G-PreRC passage: During the nineteenth century, occupation

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GMAT-Prep RC: Final solution at one place:

During the nineteenth century, occupational information about women that was provided by the United States census-a population count conducted each decade-became more detailed and precise in response to social changes. Through 1840, simple enumeration by household mirrored a home-based agricultural economy and hierarchical social order: the head of the household (presumed male or absent) was specified by name, whereas other household members were only indicated by the total number of persons counted in various categories, including occupational categories. Like farms, most enterprises were family-run, so that the census measured economic activity as an attribute of the entire household, rather than of individuals.

The 1850 census, partly responding to antislavery and women's rights movements, initiated the collection of specific information about each individual in a household. Not until 1870 was occupational information analyzed by gender: the census superintendent reported 1.8 million women employed outside the home in "gainful and reputable occupations." In addition, he arbitrarily attributed to each family one woman "keeping house." Overlap between the two groups was not calculated until 1890, when the rapid entry of women into the paid labor force and social issues arising from industrialization were causing women's advocates and women statisticians to press for more thorough and accurate accounting of women's occupations and wages.

The passage suggests which of the following about the "women's advocates and women statisticians" mentioned in the highlighted text?
A. They wanted to call attention to the lack of pay for women who worked in the home.
B. They believed that previous census information was inadequate and did not reflect certain economic changes in the United States.
C. They had begun to press for changes in census-taking methods as part of their participation in the antislavery movement.
D. They thought that census statistics about women would be more accurate if more women were employed as census officials.
E. They had conducted independent studies that disputed the official statistics provided by previous United States censuses.

Takeaways from the Passage:

Lets us focus on the relevant part of the Passage: "rapid entry of women into the paid labor force and social issues arising from industrialization were causing women's advocates and women statisticians to press for more thorough and accurate accounting of women's occupations and wages."

A. No mention of Pay - Hence Incorrect.
B. Correct - Simple word justification would show us that the previous methods were inadequate ( .. "more thorough and accurate accounting")
C. Incorrect - No mention of Antislavery movement in the above lines
D. Incorrect - Not mentioned in the above lines at all.
E. Incorrect - No mention of independent studies.
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by GaneshMalkar » Fri Nov 02, 2012 6:55 am
2. It can be inferred from the passage that the 1840 United States census provided a count of which of the following?
(A) Women who worked exclusively in the home
(B) People engaged in nonfarming occupations
(C) People engaged in social movements
(D) Women engaged in family-run enterprises
(E) Men engaged in agriculture

I am confused with this question :(

I marked answer as E

OA is B ...Can anyone please explain how we can infer that only those with non farming occupations were considered?
If you cant explain it simply you dont understand it well enough!!!
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by Sapana » Sun Jan 06, 2013 9:24 am
I thought it was E. Is OA correct? There is no mention of Non-farming activity in Para1. Confused :(

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by Sam_hellboy » Wed Mar 06, 2013 11:00 am
i also thought the ans to be E.

Experts pls respond.

Thankss

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by vishal_kush » Fri Dec 27, 2013 1:03 am
I also marked E and got it wrong, what possible explanation i can think of for B to be correct is that there were two categories under which the census was taken:

1- Farming : In this category, passage mentions and I quote "the head of the household (presumed male or absent) was specified by name" by this statement it can be inferred that we can't say for sure that all the men captured as doing farming were really doing farming as Few Men were "absent" and they could well be busy doing Farming, Enterprises or just nothing

2- Enterprises (this in other words can be said, non-farming occupation and passage mentions that Men + family memebers were taken as involved in Enterprise and hence Answer B can be folloed from this as

People (men+family members) engaged in nonfarming occupations (enterprises).

Although its a little weird question.

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by ceilidh.erickson » Sat Nov 18, 2017 1:22 pm
GaneshMalkar wrote:2. It can be inferred from the passage that the 1840 United States census provided a count of which of the following?
(A) Women who worked exclusively in the home
(B) People engaged in nonfarming occupations
(C) People engaged in social movements
(D) Women engaged in family-run enterprises
(E) Men engaged in agriculture

I am confused with this question :(

I marked answer as E

OA is B ...Can anyone please explain how we can infer that only those with non farming occupations were considered?
You're misinterpreting a few things here. When a question asks "it can be inferred that _____ provides a count of which of the following," we do not interpret that to mean "a count of ONLY which of the following." The right answer may be only one detail among many that was counted.

We are told: "the head of the household (presumed male or absent) was specified by name, other household members were only indicated by the total number of persons counted in various categories, including occupational categories"

So imagine this hypothetical:
Household A:
Head of Household: Guy Farmer
# of other household members: 7
occupation: farming


Would you say that we have counted the men and the women in this case? How many of those 7 were women? We cannot assume 1 man + 1 woman + children. There may be in-laws, adult brothers & sisters, or other extended family members in the household.

Exact breakdowns of men and women were not included, so we can say that we counted people within a given profession, but we did not count men or women (individually). This allows us to eliminate answer choices A, D, and E.

There is nothing stated in the passage about the number of people engaged in social movements, so we can eliminate C.

The passage doesn't directly state anything about non-farming occupations, but if we're told that we've counted people in the farming profession, and we've counted the total population, then we can infer:
# of people in farming + # of people not in farming = total number of people.

This is what GMAT inference is all about - take what's given, and ask "what must then be true about the flip-side?"

The answer is B.
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