‘Working girl’ is a term used to refer to the college educated women who are leaving the traditional domestic confinement to pursue service occupations in nursing and teaching. In 1890, out of the working women, 68 percent were not married while only a mere 14 percent were married and with the remaining 18 percent either widowed or divorced. This class of women was criticized for developing new lifestyles that put the woman outside the family therefore compromising their motherhood roles. In fact, it was argued that high education to women actually lowered the female productivity. They initiated efforts to recognize the importance of women in industrialization while clamoring for their rights. In fact, through these initiatives, they attracted the attention of the Senate to form commissions that filed reports on the educated women and wage earners in the year 1910 to 1914.
These classes of women faced a myriad of opportunities as they struggled to move up. Among the misfortunes were working under very dangerous working conditions, low wages and poor living standards. These conditions were exhausting and tiring to both the mind coordination process and their bodies. Compared to the middle aged women or older women, the working conditions seemed to be deliberately made worse for the younger women. The middle aged women generally enjoyed their work and had more fulfilling working environments. In addition, generally these women did not live independent lives as they had to provide for their families and their children. This provoked the women to form groups and join unions in order to have powers to fight back at the conditions they were being subjected to.
Although the ‘working girls’ were all immigrants or descendants of immigrants, they were all white. This can be attributed to their places of origin. Evans further discussed that women mostly originated from the Eastern and Southern parts of Europe. For example, Clara Lemlich, who made such an impact, was from Russia. There were also immigrants of Jewish descent while some came from Italy.

--------------------------------------------
[ 1 ]. Evans, Sara M. Born of Liberty: A History of Women in America. (U.S.A: Free Press, 1989), 157.
[ 2 ]. Norton, Beth and Ruth, Alexander. Major Problems in American Women’s History: Documents and Essays. (Virginia: Houghton Miffin, 2007), 263-267.