Women Workers Leaving the Treasury Department During the Civil War, the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/337">Department of the Treasury</a> hired women workers to fill clerical positions vacated by men who had left to fight with the Union Army. Until that time, clerking was strictly a male occupation. Believing women were particularly well-suited for repetitive, routine tasks, the Secretary of the Treasury assigned them to hand-cut paper money, usually printed in amounts of four bills per sheet. A Union officer observed that it was difficult to live on their salary of $600 a year because room and board cost about $50 per month. <em>Harpers Weekly</em>, February 18, 1865. 1865 <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1860-1889">1860-1889</a>