Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/373

 WOMEN IN INDUSTRY: BOOTS AND SHOES

359

the displacement of women operatives by men, and toward the substitution of immigrant for American labor.

In "boots and shoes," on the other hand, there has been an increase in the proportion of women employees, although not a sufficiently large increase to indicate any tendency toward the driving-out of the men operatives. Shoemaking remains a men's industry. The industry also remains predominantly American, with a large proportion of both men and women operatives native-born. A comparison of the data from the last census, showing the general nativity of the operatives of both industries, is of interest. Statistics are given for Massachusetts,^^ the state which historically has taken the lead in both industries.

Men

Women

Boots and Shoes

Cotton Mill Operatives

Boots and Shoes

Cotton Mill Operatives

Native- C Native parents. .

bom ( Foreign parents ..

Foreign-bom

20,512

13.941 14,016

1.925

8,849

28,092

«J,76i 8,208 3.181

2,045 10,024 25.843

Total

48,469

38,889

16,970

37.912

These data show very clearly that while the great majority of cotton mill employees, both men and women, are foreign- bom in the boot and shoe industry 72 per cent, of the men and" 81 per cent, of the women are native-born. There are perhaps two rather obvious reasons why immigrant labor has not been introduced to any great extent in the shoe factories. In spite of the fact that machinery has been applied to practi- cally every niinute process into which the making of shoes can be divided, the work continues to demand skilled and responsi- ble operatives, and the level of wages has been kept so high that the industry continues to attract the more intelligent native-bom working people. '^ The following wage statistics from the

"From Twelfth Census (1900), "Occupations."

" An operative from a Massachusetts town which contained both cotton mills and shoe factories in his testimony before the state bureau of labor, said with regard to the frequent changes in the working force of the cotton mills: "There is shoemaking in town for boys, and a great deal of stitching on ma-