{"id":8326,"date":"2014-09-24T16:06:43","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T16:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=8326"},"modified":"2021-04-21T11:12:03","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T15:12:03","slug":"help-wanted-female-classified-ads-working-women-ancestors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/help-wanted-female-classified-ads-working-women-ancestors.html","title":{"rendered":"Help Wanted-Female Classified Ads: Working Women Ancestors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: Gena Philibert-Ortega is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.<\/span>\u201d In this blog post, Gena shows how \u201cHelp Wanted-Female\u201d ads in historical newspapers can help you learn more about the employment opportunities that were available to your women ancestors\u2014and learn about the places and eras they lived in.<\/em><\/p>\n

What type of work did your female ancestor do? We often assume that our women ancestors were just \u201chousewives\u201d and didn\u2019t work outside of the home. But for many women and girls, some sort of outside work was not an option\u2014it was a financial necessity.<\/p>\n

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Photo: secretary at typewriter, 1912. Source: Miami University Libraries.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Early Newspaper Classifieds<\/strong><\/p>\n

So how did your female ancestor find employment? One option would have been the local newspaper\u2019s Help Wanted advertisements. Prior to the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, those classified advertisements were very specific. They didn\u2019t just provide qualifications the employer was looking for; they sometimes specified race, gender, and even age. Classified ads often included the headings \u201cHelp Wanted-Female\u201d and \u201cHelp Wanted-Male.\u201d In the 1970s this segregation of ads was deemed illegal, and Help-Wanted ads evolved to the advertisements we are accustomed to reading today.<\/p>\n

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Photo: weavers at work, c. 1910. Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Help Wanted-Female Ads<\/strong><\/p>\n

Help Wanted-Female advertisements were not just employers looking for any qualified woman to apply for their job offerings. These ads were in some cases very specific about what type of female employee they wanted.<\/p>\n

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For example, while these 1885 Help Wanted ads from New York include jobs like cooking and cleaning\u2014they also contain ads that request women of a certain religion or ethnic background. While an obvious sign of discrimination to us, these employment requirements were a common practice in the nineteenth century. In cases of families looking for household help, they may have added such requirements to their ads in hopes of finding someone that mirrored their own familial background, or spoke their language. No doubt, such requirements were sometimes added to Help Wanted ads due to stereotypical beliefs that a certain ethnic or racial group produced better housekeepers and cooks, or were less likely to steal.<\/p>\n

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New York Herald (New York, New York), 1 October 1885, page 12<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Photo: typists and accountants, c. 1920. Source: George Eastman House Collection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Help Wanted advertisements were not just segregated according to gender but also, in some cases, age or race. All of these advertisements from 1921specifically request a female: one wants an \u201cItalian, Spanish or French\u201d woman, one wants a \u201cmiddle-aged\u201d woman, one wants a \u201cyoung\u201d woman, and two want \u201cwhite\u201d women.<\/p>\n

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Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, New Jersey), 13 July 1921, page 18<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Photo: maid doing laundry, San Diego, California, 1941. Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Social History in the Classifieds<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the reasons I love classified advertisements is that they provide some social history information that can assist in learning more about the place and era of your ancestor. The 1885 ad above reflects how American jobs have changed over time, and provides a look at what types of employment women and girls could expect to engage in. In this particular Help Wanted column, one advertisement is searching for a \u201cGirl who can mount hat birds…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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To understand this advertisement you need to know a little bit about late nineteenth century fashion history. Women during this time period were sporting hats decorated with bird feathers and entire stuffed birds. These practices resulted in the killing of large numbers of birds in the name of fashion. Later, the production of these hats fell out of favor after concentrated bird conservation efforts targeted women\u2019s demand for the style.<\/p>\n

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New York Herald (New York, New York), 1 October 1885, page 12<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In another Help Wanted example, from 1915, we find an advertisement looking for girls to work in a cigar factory. While today we associate cigar making with Cuba and the Caribbean, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, cigar making thrived in the United States and was seen as \u201cwomen\u2019s work\u201d in cities such as Harrisburg, where this Help Wanted advertisement for the Harrisburg Cigar Company is from. This ad starts with announcing that they are looking for girls over 16 years of age to \u201cstrip\u201d tobacco (remove the center stem in the tobacco leaf). Other jobs found in making cigars are also listed, including rollers, bunchmakers and packers.<\/p>\n

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Patriot (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), 26 November 1915, page 11<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Situations Wanted<\/strong><\/p>\n

Women didn\u2019t just find work through the Help Wanted ads; they may have also placed an ad in the Situations Wanted column to find a particular employment opportunity. This was a good tactic especially if the woman had a child and needed a live-in situation, was older, or did not speak English.<\/p>\n

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Kalamazoo Gazette (Kalamazoo, Michigan), 1 June 1906, page 9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Did your female ancestor have a job? She just might have\u2014and by reading the classifieds in the local newspaper of her hometown and era, you may get a sense for what types of employment were available to her.<\/p>\n

Do you know what your early female ancestors did for a living? Please share the positions the women in your family occupied with us in the comments.<\/p>\n

More Articles Related to Female Ancestors\u2019 Occupations:<\/strong><\/p>\n