Finally, employers turned to women in the 1920s, particularly white women, because, unlike white men, they were plentiful. In the 1920s, many white, native-born men had better-paying and more gender-appropriate job options than those opening up in the expanding restaurant sector. The passage of the 1924 Immigration Act also ended the traditional source of white male restaurant labor: the European-trained, immigrant cook or waiter. In contrast, native-born white female applicants, many escaping the shrinking opportunities in rural America, eagerly sought out waitressing jobs. These farm recruits were joined by their urban sisters who were spending more years of their lives in the paid work force. Many “chose” waitressing because it required little training and promised the possibility of a living wage. Of equal importance for some, however, was the change in public attitude toward the occupation.32