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 " " " 1/2 " " " " " 25 72.4 " " " 3/4 " " " " " 30 83.3 " " " 5/6 " " " " " 35 88.8 " " " 8/9 " " " " " 45 92.1 " " " 11/12 " " " " " 55 93.3 " " " 14/15 " " " " " 65 93.8 " " " 15/16 " " " " " 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

[Illustration:  Photograph by C. Park Pressey The 1910 Census showed over three hundred and thirty thousand women employed as farm laborers.  This number did not include wives or daughters of farm-owners]

The foregoing facts concern occupations which were once associated entirely with men.  If we enter the ranks of more womanly work we shall find: