By World War I, managers wanted young women with some high school education for new light manufacturing jobs in the office. Women could be paid significantly less than men with equivalent educations and the marriage bar--the practice of not hiring or retaining married women--ensured that most of them would leave the workplace before the issue of higher salaries arose. Encouraged by free training gained in high schools and by working conditions better than those available in factories, young working-class women sought out office jobs. Facing sexual discrimination in most of the professions and...