Women Postmasters

Women served as Postmasters in the United States more than a century before they won the right to vote. Over the course of the 1800s, the number of women Postmasters increased from fewer than a dozen to more than 6,000. By the end of the twentieth century, more than half of all Postmasters were women. Although sometimes popularly called "postmistresses," their official title has always been "Postmaster." 

Women Postmasters in the Colonies
Several women ran Post Offices under the British postal system in North America. In Salem, Massachusetts, the Post Office was reportedly kept by two women, Lydia Hill and Molly Gill.(1) Hill reportedly served as Postmaster for many years before her death in 1768.(2)   

Sarah Goddard was no stranger to postal business — her late husband, Giles Goddard, had been the Postmaster of New London, Connecticut. In 1764, Sarah joined her son William in Providence, Rhode Island, where he ran a newspaper and print shop and served as Postmaster. Shortly thereafter, William left Providence to pursue business ventures in New York and Philadelphia, leaving the Providence Post Office and print shop in the care of Sarah.(3)

In 1773, William Goddard moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where he started another newspaper and printing business. A few months later, he was joined by his sister Mary Katherine, “a skilled printer in her own right.”(4) While William travelled, she ran the day-to-day business of the print shop, which by 1775 had become Baltimore’s Post Office, with Mary Katherine serving as Postmaster.

First Women Postmasters in the United States
Mary Katherine Goddard was the only known woman Postmaster when Benjamin Franklin was named the first American Postmaster General in July 1775, making her the first known woman Postmaster in the United Colonies, predecessor of the United States. During the Revolutionary War, mail service was so important that for several years, Goddard kept the Post Office open by paying the post rider out of her own pocket. In addition to serving as Postmaster, she ran a bookshop and book bindery, and published The Maryland journal, and the Baltimore advertiser. She also holds another distinction: she was the first person to print the Declaration of Independence with the names of the signers.(5)  

In 1789, President George Washington appointed a new Postmaster General, Samuel Osgood, who in turn appointed a new Postmaster at Baltimore. More than 200 citizens of Baltimore petitioned Osgood to reinstate Goddard, but he refused, claiming the right to exercise his own judgment. Goddard wrote to Washington and to the U.S. Senate to petition for reinstatement, but neither intervened on her behalf.

Ann Clay of New Castle, Delaware, also served as Postmaster in the late 18th century. Clay was a widowed innkeeper with 13 children. Benjamin Franklin’s ledger of Post Office accounts shows a credit of 1 pound, 2 shillings, and 6 pence for postage “received this day from Mrs. Clay,” dated May 30, 1776.(6) 

Ten years later another widow, Elizabeth Creswell, served briefly as Postmaster of Charlestown, Maryland, in place of her late husband. She was listed in the Postmaster General’s financial ledger as rendering an account for the office on April 5, 1786.

Sarah DeCrow became the first woman appointed under the Constitution when she was named Postmaster of Hertford, North Carolina, on September 27, 1792 — although she soon wanted to forego the honor because of the low pay. In August 1793, Assistant Postmaster General Charles Burrall acknowledged her concerns, while appealing to her sense of public duty, writing:   

I am sensible that the pecuniary advantages arising from your office cannot be much inducement to you to hold it, yet I flatter myself you will continue to do the business for the benefit of the town and neighborhood.(7) 

Apparently DeCrow continued to hold the office — and continued wanting to resign — for a year later, Burrall appealed to her again in much the same terms: 

I am sensible that the emoluments of the office cannot be much inducement to you to keep it, nor to any Gentleman to [accept] of it, yet I flatter myself some one may be found willing to do the business, rather than the town and its neighbourhood should be deprived of the benefit of a Post Office.(8)

In 1795, a gentleman finally did take over the Hertford Post Office.

Qualifications in Question
Until the late 19th century, the appointment of women as Postmasters was rare. Only 8 women are known to have served as Postmaster in both 1816 and 1825, out of more than 3,000.(9)

On February 17, 1814, Postmaster General Gideon Granger questioned the legality of appointing a woman as Postmaster. The subject arose in a letter from Granger to Nathaniel Boileau, secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, concerning the selection of a new Postmaster for Harrisburg, the state capital. Although Rose Wright, the late Postmaster’s widow, was the preferred local candidate for the office, Granger advised it would be “imprudent” to appoint her, explaining:

The Post Office Law has been revised and altered … and a doubt has been suggested to me … as to the strict legality of appointing a female and on careful examination of the Law I … believe that the doubt may be well founded.(10)

Granger was referring to the act of April 30, 1810 (2 Stat. 592). The act contained no provision concerning the appointment of women, however, all pronouns substituted for "Postmaster" were in the masculine case, which Granger may have interpreted as excluding women.(11) But since this language was not new, and Granger had previously appointed at least 6 women as Postmaster, it may be that his new interpretation of the language stemmed from political rancor. In the preceding weeks, Granger had been publicly embroiled in a political controversy with members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation concerning the selection of a new Postmaster for Philadelphia. Reportedly, the controversy cost Granger his job — he was removed from office at the end of February 1814.(12) Rose Wright, meanwhile, was appointed Postmaster of the Harrisburg Post Office on March 9, 1814, and remained in office for more than eight years.

Another important Pennsylvania city, Lancaster — one of the largest cities in the state — was served by women Postmasters for more than 41 years. Ann Moore, the widow of the previous Postmaster, was appointed in 1809, followed by Mary Dickson, who served from 1829 to 1850. Dickson operated a print shop and book store and owned the Lancaster Intelligencer, one of the oldest Democratic newspapers in the state. In fiscal year 1847 she earned $1,305, making her the fifth highest-earning Postmaster in Pennsylvania. Only the Postmasters of Erie, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh earned more. 

In April 1847, Postmaster General Cave Johnson made clear that Mary Dickson was an exception — not the rule. Responding to the recommendation of a woman for Postmaster at Columbus, Ohio, Johnson wrote:

It has not been the practice of the Department to appoint females … at the larger offices; the duties required of them are many and important and often of a character that ladies could not be expected to perform; the personal supervision of the duties within the offices; the receipt and dispatch of the mails at all times day or night; the constant watch necessary to be kept over the conduct of contractors and carriers and other agents of the Department; the superintendence of mail service generally within the vicinity of the office; the pursuit and arrest of mail depredators; and prosecutions for violations of the Post Office laws; are duties that could not be dispensed with at such an office as Columbus without serious injury to the public service and could not with propriety be exacted of a lady.(13)

Johnson ignored his own advice in February 1849 when — in one of his last official acts as Postmaster General — he appointed Maria Hornbeck as Postmaster of Allentown, the seat of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. She was the widow of U.S. Representative John W. Hornbeck, who had died a year earlier, and she had 4 young children to support.(14) 

Maria E. Hornbeck
Postmaster of Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1849–1862
Maria Hornbeck was appointed Postmaster of Allentown, Pennsylvania, by Postmaster General Cave Johnson in February 1849, two years after he stated that ladies couldn’t perform all the “many and important” duties required of Postmasters at large offices. Hornbeck served as Postmaster until shortly before her death in 1862.  

In early 1862 there were reportedly 411 women out of 28,586 total Postmasters — about 1.4 percent. Of that number, only 5 served at the larger “Presidential” Post Offices: Ann Gentry at Columbia, Missouri; Maria Hornbeck at Allentown; Ann L. Ruthrauff at Lebanon, Pennsylvania; Mary Berard at West Point, New York; and Margaret Sillyman at Pottsville, Pennsylvania.(15)

More Women Appointed After the Civil War 
Following the Civil War, women were appointed as Postmaster in greater numbers. In the South, prior to July 1868, prospective Postmasters had to swear that they had not voluntarily aided the Confederacy or Confederate soldiers — few southern men could take that oath. The war also created many widows. In a letter of March 1873, President Ulysses S. Grant, explaining why he had appointed a woman Postmaster at Ashtabula, Ohio, stated ”it is of a class of appointments I am glad to make, where it can be done — that is … giving a soldier’s widow an opportunity of supporting herself and orphan children.”(16)

David Parker, Chief Postal Inspector from 1878 to 1883, recalled the political pressure brought to bear when another soldier’s widow, Josephine Owen, was threatened with the loss of her job. Owen, who had served as Postmaster of Randolph, New York, since 1872, faced removal in 1883 when the local congressman wanted the job to go to one of his relatives.(17) Postmaster General Timothy Howe asked Parker — who lived near Randolph — to provide a written statement to President Chester Arthur, advising him of the facts of the case. Parker wrote:

The postmistress is a soldier’s widow, a most estimable lady, administering the post-office … exceptionally well in every respect. She asks a reappointment, and her opponent is a citizen of the place who did not serve in the army and has not been a prominent citizen in any sense. … The ladies of the village support the postmistress. The soldiers of that neighborhood, and in fact of the whole county, feel an interest in the case, as she is the widow of a soldier who lost his life.(18)

Despite the entreaties of New York’s congressional delegation and some of the Presidents’ closest friends, President Arthur reappointed Owen as Postmaster.

Political Patronage in Postmaster Appointments
In 1836, an act of Congress provided that at all Post Offices where the annual compensation of the Postmaster exceeded one thousand dollars, the Postmaster would be appointed by the President, "by and with the advice and consent of the Senate."  When Post Offices were divided into classes in 1864, Postmasters of the first, second and third classes were appointed by the President. 
Selections for Presidential appointees were generally made by congressmen under a complicated "advisor" system, requiring a would-be Postmaster to gain the support of his representative or senator, then Presidential nomination to the Senate, and finally Senate confirmation. Appointments to smaller Post Offices, meanwhile, were made by the Postmaster General, often upon the advice of local political leaders.
Postmaster appointments remained essentially political until 1969, when President Richard Nixon and Postmaster General Winton Blount jointly announced an end to political appointments in the Post Office Department. The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 legally ended political patronage by explicitly prohibiting "political recommendations" in the personnel affairs of the Post Office.

After the Civil War, too, African American women were appointed as Postmasters. The first known African American woman to serve as Postmaster was Anna M. Dumas, who was appointed Postmaster of Covington, Louisiana, on November 15, 1872, and served until about June 1885. One of the best known was Minnie Cox, who was appointed Postmaster of Indianola, Mississippi, in January 1891, and served until late 1902. Cox became embroiled in a political controversy when President Theodore Roosevelt refused to accept her resignation, which she had tendered under pressure from some white citizens. Roosevelt, testing the power of the federal government to “interfere in the race problem,” chose to suspend service at the Indianola Post Office rather than accept her resignation and appoint a white man in her place.(19)    

The longest known tenure of any woman Postmaster was that of Mary W. “Mollie” Stewart, who served as Postmaster of Oxford, Maryland, for more than 63 years. Stewart was appointed on March 9, 1877, at the age of 19, following the death of her father, the previous Postmaster. She served until retiring in 1940 at the age of 82, having served under 13 Presidents and 24 Postmasters General.

In 1892, there were 6,335 women Postmasters, comprising nearly 10 percent of the total. Pennsylvania had more female Postmasters — 463 — than any other state, although Virginia was a close second with 460.(20) In The Story of Our Post Office, published in 1893, Marshall Cushing noted these women were “sometimes … the most important persons in their towns.”(21) Cushing gave biographical sketches of more than two dozen women Postmasters, including:

Mary Sumner Long, Postmaster at Charlottesville, Virginia, who was "a lady of marked social and literary tastes and acquirements, as well as of great business capacity.… [and whose] business-like administration of the post office… has been very satisfactory to all her patrons."(22) 

and 

Lucy S. Miller, of Mariposa, California, who was “faithfully at her post” daily by five in the morning, when “the morning mail reaches Mariposa… summer and winter,” to get the “mail in readiness for the different carriers as they call."(23)

Mary H. Sumner Long
Postmaster of Charlottesville, Virginia, 1877-1900 
Mary H. Sumner Long was appointed Postmaster of the Charlottesville, Virginia, Post Office by President 
Ulysses S. Grant on March 2, 1877 — one of his last days in office. She held the position until her death in 1900.
Her husband was the Confederate General Armistead L. Long, who had been one of General Robert E. Lee’s closest aides. The story goes that when Mary Long’s friends urged President Grant to support her request for the Postmaster position on account of her father — Union General Edwin Sumner — Grant replied: “I have great respect for Gen. Sumner. He was a gallant soldier. But Gen. Long was also a gallant soldier, and I will help Mrs. Long on her husband’s account.” (The Washington Post, June 26, 1898).  By that time, Armistead Long had gone completely blind, due perhaps to his war service, and relied upon his wife for support.    

20th Century Achievements
Women Postmasters began setting new records in the 1920s. Appointed Postmaster of Tampa, Florida, on January 26, 1923, Elizabeth D. Barnard became the highest paid female Postmaster on record with a salary of $6,000, at a time when the average annual salary for postal employees was just $1,870. She served as Postmaster of Tampa for 10 ½ years.

Elizabeth D. Barnard 
Postmaster of Tampa, Florida, 1923–1933 
Courtesy Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System
Widowed at the age of 24 with two young children, Elizabeth Barnard took a correspondence course in stenography while working at a hardware store. She passed the civil service examination and was hired as a clerk at the Tampa Post Office in 1907, at a salary of $600. She worked as the Postmaster’s secretary for about 15 years, becoming familiar with all aspects of Post Office work, and in 1922 was promoted to assistant superintendent of mails. In January 1923, President Warren Harding appointed her Postmaster of Tampa upon the recommendation of George Bean, who had been Tampa’s Postmaster from 1906 to 1914. Barnard credited her success to loyalty, interest, and hard work. She served as Postmaster until July 1933.

In the late 1930s, Mary D. Briggs earned $10,000 a year as Postmaster of the Los Angeles Post Office — the sixth largest Post Office in the nation. She began acting as Postmaster following the death of her husband, the former Postmaster. She was recommended for the job by Senator William McAdoo of California, and received a regular appointment in 1938. While serving as Postmaster, she played an active role in many civic and professional organizations, including the National Association of Postmasters and the National Business and Professional Women’s Club of Los Angeles. She served as Postmaster of Los Angeles from 1936 until her death in July 1945.

During World War II, the number of female Postmasters increased significantly — to more than 17,500 out of 42,680 in 1943. The number decreased slightly as men returned from the war and reclaimed their jobs. Still, in 1949, more than 40 percent of the nation’s 41,575 Postmasters were women.

On February 3, 1958, the Post Office Department issued a press release on "lady postmasters," announcing that the department employed "the largest number of women branch managers of any business type operation in the world." According to then-Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield: 

With our near 16,000 women Postmasters representing close to half of our entire management staff, we believe it is fair to say the American Post Office Department … recognizes the management abilities of women perhaps more than any other private or governmental organization anywhere.

The same press release noted that women headed several offices with more than a million dollars in annual receipts, including Beverly Hills, California; Boys Town, Nebraska; Hackensack and Union, New Jersey; and Corpus Christi, Texas.

In the 1960s, women benefited from a series of executive orders promoting equal employment in the federal workforce, beginning with President John F. Kennedy’s July 1962 order that federal appointments and promotions be made “without regard to sex.”(24) Women were appointed to several top Postmaster jobs in the 1960s, including at Van Nuys, California, in 1960; at Pasadena and Burbank, California, in 1963; and at Lansing, Michigan, in 1964. 

Kathryn S. Wilson, 
Postmaster of Pasadena, California, 1963–1984
In July 1963, President John F. Kennedy appointed Kathryn S. Wilson Postmaster of the Pasadena, California, Post Office — the largest Post Office headed by a woman at that time. Wilson had acted in the position since 1961.  
In 1971, Wilson became one of the first women to manage a sectional center when the Pasadena Post Office was designated as such.  (The Lansing, Michigan, Post Office/sectional center was also headed by a woman.) In 1975, sectional centers were renamed Management Sectional Centers (MSCs). As MSC manager, Wilson was responsible not only for the Pasadena Post Office, but for all Post Offices in the 910–912 ZIP Code area.  
Wilson served as MSC manager/Postmaster of Pasadena until her retirement in March 1984. She received a service award from Postmaster General William F. Bolger upon her retirement, in recognition of nearly 23 years of dedicated service.

On February 5, 1969, President Richard Nixon and Postmaster General Winton Blount jointly announced an end to political appointments in the Post Office Department. Political considerations in appointments were legally ended by the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970. On November 28, 1970, the first group of Postmasters was appointed based on merit alone; the group consisted of 51 men and 32 women.

Noteworthy appointments in the 1970s and 1980s included Margaret Sellers, who was appointed Postmaster of San Diego, California, in 1979, and Mary Brown, who was appointed at Shreveport, Louisiana in 1981, and was later promoted to the top job in San Francisco. Sellers began sorting mail at the San Diego Post Office in 1959, to help pay for college; she headed the San Diego Post Office from 1979 until her death in 1992. Brown — the first woman and reportedly the first African American to head the Shreveport Post Office — also began her postal career in 1959. According to an article in the February 6, 1981, issue of the Shreveport Journal, Brown applied for a job at the Post Office because she wanted money to buy a clothes dryer. She bought the dryer and went on to a 31-year career with the Postal Service. She was promoted to several top Postmaster positions in the 1980s, serving until her retirement in 1990.     

By 1986, more than half of all Postmasters were women.(25) Another milestone was achieved in 1987, when Janet Norfleet was appointed Postmaster of the Chicago Post Office — the largest Post Office in the world. Norfleet began working as a substitute clerk in Chicago in 1958. As Postmaster, she directed the activities of more than 19,000 employees, until retiring in 1990.

In 1998, Vinnie Malloy was appointed Postmaster of New York, New York — the first woman to lead the nation’s highest-grossing Post Office. She joined the Postal Service in 1969 as a substitute clerk and served as Postmaster of New York City until her retirement in 2007. 

In 2020, 7,610 of the nation's 13,617 Postmasters were women, representing more than 55 percent.(26)  

HISTORIAN
UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE
FEBRUARY 2021

Endnotes

1.	Carl H. Webber and Winfield S. Nevins, Old Naumkeag: An Historical Sketch of the City of Salem (Salem, MA: A. A. Smith & Co., 1877), 130, www.hathitrust.org (accessed July 6, 2020). 
2.	The Essex Institute Historical Collections, volume 54 (Salem, MA: Newcomb & Gauss, Printers, 1918), 192, citing Boston Evening Post, July 25, 1768, www.archives.org (accessed July 6, 2020).
3.	Susan Henry, “Sarah Goddard, Gentlewoman Printer,” Journalism Quarterly, March 1, 1980, 23–30. 
4.	Ward L. Miner, William Goddard, Newspaperman (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1962), 47, www.hathitrust.org (accessed July 6, 2020). 
5.	In January 1777, Congress commissioned Mary Katherine Goddard to print the first copy of the declaration with the names of the signers. With British troops closing in on Philadelphia, Congress had evacuated to Baltimore the previous month.
6.	The Ledger of Doctor Benjamin Franklin, Postmaster General (Vineland, NJ: Historic Documents Pub. Co, 1976) 36, www.hathitrust.org (accessed July 6, 2020).
7.	Letter of August 25, 1793, from Assistant Postmaster General Charles Burrall to Postmaster Sarah DeCrow, National Archives Microfilm Publication 601, Letters Sent by the Postmaster General, 1789-1836, Roll 2, 493.
8.	Letter of November 29, 1794, from Assistant Postmaster General Charles Burrall to Postmaster Sarah DeCrow, National Archives Microfilm Publication 601, Letters Sent by the Postmaster General, 1789-1836, Roll 4, 34.
9.	The Annual Report of the Postmaster General lists 3,260 Post Offices in 1816, and 5,677 in 1825. The 1816 and 1825 editions of the Official Register of the United States list Postmasters by Post Office on September 30 of each year. Most Postmasters’ first names are listed; a small number are listed with gender-neutral first names or first initials only, obscuring gender. A digital version of the 1816 edition is online at www.hathitrust.org (see from page 93 at https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015008010038). The women Postmasters are listed below; the dates are their approximate dates of service, extrapolated from the Record of Appointment of Postmasters (NARA M1131 and M841).
 The 1816 Official Register lists the following women Postmasters: 
Mary Davenport (Chester PA, 1/1/1814–2/21/1818); 	
Rebecca Mills (Clough Mills SC, 11/28/1812– );   	
Susanna Wiley (Georgetown DC, 12/17/1812–12/30/1815);	
Rose Wright (Harrisburg PA, 3/9/1814–1822);  	
Sibilla Husband (Henderson KY, 9/26/1812–8/6/1818); 
Elenor Kennedy (Kennedysville SC, 5/28/1816–April 1818); 
Ann Moore (Lancaster PA, 5/29/1809–4/11/1829); 
Rhoda Lewis (Southington CT, 4/16/1808–2/19/1818). 

The 1825 Official Register lists the following women Postmasters: 
Elizabeth Ann Hall (Golden MD, 3/24/1824–5/19/1829);	
Ann Moore (Lancaster PA, 5/29/1809–4/11/1829); 	
Pamela Lewis (Lewisberry PA, 5/16/1821–4/25/1826); 	
Mary W. Long (Long’s Mills NC, 12/23/1822–1/5/1833);	
Sally Brownson (Richmond VT, ? – 6/17/1828);
Ann D. Alexander (Sherrard’s Store VA, 10/5/1820–10/21/1841);
Jane Wilson (Trenton NJ, 8/7/1824–1/3/1835); 
Ellen Price (Union Bridge MD, 8/30/1824–?).

10.	Letter of February 17, 1814, from Postmaster General Gideon Granger to Nathaniel Boileau, National Archives Microfilm Publication 601, Letters Sent by the Postmaster General, 1789-1836, Roll 18, 281.
11.	On February 25, 1871, Congress passed “the Dictionary Act,” which specified that in federal laws, “words importing the masculine gender may be applied to females” (16 Stat. 431).
12.	Hartford [CT] Courant, March 8, 1814, 2.
13.	Letter of April 2, 1847, from Postmaster General Cave Johnson to Messrs. Allen and Medill, in Record Group 28, National Archives and Records Administration. Online courtesy of U.S. Philatelic Classics Society at  
https://www.uspcs.org/resource-center/government-documents/postmaster-general-letter-books-1837-1861/, April 1, 1847, to May 17, 1848; volume 5; 3–4 (accessed February 26, 2021). Allen and Medill had written to Johnson to recommend the appointment of the late Postmaster’s widow at the Columbus, Ohio, Post Office. At the time, William Allen was a U.S. senator from Ohio, and William Medill was Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Two years earlier, from March to November 1845, Medill had served under Johnson as Second Assistant Postmaster General. 
14.	The Pittsburgh Gazette, March 20, 1849, 2. Hornbeck was listed in the 1850 federal census with four children between the ages of 2 and 8.  
15.	United States Mail and Post Office Assistant, February 1862, 66. These 5 women served at “Presidential” Post Offices, so-called because they were appointed by the U.S. President, rather than the Postmaster General. Since 1836, the President appointed Postmasters at all offices where the Postmaster’s annual compensation exceeded $1,000. Maria Hornbeck was originally appointed by Postmaster General Cave Johnson in February 1849; in 1858 the Allentown Post Office advanced to the Presidential class and she was reappointed by President James Buchanan.
16.	“Soldiers’ Widows — Letter from the President,” Knoxville Daily Chronicle, April 5, 1873, 1.
17.	Torrance Parker, editor, A Chautauqua Boy in ’61 and Afterward: Reminiscences by David B. Parker, Second Lieutenant (Boston, MA: Small, Maynard and Company, c. 1912), 296, www.hathitrust.org (accessed July 6, 2020).
18.	Ibid., 297–298.
19.	The “Indianola affair,” as it became known, dragged on for a year until finally, in January 1904, Cox’s term expired and a white man was appointed in her place.  For more on Cox’s story, see “African-American Postal Workers in the 19th Century,” at http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/postalpeople.htm.
20.	A table listing the distribution of women Postmasters by state is shown in the March 1892 supplement to the United States Official Postal Guide, 56.
21.	Marshall Cushing, The Story of Our Post Office (Boston, MA: A. M. Thayer & Co., 1893), 443, www.hathitrust.org (accessed July 6, 2020).
22.	Ibid., 452.
23.	Ibid., 443.
24.	John F. Kennedy, “Memorandum on Equal Opportunity for Women in the Federal Service,” July 24, 1962. From University of California, American Presidency Project.  http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/print.php?pid=8786 (accessed May 30, 2007). In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit sex discrimination in hiring in the workplace at large.
25.	The percentage of women Postmasters was 44.6 percent in 1981; 50.2 percent in 1986; and 52.8 percent in 1990.
26.	As of March 2020.