Why Women Work.
[Labor]. Why Women Work. Based on a study made by the National Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, Inc. New York: Public Affairs Committee, Inc., 1938.
8vo.; red stapled wrappers, negligible wear to extremities.
First edition of this pamphlet, No. 17 of the Public Affairs Pamphlets series issued by the Public Affairs Committee Incorporated. This anonymously composed study seeks to refute the idea that “women work only for pin money” and only have to support themselves, an argument often used to justify less pay for equal work. Using pictorial graphs and the hypothetical example of a working woman named “Mary Brown,” the dilemma of women supporting their households on a meager salary is laid out. Mary makes $1,600 a year, which is more than most women her age working as typists and clerks make, but it still falls short of her economic needs, as she strives to support herself and two orphaned children (the children of her recently deceased sister). While Mary’s situation is admittedly unusual, statistics show that very few women who work are not expected to contribute financially to their household in some way; the overwhelming majority of working women support dependents either within or outside the household. More importantly, recent surveys revealed that while the number of dependents per woman had increased since 1930, average salaries had decreased. Her conclusion: “American women today do not work for extra money. They are not ‘short-term workers, in and out of the labor market’” (p. 31), and since they are now breadwinners as well as homemakers, it no longer makes sense for their salaries to be less than those of their male counterparts.
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