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The United States Women's Bureau (WB) is an agency of the
United States government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...
within the
United States Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemploym ...
. The Women's Bureau works to create parity for women in the labor force by conducting research and policy analysis, to inform and promote policy change, and to increase public awareness and education. The Director is appointed by the
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
. Prior to the
Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act of 2011 President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
, the position required confirmation by advice and consent of the
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the ...
. Since its founding in 1920, the Director of the Women's Bureau has always been a woman. She is supported by a staff in the national office as well as ten regional offices.


Establishment

The Women's Bureau evolved out of the Woman in Industry Service, which was established on July 1, 1918, as a war-time service to employ women. It was headed by social activist
Mary van Kleeck Mary Abby van Kleeck (June 26, 1883June 8, 1972) was an American social scientist of the 20th century. She was a notable figure in the American labor movement as well as a proponent of scientific management and a planned economy. An American of ...
, who was the head of the Department of Industrial Studies at the
Russell Sage Foundation The Russell Sage Foundation is an American non-profit organisation established by Margaret Olivia Sage in 1907 for “the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.” It was named after her recently deceased husband, rai ...
. In 1917, amidst World War I, van Kleeck undertook an investigation of the possibility of employment of women in Army warehouses at the behest of the
War Industries Board The War Industries Board (WIB) was a United States government agency established on July 28, 1917, during World War I, to coordinate the purchase of war supplies between the War Department (Department of the Army) and the Navy Department. Becaus ...
. She recommended the creation of a Women's Bureau in the
War Department War Department may refer to: * War Department (United Kingdom) * United States Department of War (1789–1947) See also * War Office, a former department of the British Government * Ministry of defence * Ministry of War * Ministry of Defence {{u ...
, and as a result President Wilson appointed van Kleeck to lead a new Women in Industry Service group, a sub-agency of the
Department of Labor The Ministry of Labour ('' UK''), or Labor ('' US''), also known as the Department of Labour, or Labor, is a government department responsible for setting labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, training, a ...
. Van Kleeck wrote that the great numbers of women brought into the workforce by the war represented a "new freedom" for women: "freedom to serve their country through their industry not as women but as workers judged by the same standards and rewarded by the same recompense as men". The Women in Industry Service group produced a series of reports documenting wage disparities, unsafe working conditions, and discrimination against female laborers, conducting investigations in 31 states. However, their recommendations were often ignored, and at an October 1918 conference to discuss women's labor organized by van Kleeck,
Secretary of Labor The United States Secretary of Labor is a member of the Cabinet of the United States, and as the head of the United States Department of Labor, controls the department, and enforces and suggests laws involving unions, the workplace, and all ot ...
William Wilson declined to take action to address wage inequality. In December 1918, the group published a wide-ranging report entitled ''Standards for the Employment of Women in Industry'', which was later used as the basis for the groundbreaking
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) is a United States labor law that creates the right to a minimum wage, and " time-and-a-half" overtime pay when people work over forty hours a week. It also prohibits employment of minors in "oppr ...
, which applied basic working standards to men and women throughout the country. After the war, van Kleeck's group became the United States Women's Bureau. Van Kleeck helped write the law enabling this transition in June 1920. On July 14, van Kleeck was appointed as the head of the new agency within the Department of Labor. Although she was expected to lead the Bureau permanently, van Kleeck was called away to help care for her dying mother and resigned after a few weeks. Mary Anderson, her close friend and colleague, became its first long-term director instead. The Bureau was established by Congress on June 5, 1920, just two months before women achieved the right to vote, and continues its responsibility to carry out Public Law 66-259; 29 U.S.C. 11–16.29 (1920) Their enabling legislation gives them the duty to formulate policies and standards to promote the welfare of wage-earning women, improve their working conditions, increase their efficiency, and advance their opportunities for profitable employment. The Women's Bureau's collaboration with the
National Consumers League The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is an American consumer organization. The National Consumers League is a private, nonprofit advocacy group representing consumers on marketplace and workplace issues. The NCL provides government, bu ...
and the Women's Educational and Industrial Union allowed the Bureau to effectively research and advocate for women workers.


History

In the 1920s and 30s, the Women's Bureau focused on women's working conditions in industries including manufacturing, household employment and clothing industry. 21% of American's employed at this time were women, who worked long hours with little wages. In 1922, the WB began investigating the conditions facing 'negro women in industry.' By focusing on minority groups, Mary Anderson, the Bureau's first director, was able to get
social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...
legislation passed for women since the administration largely ignored these groups. The WB successfully advocated for the inclusion of women under the
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) is a United States labor law that creates the right to a minimum wage, and " time-and-a-half" overtime pay when people work over forty hours a week. It also prohibits employment of minors in "oppr ...
, which, for the first time, set minimum wages and maximum working hours. As American men were mobilized for entering World War II, many women began working in nontraditional roles such as in aircraft plants, shipyards, and manufacturing companies. These jobs also paid more than traditional "
women's work Women's work is often assumed to be solely the realm of women, and it is associated with specific stereotypical jobs that have been associated with the feminine sex throughout history. It is most commonly used in reference to the unpaid labor that ...
". The Bureau shifted its focus in this time to achieve more skills training, wider job opportunities, higher wages and better working conditions for the 'new' female workforce. The WB was an esteemed agency by 1942 and reports were consistently conservative, often repeating stereotypical ideas of women's strengths and weaknesses. However, the records of the Bureau during World War II contain a wealth of data and information about women with the focus remaining on the conditions of employed women, often neglecting middle-class women and continual support for special legislation for women's employment. In the 1940s and 50s, the WB turned its attention how women's employment outlook and opportunities changed in the postwar period. After 1942, the Bureau officials hoped to have an audience in the federal government and to play a large role in labor mobilization. This hope never came to fruition and in April 1942, the
War Manpower Commission The War Manpower Commission was a World War II agency of the United States Government charged with planning to balance the labor needs of agriculture, industry and the armed forces. History The Commission was created by President Franklin D. ...
headed labor mobilization. The commission, led by
Paul McNutt Paul Vories McNutt (July 19, 1891 – March 24, 1955) was an American diplomat and politician who served as the 34th governor of Indiana, high commissioner to the Philippines, administrator of the Federal Security Agency, chairman of the ...
, rejected the idea of having any woman on his labor advisory commission instead creating a Women's Advisory Committee. However, both the Bureau and the Advisory Committee's advice regarding women's employment was often disregarded. in the 1950s and 60s, the WB developed policies and programs to increase women college graduates. The WB played an instrumental role in the passage of the
Equal Pay Act of 1963 The Equal Pay Act of 1963 is a United States labor law amending the Fair Labor Standards Act, aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex (see gender pay gap). It was signed into law on June 10, 1963, by John F. Kennedy as part of his New Fron ...
, which amended the
Fair Labor Standards Act The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) is a United States labor law that creates the right to a minimum wage, and "time-and-a-half" overtime pay when people work over forty hours a week. It also prohibits employment of minors in "oppre ...
. It effectively removed the ability to pay employees differently, based on sex.
John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...
signed the law on June 10, 1963. However, during this time, the Bureau was opposed to the
Equal Rights Amendment The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. Proponents assert it would end legal distinctions between men and ...
(ERA) introduced by the
National Woman's Party The National Woman's Party (NWP) was an American women's political organization formed in 1916 to fight for women's suffrage. After achieving this goal with the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the NW ...
in 1923 until Kennedy took office in 1961. This was due to the commitment the WB had in maintaining protective labor legislation for women. During Kennedy's campaign, he needed to recognize a political constituency. However instead of supporting an ERA during his presidency, he created a
Presidential Commission on the Status of Women The President's Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) was established to advise the President of the United States on issues concerning the status of women. It was created by John F. Kennedy's signed December 14, 1961. In 1975 it became th ...
. The commission was headed by
Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four t ...
, an ERA supporter, until her death 1962, after which the commission was unofficially headed by Women's Bureau director and ERA opponent,
Esther Peterson Esther Eggertsen Peterson (December 9, 1906 – December 20, 1997) was an American consumer and women's advocate. Background The daughter of Danish immigrants, Esther Eggertsen grew up in a Mormon family in Provo, Utah. She graduated from Bri ...
, who had advocated for the formation of the Commission early on. With Peterson as the de facto head, the final report by the commission made no flat statement for or against passage of the ERA. It did, however, urge the courts to expand the 14th amendment to grant full Constitutional equality to women. Elizabeth Duncan Koontz was the first Black woman to head the Bureau in 1969. The
United Nations Commission on the Status of Women The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW or UNCSW) is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the main UN organs within the United Nations. CSW has been described as the UN organ promoting gend ...
named Koontz a U.S. Delegate and with this added role, she worked with the Bureau to share research and expertise in developing countries. Under Koontz's leadership, the WB also worked to address and eliminate description against women and minorities in the workforce. They supported the proposed
Equal Rights Amendment The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. Proponents assert it would end legal distinctions between men and ...
(ERA). Carmen Rosa Maymi headed the Women's Bureau in 1975 as the highest-ranking Hispanic woman in the Federal Government and the first Hispanic Director of the Bureau. Following the 1973
Comprehensive Employment and Training Act The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA, ) was a United States federal law enacted by the Congress, and signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973 to train workers and provide them with jobs in the public service. ...
(CETA) designed to train workers and provide them with public service jobs, the Bureau began developing programs for CETA funds that focused on special counseling and referral services, women in non-traditional jobs, pre-apprenticeship training and job development. Many of these new programs were also designed to help low-income women. The Bureau also had a role in the passage of the
Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) of 1978 () is a United States federal statute. It amended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to "prohibit sex discrimination on the basis of pregnancy." The Act covers discrimination "on the basis of ...
. From 1978 to 1980, the Bureau contracted with
Coal Employment Project The Coal Employment Project (CEP) was a non-profit women's organization in the United States from 1977–1996 with the goal of women gaining employment as miners. With local support groups in both the eastern and western coalfields, CEP also advocat ...
to carry out a two-phase, experimental program in the five county mining area of Anderson, Campbell, Claiborne, Morgan, and Scott in Tennessee. CEP was a non-profit women's organization founded in 1977 with the goal of women gaining employment as miners. With local support groups in both the eastern and western coalfields, CEP also advocated for women on issues such as sexual harassment, mine safety, equal access to training and promotions, parental leave, and wages. The program with CEP centered on the development of a training program that considered the needs of women—which was accomplished with the aid of federal and state mining officials, coal industry leaders, union officials, U.S. Department of Labor Mine Safety and Health officials, state training instructors, and actual women miners. Its focus was on federally required safety instruction, information on federal and state antidiscrimination laws, union rights, physical development, techniques on assertiveness, and credit and social security rights. Also involved were all-women panels that discussed how they handled problems that often concerned women, like sexual harassment. In the 1960s, the Bureau started an on-site day care center. This led to the Bureau launching a major initiative to encourage employer-sponsored child care in 1982. The result of this initiative was the establishment of a multi-media Work and Family Clearinghouse in 1989 and the
Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) is a United States labor law requiring covered employers to provide employees with job-protected, unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons. The FMLA was a major part of President Bill C ...
, that mandated employers to provide employees job-protected and unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons. The Bureau focused on non-traditional employment for women in the 1990s, including
apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
s and domestic workers. In 1996, the WB published a fact sheet on the workplace effects of domestic violence. In 2014, the WB teamed up with the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 ...
and the
Center for American Progress The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy research and advocacy organization which presents a liberal viewpoint on economic and social issues. It has its headquarters in Washington, D.C. The president and chief executive officer ...
for the White House Summit on Working Families convening businesses, economists, labor leaders, legislators, advocates, and the media for a discussion on issues facing the entire spectrum of working families, including workplace flexibility, equal pay, workplace discrimination, worker retention and promotion, and childcare/early childhood education.


List of directors

*
Mary van Kleeck Mary Abby van Kleeck (June 26, 1883June 8, 1972) was an American social scientist of the 20th century. She was a notable figure in the American labor movement as well as a proponent of scientific management and a planned economy. An American of ...
, 1920 (temporary) * Mary Anderson, 1920–1944 * Frieda S. Miller, 1944–1953 * Alice K. Leopold, 1953–1961 *
Esther Peterson Esther Eggertsen Peterson (December 9, 1906 – December 20, 1997) was an American consumer and women's advocate. Background The daughter of Danish immigrants, Esther Eggertsen grew up in a Mormon family in Provo, Utah. She graduated from Bri ...
, 1961–1964 * Mary Dublin Keyserling, 1964–1969 * Elizabeth Duncan Koontz, 1969–1973 * Carmen Rosa Maymi, 1973–1977 * Alexis M. Herman, 1977–1981 * Lenora Cole Alexander, 1981–1986 * Shirley M. Dennis, 1986–1988 * Jill Houghton Emery (Phillips), 1988–1989 * Elsie Vartanian, 1991–1993 * Karen Nussbaum, 1993–1996 * Irasema T. Garza, 1999–2000 * Shinae Chun, 2001–2009 * Sara Manzano-Diaz, 2010–2012 * Latifa Lyles, 2012–2017 * Patricia G. Greene, 2017–2018 *Laurie Todd-Smith, 2019–2021 *Wendy Chun-Hoon, 2021–present


Select publications

* Pidgeon, Mary Elizabeth. ''Bureau Special Bulletin 20: Occupational Status of Women in 1944.'' Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1944.


References


Further reading

* Hendrickson, Mark. "Gender Research as Labor Activism: The Women's Bureau in the New Era." ''Journal of Policy History'' 20.4 (2008): 482-515. * Laughlin, Kathleen A. ''Women's work and public policy: A history of the Women's Bureau, US Department of Labor, 1945-1970'' (Northeastern UP, 2000)
online
** Boris, Eileen. "Women's Work and Public Policy: a History of the Women's Bureau, US Department of Labor, 1945-1970." ''NWSA Journal'' 14#1 (2002), pp. 201-20
online
* McGuire, John Thomas. "Gender and the Personal Shaping of Public Administration in the United States: Mary Anderson and the Women's Bureau, 1920–1930." ''Public Administration Review'' 72.2 (2012): 265-271. * Nyland, Chris, and Mark Rix. "Mary van Kleeck, Lillian Gilbreth and the Women’s Bureau study of gendered labor law." ''Journal of Management History'' (2000). on a 1928 report * Sharer, Wendy B. "Genre work: Expertise and advocacy in the early bulletins of the US women's Bureau." ''Rhetoric Society Quarterly'' 33.1 (2003): 5-32
online
* Weber, Gustavus Adolphus. ''The Women's Bureau: Its History, Activities, and Organization'' ((. Johns Hopkins Press, 1923
online


External links


Women's Bureau Home Page

Publications of the Women's Bureau
available on FRASER, the Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research. {{authority control
Women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardle ...