The Industrial Condition of Women and Girls in Honolulu: A Social StudyBlascoer, Frances
General
The Industrial Condition of Women and Girls in Honolulu: A Social Study
Blascoer, Frances
Child labor -- Hawaii -- Honolulu; Honolulu (Hawaii) -- Social conditions; Women -- Employment -- Hawaii -- Honolulu
Five years before any of these surveys were undertaken, however, a
committee composed of sociologists, economists, philanthropists and
educators not only made a special investigation of the workrooms of New
York City, but reached conclusions which concretely express at any rate
the salient points brought out by every survey which has since been
made: (1) that wages of unskilled labor were declining and in most cases
insufficient to maintain the worker according to the minimum community
standard of living; (2) that while there were in many directions good
opportunities for skilled labor, the supply was inadequate; (3) that the
condition of the young, inexpert working girls must be ameliorated by
the opening of training classes for those who have reached the age to
obtain working papers; and later experience has shown, (4) that a
vocational bureau established in connection with the public schools
tends to help girls make the most of their equipment and guides them
away from the occupations which do not offer the right sort of
opportunity.
The survey in Honolulu confirms the conclusions reached in other
communities only partially. Here the wages of unskilled labor are
advancing, although they are still insufficient to maintain the worker
according to the minimum community standard of living, for the reason
that the only occupation in which any number of unskilled girls and
women are at present employed, i. e. the canneries, affords them
employment during only four months of the year. The second finding, that
while there are in many directions good opportunity for skilled labor
the supply is inadequate, is true here only partially. There are only
two occupations, that of seamstress and that of stenographer which offer
opportunity to any number, and in each there is every indication that at
least fifty more experienced workers could be used without crowding the
present workers. The third finding, that the condition of young,
inexpert working girls must be ameliorated by the opening of training
classes for those who have reached the age to obtain working papers,
applies unqualifiedly in Honolulu; but their condition must be
ameliorated in a number of other ways as well. Honolulu is faced, in
fact, with the unique problem of evolving new enterprises to take care
of its women and girl workers, in addition to creating the machinery for
dealing with those now in existence according to the most progressive
methods in operation elsewhere.
Fortunately the survey has uncovered community needs unfilled, as well
as suggested avenues of employment which there is every reason to
believe could be made profitable with intelligent management; and with
this in mind, together with the possibilities of creating other
preventive and educational social machinery, the following suggestions
are made:
MUSLIN UNDERWEAR FACTORY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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