WORKING MOTHERS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 74, 29 March 1932, Page 7

WORKING MOTHERS

WHAT OF THE CHILDREN ? SOCIAL HANDICAP (From "The Post's" Representative.) NEW YORK, 3rd February. The Children's Charter, which embodies the findings of the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection, gives, as one of the rights of every child, "the right to grow up in a family with an adequate standard of living and the security of a stable income as the surest safeguard against social. handicap." During the industrial depression of 1921 and 1922, children were found to suffer not temporary but permanent losses as a result of a period of industrial depression. At no time in the history of the United States has there been a more serious and complete study of the children's problem during periods of slump than now; the Federal Government is helping State,"municipal, and private agencies in working out plans for more adequate services and relief for children. The children of working mothers are, at the moment, a subject of special study by Dr. Grace Abbott, Director of the Children's Bureau at Washington. The study indicates a growing tendency to be gainfully employed outside the home. In a given case, tho city of Philadelphia, a canvass of selected districts of wage-earners showed an increase from 14 to 21 per cent, in the number of mothers employed. The employment of mothers is affected by various factors, among the most important of which are race, nationality, age, and number of children. The proportion of working mothers is higher among the foreign-born groups, although the Irish, Italians, and Jews show a marked disposition for the mother to stay at homo with the children. When it became essential that she should earn, she ordinarily took up work that she could do at home, or in close proximity to her home, such as industrial home work or neighbourhood storekeeping. More than three-fifths of the mothers employed had more than one child, and 18 per cent, had four or more. Mothers of children requiring constant care obtained work at night. But mothers who must earn to keep the family together, however, will work even if the children are neglected. Over 60 per cent, of the mothers employed away from home worked regularly, five and a half or six days a week. The proportion would have been larger if employment had been available. For example, about one-fourth of the mothers who were textile operators had been working irregularly, owing to the general depression in the textile industry. Factory work and domestic sorvice were the principal occupations. Eighteen ■ per cent, were the only breadwinners.