where advanced commercial students in the intensified course act as clerical assistants to the grammar school principals. These pupils are given afternoon work in the grammar school offices in filing, typewriting and stenography and are graded according to their proficiency, attitude and 66 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. general ability. Thus, any deficiencies which are reported are given special attention by their teachers. Industrial education has profited greatly bj^ this part-time or co-operative vocational training which has been worked out by Professor Schneider for the technical students in the University of Cincinnati. Commercial educators in Boston have already applied this system in connection with the salesmanship course in the high schools to a greater extent than with the clerical course. A co-ordinator between shop and school has been appointed, who is to arrange for as many stores as possible to be used as laboratories for the practical experience of high school students of salesmanship. A similar arrangement for the wider use of offices as laboratories for training clerical and general office help should be the next important development in com- mercial education. As more and more schools realize the benefit of practical office training under actual business conditions, however, employers will be besieged on all sides by requests for co-operation. Before this happens, a definite organization should be planned which could act as a clearing house for the requests from all the schools and which would also canvass business offices in order to interest employers in co-opera- tion with the bureau. If the co-ordinator, who does this canvassing, is also a ''director of commercial practice," or has some close connection with the planning of the school curriculum he will be in a position to offer invaluable assistance to the school. His close touch with business men will enable him to diagnose the cases of inefficiency which are reported to him and to plan the proper remedy or prevention. He can help employers to standardize their requirements and the schools to standardize their graduates. Thus, part-time schooling will serve the double purpose of providing practical experience to the pupils and practical suggestions to the teachers from business men. The actual contact with the business world, which THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 67 part-time or "co-operative" schooling offers, is just what is needed, therefore, to tie up the schools with actual business demands. Teachers with business expe- rience will be absolutely required, and more careful training in office practice will inevitably result. The example of a well-known business college might well offer suggestions for adaptations. This school has a course in office practice which consists in demonstra- tions of right and wrong oflice methods. Such a course may not be practicable in many schools, but, at least, it shows a recognition of the need of familiarizing the pupils with oflSce conditions. To attain the same end, the administrative work of the head of the commercial course might be conducted in an office fitted with all office appliances, and the pupils might take turns in having charge of this office and acting as the master's clerical assistants. One school has all its notices typewritten or multigraphed by commercial pupils, who also do much of the clerical work for the evening school which is held in the same building. Besides offering actual office practice and practical material for work, the schools may further stimulate a standard for their pupils by having successful business men and women give a series of talks m the schools. These talks should not be vague generalizations of conditions in the business world, but definite sugges- tions to the girls, who are to enter office service, as to the requirements of their future employers. Business men can be aroused to show an interest in this phase of education which is so closely connected with their work. Their co-operation is essential, and the schools are right in demanding that they formulate a standard for the commercial course. But business men are not very clear in formulating standards for their office help. Perhaps ability to satisfy the employer is so much a matter of personality that he cannot judge of the new candidate's capability on first sight, or by a technical test. 7Vt any rate, the methods of hiring girls in office service are much less efficient than those of hiring a 68 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. salesman or manager. For instance, a man would seldom be hired "temporarily" for a position with the tacit understanding that if he suited he should remain, as is often the case with girls. The employer would satisfy himself pretty thoroughly as to the man's quali- fications before hiring him, but there are so many girls in the field of office service that he feels no compunction about hiring temporary workers till he finds one that is satisfactory, or in the rough parlance of one employer, he "hires 'em and fires 'em till he gets a good one." Such haphazard methods encourage a fringe of casual and temporary workers which tends to lower the wage and educational standards. Employers may well con- sider, therefore, whether they ought not to standardize their requirements more carefully and avoid the danger of encouraging a large number of poorly-equipped, half-educated workers, who are attracted by the appar- ently large number of openings which are really only temporary. Besides asking business men to co-operate and to standardize their requirements, the schools and their pupils should receive some help from talks by business women. There are many women whose business experi- ence would enable them to point the way for many a girl who is starting her business career. These women could point out the difficulties as well as the opportu- nities in such a career. Acquaintance with their success and the methods by which it was attained should offer a stimulus to a girl such as no inspired talk by a business man could give. Business women are ready and eager to give vocational advice to their younger sisters, and a very vital and systematic co-operation may easily be secured. The placement of their graduates is a consideration which every school for vocational training is bound to face. At least two Boston high schools make a system- atic effort to place their pupils, while others rely on the casual friendly efforts of individual teachers. A strong argument for the part-time schooling plan is that it THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 69 calls for an organization which may also be used as a central placement agency for permanent positions. The co-ordinator who receives the apphcations for part-time positions from the schools and fills these applications by means of his close acquaintance with the employers may also have an opportunity to fill permanent positions. The machinery is there for form- ing a connection between schools and employers, which opens a very great opportunity to the school in the placement of its graduates. The two schools which are already placing some of their graduates are keeping records of their business experience, but this means a large amount of voluntary work on the part of the teachers, whose time for clerical work and for canvassing employers is necessarily limited. Even these small attempts, however, have been very successful in arousing the interest of business men and in stimulating the pupils to qualify for positions from the school. The methods now resorted to by high school girls in securing positions are inefficient and precarious ^ and the schools might well consider replacing them by a regular and centralized system. None of the present methods, except, perhaps, the suggestions of relatives or friends, gives much consideration to the girl's special aptitude for her position. The waste in efficiency both to girl and employer in not relating a girl's interests and talents to her employer's needs is a consideration which the schools must face. The loss of time and of technical skill while seeking positions, to say nothing of the disagreeable circumstances which maj^ arise in interviewing many employers, might well be avoided. There is more than an ethical reason for the schools entering this field of employment agencies; the effect on standardizing the quality of graduates who shall be placed will not be negligible. The pupils will have this standard constantly in mind, and will recognize the fallacy of leaving school before graduating. The tendency of the business college to attract pupils from the ' For further discussion see Chapter III, page 100. 70 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. high school by offering to secure positions for graduates of their course will also be somewhat counteracted. In fact, most schools offering vocational and technical training find that as a matter of course they are called upon to place their graduates not so much for the sake of getting them positions as of meeting the demands of employers for workers. When the high school, there- fore, comes to be recognized as a place where pupils are well equipped for office service, employers are going to apply to that source. The schools have only to provide the proper agency and machinery, and employers will immediately be found who already recognize the value of the high school product and will demand it. Summarizing, the situation of commercial education for girls in the Boston high schools is, on the whole, favorable, in spite of the handicaps commercial edu- cators have had from the start. As almost two-thirds of the total number of girls enrolled in the nine general high schools elected commercial subjects, every effort should be made to increase still further the efficiency of this important branch of training. The courses now offered are largely clerical in nature, with varying degrees of emphasis on correlation with general and commercial subjects. The importance of this correlation is significant in view of the fact that the commercial pupils do not rank so high in all their subjects as do the academic, but that the former get higher marks in their technical than in their general subjects. Proper correlation would interest these "prac- tical-minded" pupils in the actual application of their general subjects. The relatively greater instability of commercial pupils at the end of the second year, when almost twice as many commercial as academic pupils drop out, may be due to economic pressure, coupled with a desire to use the few rudiments of commercial education, inducing many of the former to leave school and go to work. This tendency must be taken into consideration by the schools, and a series of unit courses might well be considered to meet the needs of such girls. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 71 Moreover, a clear and forceful presentation to both girl and parent of the fact that the more the schooling the better is the wage, might reduce this exodus of inade- quately equipped pupils at the end of the second year in high school. The efficiency of the commercial courses was tested by the experience of the graduates, and compared with that of girls with varying degrees of schooling. More than one-third of the 935 graduates studied was found to be still in office service — most of them as stenog- raphers, as that is the training in which the schools specialize. The clerks and bookkeepers in the group studied had had less education and were earning a lower wage. Three-fifths of the clerks and almost one-half of the bookkeepers were earning less than $9, as compared with only one-third of the stenographers. The need for as much training as possible is evidently widely felt, for about one-fourth of the group studied had gone to business college, and more than one-half had attended either business college or evening school. This additional training increases the wage opportuni- ties, for more than two-fifths of all girls receiving a beginning wage of $8 and over had had extra training, as compared with less than one-fifth of those starting at less than $8. After some years of experience the advantage is still apparent; three-fourths of the high school graduates with extra training, as compared with two-thirds without, were earning $9 and more. The public schools are meeting, to some extent, this desire and need for further training, for almost as large a number was enrolled in the evening commercial high schools as in the day high schools. The problem here is even more difficult than in the day schools, for the group is less homogeneous, presenting wide variations as to age, education, home background, occupation and length of experience. Almost all were at work, and more than one-half had begun work under 16 years of age, which may be partly due to economic pressure, since more than two-thirds of all the girls were of foreign-born 72 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. parentage. Two-fifths of the gu-ls were in office service, but since more than one-half of these girls had not gone beyond the second year of high school, they were largely in the lower grades of the occupation. This small amount of schooling explains, to a large extent, their low wage, for almost one-half of these girls in office service were earning less than $8 as compared with less than one-fifth of the day school pupils. In order to meet the needs of the future employers of the commercial pupils, only those possessing the proper qualifications for office service should be encouraged to take the training, and with this foundation, the schools should follow the trend of the business world in order to adjust the technical and general education to business demands. The present elective system, which allows a pupil to acquire a smattering of com- mercial subjects at the expense of her general course and at the loss of efficiency in employment, should be restricted. Every plan w^hich allows the pupil to ac- quire as broad an education and as thorough a technical training as possible, should be strongly urged, and its value impressed on teachers, pupils and parents. Many pupils enter the business world with a satisfactory general and technical training, however, who have no conception of business standards of ''personality" — including neat personal appearance, co-operative atti- tude, sense of responsibility and an appreciation of business ethics. The part-time schooling plan seems best adapted to provide this rather intangible equip- ment for "business personality," by allowing the girl to come into contact with business conditions while still in school, and to profit by suggestions from her employer to her teacher. This scheme has another advantage, besides bringing pupil and teacher in touch with business requirements, in offering a means for the permanent placement of graduates through its central agency or co-ordinator. The successful placement of graduates, by this means, needs only the appreciation by business men of the adequacy of the high school THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND ITS PROBLEMS. 73 commercial training. Commercial teachers, therefore, must secure pupils who are qualified for the occupation, offer them training in general and practical subjects which shall be a stimulus for interest in their future work, and so acquaint them with the demands and usages of the business world that these graduates may attain the end of efficiency in useful employment which is the aim of all vocational education. 74 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. CHAPTER III.— CHARACTER OF OFFICE SERVICE Jean M. Cunningham Office service is an auxiliary occupation to every industry, business and profession which requires record- ing, transcribing or computing accounts. In 1910, 1,523,891 people were engaged in office work, two- thirds (62.4 per cent) of whom were men and one-third (37.6 per cent) women. ^ Duties in offices vary exceed- ingly, but in general, workers may be classified as clerks, bookkeepers and accountants, stenographers and typists, and secretaries. With the exception of secretaries, who are grouped with stenographers and typists, these are the Census classifications. At first sight they seem clear-cut and separate, but a study of the occupation reveals great confusion of terms and overlapping of duties. Clerks constitute almost one-half (47.3 per cent) of the total number in office service. The term clerk includes persons engaged in such widely diverse pur- suits as those of bank clerks, postal clerks, mail clerks, mail carriers, clerks in national, state, county or city offices and shipping clerks. Many of these occupations have not been opened to women yet, so the last Census showed that more than four-fifths (83 per cent) of the clerks in the United States were men. Many of these clerkships involve work of the most responsible nature and pay salaries commensurate to the work. The opportunities in this field differ widely, however, for men and for women. The more responsible and relatively well-paid positions in banks or as shipping clerks are practically monopolized by men. While the > United States Cenaus, 1910, Volume IV, Population, Occupation Staiiatica, page 94. CHARACTER OF OFFICE SERVICE. 75 women clerks, so-called, in national, state, county and city offices employed under Civil Service, may hold responsible and well-paid positions, those found in business offices are usually doing work requiring little or no technical training and less general education than in the other kinds of office work. They may be addressing envelopes, counting or checking sales or transfer sUps, recording all sorts of business transactions, or engaged in that indeterminate work called ''general office work." While the large proportion of clerks are men, more than one-j&fth (21.4 per cent) of the total number of women engaged in office service in the United States were in this occupation. These women clerks are the least skilled, least paid, and have the smallest amount of education of the women in office service. More than two-thirds (67.7 per cent) of the 675 clerks studied in business offices were not high school graduates.^ One- fourth of the clerks earned less than $8 and more than three-fourths (76 per cent) earned less than SI 2. About one-third (31.9 per cent) of the people in the United States who were working in offices in 1910 were reported as bookkeepers. Two- thirds of these were men and one-third women. Bookkeeping employed about one-third (32.7 per cent) of the total number of women in office service. A study of business offices shows that this per cent may be disproportionately large. A bookkeeper or accountant is a person with a high degree of training, capable of keeping a complete set of accounts. Division of labor has developed in office service as in all other occupations and especially is this evident in bookkeeping. Bookkeepers, in the strict sense, who keep a complete set of books are seldom found now in the large offices. In their place are many clerks who each do a small part of bookkeep- ing and are called ledger clerks, billing clerks, billing machine operators, pay roll clerks, cashiers and others according to the nature of the business of the employer. The results of the work of these many clerks are col- « See Chupter IV, page 128. 76 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. lected and combined by one bookkeeper, usually a man. For instance, in one of the large down-town stores, 131 women are employed in the bookkeeping department but no one could be called a bookkeeper, although five earned $18 or more a week. A man combines the results of the women's work and does the only real bookkeep- ing in the department. The returns from the study of 1,177 women in offices showed only 2.5 per cent bookkeepers and accountants according to the definition given above, in contrast to 32.7 per cent reported by the Census. On the other hand, 57.3 per cent were returned as clerks and copy- ists instead of 21.4 per cent reported by the Census.^ Since the United States Census of Occupations is gained by a house to house canvass, many may have reported themselves bookkeepers who were merely clerks working in a bookkeeping department, and may not necessarily have a complete knowledge of, nor do bookkeeping in the strict sense of the word. Since the differentiation is not definitely drawn, a combination of both book- keepers and clerks shows about the same proportion, both in the official Census and the local survey. The Census for 1910 reported 32.7 per cent of the women working in offices as bookkeepers, and 21.4 per cent as clerks, or about 54.1 per cent in both occupations. Accepting the definition of bookkeepers as given above, only 2.5 per cent of the 1,177 women canvassed were called bookkeepers and 57.3 per cent were classified as clerks, making a total of 59.8 per cent in both occupations. From an educational standpoint it is important to know just what proportion are actually "bookkeepers" and what part are doing merely clerical work. The old type of general bookkeeper, doing all processes, is rarely found now in any up-to-date offices except the small ones, where all accounts may be kept by one individual. This is of particular interest to educators who must • United States Census, 1910, Volume IV, Population, Occupation Statistics, page 94. CHARACTER OF OFFICE SERVICE. 77 realize that there will be but little opportunity for the girl to use the general bookkeeping as taught in the schools except in the small offices. This does not mean, however, that the courses in bookkeeping now given in the high schools should not be continued, as they doubtless provide in the most concrete and interesting way to the pupil the requisite background of mathe- matics and business procedure needed in any work in the bookkeeping department. A knowledge of the elements of bookkeeping may be a valuable asset to the stenographer. Many small offices, where accounts are simple, require only one person as stenographer and bookkeeper. Again and again, girls have said that if they had known something about bookkeeping, they might have doubled their salary. Instead their employ- ers, whose business had grown, have been forced to employ an additional girl to do the bookkeeping or else get someone who could do both. A knowledge of book- keeping may be a decided asset in advancing from a stenographic to an administrative position as well as in securing a new position. While men predominate among the clerks and book- keepers, stenography and typewriting employ 263,315, almost one-half (45.9 per cent) of the women in office service in the United States,^ and is distinctly woman's field. It is also one of the few occupations for women "which requires technical training in addition to a general education." - It is this technical requirement, the ability to write in shorthand or operate a typewriter, which distinguishes this class from the clerks and copy- ists. As a group, also, the stenographers show a higher degree of education and a greater earning capacity. Almost one-half (48.3 per cent) of the 439 stenographers and typists studied in the offices were high school graduates, while less than a third (29 per cent) of the 675 clerks had graduated from high schools. ^Yhi\e more than one-fourth (25.5 per cent) of the clerks earned ' United yuites Ceasus, 1910, Volume IV, Population, Occupation Statistics, pnge 94. » United SUates Census, 1900, Women at Work, page 102. 78 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. less than $8, only one-twentieth (5 per cent) of the stenographers and typists were in this low-paid group. ^ WTiile stenography and typewriting is almost exclu- sively a woman's occupation, less than one-fifth being men,^ many railroad offices, some government and occasional business offices demand or prefer men stenog- raphers, who may learn the business of the office and later be in line for promotion to more responsible places. Several offices visited in this investigation gave this reason for their preference for men as stenographers. The secretary's position is the goal toward which ambitious women stenographers strive. A well-known writer has said, ''The so-called secretary may address envelopes all day or she may dictate original letters to a score of clerks. She may do one thing exactly as she is told from Monday morning to Saturday night or she may organize, control, and initiate." ^ This is indeed a wide divergence in duties, but in reality the person who addresses envelopes all day or does exactly as she is told from Monday to Saturday is seldom, if ever, called a secretary in the business world. The boundary line between a private or head stenographer and a secretary is rather indistinct, but the "stenographer's position, requiring an intelligent knowledge of ste- nography, combined with accuracy and speed, seems to verge into the secretary's position when the stenographer has made herself valuable to her employer and has been intrusted with a great variety of duties, some per- sonal, some more responsible, requiring necessarily more initiative and use of executive powers.""* No one has been considered a secretary in this report unless her position were a responsible one, requiring initiative and executive ability, and it has been further limited to positions paying SI 2 or more, since a lower wage seldom indicates either of these qualities. A broad > See Chapter IV, pages 128-130 inclusive. ' United States Census, 1910, Volume IV, Population, Occupation Slaliatica, page 94. ' Department of Research, Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Vocation* for the Trained Woman, Part I, page 201. * Department of Research, Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Vocations for the Trained Woman, Part II, page 117. CHARACTER OF OFFICE SERVICE. 79 knowledge of the business of her employer, a high degree of ability and responsibility are the requisites of the real secretary. For this reason, a woman without a broad general education can seldom reach this respon- sible position. Since an intimate knowledge of her employer's business affairs is usually necessary to the secretary, few women deserve that title who have had less than one or two years of business experience. Three-fourths of the thirty-four secretaries studied in the offices were graduates of high schools, and more than four-fifths of these had taken additional training after high school, either in commercial schools or colleges. More than three-fourths had more than two years' experience and more than one-half had been in office work more than five years. This greater education and experience naturally commands a higher salary than is given to other positions in office service. More than four-fifths of the women reported as secretaries received S15 or over.^ While there are secretaries, stenographers, book- keepers and clerks, the line of demarcation is often very difficult to discover and some workers may perform the duties of all. Office service, like the women's clothing trade, has but recently been caught in the current of modern business organization and administration. The large and the small office made different demands on their workers. Division of labor and specialized workers characterize the large office. General workers who perform many or all the different kinds of office work are required in the small ofl^ce, but usually the work of the woman in a small office is, predominantly, of one kind or another. Bookkeeping, doubtless, will be the primary occupation of the office girl in a small manu- facturing establishment. The girl employed in a lawyer's office may be, primarily, a stenographer or a secretary. The necessity for equipping a number of girls with a > The direct influence of ndvanced education in commanding a higher salary in secre- torial work is shown in the report of Miss Margaret A. Post. Department of Research, Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Vocations for the Trained Woman Part II ' page 129. ' ' 80 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. knowledge of all these branches of office work is a prob- lem confronting the schools. Many trained in all these branches of office service may go into large offices where the work is highly specialized, and so have little Table 19. — Showing the Number of Stenographers and Typists placed by Four Typewriter Agencies in Boston during the Year, January, I9I2 to 1913. Types of EMPiiOTEKS. Stenooraphers Placed at Specified Wage. UNDER $12. Num- ber. Per Cent. $12 AND OVER. Num- ber. Per Cent. Total. Num- ber. Per Cent. Manufacturing Firms Mercantile Firms Selling and other Agencies Banks and Trust Companies Insurance Firms Real Estate Agents Brokers Printers and Publishers Lawyers , Doctors Public Stenographers Engineers and Architects Transportation and Public Service ... Civil Service Social and other Organizations Libraries and Educational Institutions Private Persons Miscellaneous Total 473 124 1,228 80 230 68 99 239 238 17 250 97 169 37 86 27 102 237 47.7 58.2 40.6 32.1 47.4 48.9 43.8 61.8 40.3 56.7 71.0 36.9 38.2 20.6 39.8 28.4 28.9 53.6 519 89 1.796 169 255 71 127 148 352 13 102 166 273 143 130 68 251 205 52.3 41.8 59.4 67.9 52.6 51.1 56.2 38.2 59.7 43.3 29.0 63.1 61.8 79.4 60.2 71.6 71.1 46.4 992 213 3,024 249 485 139 226 387 590 30 352 263 442 180 216 95 353 442 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 3,801 43.8 4,877 56.2 8,678 100.0 opportunity to use this general training. Yet, if girls of limited and inadequate general education avail them- selves of short intensive courses preparing for particular processes, they may find themselves handicapped and limited principally to the large offices with much routine. Their limited general and technical education will prove CHARACTER OF OFFICE SERVICE. 81 a serious handicap for the majority. Only a few unusually bright or energetic girls will be able to advance to good positions in spite of their inadequate prehminary preparation. As the occupation and the size of the office determine the character of the work, the financial possibilities, and the opportunities for advancement, so, also, may the business of the employer present particular diffi- culties or opportunities to the woman in office service. The many kinds of business employing women in offices may be illustrated by the calls for stenographers and typists alone, taken from the records of four typewriter companies for the year 1913, These agencies place a large number of girls each year, and are important clearing houses for employers and workers. Almost one-fourth (24.4 per cent) of the positions reported by the 439 stenographers and typists studied from offices were secured through this medium and 9,488 placements were made by five agencies during the year.^ The stenographers and typists placed by the type- writer agencies are limited to those who pass a test for accuracy and speed which eliminates the unskilled worker. On the other hand, few of the very highly trained women who command big salaries appear through this medium, for such women are seldom look- ing for positions through an agency. The group, then, represents the great middle class of well-trained stenogra- phers and typists who can pass the stenographic test of one hundred words a minute and show a general knowledge of office requirements. The wage indicated is the placement wage or amount which the employer gives the girl when she enters his service. It is natural to suppose that where the girl proves satisfactory and remains with her employer, her wage will be increased from time to time. Few of the placements made by the typewriter agencies were for a wage less than $8, but the division has been made at • Records of one iigoncy did not give the business of the stenoKropher'a amployer. Tha table is baaed on the records of four agencies. 82 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. SI 2 as this amount may be taken, if not a minimum living wage for a stenographer, as more nearly adequate for the demands of the position. Selling and allied agencies of wholesale houses, branch offices of firms, such as great flour companies, patented foods and drug companies and all selling concerns other than retail shops and stores, took more than one-third (34.8 per cent) of the number placed by the typewriter companies during the year. These large selling offices are located in the down-town district where the office rooms are usually attractive and comfortable. They demand and pay for a good grade of work. More than one-half (59.4 per cent) of the stenographers sent to these offices were placed at $12 or more. These agencies are so varied in character that few generalizations. can be made as to the opportunities they ofTer for advance- ment and development. Some of them are small offices where one girl may do all the clerical, stenographic and bookkeeping work. Her opportunities for advance- ment rest, to a great degree, upon the advancement and growth of the business in which she is employed. Other selling agencies employ many hundreds of women in the offices and offer opportunity primarily for special- ized work of many kinds, but include some positions of trust and responsibility. Each department may be presided over by a ''head stenographer" or "head bookkeeper" and there may be one or more "private secretaries" to the managers of different departments. The retail mercantile establishments make com- paratively small demands upon the typewriter agencies for their office workers for several reasons. Most large department stores maintain their own employment bureaus. For that reason the calls upon the type- writer agencies must be for specialized workers not available through their own agencies or they are from smaller shops and stores which do not maintain employ- ment bureaus. While department stores have a large office force, comparatively few of them are stenogra- phers and typists. For instance, in a large store with CHARACTER OF OFFICE SERVICE. 83 an office force of 326 women, less than 8 per cent are stenographers or typists. The remaining 92 per cent are mostly clerks and copyists who have little technical training and do not often pass through the typewTiter bureaus. The office work in retail stores is usually of a more or less routine character and opportunity to advance out of purely office positions is very limited. Advancement of women to administrative positions in stores is more often made from the sales than from the clerical force. More than one-half (58.2 per cent) of the stenographers and typists sent to retail estabUsh- ments were placed at less than $12. The wage scale for the office force, as a whole, in the department stores is low. In the store previously mentioned, only 15.9 per cent of the 326 women in the office received $12 or more. More discouraging still were the wages quoted for 6,296 women in the offices of department stores in several large cities where only 6.6 per cent earned $12 or more.^ Offices of factories received 11.4 per cent of the stenographers and typists placed through the type- writer agencies, less than half the number placed in selling agencies. Office conditions in factories may be exceptionally good in the new well-built factories or may be exceedingly poor in others. The factories are often located in the outskirts of the city or in the suburbs, although clothing factories are usually up in high buildings in the center of the city. The office girl in many of the clothing factories frequently must be a bookkeeper, keeping the accounts of receipts, expendi- tures, sales and shipments, making up the weekly pay roll for fifty or one hundred employees, and inclosing the money in the pay envelopes each Satur- day. Moreover, she must be a stenographer to take her employer's dictation and a typist to typewrite his business correspondence. In other words, she must be an "all-round" or general worker. Such a woman > United States Bureau of Labor, }Vomen and Child Wage Earners in the United Statea, Volume V. Waoe-eaming Women in Stores and Factories, page 45. 84 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. usually earns from $12 to $15 a week. On the other hand, the office force of a big shoe factory may be divided into many departments with highly specialized workers. The bookkeeping department is likely to be in charge of a man with many subordinate clerks whose work involves little technical knowledge. The cor- respondence department may have a "head stenogra- pher" and many stenographers and typists of medium capacity. The wage paid the stenographers and typists in factories, as indicated by the returns from the type- writer agencies, is fairly good, 52.3 per cent being placed at $12 or more. Other clerical departments, concerned primarily with the sales, shipments and orders of the product made by the factory, utilize many young girls with little education, for much of the w^ork involves little more equipment than ability to count, copy or record figures. The large number of poorly paid clerks and copyists who record purchases, sales and ship- ments in some of the large factories do not appear through the typewriter agencies which deal only with skilled workers. Opportunity for decided advancement in factory offices is very doubtful for the woman. She may, as in the case of the selling agencies, become the head stenographer, or private secretary to a member of the firm, but there has been little opportunity for administrative or executive work such as is open to a man, who may become a member of the firm or board of managers. Banks and trust companies demanding the greatest accuracy pay good salaries, more than two-thirds of those sent from the typewriter agencies being placed at $12 or more. The office surroundings in these places are usually excellent. The hours of work are often exceptionally short. There seems, however, to have been little opportunit}'' for the woman in a bank to advance out of the purely clerical work.^ Physicians do not, as a rule, require the services of a ' Department of Research, Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Vocations fur the Trained Woman, Part II, page 120. CHARACTER OF OFFICE SERVICE. 85 skilled stenographer as the duties consist largely of answering the telephone, making appointments, sending out the bills, and other general office work of that kind. Very few, therefore, are sent from the typewriter agencies and more than one-half these were placed at less than SI 2. There are, however, positions in this field demanding ability and special training, such as reporting medical lectures, conferences, and doing amanuensis work in medical journals, treatises and books. Such positions are comparatively rare and call for special competency in handUng medical terms. The salaries paid by lawyers are relatively good, almost three-fifths (59.7 per cent) of the women sent from the typewriter agencies being placed at $12 and above. The work in a lawyer's office is interesting because of its variety, although it is often taxing and may often involve overtime. It deals with an immense variety of matter, which preserves it from monotony and makes the intelligent performance of it an education in itself. With a progressive lawyer, the opportunities for the stenographer to assume responsibilities and to become a private or administrative secretary seem very good. The position of official court reporter, paying $1,500 to $2,500 a year, also may be the result of training in a lawyer's office,^ but the demand for women from the standpoint of numbers is small and the work very taxing and arduous, involving absolute accuracy and great speed. Real estate offices do not draw a large number of the stenographers placed by the typewriter agencies. More than half of those placed, however, received 812 or more. The girl, in some instances, has a good opportunity to become of great value to her employer and occasionally to grow into the business. In the small office, where the agent is away often, the stenographer is left to meet people coming into the office. It is very natural that she may be able to make small transactions in renting ' For full disouasion see Department of Research, Women'a Educational and Industrial Union, Vocations for the Trained Woman, Part H, page 122. 86 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. houses or apartments or in interesting a prospective purchaser in property. Two j^oung stenographers in real estate offices said that they supplemented their salaries by small commissions in renting property and collecting rents from buildings. Occasionally a young woman in a real estate office works up an independent business of her own. Miss Martin found that 4 of 22 women carrying on real estate business in Boston had begun as office workers in real estate firms. ^ Occasionally an ambitious girl in an insurance office may have opportunity to act as an agent. One young woman in charge of a branch office of an insurance company in Boston began as a stenographer in the main office. But in many of the large insurance offices employing hundreds of women, the work is highly sub- divided and the worker has little opportunity to take any more responsibility than that of the special clerical task assigned her. Social agencies, libraries and educational institutions offer congenial surroundings and the absence of the rush and strain of business offices. Large institutions occa- sionally offer opportunity to the stenographer to become a recorder, registrar, secretary of a department or to take up some other line of work with which she comes in contact, and usually provide a greater variety of work than in the ordinary business office. The work of these offices, however, usually requires a comparatively high educational background.^ The assistants of the public stenographers are usually very poorly paid, but they are often young girls with no previous experience, who occasionally spend some time with a public stenographer, regarding this experi- ence as an apprenticeship in the occupation, for the immense variety of the work in these offices is good training. Many of the places involve typing only, with no use of stenography, and these positions may be •For full discussion see Department of Research, Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Vocations for the Trained Woman, Part II, pages 124 et aeg. and 159. CHARACTER OF OFFICE SERVICE. 87 filled with less skilled workers at lower wage. Almost three-fourths (71 per cent) of those sent through the typewriter agencies were placed at less than SI 2, and two-thirds did not exceed $9. Civil Service provides its own list of eligibles, who are sifted by the Civil Service examinations, though some temporary workers pass through the typewriter agencies. The stenographers and typists constitut- ing 37.8 per cent of the total force are well paid, less than one-fourth (24.1 per cent) earning less than $12 and more than two-fifths (41.7 per cent) earning $15 or more. Clerks constitute the larger proportion, 58.2 per cent of the 495 women in office service under Civil Service regulations in Massachusetts. The admin- istrative and executive office workers called ''clerks," who have more the character of secretaries, are char- acteristic of Civil Service. More than one-half (53.8 per cent) of the 288 clerks employed in Civil Service in Massachusetts earned $15 or more. While the type of business in which the office worker is employed may in a large measure restrict or promote the opportunity to advance, the personal attitude and business policy of the employer also plaj's an important part. Some large offices are so regulated that advance- ment in salary is based on length of service only, and the work is so subdivided into specific tasks that each girl has little or no opportunity to advance in position. One large corporation in Boston, employing several hundred women in office service, has a regulated wage scale for each occupation. All women working as clerks receive an initial wage of $G from which they advance $1 a year until they reach a maximum of $10, at which salary they may work indefinitely. Typists are em- ployed at a beginning wage of $8 and may in five years be earning $12, beyond which there is no advancement. Stenographers beginning at $10 reach their maximum at $15. Some women much prefer to work under a system of this kind, whore the members of the office force are not in competition with each other for advancement. 88 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. While the work involves much routine and calls for little personal initiative, the advancement, though slow and limited, is sure and known in advance. Another office, however, which also employed a large number of women, encouraged individual initiative. The head of each department was constantly on the alert to discover special ability in any of the workers, to meet it with an advance in salary, and to put the worker in a position where her special abilities would be of most service to the firm. Promotion, here, was on merit entirely, so each worker was stimulated to her greatest capacity for achievement. Because office work is merely auxiliary, there is little uniformity in the policy of its administra- tion. Shoe manufacturers or cotton manufacturers with common problems and interests may form associa- tions and try to work out uniform methods of production, but the office workers' employers range from the college president to the small suburban grocer. Occasionall}^, an employer prefers that his office assistants do absolutely routine work, assuming no responsibility and putting little or no initiative or originality into their work. He prefers that a letter should be typed as it is dictated, even though it contains a slip in grammar, than that his stenographer should change his wording. With an employer of this kind, an office worker's advancement out of purely routine work is almost impossible, nor does her employer desire anything more than mere technical skill. Other employers wish intelligent young women with good judgment and initiative, so they can suggest quickly and briefly the main points they wish covered in a letter or a report. The stenographer or secretary is expected to phrase it diplomatically, courteously, or forcefully as the case may demand. Such a worker must have not only technical skill but good judgment, tact and a knowledge of business relations. The great variation in the kinds of business in which office workers are employed and in the demands of each individual employer makes the occupation of office CHARACTER OF OFFICE SERVICE. 89 service a peculiarly difficult one for which to train pro- spective workers. For instance, a stenographer who has worked in the office of a wholesale manufacturer, finds that her new employer, who may be a doctor or a lawyer, uses an entirely new vocabulary. The school can pro- vide technical training in a comparatively short time but the general intelligence necessary for an easy adjust- ment to the offices of manufacturers, distributors and the professional men is the result of a comparatively broad education. The broader her background of general education, therefore, the more easily the woman adjusts herself to the special needs of a particular office, which is clearly reflected in her earning capacity.^ While conditions in particular offices may or may not provide favorable opportunities for advancement, the girl's mental equipment and her own personality are the real determining factors in her success or failure. General intelligence and education are fundamental requisites. She must at least be able to spell, write, punctuate and use good grammar, even if she is only a clerical worker. She must, in addition, have some technical training if she is a stenographer or typist. She must be accurate and quick with figures if she is a bookkeeper, auditor or accountant and finally she needs an adequate general education underlying all technical equipment, if she advances to a position of responsibility. Mental ability and technical skill are, however, by no means the only requisite for the woman in office service. An employer invariably demands that the woman in his office shall have "personality," though he is seldom able to give a tangible definition of this elusive quality. The term is used in a broad sense to cover personal appearance, proper attitude toward the work of the office and fellow-workers and appreciation of and capacity for responsibilty, — qualities which are requisite for business success. Personal appearance is the first test. The first impression created as the girl enters an office to apply for a position often determines » See Chapter IV, Wages, page 130. 90 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. the result of the interview. But obvious as may be the disastrous effect of elaborate and inappropriate dress on the mind of the employer, he rarely, if ever, mentions the real reason for his not hiring this applicant. He may say that he will let her know later, and then tele- phone to the typewriter placement agent who may have sent this girl, that she was quite impossible on account of her style of dress. These typewriter placement agents are merely a medium of exchange between the applicant and the employer and they, like the employers, avoid the suggestions and criticisms which the girl should appreciate but almost invariably resents. These agents feel that it is the place of the school, and not of the agency, to instruct a girl as to her personal appearance. Indeed, the most tactful suggestion as to improvement in dress or habits is usually followed by the girl's announce- ment that she is going henceforth to another agency. One employer has summarized an efficient stenographer as one with adequate technical training, a knowledge of appropriate business dress and a serious appreciation of the confidential character of her work.^ While few employers define so positively the characteristics they require of their office workers, the complaints of the deficiencies of the women who have either applied to them or previously worked for them seem to corroborate this definition of requisites. The employers' most frequent complaint is that the girl has not a business-like attitude toward her work. She takes little interest in the business of the firm and performs the tasks assigned her in a routine way, with little grasp of its relation to the business. She is very apt to feel that her associates must not only be co- operative fellow workers, but intimate friends, and objects to working with women of different nationality or radically different religion. There may be several reasons for the girl's lack of a business-like attitude toward her work. Unlike the man entering an office, ' Flynn, Edward F., The Stenographer in Stone and Webster's Public Service Journal, April, 1914. CHARACTER OF OFFICE SERVICE. 91 she has httle opportunity to work up into the business and so is less interested in it. As a rule, she does not plan on a definite business career, as does the man, and so lacks this stimulus to interest in the work. Since the business world is a relatively new field of work for women, it is perhaps not strange that they have carried into it much of the easy, social routine spirit in which their mothers and grandmothers conducted their house- work. An appreciation of the confidential character of her position is probably one of the most important requisites, yet it is most difficult to impress this upon the young girl. Information concerning her employer's most confidential business affairs may pass through her hands in corre- spondence. It is difficult for her to reaUze that this information is not hers to remember nor to repeat and that a violation of this confidence is often fatal to her business success. For instance, one girl was proud of the fact that her employer was on intimate terms with a prominent financial and political leader, and while at lunch with her friend mentioned the fact that she took a letter for him which was all about the railroad situa- tion. This was overheard, reported to her employer, and the girl lost her position. The requirement of proper business dress is not easily met by the young girl in the office for two reasons: first, because she may have no means of knowing what is suitable, and second, because the simple and neat style of dress is more difficult to achieve on a limited income than a cheaply elaborate style. The majority of girls realize the importance of a good appearance, but many, having no opportunity to acquire right standards, resort to showy clothes, which hinder instead of aid them in securing the coveted position. A vital interest in the business in which she is engaged, discretion in speaking of it outside the office, appropriate business dress, and tact and graciousness of manner in dealing with her business associates, maybe taken as some of the prime factors in the girl's ''business personahty." 92 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. Training in this business personality is, in many- instances, an asset which the home is unable to give the girl, especially the girl who needs it most. Less than one-third of the girls in office work studied from the day high schools came from the families of business or pro- fessional men.^ This means that in many instances the girl has little idea of the social demands of the business w^orld when she starts to work. Yet these very requisites are most important in her gaining and keeping a position. If the school attempts to prepare the girl for her work, training in business ethics and relations must be developed as a part of the com- mercial course. The introduction of labor and time saving machinery is revolutionizing office work. Work in offices, as in the industrial field, is becoming more subdivided and standardized. Here, as in industry, it is inevitable that after a process has become simple, detached from the composite whole and given to specialized labor, it is sooner or later taken over by machinery. The intro- duction of machinery into office work has necessitated continual readjustment in the number, the technical requisites and the personnel of the office force. The typewriter, the first important machine for doing office work, was introduced in the seventies, at the beginning of an era of great business activity. Although this machine was a labor-saving device, the number in office service increased with tremendous strides during the next few decades,^ because of increase in business demands. It has, however, changed the personnel of the office force by calling for a large number of operators with special training and skill, and this demand has been largely filled by women, who constituted more than four-fifths of the stenographers and typists employed in the United States in 1910. The typewriter has come into such general use that there is hardly an office, no matter how small, without one, while there are many hundreds used in the large offices. The typewriter is > See Chapter V, Table 40. page 103. * See Chapter I, page 1. CHARACTER OF OFFICE SERVICE. 93 the one machine in office service which may be said to be in universal use. Moreover, it is used by many private individuals for their correspondence. Comptometers, adding and billing machines are more recent innovations, which have not yet come into such universal use because they meet the demands of a more specialized kind of work. They have taken over much of the specialized parts of bookkeeping, making it possible for clerks with comparatively little general background and even little technical education to accomplish in less time processes that formerly were done by highly trained bookkeepers. These machines are thus having much the effect of machines introduced into industry — they relieve the skilled, intelligent worker from much of the monotonous routine work but also call into service a number of machine operators of limited ability. These machines provide opportunity for young women of limited education and ability to earn a fairly good wage and to work under good condi- tions. The manipulation of the machines can be learned quickly and easily, and the chief requisite of the operator is speed. Some of the more progressive typewriter manufac- turers are combining an adding or a billing attachment with the typewriter which not only has the advantage of combining several processes, but involves less physical strain on the operator because of the better mechanical arrangement of the parts of the machine. Machines for doing even more simple processes, such as addresso- graphs, devices for counting, sealing and stamping or opening envelopes have been introduced in some of the large offices and reduced the number of people necessary to do this primarily manual work. The stenotype, which is designed to replace shorthand done by hand, has recently been put upon tlie market. In appearance it resembles a typewriter, though much smaller and with fewer lettered keys. Letters are used instead of the ordinary stenographic symbols and the keys are so arranged that a whole word may be written 94 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. at one stroke. The operator takes dictation directly on the machine and later transcribes her notes upon the typewriter. The advantages of the machine are the greater speed, the simpUcity, accuracy and legibility of the notes, the shorter time involved in learning to operate it and also the ease with which all stenographers may read one another's notes. Although the steno- type does away with the necessity of a knowledge of shorthand writing, the operator must acquire the technical skill of the new process called stenotypy. At present, however, the stenotype is sold only to individual operators and its expense prohibits a wide sale among young girls just starting out. One public high school is testing its possibilities by training girls in its use, but it is hard to predict the future effect on the training for office service. Few public commercial schools have adopted the stenotype yet, but several small private schools are devoted to this particular kind of technical training. Another machine, the dictaphone, which has been recently introduced and is more widely used, also eliminates the necessity of stenography. It involves the same principle as in the graphophone. The dictator speaks into the machine and his words are registered on plates resembling hollow cylinders. The employer can, therefore, dictate his letters at any time and under any conditions he may choose and turn over the records to his office force later. The record can be eradicated and the plate used again, which is an important con- sideration from the standpoint of expense. The opera- tion of this machine requires little technical ability. An intelligent girl may learn, in a few minutes, the mechan- ism of the machine. Transmitters are held to her ears and she types the words she hears in the dictaphone as if she were taking her employer's personal dictation directly on the typewriter. The speed of the dictation may be regulated by a simple device and any portion may be repeated. An erroneous conclusion has some- times been drawn that with the use of the dictaphone CHARACTER OF OFFICE SERVICE. 95 less skilled workers may be utilized. Emploj-ers, who have used the machine, however, say that while special technical skill in shorthand wTiting is unnecessary, the operator of the dictaphone may have need of greater general intelligence than the stenographer. Since the operator of the machine is not present when the letters are dictated, she has no opportunity to ask any ques- tions about the material and must often use her own judgment in questions which arise concerning it. She must also be able to punctuate and to paragraph her copy, as she types with no previous knowledge of the general structure of the sentence which is coming. The ultimate effect of the stenotype and the dicta- phone cannot yet be foretold. A general use of either or both of them would render the technical ability to write in shorthand obsolete for practical purposes, but as yet, they are not in common enough use to affect the demand for stenographers to any perceptible extent. The question of expense also will affect their universal introduction into the small offices for some time to come. Just as the introduction of machinery into industrial work caused distress among the laborers until they had become adjusted to the new conditions and redistrib- uted to meet new demands, so the introduction of office machinery works hardship in some individual cases. Office machinery has taken over many processes once done by individual hand and brain and has rendered useless much patiently acquired technical ability. The girl who goes into the business world, armed only with some technical skill, may at any time be thrown out of her position by some machine which can do her work better and faster than she. There are, however, no machines to take the place of the well-developed human brain. As machinery progressively takes over technical and mechanical processes, the office workers nmst be prepared to assume new and more responsible duties. The ability to progress ahead of machinery rather than to be displaced by it can come only by a broad develop- ment of the intellect through a general education. 96 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. Women in office service, as those in other occupations, find their positions in various haphazard ways, wasteful to both employer and employee. Friends and relatives play an important part in acquainting the girl with vacancies and in securing positions for her. More than one-third (39.3 per cent) of a total of 1,419 positions reported on were secured through this personal relationship. This personal Table 20, — Showing Means of Securing Work in Office Service. Office Workers in Each Occupation Securing Work by Means Specified. Total. Means of Securinq Work. STENOGRAPHERS AND TYPISTS. BOOK- KEEPERS. clerks. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Relative or Friend 297 104 215 12 24 42 45 141 33.8 11.8 24.4 1.4 2.7 4.8 5,1 16.0 69 14 3 4 14 12 1 8 55.2 11.2 2.4 3.2 11.2 9.6 0.8 6.4 191 60 11 6 69 30 34 13 46.1 14.5 2,7 1.4 16.7 7.3 8.2 3.1 557 178 229 22 107 84 80 162 39.3 12.5 Typewriter Agency State or Social Agency .... Application 16.1 1.6 7.5 5.9 5.6 School 11.5 Total 880 100.0 125 100.0 414 100.0 1.419 100 method of securing employment, therefore, predominates in this more skilled occupation as in industrial work,^ and must, in the majority of cases, mean a choice of position with little consideration of the individual's suitability for the place or of the opportunity which the position affords for personal development and pro- motion. The girl who lives next door may work in the office of a candy factory and hear that one of the stenographers is to be married. She immediately informs her neighbor of the opening and suggests her name to her ' See Van Kleeck, Mary, Women in the Bookbinding Trade, page 125, " Friends and Relatives, 44 per cent"; also Allinson, May, Dressmaking as a Trade for Women, "Friends and Relatives, 33.5 i>er cent." CHARACTER OF OFFICE SERVICE. 97 employer. This new applicant may come from a family of some culture and education and thus have a back- ground which would make her a valuable worker in an educational or professional office. Yet her personal background finds httle opportunity for expression in her new found position. Some employers, also, prefer to secure new workers through those already employed in the office, feeling that the new worker is thus vouched for by one he already knows. Applications and answers to advertisements play a less important part in ofiice service than in the industries. "Applied" or "ads" are, however, a very precarious method of securing employment, particularly for the young girl, yet one-seventh of the positions reported upon by the girls secured through the schools were obtained by this means. More than one-eighth (13.4 per cent) of the total number of positions reported by all workers were secured by this means. The stenog- raphers and typists resort to "ads" or "apphcations" less than the clerks. Almost one-fourth (24 per cent) of the 414 positions reported by clerks, while but 7.5 per cent of the 880 positions reported by stenographers, were secured through this means. Not only from the standpoint of economic adjustment is this means of securing employment to be regretted, but it also exposes the girls to most undesirable influences and sometimes even dangerous situations from fraudulent advertise- ments. The clerks, who are the least skilled workers in office service, are, therefore, not only handicapped by inade- quate education, decreased opportunities for a good wage and position, but, also, by fewer organized means of securing employment. Almost one-half (46. 1 per cent) of the 414 positions reported by the clerks were obtained through relatives and friends, 16.7 per cent through applying at offices for a position and 7.3 per cent through answering "ads." In other words, almost three-fourths (70.1 per cent) of these positions were secured through absolutely haphazard and unorganized 98 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. methods. Almost 15 per cent were secured through the paid agency where the fee causes an important reduction of the comparatively small weekly wage. The stenographers and typists have two means of getting into touch with demand not open to the less skilled workers, the typewriter agencies and the agencies maintained by the technical school in which so many were trained. Five of the largest typewriter companies in Boston maintain placement bureaus for stenographers and typists in connection with their sales offices. Other smaller companies occasionally supply owners of their machines with operators but maintain no established agency. No fees are charged, and as the companies are in close touch with the business demands, the stenographer and typist naturally reports to these agencies when seeking work. One-fourth (24.4 per cent) of the positions reported by stenographers and typists were secured through typewriter agencies. For business reasons, these agencies must supply employers with competent operators, so they require a test for accuracy and speed of 100 words of stenographic notes a minute before registering an applicant. The placement agent is a woman of mature judgment and business experience, who interviews the girls, gives the examination and registers for positions those who have satisfactorily passed the test. Each company maintains a room with several typewriters, on which any girl may practice in order that she may acquire or keep up her speed in typing, while waiting for a position. While these agencies are maintained primarily to promote the sales of the machines of the company, they perform a very much needed social service and in some cases in a most efficient manner. One agency is particularly careful of the places to which applicants are directed for positions. If a girl is placed with an employer whose reputation is not known to the agent, a salesman is sent with her when she goes to take the position or shortly afterward, ostensibly to look over the machine but in reality to investigate the character of the office. If an unpleasant CHARACTER OF OFFICE SERVICE. 99 situation arises and the girl wishes to leave a place a salesman is sent with her, if she desires, to get her belongings. Other agents with less co-operation from the management must rely on sending older or more mature girls to offices whose reputation is unknown or doubtful. Some few stenographers and typists say they think that a paid agency takes more active interest in securing positions for them because that is the primary interest of the office. Those who cannot pass the test of the typewriter agencies also must often resort to this means. One-eighth of the total number of positions in office service was secured in this way, which seems to be a more important aid for the clerks than for the more skilled workers. These agencies are maintained for profit, and charge a fee of one full week's salary for a permanent position (i. e. one lasting six weeks or more) and one- sixth of each week's salary for a position lasting less than six weeks. The state maintains a free employment agency which last year registered 527 office workers. Since office service is only one of the many occupations in which the State Bureau places workers, little seems to have been done in investigation of the offices to which the girls are sent or in careful adjustment of the applicant to the position. Although more than a tenth of the total number of workers were placed through the schools in which they were trained, only a neghgible number of these were placed by public high schools. The private commercial schools and colleges have long realized the advertising value of placing their graduates in good positions, so they usually have their own agencies for the placement of graduates. Sixteen per cent of the positions reported by stenographers and typists were secured through their training school. Some of these schools have been established for a great many years and have a wide acquaintance among business houses. ]Man\' of their graduates have grown into positions of trust as managers 100 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. of offices or members of firms and they naturally send back to their schools for their office assistants. Because of this wide acquaintance, these schools are able to place their graduates advantageously in offices whose reputa- tion is known to them. The pupils of the public high schools have not this advantage in securing positions. Only three of the 589 positions reported by 310 girls studied from the schools had been secured through the schools. A beginning has been made by at least two Boston schools toward systematically placing and keeping a record of their graduates. Individual teachers in other schools sometimes try to secure positions for their students because of their own personal interest in them. The Boston Placement Bureau, jointly maintained by the School Committee and the Women's Municipal League, which is devoted to securing positions for the public school children, deals mainly with the grammar school child and places comparatively few in office service. With little supervision or guidance, therefore, 14.2 per cent of the positions reported by the 310 girls from the schools w^ere secured by answering advertisements or applying at offices. Ten per cent were secured through employment bureaus and the same proportion through typewriter agencies. Almost one-half (42.6 per cent), however, were obtained through the influence of rela- tives or friends. It is much to be regretted that the young school girl has to resort to these unregulated methods of obtaining a position. Answering advertise- ments and applying at offices for positions are pre- carious means for any woman to find work, but they are especially unfortunate for the young girl fresh from the class room. These methods are, however, more frequently employed by the young girl than by the older woman whose longer business experience has opened other opportunities to her. The school, which has trained the girl, has more knowledge of her special needs and capacity than any one else. It should have more interest in placing CHARACTER OF OFFICE SERVICE. 101 her in a position where her training will be of most use to her and to the community. The new problem and responsibility of the school is to become equally well acquainted with the employer and the office and its needs and demands. While the task of plac- ing advantageously the thousands of girls who gradu- ate each year from public commercial high schools would be tremendous, the assumption of this respon- sibility by the schools would have many desirable results which would benefit all concerned. First, it would necessitate an intimate acquaintance with the child and its personal background. Such an acquaint- ance might well result in careful sifting and direction of the prospective workers in accordance with their particular abilities. Second, the school must become much more intimately acquainted with the business office, its methods and demands and with individual employers. Third, such an intimate acquaintance with both pupil and employer must react on the cur- riculum and methods used in the school and tend to make the commercial training vocational in its true sense. The instability of the worker which is such a serious problem in industry is much less characteristic of office service.^ Almost three-fourths (73.2 per cent) of the 310 girls studied from the schools had held no more than two positions, although more than two-fifths of these girls had a working experience of two to five years. A similar stability was found in 222 stenographers and typists studied in the offices, for almost two-thirds (61.2 per cent) of these had not held more than two positions, although more than two-thirds of the total number (69.1 per cent) had worked more than two years. Shifting from one position to another in the industries is usually largely ascribed to industrial or trade con- ditions. Almost three-fourths (72.5 per cent) of the reasons for leaving positions given by workers in the > Department of Research, Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Allinson, May, Dr«t»making as a Trade for Women, Chapter IV. 102 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. bookbinding trade were unsatisfactory trade conditions,^ and in the more skilled trade of dressmaking about two-thirds of the reasons for leaving places were ascribed to this cause." In office service, change of position is less often due to unsatisfactory conditions of work than in industry. A little more than one-half (57.2 per cent) of the 821 reasons given by workers in offices, and about the same proportion (51.5 per cent) of the 710 reasons given by applicants to the State Free Employment Bureau, were ascribed to this cause. ^ Office workers are unique in the large proportion, who change positions for advancement. More than one- fourth of the reasons for change of positions given by women in this occupation were for obtaining a better position. This is significant of the better opportunity for advancement in this vocation than in the trades, where in bookbinding, one-eighth, and in dressmaking, less than one-tenth, changed position for advancement. Temporary work is a very important factor for con- sideration in this occupation, one-fifth (21.9 per cent) of the reasons given for leaving being that the positions were only temporary. The accompanying chart shows the very large number of temporary places in stenography and typewriting filled by four typewriter agencies during the year. There are several causes for this large number of temporary places. Practically all industry and business have periods of rush and periods of slack work. Office workers, although in a less degree than industrial workers, feel the effect of this, for it is the temporary worker who bears the brunt of seasonal rush and demand. The regular force in office service does not fluctuate as in industry. Many offices employ extra assistants for their periods of rush work, with the understanding that the position is only temporary. The almost universal custom of giving stenographers one to two weeks' vaca- ' Van Kleeck, Mary, Women in the Bookbinding Trade, paRO 112. ' Department of Research, Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Aliinson, May, Dressmakino as a Trade for VVoTnen, Chapter IV. ' Trade conditions. — Temporary position, dissatisfied with working conditions, firm failed, slack work. CHARACTER OF OFFICE SERVICE. 103 104 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. tion also calls for a large number of temporary or sub- stitute workers during the summer months. July and August, the months for vacations, show an unduly large number of temporary positions filled by the typewriter agencies. One-fourth of 8,G78 positions reported by the four typewriter agencies during the past year were filled in July and August. Table 21. — Showing Reasons for Leaving Positions. > Office Workers from Each Source Giving Specified Reason. Reasons for Leaving. SCHOOL. OFFICES. FREE EMPLOYMENT BUREAU. Total, Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Advancement 94 94 43 4.5 6 11 3 4 17 3 29.4 29.4 13.4 14.1 1.9 3.4 0.9 1.3 5.3 0.9 112 81 76 88 32 4 18 38 34 22.4 16.2 15.2 17.6 3.6 6.4 0.7 3.6 7.5 6.8 207 161 38 96 26 70 6 45 49 12 29.2 22.7 5.4 13.5 3.7 9.9 0.8 0.3 6.9 1.6 413 336 : 157 229 50 113 13 67 104 49 26.9 Temporary position Dissatisfied with working conditions.' Firm failed, moved, changed offices, etc. To go to school, not enough education, change of occu- pation. Slack work 21.9 10.3 15.0 3.3 7.4 0.8 Moved or too far to work.. . . 4.4 6.8 3.2 Total 320 100.0 501 1 100.0 710 100.0 1,531 100.0 ■ From reports of girls visited from the schools and in the offices and from the records of the Free Employment Agency. ' Long hours, low paj-, "didn't like." The very large number of temporary positions filled by the typewriter companies cannot, however, be accounted for by these reasons. More than three-fourths (78.1 per cent) of the 8,G78 positions were recorded as temporary. In comparison with statistics secured from the girls at work in offices, this proportion seems unduly large. The large number of temporary places reported CHARACTER OF OFFICE SERVICE. 105 may be partially accounted for by the fact that many employers take in new workers on a temporary basis, sifting out the efficient workers for permanent positions. Often a girl may start in her position as a temporary worker and then be kept permanently. It is impossible to judge what proportion of these "temporary" places reported by the typewriter companies becomes perma- nent or how many of the positions left because they were ''only temporary" were really left because the employer had tried the girl out on a temporary basis and found her unsatisfactory for a permanent position. The hours of employment and the conditions of work are factors of prime importance in determining the desirability of any occupation as a vocation for women. In Massachusetts, woman's work in nearly all pursuits is limited to fifty-four hours a week. A recent opinion of the Attorney-General of the Commonwealth exempts women tw^enty-one years of age or more employed as bookkeepers, stenographers or in clerical positions from this limitation. In spite of this lack of restriction, a study of the occupation reveals a prevaihng shorter working day than is found in many other occupations for women. In many industries the working day is ten hours long and the working hours of the week are seldom less than the legal limit. Saleswomen average during the year from forty-seven and two-thirds to fifty- three and one-third hours a week.^ More than nine-tenths (93.5 per cent) of the 834 women in office service who reported on the length of their w^orking week were employed less than fifty hours, four hours less than the legal limit. More than half (53.8 per cent) worked less than forty-five hours, ten hours less than the maximum prescribed by law, which means, in the majority of instances, a seven or seven and one-half hour day with a short Saturday. The several occupations in office service show an interesting divergence in the length of the working week. Clerks, who are commonly the least skilled and ' Massachusetts Commission on Minimum Wage Boards, Report of, 1912, page 93. 106 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. less well-paid, show the largest proportions (64.4 per cent), working forty-five hours a week or more, not because the clerks are kept working longer than the stenographers in any particular office, but because large numbers of clerks are employed in establishments which have a long working day, such as retail stores and factories. Stenographers averaged a shorter working week, almost one-half (44 per cent) working less than forty hours a week, which meant a seven hour day with a short Saturday. A little more than one-fifth (22.5 per cent) Table 22. — Showing Weekly Hours of Work in Office Service. Office Workers Employed Specified Hours. Weekly Hours. CLERKS. STENOG- RAPHERS. BOOK- KEEPERS. SECRE- TARIES. Total. B a O Pi Tht Survey, January 2J, 1914, page 490. • Boota and alioos, straw Lata and silk. • Mnssnchuautta Bureau of Statistics, Report on Statistics of Manufactures, 1912 pase 87. • Masaachuaetts Commission on Minimum Wage Boards, Report of, 1912, page 113. 114 \YOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. women in offices in Boston showed that office service ranked very high, with only 16.5 per cent earning less than S8, and an average wage of $11 for the entire group. Only one-twentieth (5 per cent) of the 439 stenographers earned less than $8, and the average wage for the occupation was $11.93. The clerks who are the least skilled of the office workers earned an average wage of $9.66 and one-fourth (25.5 per cent) earned less than S8. The 310 girls studied from the schools, therefore, compared favorably with those at work in business offices, since only 18 per cent earned less than $8. A study of the efficiency of the girls trained for office service in the schools necessitated an intensive and extensive knowledge of the wage scale of the occupa- tion. What should be the beginning wage of the girls graduating from high school? What should they be earning after a certain length of experience? What are the best kinds of offices into which to direct a young girl from the standpoint of earning possibilities and opportunities for advancement? With such questions in mind, wage statistics have been gathered from all available sources and presented for consideration. Only three printed sources were found: the govern- ment study- of wage-earning women in stores and factories,^ the annual report of the salaries of the Civil Service Commission,- and an intensive study of the opportunities for secretaries based on those registered in the Appointment Bureau of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union and those graduating from Sim- mons College.^ In addition to this printed data, statistics have been gathered from typewriter and employment agencies. Each of these sources presented the wage scale of a particular group of women in office service, but not of the occupation as a whole. The * United States Bureau of Labor, Women and Child Waye-earncrs in the United Statet, Volume V. Wage-earning Women in Stores and Factories, page 45. ' List of the Officials and Employees of the Commonwealth of Masscu;husetts, 1912-1913. Public Document No. 90. ' Research Department, Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Vocationi for the Trained Woman, Part II, page 129. WAGES. 115 study of the wages of 35,000 women in department and retail stores made by the United States Bureau of Labor in 1910 showed the low wage paid office workers in mercantile establishments. Eighty-seven per cent of the office employees, as compared with 70.7 per cent of the saleswomen, were paid less than $10. The wages of office workers in stores are, however, by no means typical, nor do they show the opportunities of the occupation as a whole. The tremendous amount of work involved in recording and transcribing the business of the large selling establishments is divided among many young workers who do the routine work under direction, and at a small wage. The largest part of the office force of department stores are young clerical workers called clerks; payment clerks, auditing clerks, C. O. D. clerks, charge record clerks, billing clerks, mail order clerks and cashiers. Only a very small number are skilled workers with a substantial back- ground of general and technical training.^ Civil Service, on the other hand, controls the posi- tions in most of the municipal and state offices and has a higher wage scale for the majority of its workers than is found in the occupation as a whole. The Civil Service workers are, however, a selected group, sifted by the Civil Service examinations which test not only general education and capacity for original thinking, but also the technical skill of the applicant. A negligible proportion, 1.2 per cent, of the 495 women working in offices under Civil Service regulation in Massachusetts earned less than $8, while nearly one-fourth earned less than $12. More than one-half (56.1 per cent) earned from $12 to $18, inclusive, and almost one-fifth (19.4 per cent) earned $20 or more. Another selected group is described in a survey of the salaries of 1,002 women in office service earning $10 and over studied from the records of the Appoint- ment Bureau for the Trained Woman in the Women's Educational and Industrial Union and from those of I See Chapter III, page 83. 116 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. Simmons College.^ Almost three-fourths (72.8 per cent) earned from SIO to $15, inclusive, and one-fourth of these (25.3 per cent) had had college training. More than one-half (58.5 per cent) had worked less than five years. The tj^pewriter agencies provided another valuable source of information concerning the stenographers Table 23. — Showing Wages of Women Office Workers in Civil Service by Occupations, 1912. ^ Number in Each Occupation by Specified Wage. Wage. Stenographers and Typists. Bookkeepers and Accountants. Clerks. Unclassified. Total. 4 1 1 5 $7 and less than $8 1 $9 and less than $10 .... 1 2 37 25 23 16 10 15 17 7 1 21 7 1 18 7 41 13 27 26 14 43 25 13 6 47 7 20 $10 and less than $11 9 111 and less than $12. . . 1 79 $12 and less than $13 38 $13 and less than $14 . . . 1 51 $14 and less than $15 1 43 24 $16 and less than $17 68 $17 and less than $18... $18 and less than $19 1 1 44 20 $19 and less than $20. . . 7 $20 and less than $25 . . . 9 1 2 2 79 17 Total number 187 37.8 13 2.6 288 58.2 75 1.4 495 100.0 ' Twenty-Ninth Annual Report of the Civil Service Commission of Massachusetts, 1913. ' Two supervisors and five inspectors. and typists, who again constitute a selected group. ^ An examination for speed and general knowledge of letter form and spelling eliminates the incompetent. • Department of Research, Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Vocaliona for the Trained Woman, Part H, Tables 1 and 2, pages 129 and 131. All earning less than $10 were eUminated. » See Chapter III, page 8. WAGES. 117 According to young high school graduates, however, the ability to take stenographic notes at the rate of 100 words a minute is not an exorbitant requirement nor too severe a test. More than one-half (51.3 per cent) of the 9,488 stenographers placed by the five typewriter agencies during 1913 received S12 to SI 5, inclusive, 53.7 per cent earning $12 or more. In about equal proportions, 22.7 per cent earned $9 and less Chart V. — Showing Wages of 9,488 Stenographers and Typists placed by Five Typewriter Agencies during the Year 1913. Under $6. $7. $8. $9. $10. $11. $12. $13. $14. $15. $16. $17. $18. Over $6. 566 492 1163 853 1261 42 2711 56 78 2019 19 5 172 $18. 12 39 than $12 and 23.6 per cent earned less than S9. There- fore, 46.3 per cent of those placed by the agencies, as compared with 24.1 per cent of the stenographers and typists in Civil Service, earned less than $12. An employment bureau pro\'ided still another source of information for a group of 509 office workers. Here again, a certain amount of selection eliminated the less desirable, but no specific test was required. Nearly three-fourths (71.7 per cent) earned less than $12, while less than one-tenth (9 per cent) earned $15 and over. 118 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. Since office service includes all kinds of workers ranging from clerks engaged in comparatively routine work to secretaries engaged in administrative and executive duties, a comparison of the wage by occu- pation is more significant than a wage comparison of groups with entirely different component parts. Civil Service, the employment bureau and the local survey all included stenographers, clerks and bookkeepers, differing in numbers and degrees of efficiency. The wage scale of the workers secured through the local survey is not as high as that of Civil Service but is higher Table 24. — Showing Wages of Office Workers Registered in an Employment Bureau, 1913. Number in Each Occupation bt Specified Wage. Total. Wages. Stenographers. Clerks and Office Workers. Bookkeepers. Number. Per Cent. Less than $8 43 130 56 30 59 54 13 3 13 66 29 13 115 250 98 46 22.6 $8 and less than $12 $12 and less than $15. . . $15 and over 49,1 19.3 9.0 Total 259 129 121 509 100.0 than that of the applicants at the employment bureau. Thus, 24.1 per cent of the stenographers in Civil Service earned less than $12 as compared with 66.8 per cent of those registered at the employment bureau. About the same proportion, 44.2 per cent, of the stenographers and secretaries secured through the local canvass and 46.3 per cent of those placed by the typewriter agen- cies earned less than $12, the average wage for the occupation. (See Chart VI.) Less than one per cent of the clerks in Civil Service earned less than $8, but 45.7 per cent of those regis- tered in the employment bureau and only 25.5 per cent of the clerks studied in offices earned less than $8. Again, only 23.3 per cent of the clerks in Civil Chart VI.— Showing Occupations by Wage of Office Workers from Various Sources — Civil Service, an Employment Agency, and Offices. STENOGRAPHERS. TYPISTS, AND SECRETARIES. 100 80. 60. 100 2S9 CLERKS. 288 120 675 BOOKKEEPERS AND ACCOUNTANTS. 13 121 20 Civil Service- An Emplojment Agency- Offices I D 119 120 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. Service, while 76 per cent of those studied in offices and 87.6 per cent registered in the employment bureau, earned less than SI 2. The women in Civil Service positions are so selected a group that they do not represent the general wage opportunities. Those applying at employment bureaus, on the other hand, are likely to be below the standard Table 25. — Showing Wages of 1,177 Women in Office Service by Occupation. 1 Number in Spbcified Occupations Earning Specified Wage. Total. Weekly Wages. Secre- taries. Stenog- raphers and Typists. Book- keepers. Clerks. Number. Per Cent. 41 74 57 134 60 147 101 37 11 10 3 41 78 75 202 109 222 233 130 34 26 27 3.5 $6 and less than $7 4 18 64 49 73 121 78 16 11 5 4 1 7 7 2 2 6 6 6 $7 and less than S8 6.4 $8 and less than $9 17.2 $9 and less than SIO 9.3 $10 and less than S12 $12 and less than Slo $15 and less than $18 $18 and less than $20 $20 and less than $25 $25 and over 1 = 4 8 5 3 13 18.9 19.8 11.0 2.9 2.2 2.2 Total 34 439 29 675 1.177 100 1 Secured from workers in offices. 'Listed as a secretary because of the character of her duties. of efficiency and, hence, do not represent the real wage opportunities. The experience of 1,177 workers secured by a local canvass of offices will, therefore, be taken as a basis for a study of wages in office service, since they represent, so far as possible, the widest range of all types. The field and opportunities o])cn to the private sec- retary whose work assumes more of the executive or administrative character has been already presented in an intensive study by Miss Post, and the few secre- WAGES. 121 taries (34) secured in this local canvass of offices are included only for comparison.^ Frequently, however, a "head stenographer" in the business world has much the same duties and opportunities which a so-called secretary in educational, social or literary institutions may have. Since it has often been impossible to make a distinction between the stenographer and secretary in a business house, the business term ''stenographer" has been accepted, lessening the number of returns from secretaries and increasing those from the stenographer. Even more important, it has shown that the connection between the stenographer and the secretary is close and continuous. A stenographer may become a secretary, if she can only adapt herself to the requirements: capacity for responsibility, initiative and executive and administrative abihty. So, too, there is a limited oppor- tunity for the well-trained bookkeeper ^ with executive ability, but the women in both these occupations con- stitute a comparatively small part of the office workers. The great mass of women in office service constitute two main groups: stenographers and typists, who represent technical skill in addition to general education, and clerks, copyists and "office girls," who do clerical work primarily. The clerks in the business world are the least skilled of the women in office service. They must not be confused, however, with the executive and administrative clerks in Civil Service, who correspond to the private secretary in business houses or educational institutions. These clerks in administrative positions are very well paid, one reporting S28 a week. Only two stenographers, one earning $30 and one S34, reported a higher wage. Few, however, reach these highly paid clerkships, and they are seldom found outside of Civil Service. Since the educator must study the actual processes and duties of different kinds of workers, boundary lines must be drawn between clerks doing merely clerical work, as in the business world, and clerks ' Department of Research, Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Vocntiom for the Trained Woman, Part II, page 113 et seq. •For discussion of bookkeepers, see Chapter III, page 7o. 122 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. with broad executive and administrative duties, as in Civil Service, who under other circumstances would probably be called secretaries. What are the main characteristics of the stenographers and clerks? In how far does a girl's education determine her position in her business life? These are the questions underlying this study. Four factors — age, education, experience and personal ability — determine, in varying degrees, the wage. While age is not the most important factor, maturity within certain limits does determine Table 26. — Showing Wage by Age of 985 Women in Office Service. Number Eaeninq Wage by Specified A.GE. Total. Ages. a Sq6 S2 S"5 mOO S!Q — «» — «» M §1 «5 M Is 05 p. S ots 00 ti m o ^ I-] t» «» ¥i e» »» includt^s 22 unclassified as to schooling. Graph based on Go3. •The number i'S'.) includes 2{) unclassified as to schooling and 5 with Grammar Schooling without Additional Training. Graph based on 413. 128 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. well prepared, 42.1 per cent earning $12 or more. Thus, the girl who has been unable to complete her high school course can equip herself, by an intensive course in a private business school, for practically the same position as that held by a high school graduate without additional training. In sharp contrast are the wages of the 419 clerks who did not attend business school Table 28. — Showing Schooling of 675 Clerks with Relation to Wages. Clerks Earning Specified Wage. Schooling. LESS THAN $8. $8 AND LESS THAN $12. $12 AND LESS THAN $15. $15 AND OVER. Total. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Niim- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. 30 15.3 93 47.5 39 19.9 34 17.3 196 With business college training .... Without business college training. . 2 28 5.9 17.2 15 78 44.1 48.3 8 31 23.5 19.1 9 25 26.5 15.4 34 162 High school non-graduates 87 28.1 156 50.5 47 15.2 19 6.2 309 With business college training .... Without business college training. . 6 81 15.8 29.9 16 140 42.1 51.7 7 40 18.4 14.8 9 10 23.7 3.6 38 271 Granunar school pupils 50 33.8 77 52.0 13 8.8 8 5.4 148 With business college training .... Without business college training. 7 43 23.3 36.4 19 58 63.4 49.2 3 10 10.0 8.5 1 7 3.3 5.9 30 118 5 22.7 15 68.2 2 9.1 22 Total 172 25.5 341 60.5 101 15.0 61 9.0 675 after a partial high school training, or had only grammar schooling, regardless of additional technical training. Only 71 or 16.9 per cent earned $12 or more. (See Table 28.) Although 62. 1 per cent of the clerks obtained only this inadequate training (See Table 27) it is appar- ent that clerks with an adequate educational background do have the opportunity to advance in the business world. WAGES. 129 In spite of the fact that the 234 who had graduated or supplemented a partial high school training, with technical training, constituted but 34.7 per cent of the clerks, those with such training formed 54.9 per cent of the clerks earning $12 and over. Wages, therefore, roughly express the educational equipment of the workers. More than three-fourths (76.2 per cent) of those who earned less than S8 were women with a few years of high school or with only grammar school education, the latter of which may or may not have been supplemented by courses in private business schools.^ These inadequately equipped people, however, appear in decreasing proportions in the higher wage groups. They constitute almost two-thirds (63.6 per cent) of those earning $8 but less than $12; 52.5 per cent earning from $12 to $15, but only 29.5 per cent earning $15 or more. Even more necessary is an adequate preparation in an occupation requiring technical skill as well as general education such as that of the stenographer and typist. Almost one-half (48.3 per cent) of the 439 stenographers were high school graduates, but more than one-half of these had had additional technical training. (See Table 27.) Three-fourths (75.9 per cent) of the gradu- ates with this additional training earned $12 and over. (See Table 29.) In contrast to this, less than one-half (48.9 per cent) of the graduates who did not go to business school and about the same proportion (54 per cent) of the non-graduates with additional training earned $12 and over. Intensive technical training apparently gives to the high school non-graduate, whether a stenographer or a clerk, the equipment necessary to compete success- full}' with the high school graduate without additional training. The educational equipment of these two types of workers, the clerks and stenographers, is, however, just reversed. Sixty-two per cent (02.1 ])er cent) of the clerks had not had a high school education ' 172 clerks earned less than $8; 131, or 76.1 per cent, had only afew years' high school or a grammar school education. (See Table 28.) 130 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. or its equivalent,^ while an even larger proportion (71.1 per cent) of the stenographers had had this amount for a background. (See Table 27.) The greater length of time spent in preparation has a gratifying financial compensation. Less than one-fourth (23.1 per cent) of the stenographers did not have a Table 29. — Showing Wages of 439 Stenographers and Typists as Influenced by Schooling. Stenographers Earning Specified Wage Schooling. BT Specified Schooling. less than $8. $8 AND less THAN $12. $12 AND LESS THAN $15. $15 AND OVER. Total. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. 4 1.9 72 34.0 69 32.5 67 31.6 212 With business college training Without business college training. . . 1 3 0.8 3.3 28 44 23.3 47.8 49 20 40.9 21.7 42 25 35.0 27.2 120 92 High school non-graduates 10 6.1 81 49.7 39 23.9 33 20.3 163 With business college training Without business college training. . . 9 1 9.0 1.6 37 44 37.0 69.9 33 6 33.0 9.5 21 12 21.0 19.0 100 63 8 21.0 12 31. G 9 23.7 9 23.7 38 With business college training 8 24.2 10 2 30.3 40.0 9 27.3 6 3 18.2 60.0 33 5 21 80.8 4 15.4 1 3.8 26 Total 22 5.0 186 42.4 121 27.6 110 25.0 439 high school education or its equivalent,'^ and a compara- tively small proportion (47.4 per cent) earned less than $12. (See Table 29.) Almost two-thirds of the clerks (62.1 per cent) had not had a high school education, nor its equivalent, and a very large proportion (7G per cent) earned less than SI 2. (See Table 28.) The stenographers ' That is, high school graduates or high school pupils who supplemented several years in high school by special technical tr.iining. 'That is, only 23.1 per cent were not high school graduates or had not supplemented several years in high school by additional business college training. (Sec Table 27.) WAGES. 131 who had not attended high school formed such a small proportion (8.7 per cent) of the 439 studied (see Table 27) that comparison with those of higher educa- tion seemed unwise. This small proportion (8.7 per cent) of stenographers, without high school training, is of interest, however, as compared with the very much larger proportion (21.9 per cent) of inadequately trained clerks. Wages of stenographers as well as of clerks similarly reflect the worker's educational equipment, though not in such a directly ascending scale, since the great majority (71.2 per cent) of the former had had a high school education or its equivalent. Almost three-fifths (58.6 per cent) of those earning $8 but less than $12, and more than four-fifths (82.3 per cent) of those earning $12 and over, had had a high school education or its equivalent.^ Experience as well as preliminary equipment, how- ever, determines to a certain extent the wage within the particular occupation. The accompanying chart shows the decreasing number with a short working experience in the increasing wage groups. Thus, 95.8 per cent of the clerks earning less than S8 had less than five years' experience. But with increasing wage, 80.4 per cent of those earning $8 and less than $10, 45 per cent of those earning $10 and less than $12, 21.4 per cent of those earning $12 and less than $15, and only 16.4 per cent of those earning $15 and over had worked less than five years. (See Chart VIII.) So, also, is there a very apparent relation between the experience and the wage of the stenographers, but many of these skilled workers can earn $12 or more in a much shorter time. Thus, 78.6 per cent of the clerks and only 37.9 per cent of the stenographers worked five years or more to earn $12 and less than $15. The $15 wage expressing ability and responsibility requires about the same length of experience for the stenographer as for the clerk, ' Of 1S(> stonogrnphera oarniiiK $8 and less than $12, 109, or 5S.0 per cent, and of 231 8tenographcr8 earning $12 and over, 190, or 82.3 per cent, were high school graduates or non-graduates with additional business college training. (See Table 29.) 132 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. more than four-fifths of the workers in both occupations working more than five years. The chief difference is that a much larger proportion of the stenographers (25 per cent) than of the clerks (9 per cent) were able to reach the Slo wage. So, also, must a larger proportion of the clerks work ten years or more to earn $12 and over. Thus, 25.8 per cent of the clerks and only 4.3 per cent of the stenographers earning $12 and less than $15 had worked ten yesiYs or more. Again, there was a difference in length of working experience necessary to earn $15 or more in the two occupations; 47.2 per cent of the clerks and 37.1 per cent of the stenographers having had ten years or more experience. The length of working experience of the members of the two groups is, however, surprisingly similar. Almost tw^o-thirds of the women in both occupations had worked less than five years; one-fourth, five and less than ten years, and one-tenth, ten years and over. The great difference in wages of clerks and stenographers as a class, therefore, cannot be ascribed to any difference in the length of working experience. The length of experience requisite to earn a particular wage is, how- ever, determined, in a large degree, by the amount and adequacy of the training, as observed in the comparative length of experience of stenographers and clerks earning the same wages. Among both clerks and stenographers education has fitted many to reach high wages in much less time than those who have not had the advantage of an adequate preparation. Since the office worker represents such a variety of educational background, and consequently a great variation in the requisite time necessary to reach a specified wage, the median or middle girl may be taken as a fair representative of the various wage groups. If 1G3^ clerks arranged in order of length of experience earned $8 and less than $10, the experience of the 82d girl might be regarded as a fair estimate of the length of time necessary to 'See Table 30, page 135; 194 clerks, minus 31 UDclassified by length of experience, leaves 163, which is taken as the basis of discussion. WAGES. 133 Chart VIII. — Showing Wages of Clerks and Stenographers by Length of Experience. CLERKS. 131 80 Less than S8. SS and less than SrO. $10 and (ess $12 and less $15 and over, than $12. than $15. Per Cent. 100 80_ 60_ 22 105 STENOGRAPHERS 63 116 m 105 439* 40_ 20_ Less than $8. $,S and less than $10. $10 and less than $12. $12 and Ics than $15. $15 and over. Total. KEY: 10 vears and over, H 5 years and under 10. j^^ Under S years. 1 I ' Tho number C73 includes 70 uiirlassified as to experience. Graph based on 605. 'The number 439 includes 28 unclassified as to experience. Graph baaed on 411. 134 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. reach this wage, since one-half did not require more and one-half did not require less time. A clerk ma}'', therefore, expect to work at least two years to earn a wage of $8 or $9 a week. She may expect to work five years to earn $10 and less than $12, seven years to earn $12 and less than $15, and ten years or more to earn $18. (See Table 30.) The middle girl, however, does not represent the greatest possibilities nor the wage opportunities even for the majority. As in school, a small proportion of the pupils can grasp the essentials in a much shorter time and with less effort than the majority, so is this true also in the business office. No great difference between the length of experience of the median and of the majority of clerks appears under the $10 wage, but since $10 or more represents some degree of ability the difference here becomes apparent. If three-fourths of the 163 clerks earning $10 and less than $12 have worked three years or more, those 33 who have reached this wage in a shorter time had special qualifications, either in educa- tional equipment or personal ability. Over one-half (17) were high school graduates or the equivalent.^ Such a background, as has been shown, is not characteristic of the occupation as a whole, less than one-third of the 675 clerks studied having had this amount of prepara- tion. (See Table 27.) Twelve dollars or more, as has also been shown, is reached only by the most able clerks, less than one-fourth of the 675 studied. Over three- fourths (78.6 per cent) of those earning $12 and less than $15 had worked five years or more. Those (19) who were capable of earning this wage in less than five years, therefore, deserve special attention. Fourteen of the 19 were high school graduates, five of whom had had additional business school training. Six of these 14 high school graduates had reached this wage in less than three years. WTiile the girl with an adequate preliminary prepara- > Six bad supplemented an incomplete high Bchool course by training at a private business college. WAGES. 135 tion has a decided advantage in the length of time required to reach S12 or more, many girls without such training may, through natural ability and hard work, reach an adequate wage after longer experience. Almost three-fourths of the 70 clerks who earned S12 and less Table 30.— Showing Wages of 675 Clerks and 439 Stenographers by Length of Experience. 1 Length of Expebience. Numbers Earning Specified Wage by Specified Length of Experience. mo ^w S» T) a -a a a OS a o! 05 ja ooO stenographers. o*> oc c Under 1 year 1 year and under 2 . . . 2 years and under 3 . . 3 years and under 4 . . . 4 years and under 5 . . . 5 years and under 6 . . . 6 years and under 7 . . . 7 years and under 8 . . . 8 years and under 9 . . . 9 years and under 10 . . 10 years and under 15. 1 5 years and under 20 . 20 years and over Unclassified 31 16 1 1 2 1 2 3 5 2 1 3 10 3 1 2 102 106 74 50 4^ 4S H 25 45 10 70 10 156 179 126 93 87 83 56 49 43 36 75 19 14 Total . 41 131 194 147 101 37 24 67£ 22 113 73 121 78 32 439 1,114 > 1,114 cases studied from the offices. than $15 after a working experience of five or more years, were not high school graduates, but those few who did graduate had a decided advantage. Two-fifths of the high school graduates, as compared with less than one-tenth (9.4 per cent) of those without this equipment, reached this wage in less than five vears. As almost 136 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. one-fourth (21.3 per cent) of the 89^ clerks earning $12 to S15 had worked less than five years, so also one-fourth (25.8 per cent) had worked ten years or more, and one- half of the latter had not had a high school education or its equivalent. Thus, more than one-half (52.8 per cent) of the clerks who earned $12 and less than $15 worked five years and less than ten years. Less than one-tenth (9 per cent) of the clerks earned $15 or more. Almost three-fourths (70.6 per cent) of these had had a high school education or its equivalent and the same proportion required six years or more to reach this wage. Ten of the twelve who earned $15 or more in less than six years were high school and college graduates. The majority of the clerks must, therefore, have a minimum experience of three years to earn $10 and less than $12; of five years to earn $12 and less than $15; and of six years to earn $15 or more. One-fourth of the women in each wage group have been able to reach this wage in less time but with more preliminary equip- ment than is characteristic of the group. On the other hand, women with a limited education but with ability and application do have the opportunity to earn $12 or more with a longer working experience. Since the educational background and the wage of the stenographer is higher than that of the clerk, so also is the requisite time to reach the same wage shorter. The median stenographer or middle girl reached $8 and less than $10 in one year, $10 and less than $12 in two years. Four years were necessary for the middle girl to earn $12 and less than $15; seven years to earn $15 and less than $18; and ten years or more to earn $18 and over. Both the median clerk and the median stenographer required about the same length of time to reach the high wage of $15 or more, showing that the woman earning this wage, whether called a clerk or a stenographer, represents much the same degree of ability and responsibility. 1 101 clerks earned $12 and less than $15. Since 12 are unclassified by length of experience, 89 are taken as a basis for study. WAGES. 137 Chart IX. — Showing Relation of Schooling and Experience to Wage. (The section below the black dividing line signifies a wage of less than $10. The section above signifies a wage of $10 or more. Five years' expe- rience and over is shown thus ■) High School QraJuatr wlthoul Addilional Training. High School Non-Qraduata with Additioiu) Training. High School Qrammar arammar School School with without Additional Additional Additional Training. Training. Training. STENOGRAPHERS. 100 120 W iOO 62 ii 413' m 60 = 40 ^^ 20) 0_ High School High School High School High School Grammar Graduate Non-Oraduate Non-Oraduate with uilh • Hhoul Additional Additional AdJilional Additional Additional Training. Training Training. Training. Training. •This total includt^a 5 who had Grammar School Training without Additional Training, but not 2G unclassified by schooling. ' 22 unclassified by schooling not included in this total. 138 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. Experience or special equipment are most clearly expressed in the wage of $12 and over. ]\Iore than one- half (52. G per cent) of the stenographers earned S12 or more, which, for the majority (71.4 per cent), required a minimum experience of three years. All of the (34) stenographers who earned $12 and less than $15 with less than three years' experience were high school grad- uates or the equivalent. More than one-third (37.9 per cent) of those earning this wage had worked five or more years, and three-fourths of these, as in the occu- pation as a whole, had a high school education or its equivalent. Twelve to fifteen dollars is the maximum wage in many offices, and is also the maximum earned by nearly three-fourths of the 439 stenographers studied. Only one-fourth (25.0 per cent) of the 439 stenographers earned $15 or more, and four-fifths (80 per cent) of these had had a high school education or its equivalent. The majority had had a minimum working experience of five years. All but two of the nineteen who earned $15 or more in less than five years were high school gradulates or the equivalent ; two were college graduates. More than one-half (54.3 per cent), however, had worked eight years or more. The accompanying chart (See Chart IX) summarizes in a graphic way the influence of education in determin- ing the length of experience necessary to earn $10 or more. Increasing proportions of workers with decreas- ing educational background must work five years or more to earn $10 and over. The stenographers who have graduated from high school, or, failing to graduate, have supplemented their education at a private business school, have required practically the same length of experience to earn the same wage. 'While the clerks who are high school graduates and the high school non- graduates with additional training, likewise seem to have a similar earning capacity, those not graduating have had to work longer to earn the same wage as that secured by the graduates. College graduates have a similar financial advantage WAGES. 139 over girls who have not gone to college.^ Over three- fifths (42.1 per cent) of the 361 secretaries studied by Miss Post, who had had college training, secured a salary of $15 and over with less than six years' experi- ence in contrast to only one-fourth (26.1 per cent) of 322 without college training, who reached this wage within six years. Even more noticeable is the large proportion (30.5 per cent) of college-trained secretaries who secured $15 or over in less than four years in contrast to only 7.1 per cent of the non-college secretaries. Education and especially college graduation, there- fore, gives many girls that intangible power of adapta- bility and responsibility which constitute the funda- mental asset for success. Yet this power does not come to all who have had these educational advantages. There are instances among both the stenographers and clerks of the high school graduates with and without additional training, who have worked six years or more and are only receiving from $6 to $9 in the case of the clerks, and from $8 to $10 or $11 among the stenogra- phers. There is one instance of a stenographer, a college graduate, with technical training, who, after five years of experience, is still receiving only SIO. Instances like these are uncommon, but they point out that it is the girl plus the education who rises in the business office. If possible then, the schools should try even harder than now to prevent the girl who is unfitted for the work from adopting the profession for which she has no aptitude or possibility for success. It is obvious, therefore, that increased education in general increases efficiency and earning capacity and has a permanent effect upon a girl's commercial experi- ence. It fits her above others for responsible and therefore well-paid positions. In addition to this, it enables her to attain a good position with as little as possible of the drudgery of poorly-paid and monotonous work. It has long been realized that public school " Department of Research, Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Vocaliona for the Trained Woman, Part II, Oi)i)ortunilie3 in Secretarial Service, page 129, Table 1. 140 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. training is invaluable to a stenographer. It has not been so clearly recognized that education is as necessary to the clerical worker who wishes to win success in her profession. Doubtless, in the plans for the new clerical high school/ the needs of this large class of workers will be recognized. Too much emphasis cannot be placed, however, on the benefit to all workers in office service which is derived from an education which enables them to become intelligent, resourceful and accurate. Emploj^ers demand these qualities in the workers to whom they will offer the positions of respon- sibility and initiative. It may be claimed by some that the girl who goes to work as a clerk has done so because she was unable to finish high school. More than one- fourth (29 per cent) of the 679 clerks, however, did graduate from high school. One-half (45.8 per cent) attended high school, although they did not graduate, while only 21.9 per cent did not go beyond grammar school.- There is opportunity then as well as need for high school training of at least three years, especially adapted to the needs of clerical workers. The public schools have tried an intensified course of two years' work for stenographers, which was open to grammar school graduates as well as to more mature pupils. The lack of maturity and general education which is required of a stenographer, however, seems to have disqualified most of these young and inadequately equipped pupils. Office technique, experience in filing and knowledge of the simpler office machines can be secured, however, within three years,, and would give the girl who is entering clerical work a wider view of the immediate work and future possibilities. While much thought and effort has already been expended by the public school in preparing the girl for office work, special emphasis has been given to the training of the stenographer. The majority (60.3 per cent) of the 310 girls secured through the schools, therefore, were stenographers. Only 45 were clerks, ' See Chapter I, page 12. » See Table 28, page 128. WAGES. 141 21 were secretaries and 57 bookkeepers. As they had all left school recently and very few^ had been at work more than six years, they have been compared only with office workers with the same length of experience. More than one-half (52.6 per cent) of the 310 office workers studied through the schools, earned SIO and over, as contrasted with 45.4 per cent of those repre- Table 31. — Showing Wage by Schooling of 187 Stenographers Secured through the Schools. Number Earning Wage bt Specified Schooling. Total. Schooling. 00 c 03 l-I Old 'o S c 5 OO '^ §2 % a o S 3 a V O o High school graduates 12 86 41 11 150 80 2 With additional training 1 11 14 72 17 24 6 5 38 112 20 3 Without additional training 59 9 High school non-graduates 8 18 3 1 30 16.1 With additional training 1 7 9 9 3 1 13 17 7 Without additional training 9 1 Grammar school pupils 6 1 7 3 7 With additional training 5 1 1 6 1 3 2 Without additional training Total 20 110 45 12 187 100 senting a similar length of experience secured through offices. (See Table 32.) This difference is not strange since the majority of the school group are high school graduates and a very few are clerks, while the wages of those secured through offices were lowered by the large number of clerks and of women without a high school education. Although high school graduates or the equiv- alent constituted more than four-fifths (87.2 per cent) ' Twenty had more than six years of experience: 2 clerks, 6 bookkeepers, 5 stenographers and 7 secretaries. 142 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. of the 187 stenographers^ secured through the schools, only 30.5 per cent earned $12 or more, as contrasted with 41.2 per cent of the 311 stenographers studied from offices. (See Table 32.) But this seeming discrepancy does not contradict the principle that greater education increases the earn- ing capacity. On the contrary, it emphasizes the advantage of additional intensive technical training. Only one-fourth of the large number of graduates among the stenographers studied from the schools had had addi- tional technical training in private business schools. On the other hand, more than one-half (54.9 per cent) of the high school graduates with less than seven years' expe- rience secured from offices had had additional training and perhaps, because of this training, more than three- fifths (69 per cent) were able to earn $12 or more. So, too, three-fifths of those stenographers secured through the schools who had graduated and then had additional technical training earned $12 or more in contrast to only one-fourth of the graduates without this additional train- ing. (See Table 31.) Practically the same proportion, one- fourth, who earned $12 and over, is found among the 13 non-graduates, who had had additional business school training, while only one of the 17 non-graduates without special training reached $12 or more. Again additional business school training seems for the non-graduate to be an equivalent for graduation, at least in as far as its effect in helping her to reach $12. The stenographers, then, secured through the schools have reached prac- tically the same wages as those studied from the offices, when due account is taken of their schooling and expe- rience. The seeming discrepancy is really an added argument in favor of additional business training for stenographers. Intensive technical training, when added to a thorough general education, seems to give the girl the skill and inteUigence which fits her above others for positions of responsibility and importance, positions • See Table 31. 80.2 per cent were hiRh school graduates; 7.0 per cent were high school non-graduates with additional technical training. WAGES. 143 which pay the higher wages. This conclusion yields a valuable suggestion to the public high schools in the formulation of their curriculum. Education not only shortens the time necessary to receive an adequate wage but also gives the girl the further advantage of a higher initial wage. More than three-fourths (77.1 per cent) of the 306 clerks considered from offices began with an initial wage of less than 88. Table 32.— Comparing the Present Wage of 806 Office Workers with a Working Experience of Six Years or Less with 310 Secured from the Schools. Number of Workers from Offices Earning Specified Wage. Number of Workers fro.m Schools Earning Specified Wage. m total. M total. o ji 0. a .2 1 O. o o to o J3 O, 2 a S m •E OS 1 t 2 O u o a, Z a o a 165 151 22 100 187 253 23.2 31.4 21 11 20 65 15 15 56 91 18.0 $8 and less than $10 2 29.4 $10 and less than $12. . . 97 61 1 1 160 20.0 5 45 15 65 21.0 $12 and less than $15. . . 38 95 4 3 140 17.3 7 45 5 7 64 20.7 $15 and less than $20 . . . 16 32 7 2 57 7.0 1 12 12 5 30 9.7 $20 and less than $25 1 1 .] 9 ? .6 2 C .... 8 1.0 2 2 .6 Total 409 311 18 8 806 100.0 45 187 21 57 310 100.0 Less than two-thirds (63.4 per cent) of the 123 clerks with high school training or its equivalent, however, began at less than $8, as compared with more than four- fifths (86.5 per cent) of the 178 without a high school background. A little more than one-half (55 per cent) of the 238 stenographers as compared with three- fourths of the clerks began with an initial wage of less than $8. While a negligible proportion (11.3 per cent) of the stenographers began with less than S6, almost one-half of the clerks (48 per cent) started with this low 144 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. initial wage. This is not surprising since there is in many of the large offices a great deal of clerical work which is little more than manual work. IVIore than four-fifths (82.9 per cent) of the stenographers report- ing their beginning wage as compared with only two- fifths (40.2 per cent) of the clerks had had a high school education or its equivalent. The same vital relation is found between the wage and the education of the stenographer studied through Table ii. — Comparing Beginning Wage of 593 Women Secured from Offices, and 305 Women Secured from the Schools. Office Workers Secured Through Offices. Office Workers Secured Through Schools. Beginning Wage. o a, £ a 2 02 •c o m £ o (U o o m TOTAL. 1 o 0. a 1 o o 2 o a o -0 a as m 1 u a o S 3 ■z. 6 ex, 17 51 64 8 7 2 1 150 80.2 With business school training. . . Without business school training, 3 14 9 42 18 46 4 4 2 5 1 1 1 38 112 20.3 59.9 High school non-graduates 7 13 7 1 2 30 16.1 With business school training.. . . Without business school training, 1 6 4 9 5 2 1 2 13 17 7.0 9.1 4 1 1 1 7 3.7 4 1 1 6 1 3.2 1 .05 Total 24 68 72 10 7 2 4 187 100 this initial wage. The 38 high school graduates with additional technical training among the stenographers from the schools had a similar advantage. About two- thirds began at $8 and over, as compared with one-half of the graduates with no further training. While general education is, therefore, essential for success in the long run, the technical skill secured by intensive study given by the private business schools 146 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. has a very apparent influence in determining the initial wage. Stenographers, whose work involves technical skill, are especially the ones who profit by this technical preparation. The bookkeepers and secretaries also had special preparation. Almost two-thirds of the few bookkeepers studied from the offices had a high school education or the equivalent, and more than one-half began with $8 or more.^ All but one of the 28 secre- taries- had a high school education or its equvalent, and four-fifths began with $8 or more. Beginning wage is, therefore, to a great extent deter- mined by education. Does the age at which the girl begins clerical work have a similar influence on her beginning wage? Four-fifths (86.8 per cent) of those studied from the schools began work before they were twenty years of age, and 61 per cent started at less than $8. Two-fifths began before they were eighteen and 67.7 per cent began at less than $8. The worker studied from the offices began office work at a more mature age, since several had worked previously in other occupations. A similar relation is evident, how- ever. Two-thirds began before they were twenty years old and 61.5 per cent of these started at less than S8. About one-third began before they were eighteen and 70.6 per cent of these started at less than $8. Begin- ning age, therefore, is not a vital factor in determining beginning wage. Within the occupations, also, the beginning age differed very slightly ; 36.5 per cent of the stenographers as compared with 38.2 per cent of the clerks began office work before they were eighteen, while 70.9 per cent of the stenographers as compared with 66.3 per cent of the clerks began before they were twenty years of age. Practically the same proportion of the stenog- raphers secured through the schools (37.4 per cent) began before they were eighteen, while 86.6 per cent began at less than twenty years of age. Since the ages are so similar, at which these different classes of office ' Twenty-one reported beginning wage. ' Twenty-eight reported beginning wage. WAGES. 147 workers began their work, variations in the initial wages paid to stenographers and to clerks cannot be ascribed to the beginning age. Rather should the difference in wages be explained by the different requirements of the work itself, where skill and intelligence can command the better wages. Education, then, has a deciding influence in determining the girl's vocation and con- sequently in defining her wages through her business career. To sum up, therefore, office service ranks unusually high in its wage scale when compared with other occupa- tions for women. While personal characteristics, which are more or less intangible, have their influence on the opportunities and advancement of women in office service, three factors, education, age and length of experience can be definitely measured. Commercial educators will be interested to know that the same relation between wage and these determining factors is found among the 310 girls studied in the Boston public high schools, who have been trained there within the last five years, as among the much larger number studied from offices, when due regard is given to the occupations, education and length of experience of the two groups. Less than one-fifth (16.5 per cent) of those studied from the offices and 18 per cent of those from the schools earned less than $8. The stenographers and the clerks studied from the offices and the stenographers alone from the schools are used as the primary basis for this wage study, since they constitute the largest number and most important groups from these two sources. Education seems to be the most important determin- ing factor in advancement in office service, and the relation between education and wage is direct. High wages characterize the occupations where the majority is adequately trained. Only one-third of the clerks were high school graduates or the equivalent, and only one-fourth earned $12 and over, while a similar proportion earned less than $8. The group wage for 148 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. clerks is, therefore, S8 and less than $12, one-half coming within this range. Almost three-fourths of the stenographers had had a high school education or its equivalent, and one-half earned $12 and over, while only one-twentieth earned less than $8. While three-fourths of the clerks, therefore, earned less than $12, one-half of the stenographers earned $12 and over. Similarly, more than four-fifths of the stenographers studied from the schools were high school graduates or the equivalent, but because of their shorter working experience only one-third earned $12 and over. Only one-tenth, how- ever, earned less than $8. Additional technical training, in all cases, gave the girl a further advantage, which was especially evident when length of experience was considered. The clerks and stenographers studied from the offices had the same length of experience, when considered as groups, but the broader education of the stenographers enabled them to reach a much better wage within the same length of time. Only the very well trained among both clerks and stenog- raphers reached a high wage within a shorter length of time than was necessary for the majority. Education, therefore, not only makes it possible for the girl to enter a skilled occupation in the beginning but also enables her to command a higher initial wage and to reach a high wage within the minimum length of time. About one-half of the stenographers as compared with three-fourths of the clerks, who are less adequately trained, began work at less than $8. One-half of the stenographers (studied from offices), who were high school graduates or the equivalent, began with an initial wage of S8 or more in contrast to one-fourth of those less adequately equipped. So, also, one-half of the young stenographers (studied from the schools), who were high school graduates or the equivalent, and only one-sixth of those who were not, began work with an initial wage of $8 or more. Education, therefore, is of vital importance to the girl entering office service. Through thorough prepara- WAGES. 149 tion, the schools can fit girls to fill responsible and well- paid positions. Even those who never rise beyond a position of moderate importance are still more fortunate than the majority of women in industrial and mercantile occupations. The demand from the employers is always for greater skill, accuracy and intelligence, and they are willing to pay proportionately. To fill such demands, general education and intensive technical training are essential to the usual girl. Those without the opportunities for obtaining these requisites will find themselves, except in very unusual cases, very seriously handicapped. They would better be directed into some occupation where they would have greater opportunity for success. The schools, however, are responsible for the girl who is promising and able to spend the requisite time to secure the necessary equipment. They must convince her of the necessity and see that she receives an adequate and closely correlated preparation. Techni- cal skill is necessary, but above all, a well balanced education, providing the requisite general intelligence, must lay the foundation for success in office service. 150 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. CHAPTER v.— HOME LIFE AND RESPONSI- BILITIES Hazel Manning The formulation of a curriculum for the various high schools throughout Boston is peculiarly difficult because of the widely different social and economic status of the various neighborhoods as well as the extensive territory from which some of the schools draw their pupils. The home background of the girl provides her with a foundation upon which the school must build. Each school, therefore, must have an intimate acquaint- ance with its own neighborhood in order to plan its curriculum so as to supplement most effectively the background provided by the family life. For instance, a high school offering commercial courses which draws large numbers of pupils of foreign-born parentage must not only give much emphasis to the fundamental and almost elementary requisites of business intercourse, i. e., English, grammar and spelling, but also must provide these pupils with a knowledge of our social and business customs. On the other hand, the school which draws from a neighborhood predominantly native-born, of comparatively comfortable circumstances and repre- senting some culture and education, may give much less time and emphasis to the comparatively elemen- tary and general training. Each high school draws pupils of both types, but one or the other may predom- inate in a particular school. A curriculum of sufficient elasticity to meet the needs of all pupils is, therefore, the problem before the school. The five high schools taken for intensive study illus- trate the varying social factors which should be taken into consideration in the formulation of a curriculum HOME LIFE AND RESPONSIBILITIES. 151 for vocational training. The Girls' High School, with 1,887^ pupils, is located in the heart of the city, but draws from a very wide area. A few pupils come from the North End and a somewhat larger proportion from the West End, both of which have no high school of their own, but the majority is drawn from the South End and the neighboring suburban districts. East Boston High School with 322 girls and Charlestown with 270 girls are both co-educational, drawing from small, congested but fairly homogeneous neighborhoods. Roxbury High School with 774 girls and Dorchester High School (co- educational) with 1,065 girls draw from extensive subur- ban districts of widely varying social and economic conditions. An intensive study of each neighborhood, therefore, yields valuable suggestions to the educator. The North End is represented, but in a very small minority, in the Girls' High School. This portion of the city was the first to be settled by the newcomers to America and it has continued to be the first home of each race making up the various waves of immigration through the last century. As soon as the economic condition of the family will permit, a move is made to the West End. In this section of the city, wider streets and more modern brick tenements are noted, but there is a drawback too, for rents are very high, and the next move is made to Roxbury or Dorchester, where more room and suburban conditions can be had. The older members of the family have settled among friends in the North and West Ends, and it is often with regret that they yield to the desires of the younger and more progressive members of the family to move into a now neighborhood. The South End together with the West End supplies a large number of the pupils of the Girls' High School. The two districts have a population of which but 19 per cent are native white of native-born parents, and only two-fifths (41.3 per cent) native-born, though 56.3 per cent are English speaking. In the foreign element there is a larger proportion of people whose native In 1912-1913. See Table 4, page 13. 152 WOMEN IX OFFICE SERVICE. language is not English than any of the other dis- tricts studied, 13,000 of the 27,000 ^ foreign-born being Russians and Hebrews. The West End is a crowded district of tenements and apartment houses, which provide the second stage or stopping place in the migration of many of the European settlers from the crowded neighborhood in which they made their first home. An old-world atmosphere still prevails in the crowded, narrow streets, but the thriving and active settlement in their midst is making valuable contributions in its social and educational activities. Increasing prosperity and the new-world ideals make possible a high school education for some of the daughters who must make the long trip to the Girls' High School in the South End for the schooling which will equip them for a vocation. The South End, with its bright spots of small green parks, vividly recalls similar sections in English cities. It was once the home of the well-to-do people of English ancestry, who have since moved from the crowded section to suburbs, but now is essentially the lodging- house district of the city, all of the homes that were visited renting rooms to three or four lodgers. East Boston, which has been transformed from a small seafaring village in early days to a congested section with blocks of wooden tenement houses, which provide a living place for many of Boston's workers, now has a population of which but 16.5 per cent are native white of native-born parentage, though three- fifths (60.7 per cent) are native-born. On the other hand, 79.7 per cent of the total population are of English speaking parentage. The predominant foreign group is Canadian, which constitutes over one-fourth (28.7 per cent) of the foreign-born population. Like the North End it is a place of transition. This small island, which was annexed to Boston in 1636, has grown rapidly, until in 1910 it has a population of over 58,000. The residents, 'United States Census, 1910, Population, Volume II, page 890. Foreign-born, 27,627, Rtusians, 13,540. HOME LIFE AND RESPONSIBILITIES. 153 among whom Canadians, Italians, Irish and Russians predominate,^ are carried back and forth from the city by means of a ferry and a tube under the bay, but the personnel is constantly changing, as the families are moving every day to less congested suburbs. Charlestown is almost a unit in itself. About Monu- ment square, the old three-story brick houses rise high Table 35. — Showing Nativity of the Population of Five School Neighborhoods.^ Pboportion op Specified Nativity ih Each Neighborhood.' ! NAXrVITT. EAST BOSTON. CHARLESTOWN. west south AND ENDS. ROXBURY. dobchesteb. ToUl. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per cent. Native-bom. . . . 35,532 60.7 28.893 69.8 29,097 51.3 60,147 67.9 68.424 73.4 222.093 Native white, native parents. Foreign or mixed parents.' 9.654 25.878 16.5 44.2 9.972 18,921 24.1 45.7 10.767 18,330 19.0 32.3 20,435 39,712 23.1 44.8 31.798 36.626 34.2 39.2 82,626 139.467 Foreign-born * 22,956 39.3 12,551 30.2 27,627 48.7 28,504 32.1 25,045 26.6 116.683 English speaking Non-English speak- ing- 11,111 11.845 19.0 20.3 10,824 1,727 26.1 4.1 8,542 19,085 15.0 33.7 20,682 7,822 23. 3i 8. si 17.004 8,041 18.2 8.4 68.163 48.520 Total 58,488 100.0 41,444 100.0 56,724 100.0 88,651 100. d 93,469 100.0 338,776 1 United States Census, 1910, Population, Volume II, page 890. 'School Neighborhoods — East Boston, Wards 1 and 2; Charlestown, Wards 3, 4, and 5; West End, Ward 8; South End, Ward 12; Roxbury, Wards 17 and 19; Dorchester, Wards 20 and 24. • Including negroes. ♦ Including Chinese and Japanese. above the crowded, congested city behind them. They are the last remnant of the aristocratic section that once claimed a fair portion of the little space only a mile square called Charlestown. Less than one-fourth of the population of Charlestown is native white and of native parentage, which is also true of Roxbury, but 95.9 per cent of the population of Charlestown and 91.2 per cent of Roxbury are of Enghsh speaking parents. ]More than four-fifths of the foreign-born in Charlestown and > Canadians. 6.599; Italians. 4,565; Irish, 3,948; Russians. 3,415. 154 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. almost three-fourths in Roxbury are of British-American or British parentage, for many Canadians and British- Americans from the provinces have settled in these sections. Roxbury and Dorchester were at first settled princi- pally by the well-to-do people who were forced out of the South End by the advance of the business district. Into these suburbs is now coming the overflow from the North and West Ends. The original settlers of Roxbury and Dorchester are moving on to Brookline and even farther away in order to avoid the rush of the city. The Roxbury end of Blue Hill avenue has sprung into life in the last ten years and is now lined for several miles with one-story or two-story business buildings. Rox- bury Crossing divides its girls of the school age between the Girls' and Roxbury High Schools. This district about Roxbury Crossing is becoming very crowded, because it is easily reached by the street car and is accessible to several large industries. Roxbury has all the characteristics of a neighborhood in transition. From an old dilapidated house or a crowded tenement, one can, by simply turning a corner, step into a home furnished in mahogany and oriental rugs. In Dorchester, where almost three-fourths are native- born, only one-third (34.2 per cent) are native white of native parentage, though 91.6 per cent come of English speaking parents. More than two-thirds of the foreign- born are from British-American or British countries. Dorchester is rapidly being built up with three-story apartment houses occupied by prosperous trades-people, and represents the most comfortable and well-to-do section studied. Here, as in Roxbury, many of the old and beautiful homes were visited, for office ser- vice draws from every type of home and grade of society. However, the majority of girls that were visited lived in two-family houses. They were homes of substantial business people, who lived simply but well. The mother or some member of the family usually answered the bell and greeted the investigator with HOME LIFE AND RESPONSIBILITIES. 155 intelligent and cordial interest. There is no doubt that such a home influence may give a girl a decided advantage over her less fortunate neighbor. The father with his business experience provides an atmosphere which will help the girl in an understanding of business intercourse. The cultured mother unconsciously pro- vides a background in social training that will be a valuable asset to the girl in her relationship with others in the office. Although in all these neighborhoods there is a foreign element representing large numbers, if not a large pro- portion of the total group, adjustment and adaptation to their particular needs is probably much more a prob- lem of the grammar than of the high school. For the grammar school has the great opportunity and respon- sibility of meeting the fundamental needs of the foreign- born population. The high school curriculum can only build on the foundation provided for it. The Commission on Immigration found in 1908 that 51.5 per cent of the girls in the Boston high schools were of American parentage and 65.4 per cent of English speaking parents.^ The relative proportion of English and of non-English speaking peoples presents a problem which must be considered by each individual high school, for in the East Boston High School, for instance, but 36.6 per cent of the girls were of native-born parentage.^ There is a larger foreign element in the evening than in the day schools, though they draw primarily from the same five neighborhoods. More than one-fourth (28.2 per cent) of 861 evening school pupils studied were of American-born parents, while more than two-thirds (69.8 per cent) had foreign-born parents. A slightly larger proportion (34.7 per cent) of the girls working in offices during the day, however, came from Amorican-l)orn parents. To summarize, therefore, the Girls' High School ' United States Immigration Commission, The Children of Immigranti in School, Volume n, pages 190-193. ' From a transcript of the report of the East Boston High School to the Commission on Immigration. 156 WOMEN IX OFFICE SERVICE. draws from a neighborhood of which less than one- half are American-born, though English is the native language of more than one-half. The East Boston High School draws from a section in which less than two-thirds are native-born, but almost four-fifths are English speaking people. Roxbury and Charles- town, two-thirds of whose inhabitants are native-born, have a population of which more than nine-tenths are of English speaking parentage. Dorchester has the largest percentage, three-fourths, of native-born inhab- itants. The proportion of English speaking people (91.6 per cent), however, is not so great as in Charles- town (95.9 per cent), where the great proportion of foreign-born come from English speaking countries. The racial characteristics of the neighborhood, and especially of those families from which the schools draw their pupils, determine in a large degree the foundation upon which the school must build. Visits to the home also yield valuable suggestions and illustrate some of the tremendous problems confronting the schools which attempt vocational education, for the success of such education is determined by the success of the people trained. Employers and particularly business men demand not only women of technical ability but of neat, attractive appearance and pleasing personality. Such a survey of the homes from which many of these girls come shows the varied obhgations which the schools must assume. While these girls "pick up" from obser- vation much knowledge of the necessity of neatness, proper dress and social grace, which are requisite for suc- cess, the school must ultimately meet this responsibility in a systematic way if the best results of its training are to be realized. The schools are taking an increasing interest in the home and is exerting more effort to find out conditions and difficulties and even to aid the mother in the solution of some of her problems, as seen in the mothers' meetings, home visitors' and parent- teachers' associations. The mother, whose influence is so important in the HOME LIFE AND RESPONSIBILITIES. 157 family life, was usually interested and in close touch with her daughter and her work, but occasionally one was found who did not know where her daughter worked nor how she could be reached. The pressure on the mother of hard work and a large family or the unfortunate tendency, sometimes observed, of the young girl to break away from old-world ideals often explains the mother's ignorance of her daughter's activities and surroundings. The dangers and possibilities of such a situation are a matter for serious consideration. As a rule, however, the mother was very keenly interested in the work of her young daughter and expressed an unwil- lingness that she should work alone in an office, usually wishing her to get a position in a large establishment where she might have companions. Wage-earning mothers were found in but ten of the 310 families visited and included rooming-house keepers, saleswomen, cleaning women, and small storekeepers. The wage-earning mother was usually anxious for her children to have all the education they could get. One widowed mother said that her daughter was her only child and that for eight years she had kept lodgers, making only enough profit to send her little girl to school, but she had placed her child in a fairly good position at SIO a week and could rest content with the knowledge that she had done all within her power to educate her daughter. In contrast, one well-to-do woman in a very comfortable home insisted that two years in high school ought to provide enough education whereby any girl might earn her living. The largest proportion of the women in office service, as well as in all other occupations, form a part of a family group. ^ More than four-fifths (82.2 per cent) of the 760 women studied in offices and who reported on living conditions were living at home and almost two- thirds (66.0 per cent) of these were over twenty-one years of age. Almost one-half (43.3 per cent) of the 624 women living at home were earning less than SIO ' United States Census, 1900, Statistics of Women at Work, page 108. 158 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. a week and about one-fifth (22 per cent) were getting less than S8. Practically all (634 or 96.2 per cent) of the 659 girls studied from the schools were living at home and almost three-fourths (70.2 per cent) were under twenty-one years of age, showing that this group was Table 36.— Showing Wage by Age by Living Condition of 659 Girls Secured from the Schools. Number Earning Specified Wage Living Condition and Age. BY Living Conditions. d i h4 •o q M -c5 a a o! -a a o a »» a t3 Total. 2 71 138 163 88 126 46 634 20 38 13 3 57 67 9 2 2 39 94 20 7 1 2 17 17 6 4 27 2 11 40 35 2 1 22 67 36 165 253 137 51 1 1 7 5 5 6 1 25 1 4 2 1 2 1 1 1 3 6 5 1 5 4 13 2 72 145 168 93 132 47 659 > >310 visited in the homes; 349 studied in the evening schools. Compare with women in stores and factories. United States Bureau of Labor, Women and Child Wage-earners, Vol. V, page 23. much younger than is characteristic of the occupation. More than one-half (59 per cent) of these young people were getting less than $10 a week, while 33.3 per cent were getting less than $8.^ Considering the whole group of 1,419 young women » See Table 30. Based on 0.34 girls living at home. HOME LIFE AND RESPONSIBILITIES. 159 from whom living conditions were learned, over four- fifths (88.6 per cent) were living at home. Slightly- more than one-half (51.2 per cent) of this number were getting less than $10 a week and more than one-fourth (27.6 per cent) less than $8. A somewhat larger propor- tion of the women in office service in Boston than for the United States as a whole formed a part of a family group. (See Table 37.) The small proportion, less than one-eighth (11.4 per cent), which lived away from home consisted mainly of women of more maturity who were earning an adequate Table 37. — Showing Living Conditions of Women in Office Service in the United States. ' Living Conditions. Feb Cent in each Occupation BY Specified Family Connections. Clerks. Stenographers and Typewriters. 82.1 79 3 Heads of Family 4.8 42.8 21.0 13.5 2 3 With Father 43.9 With Mother 20 9 12 2 17.9 20 7 > United States Census, 1900, Statistics of Women at Work, pages 101-108. wage. More than one-half (50.3 per cent) were twenty- five years of age and over and seven-tenths (70.8 per cent) earned $10 or more. The greater maturity and larger proportion of better paid women among those who are boarding may be explained by many factors, several of which may be mentioned. The woman of greater maturity and better wage is in a position to live inde- pendently. If she chooses, she may live near her work or within reach of recreational opportunities, such as the opera or theater. Greater maturity also carries with it greater probability that the family circle has broken up. Since greater maturity and longer experi- 160 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. ence signify greater value to her employer, so the wage scale of this group is correspondingly somewhat higher than that of the younger group. Since practically all of the 310 girls secured from the schools were young and were members of a family group, the majority, almost three-fourths (76.8 per cent), had a father at the head of the family, a much larger proportion than appears in the Census. A small pro- portion (4 per cent) had no mothers and the home had Table 38. — Showing Living Conditions of 310 Girls in Office Service. 1 LrviNQ Conditions. Women Living Under Specified Conditions. Number. Per Cent. 302 97.4 292 96.7 With Father 232 48 12 76.8 Without Father 15.9 Without Mother 4.0 10 3.3 7 3 2.3 1.0 Boarding 8 2.6 310 100.0 ' Secured from the schools. to be looked after by an older sister or relative. A still smaller proportion (3.3 per cent) were either Uving with relatives or supporting others, while only 2.6 per cent had no homes and were boarding. The entering age of the workers of an occupation is an index to the amount of skill and intelligence required. Office work varies widely in its different aspects, some positions demanding little or no general education and some demanding as much as possible with technical training in addition, so that a wide range is discovered in HOME LIFE AND RESPONSIBILITIES. 161 the entrance age of the office workers. Many of the purely clerical positions require little general or technical education. It is, primarily, those girls who had gone into these positions at an early age who have come back to the evening commercial high schools for more Table 39. — Showing Age at Beginning Work by Occupation of the Fathers. Number Beginning Work at Specified Age BY OCCUP.'^TION OF Father. DAT SCHOOL. EVENING SCHOOL. Kind of Occupation. 1 T) •o •a -a TJ CD S2 ^^ a 03 o §2 §g □ 03 'a o II 1^ M ' "3 1 2^ 2 . •a § ;3 Manual 142 21 40 66 15 209 97 69 24 12 7 Business or professional, 102 7 32 51 12 99 34 34 17 7 7 66 8 24 23 11 41 22 7 8 4 Total 310 36 96 140 38 349 153 110 49 23 14 Per Cent of T HOSE Beginning 1 rVoRK AT Specified Age bt Oc CUPATION OF Fath ER. DAY SCHOOL. EV ening SCHOOL. Kind of Occupation. -a ■a . •o •B •v ■V CD ^2 oJcs) a 03 «2 §g c a "H o Z 2 ^1 CO 55 ^ 1^ o "a o a "^ oc B 100.0 100.0 14.8 6.9 28.2 31.3 46.4 50.0 10.6 11.8 100.0 100.0 46.5 34.3 33.0 34.4 11.5 17.1 5.7 7.1 3.3 7.1 Business or professional, Unclassified • 100.0 12.1 36.4 34.8 16.7 100.0 53.7 17.0 19.5 9.8 Total 100.0 11.6 30.9 45.2 12.3 100.0 43.8 31.5 14.1 6.6 4.0 ' 47 dead, 15 retired, 4 unclassified. general education and technique. More than two- fifths (43.8 per cent) of the girls in office service, who were attending evening school, went to work before they were sixteen and more than three-fourths before they were eighteen years of age. Naturallj' a com- paratively small proportion (11.6 per cent) of the 310 162 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. girls visited in their homes had gone to work under sixteen and less than one-half before they were eighteen years of age because two-thirds were high school graduates. The characteristic restlessness of the girl of fourteen to sixteen years of age, as well as economic pressure, explain the early age at which some of the young women have gone to work in the lower grades of office service. The girl is at an age when lessons seem hard and she may be easily discouraged with her school work. The office or store looks inviting and, if she has no home restraint or encouragement to continue with her school work, she is likely to leave it for the alluring pay envelope. The girl in the vocational school is especially tempted because she has some of the fundamental equipment, even though inadequate, which enables her to get "a job," and neither she nor her family may realize the importance of completing the course estab- lished by the school. One of the purposes of this study is to show and to impress upon the teacher, child and parent the advantages of securing the most adequate preliminary education possible. For the degree of her educational equipment determines to a very marked extent her financial compensation, the conditions of work and the opportunities for advancement. Economic pressure may be indicated by two factors, which, no doubt, explains the early age at which some of the girls go to work. The occupation of the father provides an index to the family income, and his nation- ality, which may be an asset or a handicap to his earn- ing capacity, also determines to some extent the educa- tional and economic viewpoint of the family. The evening school provides the best opportunity for a study of the relation between age at beginning work and economic pressure because all types are represented. One hundred and fifty-three of the 349 girls engaged in office service during the day had gone to work before the age of sixteen years. Almost two-thirds of these (63.4 per cent) came from homes where the fathers were HOME LIFE AND RESPONSIBILITIES. 163 engaged in manual work. The fathers of only a little more than one-fifth of the girls going to work before sixteen years of age were engaged in some business or profession. From the standpoint of the parents' occu- Table 40. — Showing Occupation of Fathers of Qirls from Day and Evening High School Records. Pupils Whose Fathers were IN Specified Occupations. ' 1 1 Classification. DAT SCHOOL RECORDS. EVENING SCHOOL RECORDS. Total. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. 1 Num- ber. Per Cent. 142 100.0 1 209 100.0 351 100 20 10 6 55 40 11 14.1 7.0 4.2 38.8 28.2 7.7 44 12 10 82 48 13 21.1 5.7 4.8 39.2 23.0 6.2 64 22 16 137 88 24 18 5 6 2 Agricultural Workera 4 5 Skilled Trade Workers 39 25 Public Service and Railroad Employees. . 6.8 102 100 ' fto 100.0 201 100 Government Service Employees Mercantile Workers (employees) Clerical Workers 17 55 6 15 9 16.7 53.9 5.9 14.7 ' 19 57 8 s 19.2 56.6 8.1 8.1 8.0 36 112 14 23 16 17.9 55.7 7 11 4 ; 8.8 ; 7 8 Miscellaneous 66 100.0 41 100.0 107 100.0 47 15 4 71.2 22.7 6.1 41 100.0 88 15 4 82 2 14 2 3 6 310 100.0 349 100.0 659 100 ' Real Estate and Insurance Agents, Bankers and Brokers, Undertakers, etc. pation almost one-half (4G.5 per cent) of those girls whose fathers were in manual work went to work before they were sixteen as compared with 34.3 per cent whose fathers were engaged in some business or professional 164 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. occupation. More than three-fourths (79.5 per cent) of the girls whose fathers were in manual work as compared with more than two-thirds (68.7 per cent) of those in business and professional occupations went to work before they were eighteen years old. The home where the father is dead or where the father does not work usually must send out the girl as soon as possi- ble. More than one-half (53.7 per cent) of those girls from such homes went to work before they were sixteen. Though almost three-fifths of the girls came from homes where the fathers were engaged in manual work, the majority of these fathers, two-thirds, were either skilled trade workers or skilled mechanics. Men who do this comparatively well-paid work are much better able to send their daughters through high school than are the unskilled workers, who must depend on casual or ^'job" work. A larger proportion of the girls secured from the day schools (67 per cent), therefore, than from the evening school (62.2 per cent) had fathers who were engaged in skilled manual work and so were able to secure more adequate schooling. Only about one- fourth of the girls secured from either source came from homes where the heads of the family were engaged in unskilled work or personal service, for they can seldom allow their daughters the luxury of a secondary education. About two-thirds of the fathers in business or pro- fessional work were in the competitive side of it, either as employees or business men. This contact with the business world through her father ought to be a great help to the girl who goes into office service, by giving her an idea of what will be expected of her, something of the point of view and some appreciation of its standards and demands. The girls from homes which have little or no contact with the business office will, therefore, need more intensive training in the school which must provide her with those requisites which the home is not in a position to give. The age at which the girl goes to work may reflect HOME LIFE AND RESPONSIBILITIES. 165 also the nationality of her parents, either because this determines to some degree the father's ability to success- fully compete in the business or industrial world, and hence the economic pressure in the home, or because it reflects the educational ideals of the family and its attitude toward the girl as a potential wage-earner. Table 41. — Showing Relation of the Father's Nationality to the Age of the Girl at Beginning Work.^ Pupils op Specified Parentage bt Age Beginning Work. Total. Age at Beginning Work. NATIVE- BORN. foreign-born. UNCLASSI- FIED. 1 a 34 7 48.8 42.5 8.7 123 > 160 27 > 39.7 51.6 8.7 Total 126 100.0 184 100.0 104 100.0 80 100.0 310 100 1 One unclassified. economic situation. It might be quite as much the result of custom as of economic strain. There is no doubt that the fathers' occupation as well as the nationality has some relation to the girl's responsibility to the home. Almost one-half (45.8 per cent) of the 310 girls with whom personal interviews were obtained belonged to families where the father was doing manual work. Over two-fifths (43.7 per cent) of these girls gave all of their earnings towards the support of the family and loss than one-tenth (7.7 per cent) gave none. Girls whose fathers were business or pro- fessional men, as a rule, felt less pressure and were 168 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. being trained by their parents in wise and independent use of their income. Shghtly over one-third (35.3 per cent) gave all and over one- tenth (11.8 per cent) gave none of their earnings. Where the father was dead or retired, the girl was apt to be one of the supporters if not the mainstay of the family, and over one- third (37.9 per cent) of these gave all their earnings into the family fund, while more than Table 44. — Showing Contribution to the Family Income by Father's Occupation. Number Whose Fathers are in Each Occupation Contributing Specified Amount. Total. Amount of Contribution. MANUAL work. BUSINESS OR PROFESSIONAL OCCUPATIONS. UNCLASSI- FIED.2 Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. Num- ber. Per Cent. 62 69 11 43.7 48.6 7.7 36 54 12 35.3 52.9 11.8 25 37 41 37.9 56.1 6.0 123 160 271 39.7 Part of their earnings None of their earnings 51.6 8.7 Total 142 100.0 102 100.0 661 100.0 310 > 100 1 One adrift. * See note, Table 39. one-half (56.1 per cent) paid in part and only a very small proportion (6.0 per cent) gave none of their earnings. The number of younger children in the family also determines the girl's responsibility to the family. Slightly over one-fifth (22 per cent) of those reporting had more than two dependents in the home and 58.8 per cent turned in all of their earnings as compared with 34.4 per cent, who, without this responsibility at home, turned in all their wage. One-third (33.6 per cent) had one other wage-earner as compared with less than one-fourth (24.4 per cent) given in the Census returns.^ Only a very small proportion (3.9 per cent) had no other wage-earners 'United SUtes Ceoaus, 1900, Stalislics of Women at Work, page 108. HOME LIFE AND RESPONSIBILITIES. 169 as compared with 6.4 per cent given in the Census/ doubtless because these girls were younger and the father in the majority of cases was still living. The workers in this skilled group, therefore, seem to have greater economic independence in their family relationships than is discovered among those in stores and factories. The United States Bureau of Labor found in 1910 that ''of the women reported in New York stores 84.3 per cent, and of those in factories 88.1 per cent, contributed all their earnings; ... It is true that there may enter into the large percentage for the factory workers the tendency among foreign-born families to regard children as an investment, to whose earnings the parents have a proprietary right so long as the children are under the parental roof. But in this connection it is significant that among the women in department and other retail stores, where the foreign element enters but slightly, the per cent turning their entire earnings into the family fund is not much smaller than among the factory and mill workers. "^ Economic pressure, therefore, does not seem to be so serious a factor in this occupation as in stores and fac- tories. Doubtless, many of the girls have gone to work younger and less adequately equipped than really necessary, because they were tired of school or because they "didn't see any use in going any longer." Many parents and girls would make the effort to secure longer training and more adequate equipment if they could see its real value and importance. Such an intimate knowledge of the home life and responsibilities of the girls who come to the high schools for business training is essential for effective instruction. Each high school must work out the problem of its neighborhood, which varies in its racial background as well as its economic and intellectual ideals. To sum- marize, the five high schools studied draw their students 1 United States Census, 1900, Statistics of Women at Work, page 108. * United States Bureau of Labor, Women and Child Wage-earners in the United Stale*, Volume V, pages 18 and 19. 170 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. from all sections of the city and suburbs. The West and South Ends with almost one-half, East Boston and Roxbury with one-third, have the larger proportion of foreign-born inhabitants, while Charlestown with more than two-thirds and Dorchester with almost three-fourths have the greater proportion of native-born inhabitants in their population. As some schools have a large number of foreign-born, while others have a majority of native-born to deal with, it is necessary for the school to consider the variety of background and plan the cur- riculum so as to best meet the needs of all their pupils. While the majority of girls in office service have not gone to work young, many who have must go back to school for additional preparation. More than two-fifths of those attending evening school had gone to work in the lower grades of office service before the age of sixteen years. They have come to the evening school for fur- ther equipment, because they have found their pre- liminary preparation inadequate. Naturally a small proportion, only a little over one-tenth of the 310 girls visited in the homes, had gone to work under sixteen years of age, because two-thirds were high school graduates as compared with one-third of those studied through offices. The natural restlessness characteristic of girls at this age, economic pressure as influenced by the father's nationality and occupation and the educa- tional aspirations and ideals of the family may explain why these girls have gone to work young and inade- quately prepared. Only a little more than one-third of the 349 girls in office service attending evening school and 40 per cent of the 310 visited had native-born parents. The fathers of only about one-fourth of either group, however, were engaged in unskilled work or personal service. Nationality and home conditions not onh' influence the age at which the girl must go to work, but also the amount of support she is expected to contribute to her home. But one-fourth of the girls of native-born parents (who constituted 40 per cent of the 310 girls HOME LIFE AND RESPONSIBILITIES. 171 visited) gave all they earned towards the general sup- port of the family, while almost one-half of the girls of foreign-born parents gave all of their earnings. Greater economic independence in their family relation- ship seemed to be the rule among women in office service as compared with store and factory workers. Since the economic condition of the homes of the girls in office service seems to be comparatively comfortable, many might be induced to continue their education, if it is made sufficiently practical and interesting, and if both child and parent are shown the importance of an adequate preliminary education. 172 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. CHAPTER VI.— SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK May Allinson Office service employing more than five hundred thousand women in the United States ranks among the foremost occupations for women in its opportunities for development and advancement and in the superior conditions of work. But the very fact that financial opportunities and the conditions of work are superior to these of the great majority of women's occupations, and that it carries with it a certain social prestige in the working world, presents a problem for solution. For office service, with its many advantages, is the ambition and goal of a great many girls who, because of inade- quate education and training, the lack of the requisite personal and social qualifications, or the inabiUty to secure an appreciation of the needs and demands of the occupation, not only fail to realize their own highest possibilities but lower the standard of efficiency in the service. Training for this occupation has been a long series of experiments, with little systematic or scientific study of the requisites of the occupation for which preparation was offered. The private business schools which sprang up about the middle of the nineteenth century attempted to meet, in as short a time as pos- sible, the demands of increasing business for skilled office workers on the one hand, and on the other, the needs of prospective workers for training to meet the requirements of the business office. These schools, however, provided training for specific processes or machines rather than for the vocation in a large sense. Nor was vocational fitness, adequacy of preliminary SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK. 173 education, or the desirability of establishing a uniformly- high standard, a matter of serious consideration. The pubhc high schools almost half a century later began on a large scale to cater to pubhc demand for "practical courses," and at first tacked on the regular high school curriculum an occasional course in book- keeping, stenography and typewriting. Two year courses followed by three year courses which were, in turn, supplanted by four and occasionally five year courses of training in commercial subjects all have had their place in the history of pubhc school commercial education. Recently, "intensive" two year and three year courses are again being offered, attempting to compete with the short courses offered by the private commercial schools. These various educational schemes have been attempted with httle or no intimate knowl- edge of the needs and demands of the business office, nor of the suitabihty or adaptability of the students electing these courses. All who desired might elect the "curriculum of commercial subjects," ranging from two to five years in length, or under a very elastic system, might elect any number of particular commercial subjects. As a result, pupils with a preparation rang- ing from two to five years in high school and a vocational equipment based on from four to thirty-six points in commercial subjects have been going out from the public high schools as prospective office workers. And the pupil has been left to choose her course or her particular subjects largely at will with little or no knowledge of the requirements of office work and of the varying demands of the business offices themselves. At the opposite extreme are the women's technical colleges which are turning out the "college trained secretary" with a four year technical college course or four year academic college education with one year's intensive preparation for office service. So-called commercial education has been handicapped by its introduction before the real significance and the fundamental principles of vocational training were under- 174 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. stood or appreciated. Efficiency has been endangered by the lack of a standard or definitely formulated program for "commercial education." The sponsorship for commercial education assumed by private business schools of all grades of efficiency has produced the problem of many workers with inadequate general education and limited technical skill. The introduc- tion of ''commercial" subjects in a general high school course or even a "commercial curriculum" in the control of academic schoolmen has produced the worker with inadequate technical and vocational preparation. A recognition of four fundamental facts is essential for effective vocational education. First, an intimate acquaintance with the conditions and demands of the occupation is necessary. From the personal standpoint, the school must know what degree of maturity, physical strength, education, intelligence and original thinking is required of the worker; and from the technical standpoint, it must understand the processes, methods, monotony or variety of work. Second, an equally intimate acquaintance with the background and char- acteristics of the prospective worker and her possibilities for success and of adjustment to the demands of the occupation is essential. Third, on the basis of this knowledge, applicants for training should be carefully considered and tested out. They should be given a clear understanding of the occupation to which they are aspiring and of its conditions and requirements. Those without the requisite qualifications or any apparent possibility of developing them should be directed into lines for which they have some capacity and interest. Those who are eligible for training should be carefully studied, that the qualities in which they are lacking should be most efficiently supplemented and developed. When the pupil has completed the course of training the school should make every effort to place her in the position where she has greatest opportunity to develop her particular abilities and can give the most SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK. 175 efficient service. Fourth, close co-operation with the pupil who has gone to work and with her employer will enable the educator to profit by the experience of all concerned and to continually adjust the curriculum to changing requirements. Vocational education based on these four principles has three most desirable results. First, it will save the girl without the requisite qualifica- tions from disappointment and failure in an occupation in which she has no chance for success. Second, it will raise the standard of the occupation. Third, it will provide those eligible for the occupation with the equipment which the prospective worker must have to insure success and advancement. The investigator can lay the corner stone for the tremendous task which confronts the vocational educator by providing a general survey of the occupation as a whole. The educator, with this general information as a background, can work out and adapt to the individual cases with which he deals, the application of the funda- mental facts discovered. The vocational guide and placement agent, in the light of the information provided both by investigator and educator, may direct and place the young worker so as to secure the most satisfactory and economic adjustment of demand and supply. Office service is particularly worthy of careful study by those interested in vocational education for women because of its superior conditions and opportunities. One-third of its one million and a half workers in 1910 were women. One of its three divisions, stenography and typewriting, is increasingly monopolized by women, who in 1910 constituted more than four-fifths the total number employed in the occupation. The wage scale is much higher than that of the better industries and of the other great commercial occupation, salesmanship. Only one-sixth of the 1,177 women studied through a local canvass of offices earned less than $8 and the average wage for the entire group was $11. Civil Service office workers have a still higher wage scale, 176 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. only 1.2 per cent earning less than $8. Nor is the wage in office service greatly reduced by various factors as in most other occupations, for holidays, vacations and illness were paid for in the great majority of cases. It has been found that the nominal and actual earnings of the clerical worker were more nearly identical than in any of the six large women-employing occupations. More- over, hours were shorter and the physical conditions of work better for the majority than in most lines of work. Opportunity for advancement and conditions of work may be influenced by such external influences as the nature of the employer's business, the system of office management, or conditions in a particular office, but the fundamental basis is education plus individual capacity. Such personal characteristics as intelligence, a quick grasp of essentials, capacity for initiative, responsibility, easy adjustment and adaptability to conditions, are most vital and are easily recognized in the study of an individual, but they are intangible from a statistical standpoint. Education, maturity and length of experience in its relation to advancement, however, can be definitely measured in a study of large numbers. Education seems to be the most important influence in office service, determining the occupation a girl can enter, the initial wage and the length of experience requisite to earn a high wage. The stenographers show the most education and the highest earning capacity. Three-fourths had a high school education or its equiva- lent, more than one-half had had additional technical training in business college, and one-half earned $12 and over. Almost two-thirds of the clerks had not had a high school education or its equivalent, about one-sixth had had additional technical training, and three-fourths earned less than $12. More than one-half the stenographers, while more than three-fourths of the clerks, began with an initial wage of less than $8. So, also, the stenographer with greater education reached the same wage in shorter time than the clerk. Such a survey of the occupation of office service yields SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK. 177 suggestions to educator and placement agent ; to parent and child; and to the business man. For the commercial educator: 1. Recognition and application of the four funda- mental principles of vocational education are essential for efficiency. These are: (1.) Acquaintance with business demands and the trend of development. (2.) Knowledge of the equipment and of the possibilities of the prospective worker. (3.) Training closely correlated within the various divisions of the educational system with business demands and with the pupil's needs. (4.) Placement, close connection with w^orker and employer and resultant adjustment of cur- riculum. 2. The direct relation between education and oppor- tunity for advancement shows the obvious advantage of a four year high school course for all who can avail themselves of it. The concrete advantages of education should be made clear to all parents and pupils, and all who possibly can should be urged to take the four year course. 3. A fifth year intensive course of technical training might well be developed in all high schools where the attendance would justify, to meet the needs of the com- paratively large proportion who go to private business colleges for additional technical training. The resultant financial advantage to the worker is apparent. 4. Shortened undergraduate courses in the day high school for the skilled occupations in office service seem to be a very questionable experiment in the light of the study of workers in office service. 5. The continuation courses offered in the evening high schools for those who have gone to work before completing or even entering the course offered by the day high schools might well be supplemented by careful vocational advice to each applicant for training. So, 178 WOMEN IN OFFICE SERVICE. also, may these courses be made more efficient and helpful by the resultant intimate acquaintance with the needs of each individual. 6. Part-time schooling for office service seems to promise three real advantages: (1.) Preliminary initiation of the prospective worker into the business world which gives appreciation of its demands and conditions and a real significance to the courses given in the school. (2.) Opening up of opportunities for placement of the pupil workers who have satisfactorily met the requirements. (3.) Close co-operation and an intelligent under- standing between employer and educator. 7. Office service is in a state of transition because of the growth of the large office, development of improved methods of office administration, and introduction of time and labor saving machinery. The educator must keep in close touch with business men and offices, con- tinually adjusting his curriculum to meet the changing demands. For the placement agency if conducted separately from but in conjunction with the school: 1. An intimate acquaintance with particular offices and employers is necessary if the advisor would know the requisite qualifications of the workers and the methods of business. For, since office service is in a state of transition, different kinds of offices make different demands. The larger office may wish special- ized workers, the small office general workers. One office wishes mature workers capable of assuming initiative and responsibility. Another office requires primarily manual workers who are expected to follow instructions under supervision. 2. The vocational guide can do an important social service by advising parent and prospective worker of conditions and requirements of the occupation. She can point out the real advantage of adequate prepara- SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK. 179 tion and a general education, not only in the higher initial wage and superior openings available, but in shortening the length of time necessary to reach a high wage. 3. The placement agency and vocational educators should be in closest touch, the experience and knowl- edge acquired by each being put at the disposal of the other. Some standard test of capacity and efficiency should be formulated. Applicants without the capacity or opportunity for acquiring the requisite equipment for success should be directed into something within their reach. Trained workers should be directed into those offices where their personal experience and abiUties have greatest opportunities for expression. For the business man : 1. He may help the educator formulate a standard of efficiency in education, technique and personal requirements to which all accredited pupils must measure up. 2. He may help the educator initiate the pros- pective worker into the atmosphere of the business world and an appreciation of its requirements by (1) talks with and suggestions to the educators and classes in the school and (2) by co-operating in the part-time schooling scheme in so far as feasible with efficiency in the office. INDEX Academic Students, rating compared with that of commercial students, 28-29; persistence in school, 29-31. Academic Teachers, co-operation with commercial teachers pro- posed, 62-63. Accountants, see Bookkeepers. Administrative Clerks, see Clerks. Advancement, as reason for change of positions, 102, 104; factors determining, 111-112; fundamen- tal basis for, 125; influence of education on, 147; conditions influencing, 176. Advertisement, as means of securing work, 96, 97, 100. Age, factor in determining earning capacity, 122-123; wage by age, table showing, 122; influence on beginning wage, 146-147; office workers living at home, 157-158; office workers living away from home, 159; girls from school group, 166. Age at Beginning Work, 51, 160-165; wide variation in, 160-161; occu- pation of father in relation to, table showing, 161; nationality of father in relation to, table show- ing, 165. Agencies, see Employment Agencies. Application, as means of securing employment, 96, 97, 100. Banks, salaries and office conditions, 84. Beginning Wage, see Initial Wage. Benefit Societies, among office workers, 110. Bookkeeper, definition of, 75. Bookkeepers, number of women em- ployed as, 3; two year course for, 27; proportion of high school graduates among, 35; proportion of women, 75, 76; methods of securing work, table showing, 96; lack of legal restriction on hours, 105; sccretariiil oi)portunities, 121; educational cciuipment, 146; marital condition, 166. Wages, group studied, 37, 71; civil service positions, table showing. 116; workers registered in em- ployment bureau, table showing, 118; chart, 119; workers in offices, table showing, 120; majority of workers, 124; workers with 6 years' experience or less, 143; initial wage, 144. Bookkeeping, value of knowledge to office worker, 77. Boot and Shoe Industry, wage of women workers, 113. Boston Placement Bureau, scope, 100. Business, number of women em- ployed in, 1. Business Attitude, demand for, in office workers, 90-91. Business Education, see Commer- cial Courses. Business Ethics, need for school instruction regarding, 64, 65, 92; importance of, 91. Business Experience, opportunities offered high school students, 27, 28, 65, 66, 67. Business Men, co-operation of, with schools, 67-68, 179. See also Employers. Business Personality, see Person- ality. Business Schools, see Commercial Schools. Business Women, co-operation with schools advised, 68. Cashiers, see Bookkeepers. Charlestow^n, i)opulation and charac- ter of district, 153. Charlestow^n High School, neigh- borhood, 151, 156. Civil Service, women employed in office service under, 20; salaries, 87; wage scale, 115, 116, 118, 119, 120, 175-176; highlv paid clerk- ships, 121. Clerical High School, plan of work, 23, 53. Clerical Training, results from two year course, 1 1 . Clerical Work, number of women employed in, 1, 3; opportunities for women, 74-75; proportion of women engaged in, 75, 76. 181 182 INDEX. Clerical Workers, number of women employed as, 1,3; proportion of, in group studied, 35; attendance at evening school, 52; openings for, 53; classification of, 74; in factories, 84; methods of securing employment, table showing, 96; handicaps, 97; lack of legal restric- tion upon hours, 105; working hours, 105-106; administrative positions in civil service, 121-122; age, 123; at beginning work, 146; experience in relation to wage, 131-139; chart showing, 133; table, 135; schooling and experi- ence in relation to wage, chart showing, 137; marital conditions, 166. Educational equipment, group stud- ied, 75, 125-131, 134, 137, 140, 147, 148, 176; table shov/ing, 126; relation of schooling to wage, chart showing, 127; table, 128. Wages, group studied, 36, 37, 71, 75; in civil service positions, 87; table showing, 116; group regis- tered in employment bureau, table showing, 118; chart, 119; office workers, table, 120; civil service clerkships, 121; average wage, 114; group wage, 123-124, 147-148; workers with six years' experience or less, 143; initial wage, 143-144, 148. Clothing Factory, requirements of office workers, S3. Co-education, advantage of, in com- mercial training, 26-27. College Graduates, salaries, 138; financial advantage over non- college women, 138-139. College Trained Secretary, 125; salaries, 139; course, 173. Commercial Courses, see High Schools, commercial courses. Commercial Education, distinct prob- lems of, 57-58; importance of vocational guidance in, 58, 59; handicap, 173-174. See also Technical Training. Commercial Schools, growth of, in United States, 5, 6-8; proportion of women students in, 5-6, 7; subjects taught, 7; proportion of students trained in, 8; public school training supplemented by, 37-38, 39, 40; table, 38; place- ments, 4f>-41, 99-100; wages of office workers trained in, 130, 141, 142; character of training pro- vided, 172, 174. See also High Schools. Commercial Students, persistence in school compared with academic students, 29-31, 70-71. Continuation Courses, evening high schools, 43, 46, 177-178. Contribi'tion to Family Support, 166-169, 170, 171; by nationality of father, table showing, 167; by occupation of father, table show- ing, 168. Co-operative Schooling, see Part- time Schooling. Co-ORDiNATOR, value of, to schools and employers, 66; relation to placement work, 69. Copyists, see Clerical Workers. Court Reporter, salary, 85. Cultural Subjects, correlation of, with practical work, 62-64. Curriculum, high school commercial course, 32; evening commercial high school, 46; influence of home environment of pupils on, 150. Departmental System, in high schools, 26. Department Stores, office force, 82- 83; composition of, 115; wage scale, S3, 113. Dependents, see Contribution to Family Support. Dictaphone, use and effect of, 94-95. Dorchester, population and charac- ter of district, 154-155. Dorchester High School, placement bureau, 14; neighborhood, 151, 156. Dress, attitude of employers towards, 90; business requirements, 91. East Boston, population and charac- ter of district, 152-153. East Boston High School, neighbor- hood, 151, 156. Economic Independence, office workers, 169, 171. Economic Pressure, as cause for chil- dren leaving school, 32, 33, 48, 70; indications of, 162; as factor with office workers, 169. Education, effect on occupation and salary, 23; relation to ocruj)ation, 35-36; table showing, 36; influ- ence on occupation and wage, 125, 126, 147, 148, 149; effect on wage, 27, 43, 71, 132, 138; chart show- inir, 1.37; commercial advantage of, 139; relation to earning capacity, 126-131, 162; chart showing, 127; table, 128; importance of, in office service, 61-62, 89, 148-149; im- INDEX. 183 portance of, to secretary, 79; equipment of office workers, 125- 131; table showing, 126; value to workers in office service, 140; table showing, 141; relation to initial wage, 143, 145, 146; table show- ing, 145; relation to advancement, 43, 176, 177, 179. Educational Institutions, oppor- tunity for stenographers, 86. Efficiency, of commercial courses, 71; of girls trained for office service in the schools, 114; standard for, in education required, 179. Efficient Stenographer, definition of, 90. Elective System, in high schools, 41- 42; danger in, 63; restriction of, advised, 72. Employers, types of, 80; varying requirements, 87-89; qualities de- manded in worker, 140, 149, 156. Employment, methods of securing, see Positions, methods of securing. Employment Agencies, office positions secured through. 96, 98, 99; fees, 99; wages of office workers regis- tered with, 117-118; table show- ing, 118. English, rating of commercial and academic students in, 28-29. Environment of Pupils, knowledge of, essential for schools, 59-60, 150, 169-170. Ethics of Business, see Business Ethics. Evening Commercial High Schools, scope of study regarding, 18; occupations of girl students, 18, 20; per cent employed in oflSce service, 31; proportion at work before 16, 31-32; reasons for attendance, 42; enrollment, 43; persoimel, 43, 45; courses, 45-46; problems, 45, 49; age of girls en- rolled, 47-48; table showing, 47; previous education and training, 48, 53, 54; occupations, 49-52; table showing, 50; girls in office service, 52; length of working day, 50-51; unit courses, pur- po.se of, 55-56; foreign element, 155; age at which pupils went to work, 161, lt)2; occupations of fathers, table showing, 163. Evening Schools, sec Evening COM.MKRCIAL HiGH ScHOOLS. Experience, relation to earning capacity, 44, 45, 131-143; charts, 45, 133; table, 135. Eye Strain, resulting from office work, 109. Factories, hours of work in, 50; re- quirements of oflBce workers, 83- 84; wages, 84; opportunity for advancement, 84. Family Support, see Contribution TO Family Support. Fatigue, problem in evening school work, 50-51. Fees, typewriter agencies, 98; paid agencies, 99. Finishing Courses, at business col- leges, 40. Foreign Element, school neighbor- hoods, 151-156; evening schools, 155. Foreign Parentage, relation to age at which children go to work, 48-49. Four Year Commercial Course, question as to advisability of shortening, 37. Friends, employment secured tlirough, 96-97, 100. Girls, proportion in high schools studying commercial subjects, 12, 13, 25-26; returns from graduates, 13; per cent of graduates with commercial training, 28; reasons for leaving school, 31-32; occupa- tions in office service, 52; educa- tion and training, 52-55; wages, 55. Girls' High School, neighborhood, 151, 155, 156. Grammar School Education, per cent of evening school pupils having, 54. Grammar School Pupils, wages in office service, 128, 130, 141; initial wage, 145. Grammar School Teachers, con- nection with high school voca- tional counselors, 59. Health, effect of oflBce service on, 109-110. High School Graduates, per cent of girls with commercial training, 28-29; occupational statistics, 34- 35; pro]wrtion employed in office service, 34; proportion taking addi- tional training, 37, 3S, 39, 43, 44; wages, 39; by experience, 45; coini>ared with non-graduates, 126-129, 130, 131, 134, 1.35, 136, 138, 141, 142; girl.s trained in office service, 114; initial wage, 144, 145, 148. High School Tr.vining, need of, for clerical workers, 140. 184 INDEX. High Schools, proportion of commer- cial students trained in, 8-9; table showing, 9; number offering commercial courses for girls, 25; departmental system, 26 ; dropping out of pupils in second year, 30-31, 7(>-71; placements of grad- uates, 99, 100-101; nativity of pupils, 151-156. Commercial courses, two year course, 9, 10, 11, 27; three and four year courses, 10-11; students enrolled, 10, 12, 70; results from intensified clerical course, 11; nature of courses, 26, 70; one year course, 27-28; methods for increasing efficiency, 58-73; lack of uni- formity, 173; five year course, 177. See also Evening Commercial High Schools. Hiring Office Help, methods of, 67-68. Holidays, pay for, in office service, 108, 112. Home Life, women in oflBce service, 150-171. Hours OF Employment, 105-107, 112; night school pupils, 50-51; opinion of Attorney General, 105; weekly hours in office service, table show- ing, 106. See also Overtime. Hygiene, importance of, in connection with commercial training, 109. Illness, loss of time on account of, 110, 112. Initial Wage, by schooling, chart showing, 39; effect of education on, 143, 145, 146, 148; influence of age on, 146-147; clerks and stenographers, 148. Initiative, demand for, in secretaries, 88. Instability of Workers, see Sta- bility OF Workers. Insurance Office, opportunity for stenographers, 86. Intensified Commercial Course, for stenographers, 140; in public high schools, 173. Investigation, see School Inves- tigation. Lawyers, character of office work for, 85. Living Condition.s, women in office service, 157-160; wage in relation to, table showing, 1.58; number living at home, 1.5S, 1.59, 160. Living Wage, 36, 113, 123, 124. Machine Operating, wages, 61. Machines for Office Use, see Office Appliances. Marital Condition, women in office service, 165-166; table showing, 166. Men, preference for, as stenographers in certain offices, 78. Mercantile Establishments, hours of work in, 51. Minimum Wage, see Living Wage. Monotony, in connection with ma- chine operating, 61. Mothers, attitude towards daughters' work, 156-157. Nationality of Father, in relation to age of girl at beginning work, 165, 170; table showing, 165. Nativity, population of school neigh- borhoods, 151-156; table showing, 153; girls in high schools, 155. Nervous Strain, resulting from office work, 110. Nominal Wage, see Wages. North End, Boston, character of district, 151. Occupation of Father, relation to school course elected by children, 32-33; table showing, 33; effect on schooling of children, 48; relation to age children begin work, 161, 162, 163; table show- ing, 163. Occupations, women, chart showing, 3; high school pupils, 34-35; girls in evening high schools, 49, 50, 51, 52; table, 50; girls in office service, 52; age groujis, 123. Office Appliances, course in, 40; introduction of, in training schools, 60-01; problem involved, 61; effect of introduction on office work, 92-95. Office Etiquette, breaches of, 64-65. Office Service, number of women in, by Census i)eriods, 1; occupa- tions included, 2; types of work- ers, 2-4; definition of term, 4; training for, 6-24; working con- ditions, 51, 10.5-110; hours of employment, 51, 105-107; de- mands of employer, .58; impor- tance of general education, 61-62; character of work, 74-112; num- ber of j)ersons emi)loyed in, 74: classification of, 74, 121; lack of uniformity in, 88-89, 111; prob- lem in training for, 89; opportu- nities, 112; wages, 113-119; home life of workers, 150-171. INDEX. 185 One Year Clerical Course, 27-28. Overtime, in office service, 107, 108, 112; payment for, 107-108. Part-^ime Schooling, as preparation for office service, 58, 59; aid in problem of business training, 65, 67; value in placement work, 68- 69; advantages of, 72, 178. Persistence in School, academic and commercial students compared, 29-31; table showing, 31; causes for leaving school, 31-32, 70. Personal Appearance, see Person- ality and Dress. Personality, importance of, in office service, 58; business demand for, 64, 89; equipment for, 72; impor- tance of, in securing position, 89- 90; prime factors in, 91; training in, required, 92. Phonography, see Stenography. Physical Effects of Work, 109-110. Physicians, character of office work, 84, 85. Placement Bureau, see Boston Placement Bureau. Placement of Graduates, through part-time plan, 72-73; problem of school, 100-101. Placement Work, in commercial schools, 40-41, 99-100; impor- tance of, 68-69, 70; conducted by typewTiter agencies, 98; number placed, 103; requirement's for efficiency, 178-179. Population, school neighborhoods, 151-156. Positions, methods of securing, 69, 96-100, 112; reasons for change of, 104. Post-graduate Commercial Courses, 27-28, 42, 43. "Practical Minded" Students, 29, 70. Practice Work, see Business Ex- perience. Private Commercial Schools, see Commercial Schools. Promotion, see Advancement. Public High Schools, see High Schools. Public Stenographers, assistants, 86; wages, 87. Qualifications for Business Suc- cess, 89-92, 176. Real Estate Offices, opportunity for stenograplier, 85-86. Relative.'^, employment secured through, 96-97, 100. Requisites for Business Success, see Qualifications for Business Success. Restlessness, as reason for leaving school, 162, 170. Retail Establishments, see Mer- cantile Establishments and Department Stores. RoxBURY, population and character of district, 153-154. RoxBURY High School, intensified clerical course, 11; neighborhood, 151-156. Salaries, secretaries, 79; by length of experience, 87; factors determin- ing, 124; college graduates, 138, 139. Salesmanship, number of women em- ployed in, 2, 3; hours of work, 105; training courses, 26-27; part- time plan in connection with, 66. Schooling, see Education. School Investigation, sample sched- ules, 16, 17, 19, 21. School Neighborhoods, population and character of districts, 151-156. Schools, knowledge of environment of pupils important, 169, 170; rec- ommendations for increasing ef- ficiency, 174-175, 177-179. Seasonal Demand, in office service, 102, 104. Secretarial Position, goal of stenog- raphers, 78, 111. Secretaries, number among high school graduates, 35; distinction from stenographer, 78, 121; req- uisites, 78-79; salary, 79, 124; workers with six years' or less experience, 143; initial wage, 144; hours of employment, 106-107; age, 123; educational equipment, 146. Sedentary N.\ture of Office Work, 110. Selling Agencies, see Wholesale Houses. Shoe Factory, office force, 84. Shorthand, see Stenography-. Shorthand Writers, number of women, 1870, 4, 6. .See aho Stenographers and Typists. Situation Depart.ment, commercial schools, see Placement Work. South End, Bo.ston, population and character of district, 151-152. Stability of Workers, 101-102. Standardization, lack of, in commer- cial courses, 173-174; recommend- ations, 179. 186 INDEX. State Free Employment Agency, office workers placed by, 96; number registered, 99. Stenographers, number of women employed as, 3, 77; in 1870, 4; by Census periods, 6; high school courses for, 27 ; projiortion among school group studied, 35; educa- tional advantage over clerks, 77; wage advantage, 78; preference for men in certain offices, 78; sec- retarial opportunity, 78, 121 ; place- ments by typewTiter agencies, 80; effect of stenotype and dictaphone on, 95; methods of securing work, 96-100; stability in position, 101; hours of employment, 105-106; age, 123; age at beginning work, 146; marital condition, 169. Educational equipment, group studied, 125, 126, 127, 129, 130, 131, 137, 140, 141, 146, 176; educa- tion and wage, 137, 141, 142, 148; chart showing, 137; table, 141. Opportunity, in selling office of wholesale house, 82; in depart- ment store, 83; in factory, 84; in bank and trust company, 84; physician's office, 85; lawyer's office, 85; real estate office, 85-86; insurance office, 86 ; social agency, library, and educational institu- tion, 86. Wages, group studied, 37, 71, 119, 120; workers placed by typewTiter agencies, 80, 117; in selling offices of wholesale houses, 82; retail estabUshments, 83; factories, 84; banks and trust companies, 84; physicians' offices, 85; la\\yers' offices, 85; assistants of pubUc stenographers, 87; civil serv-ice positions, 87, 116; average wage, 114; group registered with em- ployment bureau, 118; highest wage reported, 121; wage group- ing, 123-124; experience in rela- tion to, 131-139; compared with that of clerk, 136; ma>Limum wage, 138; additional training in relation to, 142; initial wage, 143- 14(i, 148; workers with 6 years' experience or loss, 143. Stenographic Test, in typewriter agencies, 81, 98, 116-117. Stenography, introduction of, into United .States, 4; monopoly of, by women, 175. Stenotype, 93-94, 95; advantages of, 94. Support of Family, see Contribu- tion to Family Support. Technical Training, as supplement to high school course, 126; effect on wage, 128-130, 142-143, 145- 146, 148; advantages of, 148. Temporary Work, factor in office ser- vice, 68, 102-105, 112; positions filled by typewriter agencies, 103, 104-105. Trade and Transportation, number of women employed in, 1. Training, for office service, character of, 172-179. Trust Companies, see Banks. Two Year Clerical Courses, in high schools, 27. Typewriter, development of, 4-5; effect of introduction on personnel of office force, 92 ; extent of use, 93. Typewriter Agencies, placement records, 20; number placed, 80; type of workers, 81; office posi- tions secured, 96, 98; methods, 98, 99; temporary and permanent workers, 103; proportion of temporarj' placements, 104-105; tests for workers, 116-117. Typists, increase in proportion of women employed as, 6; propor- tion among school group studied, 35. See also Stenographers. Unit Courses, plan for, in public schools, 55-56; for students who leave school, 70. Vacation Months, temporary posi- tions filled during, 104. Vacations, women in office service, 108-109, 112. Ventilation, good conditions in of- fices, 109-110. Vocational Advice, value of, from business women, 68. Voc.\tional Education, effect on character of high schools, 12: innovations called for in school administration, 14-15; lesson for commercial educators, 58; es- sentials for efficiency, 174-175, 177-179. Vocational Guidance, need of, in evening schools, 5Gi-57^ 177; im- portance in commercial educar tion, 58, 59; requirements, 59-60; social service function, 178-179. Wage-earning Mothers, number, 157. Wage Statistics, sources for, 114-117. INDEX. 187 Wages, 113-149; ofRce workers placed by typewriter companies, 20; high school graduates, 29, 37, 43; evening school pupils in oflBce service, 55; machine operators, 61; office force in department stores, 83; saleswomen, 113; reduction of, for loss of time, 108-112; nominal and actual, 110-111, 176; in boot and shoe industry, 113; in office service, 114; in mercantile es- tablishments, 115; civil service positions, 115, 116; office workers registered in employment bureau, 117-118; office workers secured through high schools, 141; office workers with six years' or less experience, 143; by age and living conditions, 158; compared with workers in other occupations, 175-176. Factors determining, 122-148; age of workers, 122-123; education and training, 125-131, 134-139, 141- 148; experience, 131-139; tech- nical training, 142-143, 145, 146, 148. Education in relation to, 36, 37, 38, 71, 72, 126-131 ; effect of additional training, 38, 142; schooling and length of experience, 45, 137. Clerks, 75, 123-124; by length of experience, 131-139; chart show- ing, 133; table, 135; by schooling and experience, chart showing, 137. Stenographers, placed by tj-pe- writer agencies, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 87, 117; clerks and stenog- raphers, 123-124; by length of experience, 131-139; by schooling and experience, 137; maximum wage, 138; by schooling, 141; relation of additional training to, 142; stenographers and clerks, 176. See also Initial Wage and Salaries. Weekly Hours of Work, see Hours OF Employment. West End, Boston, population, 151- 152. Wholesale Houses, opportunity for stenographers in, 82. Women, statistics of employment, 1; chart showing, 3; number em- ployed in office service in United States, 74; proportion in clerical work, 75-76; bookkeepers and accountants, 75, 76; proportion of stenographers and tj'pists in United States, 92; hours of work in office service, 105-107; health of workers, 110; wages 113-149; home life, 150-171. Working Conditions, in office service, 105-110, 112. D21 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. OCT "* RE* 3 #-' ^ ^ » APR 27 197? rtrotp-uj^ ;»|^iJ