BUREAU OF WOMEN AND 
CHILDREN 
The Bureau of Women and Children was estab- 
lished in 1925 in answer to the insistent demand of 
the women of Pennsylvania who believed that the 
employment of women and children in the industries 
of the state justified the establishment of a Bureau 
especially equipped to consider the problems of such 
employment. As the second largest industrial state 
in the Union, Pennsylvania was employing in indus- 
try about three-fourths of -a million women and one- 
fourth of a million children under 18. This employment presented 
problems that were unique and which required special consideration. 
Thus the Administrative Code, Section 1707, providing for the creation 
of the Bureau specifically states that it shall be the duty of this Bureau 
“to make studies and investigations of the special problems connected 
with the labor of women and children.’ The activities of the Bu- 
reau during its four years of existence have been confined to three 
divisions: Research, Administration and Education. 
RESEARCH 
The Bureau of Women and Children is in its 
essence a faet finding eommission. Upon it has 
devolved the duty of studying conditions under 
which women and children labor and presenting the 
facts in a scientifie, accurate and scholarly manner 
so that they may be of benefit to the public and to 
the industrial workers. In its research work, the 
Bureau has consistently treated as separate and dis- 
tinct problems matters pertaining to women and 
matters pertaining to children in industry. The 
conditions under which women and children work 
are in many instances similar but the problems that result are different. 
The nature of the surveys made has been determined largely by out- 
standing problems as they have appeared from time to time in speeifie 
‘ndustries. 
For example, at the time the Bureau was organized, one of the most 
serious problems in the matter of the employment of children was that 
of migratory workers who came into the state at seasonal periods for 
the purpose of canning fruit and vegetables. The establishment of 
these temporary labor camps into which parents came and worked with 
children presented questions of the enforcement of the Child Labor 
Law, the maintenance of educational standards for children residents 
of another state, and the maintenance of sanitary conditions in the 
labor camps. In December of 1925, the Bureau published a sensational, 
but true picture of this problem in the Department bulletin, ¢‘ What of 
Pennsylvania Canneries?’”” In a similar way, because of the large 
number of minors employed in the glass industry in the Commonwealth, 
another bulletin. ‘Opportunities and Conditions of Work for Minors