This pamphlet, published by the National Women's Trade Union League of America (NWTUL) around 1920, advocates for the organization and protection of the female industrial workforce. It uses statistics from the 1920 Census to highlight the "upheaval" in women's employment, noting that 8.5 million women were gainfully employed and detailing their increasing presence in manufacturing and mechanical industries. The pamphlet raises critical questions about women workers' pay, hours, and working conditions (such as seating, lighting, and sanitation), and proposes trade union organization as "A Way Out." Cover illustration of a young woman factory worker. Her apron and the smoke from factory smokestacks behind her are caught by the wind. Illustration by Winifred Bromhall, best known for her work as a children's book artist. Excerpts: p. 2 "According to the 1920 census, eight and one-half million women in the United States, 10 years of age and over, earn their own living and contribute to the support of others. This represents a half-million increase over 1910.... One out of every 4 women wage-earners is in one of the manufacturing and mechanical industries." p. 3 "A Way Out? Trade union organization--more and more of it--with its machinery for the collective merchandising of the day's work. Voices here and there, raised in individual protest, are not heard above the din of the modern industrial machine. But the collective voice of millions of women who know for themselves the toll exacted for unnatural strain will compel a hearing for their industrial ills."
National Women's Trade Union League of America (Tue,) studied this question.