industry or Government agency, and the instructors were often industrial men. At first most of the courses trained for work in munitions or explosives chemistry; later, work in synthetic rubber, petroleum refining, and plastics were emphasized.

An Engineering, Science, and Management War Training course in analytical chemistry at Bryn Mawr College illustrates this program. Approximately 100 girls in all were trained in four consecutive groups. A year of high school chemistry was required for entrance to the 40hour-a-week course which lasted 10 weeks. The first and last groups were placed in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, the second and third groups largely in war production plants in Philadelphia, with a few going into the Yard.

Reports from scattered individuals and college placement bureaus indicate that those who took such courses were satisfied with the training and the jobs they received. Apart from the satisfaction derived from performing a war service, women found them of permanent value either as an introduction to more complete training or as a supplement to a background already obtained through regular courses. For example, one young woman, after graduating in 1941 from a woman's college, did analytical chemical work for 8 months in the control laboratory of a drug company. She then took Engineering, Science, and Management War Training courses in engineering mathematics and chemical engineering and at the war's end was in charge of the analytical work on paints in a research laboratory of a chemical plant. For others, these brief courses supplied opportunity for checking through first-hand experience their aptitude for and interest in chemistry. However, the courses were not designed to offer the basic background needed by women who intend to become chemists. Women who depended on such courses to qualify them for retention in a laboratory when college graduates again became readily available were usually disillusioned.

In-service training in laboratory work was given by many plants as well as by Government agencies where the number of new workers justified a more formal program than the usual "breaking-in" of a novice by an experienced member of the staff. For example, Army Ordnance gave special chemical and metallurgical courses to women selected for laboratory work (62). An oil company in Texas trained college women in 4 groups of 10 each. They completed a 2-week course of 2 hours of lectures supplemented by 6 hours of laboratory practice under the supervision of expert chemists who had had teaching experience (25).

Regular Degree Courses.-Women, of course, were encouraged to enter regular courses leading to a degree in chemistry, which in most colleges were accelerated by eliminating or reducing vacation periods,

so that a 4-year course was completed in 22 or 3 years. In July 1942, Federal loans were made available to women as well as men who were within 2 years of completing their professional training in chemistry. So few applied for these loans, available in six other fields as well, that the program was discontinued in 1943.

By 1944, the effect of the war on the supply of degree students in chemistry was evident in the 50 percent decline in the number of undergraduate students majoring in this field. (See table 6.) The number of women had increased by only 10 percent, but their proportion to the total number had grown from less than one-fourth to almost one-half of the undergraduate students majoring in chemistry. In 1944, women who received a bachelor's degree in chemistry totaled 1,237, more than double the prewar number. At the graduate level the change was drastic. Both men and women students declined in number by about half from 1942 to 1944.

Table 6. Distribution of Men and Women Undergraduate and Graduate Students in Chemistry and of Those Receiving the Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry, 1942 and 1944

Sources: Statistics on Students: U. S. Employment Service, National Roster of Scientific and Specialized Personnel (51) and (52).

Statistics on Degrees: U. S. Office of Education (56) and (57).

In high schools the trend was similar. In spite of the wartime emphasis on science and the increase in high school enrollments in physics, enrollments in chemistry followed the general decline in total high school enrollments that took place from 1941 to 1943. The number of girls taking high school chemistry in most types of school systems, however, increased (16).

Supply at the Close of the War

At the close of the war, in 1945, chemists with at least the bachelor's degree or its equivalent in experience probably numbered about 75,000. This figure was reached by adding a 4.000 allowance for additional graduates in 1944 and 1945, minus withdrawals for death or retirement, to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' estimate of 71,000 civilians employed

in chemistry, exclusive of chemical engineering, at the end of 1943 (45). In addition, there were at least 10,000 chemists in military service and about the same number of persons with partial training or experience in chemistry below the bachelor's level. From 5,000 to 6,000 of all chemists were women, who formed more than 6 percent of the total in 1945, as compared with 3 percent before the war.

Although the statistical evidence of the increased opportunity for women chemists in wartime and the resulting increase in their numbers is convincing, many women chemists warned against over-enthusiasm. One woman chemist called attention to the prejudice which she asserted continued to exist. Another commented on the high earnings in war industries, but warned that the work was routine and offered little opportunity to learn. She said, "Your employer regards you as something he picked up on the bargain table; and your men associates regard you as an intruder in their domain" (65). A number questioned the "wonderful opportunities" resulting from the war, observing that these opportunities were chiefly in control laboratories and that few women were given greater opportunity to do original research.

Earnings

Earnings, Hours, and Advancement

The war did not remove the differences in the earnings of men and women chemists. They persisted in spite of salary increases. The disparity that existed before the war was evidenced in a report of the American Chemical Society. In 1941 the median earnings of women who were regular members of the Society and had 5 years of experience in the profession were $1,776 a year ($148 a month), as compared with a median of $2,328 a year ($194 a month) for male members with comparable length of experience. The highest average for women members was among those with 32 to 36 years of experience, for whom the median was $3,960 a year ($330 a month), as compared with $5,364 a year ($447 a month) for men of comparable experience (2).

A similar study at the end of 1943 showed the wartime increase in earnings. The lowest median base salary for women in 1943 was $1,884 a year ($157 a month) for beginners, higher than the 1941 median for women with 5 years of experience. The highest was $4,512 per year ($376 a month) for women with 381⁄2 years of experience. The earnings of men had also increased. The median for men beginners exceeded that of women without experience by $192 a year ($16 per month). The differential between the medians for men and women increased with length of experience until it reached $1,980 a year ($165 a month) in the group with 281⁄2 years of experience (3).

The 1943 median income (including overtime fees and bonuses) for all chemists, regardless of experience and including members and nonmembers of the American Chemical Society, was $3,280 a year ($273 a month) according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median base salary without overtime pay was $2,916 a year ($243 a month). The comparable median base salary rate for all women chemists was $2,040 ($170 a month).

Earnings varied not only with sex and with length of experience but with education and type of work. Chemists with doctor's degrees had a median base salary in 1943 that was $1,032 a year ($86 a month) higher than that of chemists with bachelor's degrees. Administrative posts paid best, with a median of $4,020 a year; and secondary school teaching and analysis and testing paid the least, with medians of $2,616 and $2,520 respectively (45).

Although openings for women chemists dropped off at the end of the war, reports from those placing college graduates indicate that beginning salaries which had increased during the war were not lowered. Most industrial laboratory jobs as well as technical library or secretarial work for recent college graduates were offered in 1946 at salaries ranging from $1,560 to $2,080 a year ($130 to $175 a month). A few paid as high as $2,300 to $2,400 ($192 to $200 a month). Holders of a master's degree were usually started at $300 a year more; those with a doctor's, at $1,000 a year more than those with only the bachelor's degree. On the west coast two chemical companies were paying women technicians the same salaries as men, ranging from $2,076 to $3,468 a year ($173 to $284 a month). Women chemists with 5 to 10 years of experience were earning $3,000 to $3,500 a year ($250 to $292 a month). The Federal salary at the beginning professional level in chemistry in 1947 was $2,644 ($220 a month). (For minimum requirements see p. 2-55.) The highest possible maximum for chemists in the Federal service was $9,975 ($831 a month).

Hospitals were offering the new graduate up to $2,000 ($167 a month), although $1,500 to $1,800 ($125 to $150 a month) was more usual and $1,200 ($100 a month) not uncommon. Research projects in medical schools, colleges, and research institutions varied widely in offerings depending upon the financing of the project or programs; $1,500 to $2,700 was the usual range for those with the bachelor's degree.

College teaching assistantships (usually half-time) at $800 and $1,000 ($89 to $111 a month for an academic year of 9 months) and instructorships open to women were still hard to fill with well qualified persons. The American Chemical Society reported the same salary

range for chemistry faculty positions in 1944 as for 1939: instructors began at $1,800 to $2,500 ($200 to $278 a month for 9 months); teachers with 10 years' experience received $3,000 to $5,000 ($333 to $556 a month for 9 months), and top salaries ranged from $4,000 to $10,000 ($444 to $1,111 a month for 9 months) (5) (4). The median salary for high school teachers in 1946-47 was $3,594 in cities over 100,000 ($359 a month for 10 months) and $2,774 ($277 a month for 10 months) in cities of 30,000 to 100,000, an increase of some $700 over the prewar median (33).

An analysis of the income of chemists over a period extending from 1926 to 1943 indicates that the "real earnings of the younger chemists with less experience have increased markedly in recent years, while the older chemists have gained little in real earnings" (24). Scattered reports on earnings obtained incidentally in the Women's Bureau study support the application of this statement to women chemists.

Hours

The hours of chemists vary with their type of employment. Chemistry teachers, for example, have schedules comparable to those of other teachers. Those doing routine testing in public health and other medical laboratories have regular hours and a week ranging from 40 to 48 hours. In industrial and research laboratories of all types, hours vary more widely, because some control and research work requires constant, 24-hour attention. In such cases, chemists in the laboratory usually work on 8-hour shifts. During the war, when factories were in constant operation, shift work in laboratories increased. Most women did not want night work, and most employers were reluctant to employ them on the night shift, even though legislative restrictions on their employment at night were generally waived as a war measure. Most laboratory work, however, does not require 24-hour attention, and regular hours are scheduled.

Advancement

If advancement is measured in terms of earnings, technical administrative posts, such as those of directors of research and of laboratory directors, represent the top. Chemists in these positions are by far the highest-paid group. That a few women attain such posts is

evident from the 1943 distribution of women chemists which showed 5 percent of them in this type of work. The fact that 15 percent of the men chemists were technical administrators indicates that women are less likely than men to advance to such positions (45).

Women chemists in administrative work located by the Women's Bureau were for the most part directors or assistant directors of chemical laboratories or division chiefs. Others in supervisory posi