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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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of statistics, about the lack of necessity of calling into war service women with young children. We had down right from the beginning the number of women in the United States between the ages of 16 and 65, which we said roughly were the ages of working ability, who had no young children. It was an enormous number. The idea that you had to call upon the smaller number who had children under fourteen was ridiculous. Of course, it was the young women with children under fourteen who were most wanted by the industries. They had previously been employed in those industries. The first thing that the telephone company, or the department store, or the street railway, or anybody else could think of was “the girl that used to work here.” So they sent right out to try to get them to come back. They proved to be the people who were now in the midst of bringing up their families.

There is also this obsession among American employers that the ideal age for factory workers is between 21 and 31. They don't like anyone much over 30 and don't like them too young. Well, that takes in the girls that are rather recently married and have got two or three young children. Those are just the ones they reach for. You found that a great deal in towns of the southern tier, Binghamton, Elmira and places like that. All the young women with children of school age, or even younger, were working in the factories. That's where you had the locked-out children, the latch key children. You found them working, but you found an ample





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