The census of the population is an important source for the study of women in society. Comparing census data over long periods of time allows us to see changes in patterns. This data shows, for example, that the number of women in the workforce almost doubled from 1920 to 1940, and also that the number of women doing needlework at home more than tripled during the same period. Notice also the change in numbers of women working in needlework factories. Contrasting the growth of women working in needlework with the decline of women working in tobacco suggests that women’s work was moving away from agricultural work, and toward manufacturing work.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Fourteenth census of the United States taken in the year 1920, Volume IV, Population, Occupations Report. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1921-1923.; U.S. Bureau of the Census. Censo de Puerto Rico: 1935: Poblacion y agricultura. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1938.; U.S. Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth census of the United States taken in the year 1940. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1941-1943.

 
Compiled Census Data:
Women over the age of ten working in needlework or tobacco stripping, 1920-1940