Morality and Woman in Industry
By Clara E. Laughlin
(See page 68)
There seemed to be a widely prevailing idea that modern industrial conditions, which take women and girls out of the home are responsible for a great increase in criminality and immorality. The Government investigation shows that exactly the reverse is true. The traditional pursuits of women—housework, sewing, laundry work, nursing, and the keeping of boarders furnish more than four-fifths of all the feminine criminals, compared with only about one-tenth furnished by all the newer pursuits, including mills, factories, shops, offices, and the professions; and the number of criminals who have never been wage-earners in any pursuit, but who come directly from their own homes into the courts and penal institutions, is more than twice as large as that coming from all the newer industrial pursuits together.