Woman Studies

Women and Work: Paid

Employment • There are many myths past and present

surrounding women and work.

• The longest standing myth has been that women historically never worked.

• Throughout history, women have always been engaged in paid and unpaid labor. Paid labor did not look like it does now prior to the industrial revolution.

Women and Work

• The industrial revolution created a need for outside employment and thus a division of inside/outside work emerged. Prior to this, much like agrarian or rural societies today, women’s labor was as important as men’s.

• Women of color and poor women were central to the cheap labor outside the home during this period.

• Follow this link and read about the industrial revolution and women.

Women and Work

• Social class became a defining factor in work prior to the 1950’s. Working outside the home for money was considered jobs for poorer women.

• Women’s paid labor was in the most undesirable or “service/care” sector jobs (such as housekeepers, clerical, sewing in factories, etc.)

• These jobs were also the lowest paid (and in fact still are today)

Women and Work

• Because socially and institutionally women were seen as “weak” and mentally “inferior” they were barred from many professions and prestigious institutions of education or post-graduate education that would allow them to enter certain fields.

• For instance, it wasn’t until 1977 that all Ivy league colleges admitted women. Prior to that women had separate colleges, such as Radcliffe at Harvard, or they were denied admission.

• The reasoning was they were intellectually not weak.

Women, War and Work

• WWII changed the number and types of work women did since there were very few men to do the jobs typically occupied by them.

• The government created propaganda campaigns to get women to enter the work force and take jobs they traditionally did not do or were told they were too weak to too (like factory production).

• It was framed as their patriotic duty.

• Listen to an example of a popular song from that time here: Rosie the Riverter Song

Below are a few more government propaganda

images put out by the government to encourage

women to work in jobs they were traditionally

barred from and told they physically were in

capable of doing. (first image shows women working in traditionally male dominated jobs with the words: Women: There’s work to be done and a war to be won now! The second image shows a blue collar

man and woman with the words: “Good work sister, we never figured you could do a man-size job. America’s women

have met the test)

These images may be familiar to you. The one on the left was done by Norman Rockwell and

relates to the song you just heard and was on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. The image

shows a woman, Rosie, very buff, confidant, with her tool, blues and eating a sandwich. It is an

image of strength and power and based on a real woman named Rosie. The image on the right is

the one we are more familiar as “Rosie the Riveter” with the empowerment slogan “We Can Do

It” and an image of a less muscular woman, but with her sleeves rolled up, flexing and looking

boldly at the viewer. It was a union production sign, not about women in war, but became an

icon of women’s empowerment in the 1990’s and is still enduring today.

After the War

• After the WWII, the government put out a new set of propaganda campaigns to get the women “back into the home” and give the “boys” their jobs back.

• Caring for the house and being domestic was framed as the natural “womanly” thing to do, and again as a patriotic duty.

• It was during the 1950’s that our country saw the prominence of the breadwinner/homemaker model (husband works and wife stays home).

• Of course not all families met this model. Many women wanted to work and others had to due to economic necessity.

• There were many women who did not want to leave their jobs and found the work they did to be more satisfying than the jobs they had previously occupied.

After the War

If you get the opportunity check out this

documentary that shows all of the actual

government footage of the campaigns

mentioned and interviews real life

women who were “Rosie The Riveters”.

(the image is the front cover of the documentary: The Life and Times of Rosie

the Riveter. Showing a group of men and woman emerging from work, dressed

the same in pants and shirts and hard hats)

Second Wave Feminism and Work

• In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, women began entering the workforce in higher rates due to divorce rates rising (they actually peaked in the U.S. in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s and have been relatively stable since despite our perceptions. We will look at this more next week).

• Some women felt constricted by the cultural expectations of getting married after high school and having children that the 1950’s model dictated.

Second Wave Feminism and Work

• Women who were in the work force faced discrimination in pay, promotions, jobs they could do and from their male coworkers.

• They were also looked down upon by their female peers and society as well. Especially, if they had children and worked.

• Debates about the appropriateness of women with children working were prominent and many women were still forced out.

• Women were blatantly discriminated against in being barred from jobs and being fired or forced to leave upon marriage or pregnancy.

• Married and divorced women at this time were unable to get car loans, credit cards and even bank accounts in their names.

Second Wave Feminism and Work

• Feminist began challenging these discriminatory practices.

• The Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 were signed to give protections based on gender.

• It has taken decades for cultural attitudes and actual practice to catch up with the laws.

• In the 1970’s and 1980’s cultural attitudes were highly negative about equal pay and protections for women and many campaigns were set forth to frame feminists or women wanting equal pay and rights as man hating women who want to destroy the family.

• This is where many of the misconceptions about feminism have stemmed from and the anti-equality campaigns have been in some measure successful because these ideals about feminism still hold to some extent today.

Women and Work Today

• Today, legally, women have no legal constraints barring them from any type of employment or education.

• Women are in near equal numbers in the work force and occupy jobs in nearly all industries.

• Women enroll in college in higher rates than men.

But it is not all good news….

• Women still tend to occupy the lower paying, lower prestige jobs.

• Work in America is highly segregated.

• See graph on next slide.

Gender Segregation in Jobs: Notice the higher paying jobs tend to be

occupied by men and the “caring” type jobs typically occupied by

women are lower payed. Even though there are no laws barring

women from any of these jobs, industries like construction,

mechanics and even chefs culturally discourage women, are often

hostile towards them and are still perceived as “men’s” work.

Explanations Of Gender Segregation

• Women and men are socialized differently and choose to go into different

fields.

• Structural obstacles discourage women from entering male-dominated jobs and

from advancing once employed.

Work Itself is Gendered

The work environment itself often replicates gendered expectations. Both men and women have different experiences such as :

• Stereotypical expectations- women are often asked to take notes in meetings or make coffee (Kanter-Moss)

• Interpersonal relationships- activities off the clock such as golfing or going to strip clubs (think Wolves of Wall Street here) are gendered as are the relationships built.

• Different placement of men and women in hierarchies of institutions- both in pay an in positions

Women’s Worth: Still Unequal

• In the 1960s, women earned 59% of what men earned.

• Women today earn on average 78% of what men earn. However, this is mitigated by factors of race and education.

• For full-time, same position, same education and same-time on the job women make about 92% of a man’s earnings.

Double Jeopardy: Race and Gender

And why are so many women going to college? Four years after

college, in the same profession and same time on job woman make

less than their male counterparts across the board!

Explaining the Pay Gap

• Overt discrimination

▫ Men often perpetuate their advantage over women and racial minorities, through labor union practices, legislation, harassment, and intimidation.

• Human capital theory

▫ Age, experience, education, marital status and hours worked influence worth in the labor market.

• Dual labor market theory

▫ Women and men earn different amounts because they work in different segments of the market.

• Gender segregation

▫ Men and women work in gender segregated occupations.

Explaining the Pay Gap

• Next week will explore the connection of families and gender roles and how this affects work.