During the Depression, job security was of great significance to workers. When layoffs occurred, last hired, first fired was an almost universal union policy. The stress on seniority discriminated against younger workers and also against women in many cases. Also, unions tended to stiffen rules governing the admission and training of apprentices. They also encouraged keeping young people in school longer and lowering the retirement age, both socially desirable policies but ones that if adopted would put some people out of work for the benefit of others. In a way they attacked the unemployment problem by redefining who was unemployed, not by finding new jobs for the idle. Unions also favored getting married women out of the workforce, which
