- Title Pages
- Frontispiece
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Illustrations
- List of tables
- Note on Terminology
- Introduction
- Part I The Origins of the US Census: From Enumeration of Voters and Taxpayers to “Social Statistics,” 1790–1840
- 1 The Creation of the Federal Census by the Constitution of the United States
- 2 The First Developments of the National Census (1800–1830)
- 3 The Census of 1840
- Part II Slaves, Former Slaves, Blacks, and Mulattoes: Identification of the Individual and the Statistical Segregation of Populations (1850–1865)
- 4 Whether to Name or Count Slaves
- 5 Color, Race, and Origin of Slaves and Free Persons
- 6 Color and Status of Slaves
- 7 Census Data for 1850 and 1860 and the Defeat of the South
- Part III The Rise of Immigration and the Racialization of Society: The Adaptation of the Census to the Diversity of the American Population (1850–1900)
- 8 Modernization, Standardization, and Internationalization
- 9 From Slavery to Freedom
- 10 From “Mulatto” to the “One Drop Rule” (1870–1900)
- 11 The Slow Integration of Indians into US Population Statistics in the Nineteenth Century
- 12 The Chinese and Japanese in the Census
- 13 Immigration, Nativism, and Statistics (1850–1900)
- Part IV Apogee and Decline of Ethnic Statistics (1900–1940)
- 14 The Disappearance of the “Mulatto” as the End of Inquiry into the Composition of the Black Population of the United States
- 15 The Question of Racial Mixing in the American Possessions
- 16 New Asian Races, New Mixtures, and the “Mexican” Race
- 17 From Statistics by Country of Birth to the System of National Origins
- Part V The Population and the Census: Representation, Negotiation, and Segmentation (1900–1940)
- 18 The Census and African Americans Within and Outside the Bureau
- 19 Women as Census Workers and as Relays in the Field
- 20 Ethnic Marketing of Population Statistics
- Epilogue
- Conclusion
- Abbreviations
- Sources and Bibliography
- Index
Women as Census Workers and as Relays in the Field
Women as Census Workers and as Relays in the Field
- Chapter:
- (p.250) 19 Women as Census Workers and as Relays in the Field
- Source:
- Counting Americans
- Author(s):
Paul Schor
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
This chapter discusses the role of women in the history of the US census. Beginning with the 1920 census, and with women gaining the right to vote that same year, the Census Bureau began devoting considerable effort to women in two distinct directions: first, by making housewives a focus of attention as the interviewees of census workers and the repository of their husbands’ information; and second, more discreetly, by recruiting a growing number of women as census workers and supervisors. Women who worked in the Census Bureau in Washington served several purposes: demonstrating to all that the agency was a great modern enterprise, but also, and more specifically, attracting more applicants. As was the case for African Americans, the information furnished on the activity of women in the Census Bureau—photographs in particular—reveals sex segregation in jobs at the very heart of the agency.
Keywords: women, US census, housewives, sex discrimination, Census Bureau
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- Title Pages
- Frontispiece
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Illustrations
- List of tables
- Note on Terminology
- Introduction
- Part I The Origins of the US Census: From Enumeration of Voters and Taxpayers to “Social Statistics,” 1790–1840
- 1 The Creation of the Federal Census by the Constitution of the United States
- 2 The First Developments of the National Census (1800–1830)
- 3 The Census of 1840
- Part II Slaves, Former Slaves, Blacks, and Mulattoes: Identification of the Individual and the Statistical Segregation of Populations (1850–1865)
- 4 Whether to Name or Count Slaves
- 5 Color, Race, and Origin of Slaves and Free Persons
- 6 Color and Status of Slaves
- 7 Census Data for 1850 and 1860 and the Defeat of the South
- Part III The Rise of Immigration and the Racialization of Society: The Adaptation of the Census to the Diversity of the American Population (1850–1900)
- 8 Modernization, Standardization, and Internationalization
- 9 From Slavery to Freedom
- 10 From “Mulatto” to the “One Drop Rule” (1870–1900)
- 11 The Slow Integration of Indians into US Population Statistics in the Nineteenth Century
- 12 The Chinese and Japanese in the Census
- 13 Immigration, Nativism, and Statistics (1850–1900)
- Part IV Apogee and Decline of Ethnic Statistics (1900–1940)
- 14 The Disappearance of the “Mulatto” as the End of Inquiry into the Composition of the Black Population of the United States
- 15 The Question of Racial Mixing in the American Possessions
- 16 New Asian Races, New Mixtures, and the “Mexican” Race
- 17 From Statistics by Country of Birth to the System of National Origins
- Part V The Population and the Census: Representation, Negotiation, and Segmentation (1900–1940)
- 18 The Census and African Americans Within and Outside the Bureau
- 19 Women as Census Workers and as Relays in the Field
- 20 Ethnic Marketing of Population Statistics
- Epilogue
- Conclusion
- Abbreviations
- Sources and Bibliography
- Index
