Class instruction was not given, but the manager taught the women informally. The names of the women who did the sewing were not used; they were known to the customers only by numbers. Many of the women were providing support for themselves and other members of their families through this work. The committee of women who have supported this undertaking at one time took over the distribution of home work for the army, thus eliminating the middle men, and during those 4 years the women's wages increased considerably.

WOMEN OFFICE AND STORE EMPLOYEES

The manager of one of the large banks said that 10 or 15 years ago girls started working in offices in increasing numbers. He spoke highly of their efficiency. In the main office of an import-export firm visited there were 28 young women among a total of 117 employees. No special preparation was required for employment by this company, but training was given on the job. The company paid for lessons for anyone who wished to study English.

Young women were working in Government offices as secretaries, clerks, and stenographers. Those who were bilingual stenographers held good positions with foreign companies.

TELEPHONE OPERATORS

Telephone exchanges in two interior cities were visited. In one, 55 young women were working at the local switchboard, one at the long-distance switchboard, and another as long-distance charge clerk. The workrooms were clean and had good light and ventilation. The employees made a nice appearance in uniforms furnished by the company. There was a small dressing room, and each girl had a private locker. The company had a physician on call. A life insurance policy was given each employee.

The second exchange visited was even smaller, employing only three switchboard operators under the supervision of a woman who had been with the company for 12 years.

WOMEN IN THE PROFESSIONS

For a number of years women have graduated from such professional colleges of the universities as law, pharmacy, and medicine. However, the number who have practiced in the professional field has been small, except in teaching, for when women married they gave up their professions. As in all countries, the largest number of women in the professions is in teaching.

Teaching

Women numbered 5,503 of a total of 9,608 employees in the Ministry of Public Education, according to the 1940 Census. Almost all of these women are public school teachers, and the majority are in primary schools. In private educational institutions women comprise 2,683 of a total of 4,868 persons so employed. It was reported in Arequipa in 1943 that women began to teach in the secondary schools there only within the last few years. Completion of the course in the School of Pedagogy is a requirement for secondary school teachers, and this school had been established as part of the University of Arequipa for only a few years. In Lima, women have been teaching in the secondary schools for girls for a number of years, after graduating from the Institute of Pedagogy and from the University of San Marcos. Here there are women who occupy important positions in the field of education. For example, the woman who is at present director of the School of Social Work had previously been director of a secondary school for girls; later, as an inspector of secondary schools, she was a member of the administrative staff of the Ministry of Education.

Women teachers in Peru, as well as in other countries, are not only pioneers in their employment outside the home, but often are pioneers in extending education. A kindergarten for underprivileged children, started in 1918 in Iquitos by two young women, was the model for kindergartens which they later established in other cities in all parts of Peru and for one far up the Amazon River. Two teachers of Arequipa started a night school for women which in 1942 had an attendance of 450 young and older women. Some of its students learned to read and write, others to sew, while office employees studied commercial subjects.

A woman who was an experienced normal school teacher accepted the position of director of a newly established normal school in Huancayo. Many of its pupils were from Indian communities where teachers and schools are much needed. In addition to arranging and supervising the classes, the director was in charge of the 80 students. who lived at the school, and she also found time to organize moneyraising projects to buy needed equipment for the school.

These examples could be increased many times.

Nursing

Women employed in clinics, hospitals, and private medical offices comprised 891 of a total of 1,716 persons so employed, according to the 1940 Census. Nurses as well as those doing other kinds of work are included among these women.

Efforts have been made within the last few years to improve the standards for nursing and to put it on a professional basis. Entrance requirements for the schools of nursing have been raised, and applicants must now be secondary school graduates. (Secondary school corresponds to high school in the United States but also includes some work of junior college level.) Formerly, only primary school was required, and nursing attracted principally girls from families of meager economic and educational background.

Attached to hospitals in Lima are five schools of nursing for women. Each school has approximately 100 students; the courses are 3- or 4-year courses. Each institution employs its own graduates. It has been estimated that the current need for nurses reaches 3,000, owing to the extension of the health benefits of the Social Security Funds for Industrial Workers to clerical workers and owing also to the expansion of the health services of Government agencies.

Social Work

Young women graduates of the School of Social Work are employed in Lima as social workers in the workers' hospital, the maternity hospital, the child welfare institute, a few industrial plants, low-cost housing projects, and the juvenile court. The school was established by a Government decree of April 30, 1937, and is maintained by the Government. In 1943 there were -55 students enrolled in the 3-year

course.

Other Professions

Information on women in other professions comes from the 1940 Census. Of a total of 3,324 persons who are practicing professions independently, 561 are women. The largest number of these, 304, are midwives; 111 are in the legal profession; the next largest number, 49, are in medicine; 36 are in dentistry; 15 are in engineering; 11 are notaries; and 6 are pharmacists.5

Listed in another classification are 51 women who work in radio broadcasting studios. Some of these women plan and produce daily and weekly programs; a few are commentators. A number of the women working on radio programs are writers, poets, monologists.

WAGES

Information available concerning wages of women workers in Peru is limited. Time did not permit any extensive data to be collected

It should be noted that there are many more than six women pharmacists in Peru; women are working in pharmacies, in import-export companies where a pharmacist is required by law for analyzing imported medicines and so forth, and in Government agencies. That is, they are employed as pharmacists, but are not working independently. More women practice in other licensed professions also than is shown by the census because the census reports only those working independently.

by the Women's Bureau representative, and the information about women's wages which managers of factories and other work establishments gave in conversation or in answer to questions forms the basis for the following discussion.

Wages were paid on either a time- or piece-rate basis, sometimes a combination of both.

According to the information received, the average wage of women working in textile mills was highest in Lima, next highest in Arequipa, third highest in Huancayo. The average wage paid by other industries followed the same order, with one exception: The candy factory in Arequipa paid higher wages than the one visited in Lima.

The average salaries of teachers in primary schools were approximately the same as those of office workers, if bilingual, experienced stenographers, whose salaries were higher, are excepted.

The wages of telephone operators were comparable to wages paid by other industries in the same cities. Exceptions were the higher wages of operators handling the long-distance switchboards.

Lowest of all were the cash wages offered to domestic workers, judging by the advertisements of the Lima newspapers; however, food and lodging would increase the total wage.

Textile and Knitting Mill Wages

One cotton mill in Lima reported an entrance daily wage of 1 sol and an average weekly wage of 26 to 27 soles for experienced workers. A few women who were paid on the piece-rate basis could earn 6 soles a day.

Other cotton mills reported an average of 24 to 25 soles a week, while one plant, employing only a relatively small number of experienced women workers, reported an average of 35 soles a week. The supervisor of one section in this plant earned 50 to 60 soles a week.

The wages paid by the textile mills in Arequipa and Huancayo were, as already stated, lower than those paid in Lima. In the cotton mill visited in Arequipa the women's wages averaged 12 to 15 soles a week. In the woolen mill in Huancayo, 80 centavos a day was the beginning wage; increases after more skill was acquired brought the wages from 1 to 1.20 soles per day; 50 to 60 soles a month was the maximum for women. Wages reported for a plant manufacturing rayon cloth and knitted garments were from 1.10 to 1.50 soles a day.

In the plant making cotton jersey material and garments, women earned 24 soles a week. In another, making silk, rayon, knitted

The sol (100 centavos) had an exchange value of 15.3 cents U. S. A. in April-May 1943, the time of the visit. Wages should be evaluated according to purchasing power, the standard of living, and according to other wages paid in the country under discussion. All wages have increased considerably since 1943, following the rise in cost of living.