Title: Women’s Occupations - The Social Historian
Headings: Women’s Occupations
Women’s Occupations
Guest Post
Women’s Occupations in the Early Twentieth Century
Validity of Conclusions
1900 and 1910 Occupations
Social influences and family relationships
How this information was useful in writing a family history story
Guest Post by Sharon S Atkins

Content: Clerks
Stenographers / typists
Telephone operators
Laborers (manufacturing)
Religious / Charity
Telegraph
Librarians
College presidents and professors
Manufacturers
Retail clerks (art stores, book stores, antique and flower shops)
Women likely took more positions in stores, factories and offices as the demand for earlier occupations decreased, such as the number of families hiring servants, or due to: Better pay
Regular or shorter hours
More pleasant surroundings
Better social standing
Women as Stenographers
A small percentage of working women, 12% in 1910 and 13% in 1920, were employed in the category of professions. They were teachers, trained nurses or musicians and/or teachers of music. An even smaller percentage of women were clergymen, literary and scientific, physicians/surgeons, artists and actresses. The 1920 Census lists 572 occupations in total. Only 35 of which did not include women. However, approximately 200 of these represented less than 1% of the women classified as gainfully employed. Job tasks varied between men and women. For example, a woman laborer could be a “sweeper” or “scrubber” whereas a male laborer might be a worker in a steel roll mill. Conversely, there were 131 occupations that were listed only by a small number of men.