The crisis

by Various

Employment of Colored Women in Chicago

From a Study Made by the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy

In considering the field of employment for colored women, the professional women must be discussed separately. They admit fewer difficulties and put a brave face on the matter, but in any case their present position was gained only after a long struggle. The education is the less difficult part. The great effort is to get the work after having prepared themselves for it. The Negro woman, like her white sister, is constantly forced to choose between a lower wage or no work. The pity is that her own people do not know the colored girl needs their help nor realize how much they could do for her.

Two of the musicians found the struggle too hard and were compelled to leave Chicago. One girl of twenty-three, a graduate of the Chicago Conservatory of Music, is playing in a low concert hall in one of the worst sections of the city, from 8 in the evening till 4 in the morning. Her wages are $18 a week, and with this she supports a father and mother and younger sister.

There are from fifteen to twenty colored teachers in the public schools of Chicago. This information was obtained from the office of the superintendent, where it was said no record was kept of the number of colored teachers. When they are given such a place they are always warned that they are likely to have difficulty. As a rule they are in schools where the majority of the children are Negroes. They are all in the grades, but they say that their opportunities for promotion are equal to those of white women. Indeed, they say that there are two places where they are not discriminated against because of their color. One is in the public schools, the other is under the Civil Service Commission.

However, the professional women do not have the greatest difficulty. The real barriers are met by the women who have had only an average education—girls who have finished high school, or perhaps only the eighth grade. These girls, if they were white, would find employment at clerical and office work in Chicago’s department stores, mail order houses and wholesale stores. But these positions are absolutely closed to the Negro girl. She has no choice but housework.

When the object of the inquiry was explained to one woman she said: “Why, no one wants a Negro to work for him. I’ll show you—look in the newspaper.” And she produced a paper with its columns of advertisements for help wanted. “See, not one person in this whole city has asked for a Negro to work for him.”

A great many of the colored women find what they call “day work” most satisfactory. This means from eight to nine hours a day at some kind of housework, cleaning, washing, ironing or dusting. This the Negro women prefer to regular positions as maids, because it allows them to go at night to their families. The majority of the women who do this work receive $1.50, with 10 cents extra for carfare. There was a higher grade of day work for which the pay was $2 a day besides the carfare. This included the packing of trunks, washing of fine linen and lace curtains, and even some mending.

The records of the South Side Free Employment Agency showed that the wages of colored women were uniformly lower than those of white women. Of course, there is no way of judging of ability by records, but where the white cooks received $8 per week the Negro cooks were paid $7, and where the white maids received $6, sometimes, but not as frequently as in the case of the cooks, the Negro maid received less. One dollar and a half was paid for “day work.” At the colored employment agency which is run in connection with the Frederic Douglas Centre they have many more requests for maids than they have girls to fill the places. Good places with high wages are sometimes offered, but the girls are more and more demanding “day work” and refusing to work by the week. At the South Side Free Employment Agency during the months of January, February and March of this year forty-two positions for colored women were found.[^[2]] These forty-two positions were filled by thirty-six women, some of them coming back to the office two or three times during the three months. The superintendent said it was difficult to find places for the colored women who applied, and they probably succeeded in placing only about 25 per cent. of them. In the opinion of those finding the work for the girls in this office, the reason for the difficulties they encounter are the fact that they do not remain long in one place and have a general reputation for dishonesty. The fundamental cause of the discrimination by employers against them is racial prejudice either in the employer himself or in his customers.

[2]. 454 white women in the same time.

One girl who has only a trace of colored blood was able to secure a position as salesgirl in a store. After she had been there a long time she asked for an increase in wages, such as had been allowed the white girls, but the request was refused and she was told that she ought to be thankful that they kept her at all.

In many cases, especially when the women were living alone, the earnings, plus the income from the lodgers, barely covered the rent. When they work by the day they rarely work more than four days a week. Sometimes the amount they gave as their weekly wage fell short of even paying the rent, but more often the rent was covered and a very small margin left to live on.

Such treatment has discouraged the Negro woman. She has accepted the conditions and seldom makes any real effort to get into other sorts of work. The twelfth question on the schedule, “What attempts have you made to secure other kinds of work in Chicago or elsewhere?” was usually answered by a question: “What’s the use of trying to get work when you know you can’t get it?”

The colored women are like white women in the same grade of life. They do not realize the need of careful training, and they do not appreciate the advantages of specialization in their work. But the Negro woman is especially handicapped, for she not only lacks training but must overcome the prejudice against her color. Of the 270 women interviewed, 43 per cent. were doing some form of housework for wages, yet all evidence of conscious training was entirely lacking. This need must be brought home to them before they can expect any real advancement.

A peculiar problem presents itself in connection with the housework. Practically this is the only occupation open to Negro women, and it is also the only occupation where one is not expected to go home at night. This the Negroes insist on doing. They are accused of having no family feeling, yet the fact remains that they will accept a lower wage and live under far less advantageous conditions for the sake of being free at night. That is why the “day work” is so popular. Rather than live in some other person’s home and get good wages for continued service, the colored woman prefers to live in this way. She will have a tiny room, go out as many days a week as she can get places, and pay for her room and part of her board out of her earnings, which sometimes amount to only $3 or $4.50 per week.

Occasionally laundry, sewing or hair work is done in their homes, but the day work is almost universally preferred.

Many of the Negroes are so nearly white that they can be mistaken for white girls, in which case they are able to secure very good positions and keep them as long as their color is not known.

One girl worked for a fellowship at the Art Institute. Her work was good and the place was promised her. In making out the papers she said Negro, when asked her nationality, to the great astonishment of the man in charge. He said he would have to look into the matter, but the girl did not get the fellowship.

A young man, son of a colored minister in the city, had a position in a business man’s office, kept the books, collected rents, etc. He had a peculiar name, and one of the tenants remembered it in connection with the boy’s father, who had all the physical characteristics of the Negro. The tenant made inquiries and reported the matter to the landlord, threatening to leave the building if he had to pay rent to a Negro. The boy was discharged.

A colored girl, who was very light colored, said that more than once she secured a place and the colored people themselves had told the employer he had a “Negro” working for him. The woman with whom she was living said: “It’s true every time. The Negroes are their own worst enemies.”

To summarize, the isolation which is forced upon the Negro, both in his social and his business life, constitutes one of the principal difficulties which he encounters. As far as the colored woman is concerned, as we have shown, the principal occupations which are open to her are domestic service and school teaching. This leaves a large number of women whose education has given them ambitions beyond housework, who are not fitted to compete with northern teachers and yet cannot obtain clerical work because they are Negroes. Certain fields in which there is apparently an opportunity for the colored women are little tried. For example, sewing is profitable and there is little feeling against the employment of Negro seamstresses, and yet few follow the dressmaking profession.

Without doubt one fundamental reason for the difficulties the colored woman meets in seeking employment is her lack of industrial training. The white woman suffers from this also, but the colored woman doubly so. The most hopeful sign is the growing conviction on the part of the leading Negro women of the city that there is need of co-operation between them and the uneducated and unskilled, and that they are trying to find some practical means to give to these women the much-needed training for industrial life.