| Year | Number of Females Ten Years and Over Engaged in Gainful Occupations |
| 1880 | 2,647,157 |
| 1890 | 4,005,532 |
| 1900 | 5,319,397 |
| 1910 | 8,075,772 |
It is thus seen that gainful occupations for women have increased greatly in the thirty years covered by the report. At present 21.2 per cent of all females, or 23.4 of all over ten years of age, are engaged in work for wages. Further tabulation brings out the fact that, whereas the age period from twenty-one to forty-four shows the largest percentage of men employed in gainful work, women show the largest proportion of their numbers so employed during the age period from sixteen to twenty. Evidently the girls are at work. The figures follow:
| Males Ten Years And Over | Females Ten Years And Over | |||
| Age Period | Per Cent | Age Period | Per Cent | |
| 10-13 | 16.6 | 10-13 | 8.0 | |
| 14-15 | 41.4 | 14-15 | 19.8 | |
| 16-20 | 79.2 | 16-20 | 39.9 | |
| 21-44 | 96.7 | 21-44 | 26.3 | |
| 45 and over | 85.9 | 45 and over | 15.7 | |
Compare with these figures the following table:
| Ages At Which Women Marry[[7]] | |||||||||
| 11.2 per cent., or | 1/9, | of all women marry before | 20 | ||||||
| 47.3 per cent., or | 1/2 | of all women marry before | 25 | ||||||
| 72.4 per cent., or | 3/4 | of all women marry before | 30 | ||||||
| 83.3 per cent., or | 5/6 | of all women marry before | 35 | ||||||
| 88.8 per cent., or | 8/9 | of all women marry before | 45 | ||||||
| 92.1 per cent., or | 11/12 | of all women marry before | 55 | ||||||
| 93.3 per cent., or | 14/15 | of all women marry before | 65 | ||||||
| 93.8 per cent., or | 15/16 | of all women marry before | 100 | ||||||
It will be observed that since the percentage of women at work decreases after twenty, the number of women who marry and presumably become homemakers is very largely increased.
These figures would seem to indicate that girls go to work early, that as yet industry does not largely prevent marriage, and that marriage does in many or most cases stop women's industrial careers.
Inquiry as to what women are doing in the industrial world elicits important facts. It would seem that Olive Schreiner's "For the present we take all labor for our province" is very nearly a bare statement of attested fact. The Census report includes 509 closely classified occupations. Women are found in all but 43. Even allowing for the inaccuracy of such figures, and passing over the occupations which take in only an occasional woman, it is seen that "woman's sphere" can no longer be arbitrarily defined. The following facts and figures for women give us food for thought:
| Farm laborers (working out) | 337,522 |
| Iron and steel industries | 29,182 |
| Chemical industries | 15,577 |
| Clay, glass, and stone industries | 11,849 |
| Electrical supply factories | 11,041 |
| Lumber and furniture industries | 17,214 |
| Steam railroad laborers | 3,248 |
