the world
because of their very extensive employment by the National Government.
When Volume IV of the History of Woman Suffrage was written in 1900 an
official statement gave the total number of government employees in
the District as 20,109 men, 7,496 women, a total of 27,600. At the
request of Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, a vice-president of the National
Woman Suffrage Association and a member of the U. S. Civil Service
Commission, the following information was sent in 1920 to be used in
this volume, by the president of the commission, Martin A. Morrison:

In 1907 the Bureau of the Census issued a report in which it was
stated that men outnumbered women in the Government service by
about eleven to one in Washington, D. C., and outside. The
percentage of women in the District was much larger than outside
for the reason that the great bulk of the employees in field
branches are in services the duties of which are not ordinarily
performed by women--the mechanical forces at navy yards, ordnance
establishments, engineer departments, reclamation service
projects, lighthouse service and the like; also the
letter-carriers, city and rural, railway mail clerks and such
classes.

It is believed that the proportion of women to men in the entire
service did not change materially until the beginning of the war.
When the United States entered the war, there were approximately
38,000 employees in the executive civil service in the District
of Columbia, approximately two-fifths of them women. The force
was increased by 80,000 during the war, of whom approximately 75
per cent were women. The force has now been reduced to about
90,000, of whom approximately 50,000 are women. The proportion of
women is being constantly reduced by the return of former
soldiers and sailors to civilian employment, who are allowed
preference under the law. The Federal Civil Service outside the
District of Columbia increased by approximately 280,000 during
the war period, possibly one-third of this increase made up of
women. That force numbers now about 550,000 as compared with
450,000 before the war and it seems safe to say that twenty per
cent. are women.

These positions are open to any who pass the civil service
examinations but the chiefs of the bureaus and departments are
appointed by the President, and S