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CHAPTER IV.

LIVING CONDITIONS OF WAGE-EARNING WOMEN IN BOSTON, MASS.

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According to the census of 1900 the number of women in Boston engaged in gainful occupations was 70,339. The total number engaged in the classes of employment covered by this investigation was approximately 27,000. (a) This total is made up of figures taken from the United States Census on Manufactures, 1905, combined with figures for the women employed in stores and laundries taken from the Census on Occupations, 1900. The investigation in Boston by the agents of the Bureau covered a period of about two months, from January 6 to March 2, 1909, and was based on a list of 1,700 names. Information as to occupation and whether the woman was living at home or adrift() was obtained from 1,332 women. A few of the remaining 368 were inapplicable as to occupation, but most were unobtainable either because of false address or because the women had moved. of the women had left the city. Work was getting slack and they had either gone to their homes or were visiting friends or had gone to another city to seek employment. Many, however, though still in the city, had left no address and could not be located. This shifting propensity of the latter class was especially marked in the lodging district, where frequently a woman who could not be interviewed at the first visit would have moved before the agent could call again. Of the 1,332 women who were located, 160 were waitresses, and are discussed in another report and will not be included here. This report, therefore, is based on data secured from 1,172 wage-earning women. Unlike some other cities, Boston employs its women in a variety of industries rather than in a few which are dominant.

a Not including waitresses and telegraph and telephone employees.
► For explanation of the word "adrift" as used in this report see page 10.

The 1,172 women were employed in fifty-one occupations, as follows:

NUMBER OF WOMEN INCLUDED IN THIS INVESTIGATION AND TOTAL NUMBER EMPLOYED IN THE SAME INDUSTRIES AS REPORTED BY THE CENSUS, BY INDUSTRIES, BOSTON, MASS.

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Cigars and tobacco.
Printing and publishing (including book, job, newspaper, periodical, and music).

Men's clothing..

Women's clothing.

Millinery and lace goods.

Boxes (fancy and paper).

Cutlery and edge tools.....

Tinware..

Other occupations..

Total, factories, etc....

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• Compiled from Special Reports of Census Office, Manufactures, 1905, Part II.
• Compiled from Twelfth Census, Occupations, 1900.

"Other occupations" include various employments in the manufacture of furs, white goods, leather goods, paper, linen goods, cards, buttons, gloves, jewelry, ink, neckwear, hosiery, brushes, lace curtains, mattresses, elastic goods, flags, glass, rubber goods, straw hats, upholstery, textiles, suspenders, braids, shirts, underwear, corsets, pottery, thread and twine, neckties, drugs, clocks, furniture, in pickle packing, fish packing, preserving, and also employees in a clipping bureau, on an elevated railroad, in a wholesale coffee house, in telegraph offices, and in telephone exchanges.

The 1,700 names used in this investigation were obtained for the Bureau by a canvassing company, and while the representative industries were kept in mind and an effort was made to get an adequate number of women employees from each, women were visited in all districts of the city and this method sometimes resulted in an apparently disproportionate body of data from the smaller industries compared with the census returns for such industries. On the other hand, this inquiry developed evidence that the census figures of 1900 seemed much too low for some of the divisions of employment. In any case a careful analysis of the accompanying tables will show the degree of similarity in the wage data from the women in the various industries and what influence a disproportionate number from one would have on the general result. It has not been regarded as important enough to warrant detailed discussion, especially since, as has been pointed out, the census returns are unquestionably too small for certain employments at the time of this investigation. In general, when a factory was in or near a residence district, a group of women employed in the factory lived close by. While women employed in candy factories were found in all districts visited, one-half of the 96 in this occupation came from Charlestown and from among the Italians of the North End and were employed in the near by North End factories. As there was no report made on the nationality of the home girls in Boston it is not possible to judge what part the nationality plays in these factory groups. It probably has but little influence except in the case of the Italians and Jews in the North and West Ends. "Population and Social Statistics for 1905," published by the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, gives the number of foreign-born women in Boston as 109,416, or 35 per cent of the total number of women. Among these every nationality is represented. Over half, however, are from the British Isles and British America, with the Irish predominating. As these people quickly assimilate with each other and with the native born, we should expect to find few racial groups.

The small district of Boston known as the North End is densely populated. It reaches to the harbor on the north and east, merges on the west into the district known as the West End (also old and crowded), and in the south runs into the main business district of the city. Farther south beyond the South End, which is the center of the city's population, come Lower Roxbury and the suburbs, Roxbury, Dorchester, and Jamaica Plain. Charlestown and East Boston are respectively northwest and northeast of the North End.

Separated by water, but closely joined by bridges or tunnels, South Boston flanks the South End. Charlestown, East Boston, South Boston, and Lower Roxbury are filled almost uniformly with middle-class and workingmen's homes in brick or wooden tenements or in two and three family houses. Almost any type of dwelling may be found in Roxbury. For the most part the housing conditions in these sections are fair, (a) or better, though there are some bad conditions. South Boston especially affords many examples of wretched housing, alleys, and old, dark, and dirty tenements. There are factories and stores in all these sections.

Upper Roxbury, Dorchester, and Jamaica Plain are also home sections. Here the tenement is giving way to the two or three family house or to single dwellings. In parts of these sections are many fine residences. In the North End there are some factories and many stores and tenements. Some of these tenements are modern, giving sufficient light and air to the occupants, but most of them are very old. In many cases they are remodeled private dwellings, very rickety, and so dark even at midday that in visiting in this section the

a For explanation of "grading" see notes to Table I at end of this volume.
49450°-S. Doc. 645, 61-2, vol. 5--6

agent had often to trust to the sense of feeling alone. Alleys, dwellings, and rear tenements are to be found here also. The streets are crooked and extremely narrow, a circumstance which, in connection with the Italian custom of living much in the open air, gives the visitor the full effect of the dense population.

In the North End, Italians predominate, and most of the women visited in this section were of this nationality. The section also contains Jews and some Irish. All but one of the women were living at home or with relatives. They were employed chiefly in the near by confectionery and tobacco factories.

The West End is separated from the North End by the North station. The character of its tenement districts is much the same, except that the occupants are Jews rather than Italians. It has also welldefined lodging-house districts, sloping up toward the fine old homes on Beacon Hill. The main street in this section is a jumble of stores, lunch rooms, and saloons, with tenements and lodging houses above. The main boarding and lodging house district of Boston is in the South End, extending into the Back Bay. The South End has also many tenements, especially toward the older part and toward the factories east of Harrison avenue.

Most of the lodging houses and many of the tenements were formerly well-conditioned private residences. The typical South End lodging houses are four or five story brick dwellings built in solid blocks flush with the street. They are of all grades, from the most genteel to those that conspicuously flaunt their signs of "Rooms to let." In a large part of the South End many of the side streets are made very attractive by small parks or strips of parking. Still others have trees and small grass plots between the houses and sidewalks. On the main thoroughfares, stores and lunch rooms occupy the lower floors.

Near the business sections many of the houses are very old, dark, and dingy, and the streets are narrow. It was in this part of the South End that the agent found a girl living in practically a cellar, with the only window high up near the ceiling. In the nearer Back Bay the houses are more modern, are not so uniform in appearance, and many are private dwellings. Here are also many apartment houses.

The number of women visited in the different sections of the city, the per cent in each section living at home, and the per cent adrift, together with the per cent employed in stores and in factories and miscellaneous establishments, is shown in the following table:

NUMBER OF WOMEN WORKERS VISITED IN SPECIFIED SECTIONS OF BOSTON AND PER CENT OF SUCH WORKERS WHO LIVED AT HOME, WHO WERE ADRIFT, AND WHO WERE EMPLOYED IN RETAIL STORES AND IN FACTORY AND MISCELLANEOUS ESTABLISHMENTS.

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The Massachusetts law provides that no woman shall be employed in a mercantile, manufacturing, or mechanical establishment more than 58 hours a week. But few violations of this law were reported. The schedules of hours for the larger stores ranged from 48 to 54 hours per week. Many give a Saturday half-holiday for 3 months in summer. The violations reported were in the small stores. One woman was working 66 hours per week in a bakery, another 60 hours per week in a grocery store. Many of the factory and miscellaneous establishments were running less than their schedule hours, though there can be no doubt that some of these, especially those having seasonal trade, sometimes offend. Two tailoresses reported working 65 hours per week for 6 months in a year, with 100 hours additional overtime for 17 weeks of this period. One woman worked regularly 60 hours per week in a laundry with some overtime. Another worked in a millinery establishment 63 hours per week during the busy seasons.

Overtime in the stores is caused by the Christmas rush, stock taking, and the necessity for getting stock ready for special sales. In some departments this necessity is real. One woman who sold machine-made dresses said that in her department it was necessary to stay at least 1 hour per night once a week to get a stock ready for the next day. In this particular store employees were allowed to take this time out of the day following without loss of pay, but they seldom took advantage of this privilege. Another saleswoman in the hosiery department stayed from 1 to 3 hours per week throughout the year. The Christmas rush causes some overtime in all stores. Many of the

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