Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/579

 REVIEWS 565

not that there has been no great general tendency to increased employ- ment of females, but that " on the whole, therefore, it does not appear that there has been any great tendency to increased employment of females in factories." This notwithstanding that the figures indicate a greater percentage of increase in such employment than in all industries combined. We are perhaps to infer this from the fact that the number of females classified as cotton- and woolen-mill operatives has remained almost stationary, and because of the large increase in the number of those classified as dressmakers, milliners, and seamstresses. But while we find no large increase in the number of females reported as cotton- and woolen-mill operatives, we find a decrease in the number of males, the figures being as follows :

COTTON-MILL OPERATIVES.

Males. Females,

l88o 78,292 QI.479

1890 - - 80,177 92,965

WOOLEN-MILL OPERATIVES.

Males. Females.

1880 52,504 35,506

1890 - - 47,638 36,471

The fact that the number of females classified as employed in these industries is thus, as this author declares, almost stationary is plainly due to the failure of the enumerators of the eleventh census properly to report the large number we find classified as "mill and factory operatives not specified." The figures for the two censuses of those thus reported are as follows :

Males. Females.

1880 22,650 8,186

1890 - $1,603 41,993

The larger proportion of these are probably cotton- or woolen- mill operatives. If we omit from the calculation those reported at the two censuses as dressmakers, milliners, and seamstresses, a large proportion of whom were undoubtedly employed in factories or sweat-shops, we still have an increase in the number of females engaged in manufactur- ing industry of 52.9 per cent., which, with an increase in population of 25 per cent., seems a decided tendency to increased employment in factories. We find besides an enormous increase in the number of females reported as laundresses and not included as engaged in manu- facturing industry, but under the head of "domestic and personal