![Women in workforce](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Women_in_workforce.png)
Since the
industrial revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
, participation of women in the workforce outside the home has increased in industrialized nations, with particularly large growth seen in the 20th century. Largely seen as a boon for industrial society, women in the workforce contribute to a higher national economic output as measure in GDP as well as decreasing labor costs by increasing the labor supply in a society.
Women's lack of access to
higher education
Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...
had effectively excluded them from the practice of well-paid and high status occupations. Entry of women into the higher professions, like
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
and
medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...
, was delayed in most countries due to women being denied entry to universities and qualification for degrees. For example,
Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
only fully validated degrees for women late in 1947, and even then only after much opposition and acrimonious debate. Women were largely limited to low-paid and poor status occupations for most of the 19th and 20th centuries, or earned less pay than men for doing the same work. However, through the 20th century, the
labor market shifted.
Office work
A white-collar worker is a person who performs professional, desk, managerial, or administrative work. White-collar work may be performed in an office or other administrative setting. White-collar workers include job paths related to government, ...
that does not require heavy labor expanded and women increasingly acquired the higher education that led to better-compensated, longer-term
career
The career is an individual's metaphorical "journey" through learning, work and other aspects of life. There are a number of ways to define career and the term is used in a variety of ways.
Definitions
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defin ...
s rather than lower-skilled, shorter-term jobs. Mothers are less likely to be employed unlike men and women without children.
The increasing rates of women contributing in the work force has led to a more equal disbursement of
hours worked across the regions of the world. However, in western European countries the nature of women's employment participation remains markedly different from that of men.
In 2017 there are around 74.6 million women in the U.S. civilian labor force.
Areas of study
As the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
raged in the U.S.,
Virginia Penny
Virginia Penny (January 18, 1826 – April 4, 1913) was a social reformer and an economist, being the first to study women's labor markets both in the U.S. and in Europe. Her books were an important resource for the members of the newly formed Am ...
of
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
, finished her research project and published the ground-breaking 1862 book, ''How women can make money married or single, in all branches of the arts and sciences, professions, trades, agricultural and mechanical pursuits''. Hoping to offer hard facts about what women in the workforce would encounter, Penny had interviewed thousands of employers, using both a survey via the postal mail and in person – when she would also interview workers. Many of her site visits were in Philadelphia, New York and Boston. She distilled her research to list over 500 jobs that were open to women as well as the information about the jobs and potential availability for women. She also indicated when employers offered their reasons for wage differentials based on gender.
She dedicated her book "to worthy and industrious women in the United States, striving to earn a livelihood", and the book gained much attention from reviewers and scholars across the country. She sold her rights to the book to another publisher who put it out as an encyclopaedia, ''The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work'', in 1863. It sold better once it was re-titled again in 1870 as ''How Women Can Make Money, Married or Single''. In its several different versions, 36 editions were published between 1862 and 2006, and six editions of the adaptation in German (first published in 1867).
In the twentieth century,
division of labor
The division of labour is the separation of the tasks in any economic system or organisation so that participants may specialise (specialisation). Individuals, organizations, and nations are endowed with, or acquire specialised capabilities, and ...
by
gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...
has been studied most systematically in
women's studies
Women's studies is an academic field that draws on feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining social and cultural constructs of gender; systems of privilege and oppress ...
(especially
women's history
Women's history is the study of the role that women have played in history and the methods required to do so. It includes the study of the history of the growth of woman's rights throughout recorded history, personal achievement over a period of ...
, which has frequently examined the history and biography of women's participation in particular fields) and
gender studies
Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field ...
more broadly. Occupational studies, such as the
history of medicine
The history of medicine is both a study of medicine throughout history as well as a multidisciplinary field of study that seeks to explore and understand medical practices, both past and present, throughout human societies.
More than just histo ...
or studies of
professionalization
Professionalization is a social process by which any tradesman, trade or occupation transforms itself into a true "profession of the highest integrity and competence." The definition of what constitutes a profession is often contested. Professional ...
, also examine questions of gender, and the roles of women in the history of particular fields. Women dominate as accountants, auditors, and psychologists.
In addition, modern
civil right
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...
s law has frequently examined gender restrictions of access to a field of occupation;
gender discrimination
Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers primaril ...
within a field; and gender harassment in particular workplaces. This body of law is called
employment discrimination law
Employment discrimination is a form of illegal discrimination in the workplace based on legally protected characteristics. In the U.S., federal anti-discrimination law prohibits discrimination by employers against employees based on age, race, g ...
, and gender and race discrimination are the largest sub-sections within the area. Laws specifically aimed at preventing discrimination against women have been passed in many countries; see, e.g., the
Pregnancy Discrimination Act
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) of 1978 () is a United States federal statute. It amended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to "prohibit sex discrimination on the basis of pregnancy."
The Act covers discrimination "on the basis of ...
in the United States.
Women and economic development
Global research clearly delineates the correlation between women's role in the economy and an increase in the standard of living. In the 2001
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
report entitled "Engendering Development", the connection between women's involvement in the economy and growth is more clearly stated:
While disparities in basic rights; in schooling, credit, and jobs; or in the ability to participate in public life take their most direct toll on women and girls, the full costs of gender inequality ultimately harm everyone…ignoring gender disparities comes at a great cost—to people's well-being and to countries' abilities to grow sustainably, to govern effectively, and thus reduce poverty.
Society's intrinsic value is often associated with contribution and production as a whole, thus women's inability to participate in economy further solidifies a subordinate role in society. "The fact that women have fewer opportunities in labor market may contribute to their unequal treatment in the household…Increased opportunities for women in the labor market do indeed translate into better outcomes for women…For the same increase in total household income, an increase in female income of 7 U.S. dollars per month translates into a 1 percentage point increase in the survival rate for girls."
Women are treated as less than men because their role in the home does not perpetuate survival of the family directly in terms of income. A stark realization of women's economic value in the eyes of under-developed countries is sex selective abortion rights and the alarming phenomenon of "missing women."
What many societies fail to realize is that the trade-off to helping a woman instead of a man does not exist. When a woman is empowered with education and involvement in the economy everyone is better off. Women's economic involvement will drive up Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is a foundational standard for higher living. James Wolfensohn of the World Bank states, "Education for girls has a catalytic effect on every dimension of development: lower child and maternal mortality rates; increased educational attainment by daughters and sons; higher productivity; and improved environmental management. Together, these can mean faster economic growth and, equally important, wider distribution of the fruits of growth… More education for girls will also enable more and more women to attain leadership positions at all levels of society: from health clinics in the villages to parliaments in the capitals. This, in turn, will change the way societies will deal with problems and raise the quality of global decision-making."
Paid employment globally
![Changes in percentages of professionals by gender](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Changes_in_percentages_of_professionals_by_gender.png)
Women still contribute to their communities in many regions mainly through agricultural work. In Southern Asia, Western Asia, and Africa, only 20% of women work at paid non-agricultural jobs. Worldwide, women's rate of paid employment outside of agriculture grew to 41% by 2008.
One of the main forms of paid employment for women worldwide is actually a traditional one, that of the market "hawker". Women have worked outside the home as vendors at markets since ancient times in many parts of the world, such as Central America, South Asia, and Africa.
During the 20th century, the most significant global shift in women's paid employment came from the spread of global travel and the development of a large migrant workforce of women
domestic workers
A domestic worker or domestic servant is a person who works within the scope of a residence. The term "domestic service" applies to the equivalent occupational category. In traditional English contexts, such a person was said to be "in service ...
seeking jobs outside of their native country. The
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
is a major source of female domestic workers. Before the 1990s, the majority of Filipinos working outside the Philippines were male, but by 2012, an estimated 63% of Filipinos working overseas were female.
Estimates of Filipino women working overseas are in the millions. Over 138,000 new domestic workers gained permission to work overseas in 2012, a number that grew 12% from the previous year.
Overseas employment often results in the women leaving their own children behind in the Philippines to be cared for by relatives. Domestic employees from the Philippines and other countries have also been subject to exploitation and sex and money extreme abuse, for example in several countries in the Middle East, where they are often employed. It is estimated that
remittances from overseas workers (both male and female) bring $1 billion (USD) per month to the Philippines.
33% of the drivers and station controllers in the
Bangalore
Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
metro are female in an effort to create a more welcoming and diverse workplace. Children of employees have access to childcare facilities, while women drivers can work at stations near to their homes and have access to a separate recreation area. If women are unable to perform night shifts, they work in the mornings or evenings.
Workforce participation by sector
![Woodstock press photographer](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Woodstock_press_photographer.jpg)
Women and men often participate in economic sectors in sharply different proportions, a result of gender clustering in occupations. Reasons for this may include a traditional association of certain types of work with a particular gender. There is a wide range of other possible economic, social and cultural variables that impact the gender distribution in different occupations, including within a region or country. An averaging of statistics gathered by the United Nations for 2004 through 2007 reflects these differences (totals may not add up to 100% due to rounding):
Sectoral distribution of employed persons, by sector and sex (2004 through 2007)
More detailed statistics show large differences even within these regions. For example, 11% of employed women in East Asia are employed in agriculture, a number that rises to 55% in South Asia; 70% of women in Southern Africa are employed in the service sector, while in Eastern, Middle, and Western Africa this number is 26%.
According to the International Labour Organization, women's involvement in the labor force declines by 16.5% in developing nations as a result of unsafe public transportation.
Occupational dissimilarity index
Choice of occupation is considered to be one of the key factors contributing to the male-female wage differential. In other words, careers with a majority of female employees tend to pay less than careers that employ a majority of males. This is different from direct wage discrimination within occupations, as males in the female-dominated professions will also make lower than average wages and the women in the ]r for the wage differential to disappear. In 1960, the similarity index for the United State Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) is established to advocate for improved wages and working conditions for women. In 1920 The Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor was formed to create equal rights and a safe workplace for women. In 1956 a group called Financial Women's Association (FWA), was formed. It is an organisation with special emphasis on the role and development of women, to attain greater recognition for women's achievements in business, and to encourage women to seek career opportunities in finance and business.
["20 Women's Organizations You Need to Know"](_blank)
Diversity Best Practices, February 28, 2011. In 1966 the National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded by a group of feminists including Betty Friedan. The largest women's rights group in the U.S., NOW seeks to end sexual discrimination, especially in the workplace, by means of legislative lobbying, litigation, and public demonstrations. NOW has 500,000 contributing members and 550 chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Founded in 1972, the National Association of Female Executives (NAFE) provides education, networking and public advocacy to empower its members to achieve career success and financial security. Members are women executives, business owners, entrepreneurs and others who are committed to NAFE's mission: the advancement of women in the workplace.
Many of these organizations led to legal action and protecting women's rights as workers and empowered women in the workplace.
Laws protecting women's rights as workers
![Shinzō Abe and Ivanka Trump (4)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Shinz%C5%8D_Abe_and_Ivanka_Trump_%284%29.jpg)
International laws protecting women's rights as workers exist through the efforts of various international bodies. On June 16, 2011, the
International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...
(ILO) passed C189
Domestic Workers Convention, 2011, binding signatories to regulations intended to end abuses of migrant domestic workers. It was anticipated that the convention would put pressure on non-ratifying countries to support changes to their own laws to meet the change in international standards protecting domestic workers. Also in 2011, Hong Kong's High Court struck down a law preventing domestic workers from having residency rights granted to other foreign workers, a move that affected an estimated 100,000 domestic workers in Hong Kong.
The ILO has previously ratified the
Equal Remuneration Convention
The Convention concerning Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value, or Equal Remuneration Convention is the 100th International Labour Organization International Labour Organization#International Labour Conference, Co ...
in 1951, which came into force in 1953, the
Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention
The Convention concerning Discrimination in Respect of Employment and Occupation or Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention (ILO Convention No.111) is an International Labour Organization Convention on anti-discrimination. It is o ...
, which went into force in 1960 and the
Maternity Protection Convention, 2000
Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 is an International Labour Organization Convention.
It was established in 2000, with the preamble stating:
"Noting the need to revise the Maternity Protection Convention (Revised), 1952, and the Maternity ...
, which went into force in 2002. In 1966, the
United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
adopted the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (GA) on 16 December 1966 through GA. Resolution 2200A (XXI), and came in force from 3 January 197 ...
, which went into force in 1976.
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
also adopted the
Convention against Discrimination in Education in 1960, which came into force in 1962. The
, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, went into force in 2003. The
Home Work Convention
Home Work Convention, created in 1996, is an International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour stan ...
, adopted by the ILO, went into force in 2000;the Convention protects the rights of persons doing paid work out of their home, which is frequently women workers. It offers equal protection regarding working conditions, safety, remuneration, social security protection, access to training, minimum age of employment, and maternity protection.
Human trafficking
Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extrac ...
often targets young women who are abducted and sent outside their own country to work as domestic workers, often in conditions of extreme exploitation. As of 2020, 1 out of every 130 women globally are victims of this form of 'modern slavery'. A number of international laws have been ratified to address human trafficking of women and children.
Maternity protection measures are put in place to insure that women will not be discriminated against in the workplace once they return from having a child. They should also not be exposed to any health hazards while they are pregnant and at work. They are allowed time off for maternity leave as well, which allows them to bond with their child; this aspect of development is crucial for infants to gain proper attachment skills. Employers are expected to hold to these policies. Yet many women on maternity leave receive very small amounts of time off to allow for their health along with their babies' health. The amount of time allowed for maternity leave as well as the pay for maternity leave varies by country, with Sweden having the longest amount off with 68 weeks and the United States being one of the worst, with the typical period being 12 weeks without pay.
Women in workforce leadership
![Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook (5329025804)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Sheryl_Sandberg%2C_COO_of_Facebook_%285329025804%29.jpg)
Female decision-makers from around Europe are organized in several national and European wide networks. The networks aim to promote women in decision-making positions in politics and the economy across Europe. These networks were founded in the 1980s and are often very different from the "service clubs" founded in the early days of the century, like Soroptimist and Zontas.
"Women in Management" is about women in business in usually male-dominated areas. Their motivation, their ideas and leadership styles and their ability to enter into leadership positions is the subject of most of the different networks.
As of 2009, women represented 20.9% of parliament in Europe (both houses) and 18.4% world average.
As of 2009, 90 women serve in the U.S. Congress: 18 women serve in the Senate, and 73 women serve in the House Women hold about three percent of executive positions.
In the private sector, men still represent 9 out of 10 board members in European blue-chip companies, The discrepancy is widest at the very top: only 3% of these companies have a woman presiding over the highest decision-making body. In the United States, women make up just 5.5% of company CEOs.
List of members of the European Network of Women in Decision-making in Politics and the Economy:
*Committee of Women Elected Representatives of Local and Regional Authorities (Council of European Municipalities and Regions)
*BPW Europe, Business and Professional Women – Europe
*Association of Organisations of Mediterranean Businesswomen
*
Eurochambres
Eurochambres is thAssociation of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry The association is one of the largest business representative organisations in Brussels, representing over 20 million businesses in Europe through 45 members (43 national a ...
Women's Network
*
European Platform of Women Scientists
The European Platform of Women Scientists EPWS is an umbrella organisation bringing together networks of women scientists and organisations committed to gender equality in research in all disciplines in Europe 27 and the countries associated to ...
*Network of Parliamentary Committees for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in the European Union
*European Network to Promote Women's Entrepreneurship
*
European Women's Lobby
The European Women's Lobby (EWL) is the largest umbrella organization of women's associations in the European Union, founded in 1990, working to promote women's rights and equality between women and men, and representing a total of more than 200 ...
*European Women's Lawyers Association
*CEE Network for Gender Issues
*European Women Inventors and Innovators Network
*European Women's Management Development International Network, EWMD
*Femanet – Eurocadres
*European Professional Women's Network, EPWN
*Women's Forum for the Economy and the Society
The European Union Commission has created a platform for all these networks. It also funded the
Women to the Top program in 2003–2005 to bring more women into top management.
Some organizations have been created to promote the presence of women in top responsibilities, in politics and business. One example is EWMD European Women's Management Development (cited above), a European and international network of individual and corporate members, drawn from professional organisations. Members are from all areas of business, education, politics and culture.
Women who are born into the upper class rather than the middle or lower class have a much better chance at holding higher positions of
power
Power most often refers to:
* Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work"
** Engine power, the power put out by an engine
** Electric power
* Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events
** Abusive power
Power may a ...
in the work force if they choose to enter it. According to a study published 2015, of the women who held C-suite jobs in the U.S., 94% played
competitive sports, 52% at a university level.
Barriers to equal participation
As
gender role
A gender role, also known as a sex role, is a social role encompassing a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on that person's sex. Gender roles are usually cent ...
s have followed the formation of agricultural and then industrial societies, newly developed
profession
A profession is a field of work that has been successfully ''professionalized''. It can be defined as a disciplined group of individuals, '' professionals'', who adhere to ethical standards and who hold themselves out as, and are accepted by ...
s and fields of occupation have been frequently inflected by gender. Some of the ways in which gender affects a field include:
*Prohibitions or restrictions on members of a particular gender entering a field or studying a field
*
Discrimination
Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...
within a field, including wage, management, and prestige hierarchies
*Expectation that mothers, rather than fathers, should be the primary childcare providers
Note that these gender restrictions may not be universal in time and place, and that they operate to restrict both men and women. However, in practice, norms and laws have historically restricted women's access to particular occupations;civil rights laws and cases have thus primarily focused on equal access to and participation by ''women'' in the workforce. These barriers may also be manifested in hidden bias and by means of many
microinequities.
Many women face issues with sexual abuse while working in agriculture fields as well. Many of the women who work in these fields are undocumented and so supervisors or other male workers may take advantage of that. These women may suffer sexual abuse in order to keep their jobs and they cannot report the incident to the police because the fact that they are undocumented will be brought up and as a result they may be deported.
Access to education and training
![Maasai women at USAID literacy event (6595762621)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Maasai_women_at_USAID_literacy_event_%286595762621%29.jpg)
A number of occupations became "
professionalized
Professionalization is a social process by which any trade or occupation transforms itself into a true "profession of the highest integrity and competence." The definition of what constitutes a profession is often contested. Professionalization ten ...
" through the 19th and 20th centuries, gaining regulatory bodies, and passing laws or regulations requiring particular
higher education
Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...
al requirements. As women's access to higher education was often limited, this effectively restricted women's participation in these professionalizing occupations. For instance, women were completely forbidden access to
Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
until 1868, and were encumbered with a variety of restrictions until 1987 when the university adopted an equal opportunity policy. Numerous other institutions in the United States and Western Europe began opening their doors to women over the same period of time, but access to higher education remains a significant barrier to women's full participation in the workforce in developing countries. Even where access to higher education is formally available, women's access to the full range of occupational choices is significantly limited where access to primary education is limited through social custom.
UNICEF
UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...
,
State of the World's Children (2007)
'
In low- and middle-income countries, vocational and business training program interventions are carried out with the aim of increasing employment, self-employment and income. A
systematic review
A systematic review is a Literature review, scholarly synthesis of the evidence on a clearly presented topic using critical methods to identify, define and assess research on the topic. A systematic review extracts and interprets data from publ ...
on vocational and business training for women in these regions summarized the evidence from thirty-five studies regarding the impacts of such training programs. The authors found that these types of programs have small positive effects on employment and income with variability across studies. They found that the effects of training may increase with a stronger gender focus of the program.
According to
FAO
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...
, in Africa, without adequate training and education in business, entrepreneurial skills, and awareness of trade issues and regulations and fluency in languages of trading partners, women will struggle to gain access to formalized economies and larger scale businesses.
Low literacy levels is often what keeps women limited to informal economic activity.
Access to capital
![Women's business conference bahia brazil](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Women%27s_business_conference_bahia_brazil.jpg)
Women's access to occupations requiring capital outlays is also hindered by their unequal access (statistically) to capital; this affects occupations such as entrepreneur and small business owner, farm ownership, and investor. Numerous
microloan
:''This article is specific to small loans, often provided in a pooled manner. For direct payments to individuals for specific projects, see Micropatronage. For financial services to the poor, see Microfinance. For small payments, see Micropay ...
programs attempt to redress this imbalance, targeting women for loans or grants to establish start-up businesses or farms, having determined that aid targeted to women can disproportionately benefit a nation's economy.
[United Nations ]Food and Agriculture Organization
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...
(FAO) statistics. See Erwin Northoff, "FOOD: Women Farmers are Invisible Actors in Hunger Drama", ''World News'', 2004 February 14. While research has shown that women cultivate more than half the world's food—in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean, women are responsible for up to 80% of food production—most such work is family subsistence labor, and often the family property is legally owned by the men in the family.
In Africa, women have limited access to financial services and formalized assets such as titles and deeds; this results in low levels of investment in productive capacity, hampering the growth of women-led micro, small, or medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
Alleviating financial collateral constraints can allow more women producers and traders to participate in formal markets and expand their businesses.
According to a study conducted on women and informal cross-border trade (ICBT) in Southern Africa, women are consistently found to rely on their own personal savings and women "savings clubs" (technically, rotating savings and credit associations) to source capital for trade as opposed to commercial banks and government programmes.
Discrimination within occupations
![Unemployment rate, women, OWID](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Unemployment_rate%2C_women%2C_OWID.svg)
The idea that men and women are naturally suited for different occupations is known as horizontal segregation.
[Massey, D. S. Categorically Unequal. New York: Russel Sage Foundation.]
Statistical discrimination in the workplace is unintentional discrimination based on the presumed probability that a worker will or will not remain with the company for a long period of time. Specific to women, employers believe that women are more likely to drop out of the labor force to have kids, or work part-time while raising kids; this tends to hurt chances for job advancement. Women are passed up for promotions because of the possibility that they may leave, and are in some cases placed in positions with little opportunity for upward mobility due to these stereotypes.
Women typically earn less money on average than men (not accounting other variables), despite establishing equal pay laws.
According to a 2022 survey of 2499 adults on the state of women in the workplace, only 12% of women receive perks from their employer that could help with their finances such as student loan repayment assistance or financial counseling. Women account for two-thirds of America's trillion-dollar student debt, holding an average of $31,000 before they start their careers.
According to the textbook ''Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology'', women are at a higher risk of financial disadvantage in modern-day society than men. Statistical findings suggest that women are under paid for similar jobs men complete despite having the same qualifications. The statistical data collected by the U.S. Department of Labor suggests that women are discriminated against in the workforce based on gender. The textbook reads, "Women's wages are also more volatile than men's wages, and women face a much higher risk of seeing large drops in income than do men" (Kennedy 2008). Anderson clearly demonstrates a significant difference between men and women in the workforce in regards to pay. Women are left more exposed to financial devastation and unemployment. The textbook also mentions that women are often given public positions versus private or leadership positions despite having appropriate work experience, higher education, or necessary skills to qualify. According to the Joint Economic Committee, "Among women heading families, the unemployment rate has grown and is higher than the national unemployment rate and twice as high as that for either married men or married women" (Joint Economic Committee, 2009). In other words, unmarried women who are the head of household are more vulnerable to financial disadvantage than married men or women. The unemployment rate of women compared to men suggests that single women are discriminated against based on gender. Anderson writes, "All women are disproportionately at risk in the current foreclosure crisis, since women are 32% more likely than men to have subprime mortgages (One-third of women, compared to one-fourth of men, have subprime mortgages; and, the disparity between women and men increases in higher income brackets)" (Anderson 265). The statistical information illustrates the dramatic difference between men and women in regards to finances. It can be inferred that men are favored in the workforce over women. Women are discriminated against based on their gender and thus are more likely to struggle financially because of discriminatory employers.
Sex differentiation focuses on separating men and women in the workplace from different settings and duties, and it leads to the idea of
sex segregation
Sex segregation, sex separation, gender segregation or gender separation is the physical, legal, or cultural separation of people according to their biological sex. Sex segregation can refer simply to the physical and spatial separation by sex w ...
.
Explanations for sex segregation fall under two main categories of cultural beliefs and men's efforts to preserve their advantages in the workplace. Cultural beliefs about gender and work emphasize sex stereotypes. Certain cultures value these sex stereotypes, assumptions about individuals based on sex, which leads to stereotype thinking about the genders. Jobs become labeled male or female when these sex stereotypes relate to the sexes. Cultural beliefs for sexes lays out the inequality at work women face. In Western and Eastern cultures, men are believed to be superior to women, leading to sex inequality in job duties, authority, and pay. Women are seen as requiring protection and care, and it takes away their opportunities at many jobs.
Another explanation of sex inequality is that the dominant group will preserve their position, such as men's efforts to preserve their advantages in the workplace. If women are capable of taking on the duties of male dominated jobs, especially "macho" jobs, then men's masculinity will no longer be a requirement. Women gaining equality in the workforce threatens undermining men's privileges in any other realm they wish, such as authority, family, or political life. Sometimes the solution men choose is to try to drive the women out of the job.
Actions and inactions of women themselves
Through a process known as "employee clustering", employees tend to be grouped throughout the workplace both spatially and socially with those of a similar status job. Women are no exception and tend to be grouped with other women making comparable amounts of money. They compare wages with the women around them and believe their salaries are fair because they are average. Some women are content with their lack of wage equality with men in the same positions because they are unaware of just how vast the inequality is.
Furthermore, women as a whole tend to be less assertive and confrontational. One of the factors contributing to the higher proportion of raises going to men is the simple fact that men tend to ask for raises more often than women, and are more aggressive when doing so.
Women, and men, are socialized at young ages into these roles. School-age boys and girls have been noted as enacting the same aggressive and passive characteristics, respectively, in educational settings that we see in adults in the workplace. Boys are more likely to be pushed competitively in school, and sports, to be dominant. The idea that "winning is everything" is not emphasized to the same extent for girls and therefore they are less likely to seek recognition for their work.
An additional issue that contributes to income inequality by gender is that women are much more likely than men to take "breaks" in their careers to have children, often remaining out of the workforce for extended periods of time, while men in the same role or occupation (or other women who do not leave the workforce) most likely are continuing to earn promotions and/or merit-based salary increases. When a woman in this scenario re-enters the workforce, she may be offered a smaller salary or a lower position than she might have merited had she remained in the workforce alongside her colleagues (both male and female) who have not interrupted their careers.
Sex segregation
![Abeer Mostafa at work](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Abeer_Mostafa_at_work.jpg)
A form of discrimination in the workplace is sex segregation. Men and women are separated to do different tasks, same tasks in different settings or at different times. Historically, most men did agricultural work while women managed the household, however within time women eased their way into employment, but the segregation they experience remained. Males identify with the masculine identity and their authority are considered appropriate. Male dominated industries do not leave a chance for women to prove possible history in the role, leaving the job identified as a male way of working. Males masculine behavior undermine females in the workforce, and they are forced to endure it. Women's segregation in the workforce takes form of normative masculine cultural dominance. Men put on the image of macho physical toughness, limiting women in their careers. Women find themselves experiencing the concept of "doing gender", especially in a traditional masculine occupation. Women's standpoint of men's behavior sheds light on mobilizing masculinity. With the feminist standpoint view of gender in the workplace, men's gender is an advantage, whereas women's is a handicap. However, sex segregation can happen by women's and men's own choices of different occupations.
Descriptive gender stereotypes emphasize the characteristics a woman possesses. The prescriptive component focuses on the beliefs about characteristics a woman should possess. The descriptive component is expected to lead to workplace discrimination, while the prescriptive component is expected to lead to discrimination against women. If women violate these prescriptions, they are more susceptible to disparate treatment. In other words, if a woman is able to perform a job that generally requires stereotypical male masculinity they receive the discrimination that punishes women for violating the prescriptions of feminine characteristics.
Gender inequality by social class
![Mechanic at work seattle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Mechanic_at_work_seattle.jpg)
In the last 50 years, there have been great changes toward gender equality in industrialized nations, such as the United States of America. With the
feminist movement
The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for Radical politics, radical and Liberalism, liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality b ...
of the 1960s, women began to enter the workforce in great numbers. Women also had high labor market participation during Worlds. In the late 1960s when women began entering the labor force in record numbers, they were entering in addition to all of the men, as opposed to substituting for men during the war. This dynamic shift from the one-earner household to the two-earner household dramatically changed the socioeconomic class system of industrialized nations in the post-war period.
Effects on the middle and upper classes
The addition of women into the workforce was one of the key factors that has increased
social mobility
Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given society ...
over the last 50 years, although this has stalled in recent decades for both genders. Female children of the middle and upper classes had increased access to higher education, and thanks to job equality, were able to attain higher-paying and higher-prestige jobs than ever before. Due to the dramatic increase in availability of
birth control
Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...
, these high status women were able to delay marriage and child-bearing until they had completed their education and advanced their careers to their desired positions. In 2001, the survey on sexual harassment at workplace conducted by women's non-profit organisation Sakshi among 2,410 respondents in government and non-government sectors, in five states recorded 53 percent saying that both sexes don't get equal opportunities, 50 percent of women are treated unfairly by employers and co-workers, 59 per cent have heard sexist remarks or jokes, and 32 percent have been exposed to pornography or literature degrading women.
In comparison with other sectors, IT organisations may be offering equal salaries to women, and the density of women in technology companies may be relatively high, but this does not necessarily ensure a level playing field. For example, Microsoft (US) was sued because of the conduct of one of its supervisors over e-mail. The supervisor allegedly made sexually offensive comments via e-mail, such as referring to himself as "president of the amateur gynecology club". He also allegedly referred to the plaintiff as the "Spandex Queen". E-harassment is not the sole form of harassment. In 1999, Juno Online faced two separate suits from former employees who alleged that they were told that they would be fired if they broke off their ongoing relationships with senior executives. Pseudo Programs, a Manhattan-based Internet TV network, was sued in January 2000 after male employees referred to female employees as "bimbos" and forced them to look at sexually explicit material on the Internet. In India, HR managers admit that women are discriminated against for senior Board positions and pregnant women are rarely given jobs but only in private. In addition to this, it has been suggested that there are fewer women in the IT sector due to existing stereotypes that depict the sector as male-orientated. In a recent book, ''Own It: Leadership Lessons From Women Who Do'', author
Aparna Jain
Aparna Jain is an author and an executive leadership coach. She is the author of four books - Own It: Leadership Lessons From Women Who Do, which was shortlisted for the Tata Lit Live Festival's Business Book of the Year category in 2016, Like A ...
interviewed 200 women in senior management and leadership positions in India about the problems they face at the workplace and noted that 86% of the women she spoke to experienced harassment in one form or the other. Among the issues she notes are bias, bullying, sexual harassment and the impact of motherhood on women's career. Recently a sexual harassment suit against a senior member shocked the Indian IT sector, as was the sexual harassment case against the
Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces
Taj Hotels is a chain of luxury hotels and a subsidiary of the Indian Hotels Company Limited, headquartered in Mumbai, India. Incorporated by Jamsetji Tata in 1902, the company is a part of the Tata Group, one of India's largest business conglom ...
' (Taj Group) CEO, Rakesh Sarna . A startling example of institutional mechanisms that allow for an unfettered environment for sexual harassment to fester is the
Rajendra K. Pachauri
Rajendra Kumar Pachauri (20 August 1940 – 13 February 2020) was the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 2002 to 2015, during the fourth and fifth assessment cycles. Under his leadership the IPCC was awarded ...
scandal at
The Energy and Resources Institute
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is a research institute in New Delhi that specializes in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development. Established in 1974, it was formerly known as the Tata Energy Research Institute. ...
in India. Improvements in the education system could be the key to encouraging women to take up roles in this sector.
Recognizing the invisible nature of power structures that marginalize women at the workplace, the Supreme Court in the landmark case ''Vaishaka versus High Court of Rajasthan'' (1997) identified sexual harassment as violative of the women's right to equality in the workplace and enlarged the ambit of its definition. The judgment equates a
hostile work environment
In United States labor law, a hostile work environment exists when one's behavior within a workplace creates an environment that is difficult or uncomfortable for another person to work in, due to illegal discrimination. Common complaints in sexua ...
on the same plane as a direct request for sexual favors. To quote: "Sexual harassment includes such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour (whether directly or by implication) as: physical contact and advances; a demand or request for sexual favours; sexually coloured remarks; showing pornography; any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature". The judgement mandates appropriate work conditions should be provided for work, leisure, health, and hygiene to further ensure that there is no hostile environment towards women at the workplace and no woman employee should have reasonable grounds to believe that she is disadvantaged in connection with her employment.
This law thus squarely shifts the onus onto the employer to ensure employee safety but most mid-sized Indian service technology companies are yet to enact sexual harassment policies. Admits K Chandan, an advocate from Chandan Associates, "I have a few IT clients. When I point to the need for a sexual harassment policy, most tend to overlook or ignore it. It's not high on the agenda." An HR Manager of India's premier technology companies rues: "I am going to use the recent case to push the policy through. Earlier the draft proposal was rejected by the company." Yet another HR manager from a flagship company of India's leading business house, oblivious to the irony of her statement, admitted that the company had a grievance redressal mechanism but no sexual harassment policy in place. The lax attitudes transgress the Supreme Court judgment wherein the Court not only defined sexual harassment, but also laid down a code of conduct for workplaces to prevent and punish it, "Employers or other responsible authorities in public or private sectors must comply with the following guidelines: Express prohibition of sexual harassment should be notified and circulated; private employers should include prohibition of sexual harassment in the standing orders under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946." As for the complaint procedure, not less than half of its members should be women. The complaint committee should include an NGO or other organization that is familiar with the issue of sexual harassment. When the offense amounts to misconduct under service rules, appropriate disciplinary action should be initiated. When such conduct amounts to an offense under the Indian Penal Code, the employer shall initiate action by making a complaint with the appropriate authority. However, the survey by Sakshi revealed 58 per cent of women were not aware of the Supreme Court guidelines on the subject. A random survey by AssureConsulting.com among hundred employees working in the IT industry revealed startling results: Less than 10 per cent were familiar with the law or the company's sexual harassment policy. Surprisingly, certain HR managers were also ignorant of the Supreme Court guidelines or the Draft Bill by the National Commission of Women against sexual harassment at the workplace.
Not surprisingly many cases go unreported. However, given the complexities involved, company policy is the first step and cannot wish away the problem. Says Savita HR Manager at Icelerate Technologies, "We have a sexual harassment policy that is circulated among employees. Also the company will not tolerate any case that comes to its notice. But the man at home is no different from the person at the office", thus implying the social mindset that discriminates against women is responsible for the problem. Considering sexual censorship and conservative social attitudes emphasizing "woman's purity", the victim dare not draw attention for fear of being branded a woman with "loose morals". Women would rather brush away the problem or leave jobs quietly rather than speak up, even in organizations that have a zero tolerance policy. Says Chandan, "I do not have exact statistics but from my experience as an advocate one in 1,500 cases are reported." The problem cannot be resolved till more women speak up but the social set-up browbeats women into silence. The social stigma against the victim and the prolonged litigation process for justice thwarts most women from raising their voice. Purports K Chandan "It may take between three and five years to settle a case, and in a situation where the harassment is covert, evidence is hard to gather and there is no guarantee that the ruling would be in favour of the victim. In one of the rare cases I handled a Country Manager was accused and the plaintiff opted for an out of court settlement."
Effects on the working class
Women in lower wage jobs are more likely to be subject to wage discrimination. They are more likely to bring home far less than their male counterparts with equal job status, and get far less help with housework from their husbands than the high-earning women. Women with low educational attainment entering the workforce in mass quantity lowered earnings for some men, as the women brought about a lot more job competition. The lowered relative earnings of the men and increase in birth control made marriage prospects harder for lower income women.
For the first time in the history of this country, there were distinctive socioeconomic stratification among women as there has been among men for centuries. This deepened the inequality between the upper/middle and lower/working classes. Prior to the feminist movement, the socioeconomic status of a family was based almost solely on the husband/father's occupation. Women who were now attaining high status jobs were attractive partners to men with high status jobs, so the high earners married the high earners and the low earners married the low earners. In other words, the rich got richer and the poor stayed the same, and have had increased difficulty competing in the economy.
Impact issues of female participation in the workforce
A 2008 study published in the ''
British Medical Journal
''The BMJ'' is a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, published by the trade union the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Origi ...
'' found that women were 46% more likely to call in sick for short time periods than men and a third more likely than men to take short term sick leave. At 60 days or more, men and women were equal in terms of sick leave.
The number of women in the workforce has tripled and due to this increase, it has become difficult for both mothers and fathers to be able to take care of their own new born child or a sick family member. The
Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) is a United States labor law requiring covered employers to provide employees with job-protected, unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons. The FMLA was a major part of President Bill C ...
has allowed for workers to have up to 12 weeks a year to leave work.
Female labor and the pill
Women have for a long time been unable to actively participate in the labor force. One main reason is the lack of freedom as to when to have kids. With the advancement of the contraceptive pill in the US and nonstop women activists like Katherine Mccormick, women gained access to the pill in the 1960s, and with time wild access has been made available for women all over the world. Now women have the option to control when they want to have kids and have more power over their life plans. This might seem like women were the most affected by this change. However, the pill also changed the game for men. In his article about the pill, Rob Norton mentioned the impact it had on couples as a whole. We have two effects related to the universality of the pill. The Direct effect is how it affected the educational and career path of most women. For instance, women were able to postpone when they wanted to have kids and focus on their education and career advancement. We also have the indirect effect which shows how it impacted both men and women as to when they wanted to get married or start a family. Both partners now had the ability to focus on theirs careers and personal advancement without being worried of not finding any eligible bachelor later on.
Lack of family-friendly policies in the workplace
Since the 2000s, there has been a decrease in the female labor participation rate in the US partly because the lack of family-friendly workplace. For example, The U.S does not have any
paid maternity leave
Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, Paternity (law), paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" and ...
although other countries over the world have been making tremendous progress in this area. In Ireland, paid maternity leave is 26 weeks, and in China, it is 14 weeks. Women in the US are more likely to access higher positions in companies than in those other countries because they spend less time on maternity leave, which offers them a competitive advantage. However,the lack of family-friendly policiesgreatly harms the mother's mental health and sometimes the baby, which explains the decrease in female labor participation. Lastly, men also get affected by this lack of family-friendly policies.
Fertility
Increased participation of women in the workforce is associated with decreased fertility. A cross-country panel study found this
fertility factor effect to be strongest among women aged 20–39, but with a less strong but persistent effect among older women as well.
International
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
data suggests that women who work because of economic necessity have higher fertility than those who work because they want to do so.
The impact of women's employment is more negatively associated with the birth of a second child, as opposed to the first
However, for countries in the
OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...
area, increased female labor participation has been associated with an increased fertility.
Causality analyses indicate that fertility rate influences female labor participation and not as much the other way around.
[
Regarding types of jobs, women who work in nurturing professions such as teaching and health generally have children at an earlier age.][ It is theorized that women often self-select themselves into jobs with a favorable ]work–life balance
Work may refer to:
* Work (human activity), intentional activity people perform to support themselves, others, or the community
** Manual labour, physical work done by humans
** House work, housework, or homemaking
** Working animal, an animal tr ...
in order to combine motherhood and employment.
History
19th century
Women have worked at agricultural tasks since ancient times, and continue to do so around the world. The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
of the late 18th and early 19th centuries changed the nature of work in Europe and other countries of the Western world. Working for a wage
A wage is payment made by an employer to an employee for work done in a specific period of time. Some examples of wage payments include compensatory payments such as ''minimum wage'', ''prevailing wage'', and ''yearly bonuses,'' and remuner ...
, and eventually a salary
A salary is a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee, which may be specified in an employment contract. It is contrasted with piece wages, where each job, hour or other unit is paid separately, rather than on a periodic basis.
...
, became part of urban life. Initially, women were to be found doing even the hardest physical labor, including working as "hurriers" hauling heavy coal carts through mine shafts in Great Britain, a job that also employed many children. This ended after government intervention and the passing of the Mines and Collieries Act 1842
The Mines and Collieries Act 1842 (c. 99), commonly known as the Mines Act 1842, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act forbade women and girls of any age to work underground and introduced a minimum age of ten for boys e ...
, an early attempt at regulating the workplace.
During the 19th century, an increasing number of women in Western countries took jobs in factories, such as textile mills, or on assembly lines for machinery or other goods. Women also worked as "hawker
Hawker or Hawkers may refer to:
Places
* Hawker, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra
* Hawker, South Australia, a town
* Division of Hawker, an Electoral Division in South Australia
* Hawker Island, Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarct ...
s" of produce, flowers, and other market goods, and bred small animals in the working-class areas of London. Piecework
Piece work (or piecework) is any type of employment in which a worker is paid a fixed piece rate for each unit produced or action performed, regardless of time.
Context
When paying a worker, employers can use various methods and combinations of ...
, which involved needlework (weaving, embroidery, winding wool or silk) that paid by the piece completed, was the most common employment for women in 19th century Great Britain. It was poorly paid, and involved long hours, up to 14 hours per day to earn enough wages to survive. Working-class women were usually involved in some form of paid employment, as it provided some insurance against the possibility that their husband might become too ill or injured to support the family. During the era before workers' compensation
Workers' compensation or workers' comp is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her emp ...
for disability or illness, the loss of a husband's wages could result in the entire family being sent to a Victorian workhouse
In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...
to pay debts.
Inequality in wages was to be expected for women. In 1906, the government found that the average weekly factory wage for a woman ranged from 11s 3d to 18s 8d, whereas a man's average weekly wage was around 25s 9d. Employers stated they preferred to hire women, because they could be "more easily induced to undergo severe bodily fatigue than men". Childminding was another necessary expense for many women working in factories. Pregnant women worked up until the day they gave birth and returned to work as soon as they were physically able. In 1891, a law was passed requiring women to take four weeks away from factory work after giving birth, but many women could not afford this unpaid leave, and the law was unenforceable.
The 1870 US Census was the first United States Census to count "females engaged in each occupation" and provides an intriguing snapshot of women's history. It reveals that, contrary to popular belief, not all American women of the 19th century were either idle in their middle-class homes or working in sweatshop
A sweatshop or sweat factory is a crowded workplace with very poor, socially unacceptable or illegal working conditions. Some illegal working conditions include poor ventilation, little to no breaks, inadequate work space, insufficient lighting, o ...
s. Women were 15% of the total work force (1.8 million out of 12.5). They made up one-third of factory "operatives", but teaching and the occupations of dressmaking
A dressmaker, also known as a seamstress, is a person who makes custom clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Dressmakers were historically known as mantua-makers, and are also known as a modiste or fabrician.
Notab ...
, millinery
Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter.
Historically, milliners, typically women shopkeepers, produced or imported an inventory of g ...
, and tailoring
A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century.
History
Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...
played a larger role. Two-thirds of teachers were women. Women could also be found in such unexpected places as iron and steel works (495), mines (46), sawmills (35), oil wells and refineries (40), gas works (4), and charcoal kilns (5) and held such surprising jobs as ship rigger (16), teamster (196), turpentine laborer (185), brass founder/worker (102), shingle and lathe maker (84), stock-herder (45), gun and locksmith (33), and hunter and trapper (2). Formal classification may grossly under-estimate female labor force participation via self-employment or family employment with studies suggesting participation may have always been high.
20th century
In the beginning of the 20th century, women were regarded as society's guardians of morality; they were seen as possessing a finer nature than men and were expected to act as such.[Davis, R. L: "The Social and Cultural Life of the 1920s", p.10. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1972,] Their role was not defined as workers or money makers. Women were expected to hold on to their innocence until the right man came along so that they can start a family and inculcate that morality they were in charge of preserving. The role of men was to support the family financially. Yet at the turn of the 20th century, social attitudes towards educating young women were changing. Women in North America and Western Europe were now becoming more and more educated, in no small part because of the efforts of pioneering women to further their own education, defying opposition by male educators. By 1900, four out of five colleges accepted women and a whole coed concept was becoming more and more accepted.
In the United States, World War I made space for women in the workforce, among other economical and social influences. Due to the rise in demand for production from Europe during the raging war, more women found themselves working outside the home.
In the first quarter of the century, women mostly occupied jobs in factory work or as domestic servants, but as the war came to an end they were able to move on to such jobs as: salespeople in department stores as well as clerical, secretarial and other, what were called, "lace-collar" jobs.[Green, E: "The Uncertainty of Everyday Life, 1915–1945", pp. 57-58. HarperCollins, 1992,] In July 1920, The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
ran a head line that read: "the American Woman ... has lifted her skirts far beyond any modest limitation" which could apply to more than just fashion; women were now rolling up their sleeves and skirts and making their way into the workforce.
World War II created millions of jobs for women. Thousands of American women actually joined the military:
140,000 in the Women's Army Corps (United States Army)
The Women's Army Corps (WAC) was the women's branch of the United States Army. It was created as an auxiliary unit, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) on 15 May 1942 and converted to an active duty status in the Army of the United States ...
WAC;
100,000 in the Navy (WAVE);
23,000 in the Marines;
14,000 in the Navy Nurse Corps
The United States Navy Nurse Corps was officially established by United States Congress, Congress in 1908; however, unofficially, women had been working as nurses aboard Navy ships and in Navy hospitals for nearly 100 years. The Corps was all-fem ...
and,
13,000 in the Coast Guard. Although almost none saw combat, they replaced men in noncombat positions and got the same pay as the men would have on the same job. At the same time over 16 million men left their jobs to join the war in Europe and elsewhere, opening even more opportunities and places for women to take over in the job force. Although two million women lost their jobs after the war ended, female participation in the workforce was still higher than it had ever been. In post-war America, women were expected to return to private life as homemakers and child-rearers. Newspapers and magazines directed at women encouraged them to keep a tidy home while their husbands were away at work. These articles presented the home as a woman's proper domain, which she was expected to run. Nevertheless, jobs were still available to women. However, they were mostly what are known as "pink-collar
A pink-collar worker is someone working in the care-oriented career field or in fields historically considered to be women's work. This may include jobs in the beauty industry, nursing, social work, teaching, secretarial work, upholstery
U ...
" jobs such as retail clerks and secretaries. The propaganda to encourage women to return to the home is depicted in the film ''The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter
''The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter'' is a 1980 documentary film and the first movie made by Connie Field about the American women who went to work during World War II to do "men's jobs." In 1996, it was selected for preservation in the U ...
''.
The Quiet Revolution
The increase of women in the labor force of Western countries gained momentum in the late 19th century. At this point women married early on and were defined by their marriages. If they entered the workforce, it was only out of necessity.
The first phase encompasses the time between the late 19th century to the 1930s. This era gave birth to the "independent female worker". From 1890 to 1930, women in the workforce were typically young and unmarried. They had little or no learning on the job and typically held clerical and teaching positions. Many women also worked in textile manufacturing or as domestics. Women promptly exited the work force when they were married, unless the family needed two incomes. Towards the end of the 1920s, as we enter into the second phase, married women begin to exit the work force less and less. Labor force productivity for married women 35–44 years of age increase by 15.5 percentage points from 10% to 25%. There was a greater demand for clerical positions and as the number of women graduating high school increased they began to hold more "respectable", steady jobs. This phase has been appropriately labeled as the Transition Era referring to the time period between 1930 and 1950. During this time the discriminatory institution of marriage bars
A marriage bar is the practice of restricting the employment of married women. Common in Western countries from the late 19th century to the 1970s, the practice often called for the termination of the employment of a woman on her marriage, espec ...
, which forced women out of the work force after marriage, were eliminated, allowing more participation in the work force of single and married women. Additionally, women's labor force participation increased because there was an increase in demand for office workers and women participated in the high school movement. However, still women's work was contingent upon their husband's income. Women did not normally work to fulfill a personal need to define ones career and social worth; they worked out of necessity.
In the third phase, labeled the "roots of the revolution" encompassing the time from 1950– mid-to-late 1970s, the movement began to approach the warning signs of a revolution. Women's expectations of future employment changed. Women began to see themselves going on to college and working through their marriages and even attending graduate school. Many however still had brief and intermittent work force participation, without necessarily having expectations for a "career". To illustrate, most women were secondary earners, and worked in "pink-collar jobs" as secretaries, teachers, nurses, and librarians. The sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...
experienced by these pink collar
A pink-collar worker is someone working in the care-oriented career field or in fields historically considered to be women's work. This may include jobs in the beauty industry, nursing, social work, teaching, secretarial work, upholstery, or ch ...
workers is depicted in the film ''9 to 5
Working(laboring) time is the period of time that a person spends at paid Wage labour, labor. Unpaid work, Unpaid labor such as personal housework or caring for children or pets is not considered part of the working week.
Many countries regula ...
''. Although more women attended college, it was often expected that they attended to find a spouse—the so-called "M.R.S. degree". Nevertheless, Labor force participation by women still grew significantly.
The fourth phase, known as the "Quiet Revolution", began in the late 1970s and continues on today. Beginning in the 1970s women began to flood colleges and grad schools. They began to enter profession like medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...
, law, dental and business. More women were going to college and expected to be employed at the age of 35, as opposed to past generations that only worked intermittently due to marriage and childbirth. They were able to define themselves prior to a serious relationship. Research indicates that from 1965 to 2002, the increase in women's labor force participation more than offset the decline for men.
The reasons for this big jump in the 1970s has been attributed by some scholars to widespread access to the birth control pill
The combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP), often referred to as the birth control pill or colloquially as "the pill", is a type of birth control that is designed to be taken orally by women. The pill contains two important hormones: progest ...
. While "the pill" was medically available in the 1960s, numerous laws restricted access to it. See, e.g., ''Griswold v. Connecticut
''Griswold v. Connecticut'', 381 U.S. 479 (1965), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects the liberty of married couples to buy and use contraceptives withou ...
'', 381 U.S. 479 (1965) (overturning a Connecticut statute barring access to contraceptives) and ''Eisenstadt v. Baird
''Eisenstadt v. Baird'', 405 U.S. 438 (1972), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that established the right of unmarried people to possess contraception on the same basis as married couples.
The Court struck down a Massachusetts la ...
'', 405 U.S. 438 (1972) (establishing the right of unmarried people to access contraception). By the 1970s, the age of majority
The age of majority is the threshold of legal adulthood as recognized or declared in law. It is the moment when minors cease to be considered such and assume legal control over their persons, actions, and decisions, thus terminating the contr ...
had been lowered from 21 to 18 in the United States, largely as a consequence of the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
; this also affected women's right to effect their own medical decisions. Since it had now become socially acceptable to postpone pregnancy even while married, women had the luxury of thinking about other things, like education and work. Also, due to electrification women's work around the house became easier leaving them with more time to be able to dedicate to school or work. Due to the multiplier effect, even if some women were not blessed with access to the pill or electrification, many followed by the example of the other women entering the work force for those reasons. The Quiet Revolution is called such because it was not a "big bang" revolution; rather, it happened and is continuing to happen gradually.
Occupational safety and health
Women tend to have different occupational hazards and health issues than men in the workplace. Women get carpal tunnel syndrome
Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the collection of symptoms and signs associated with median neuropathy at the carpal tunnel. Most CTS is related to idiopathic compression of the median nerve as it travels through the wrist at the carpal tunn ...
, tendonitis
Tendinopathy, a type of tendon disorder that results in pain, swelling, and impaired function. The pain is typically worse with movement. It most commonly occurs around the shoulder (rotator cuff tendinitis, biceps tendinitis), elbow (tennis elb ...
, anxiety disorder
Anxiety disorders are a cluster of mental disorders characterized by significant and uncontrollable feelings of anxiety and fear such that a person's social, occupational, and personal function are significantly impaired. Anxiety may cause physi ...
s, stress
Stress may refer to:
Science and medicine
* Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition
* Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...
, respiratory diseases, and infectious diseases due to their work at higher rates than men. The reasons for these differences may be differences in biology or in the work that women are performing. Women's higher rates of job-related stress may be due to the fact that women are often caregiver
A caregiver or carer is a paid or unpaid member of a person's social network who helps them with activities of daily living. Since they have no specific professional training, they are often described as informal caregivers. Caregivers most commo ...
s at home and do contingent work
Contingent work, casual work, or contract work, is an employment relationship with limited job security, payment on a piece work basis, typically part-time (typically with variable hours) that is considered non-permanent. Although there is less jo ...
and contract work at a much higher rate than men. Another significant occupational hazard for women is homicide
Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...
, which was the second most frequent cause of death on the job for women in 2011, making up 26% of workplace deaths in women. Immigrant women are at higher risk for occupational injury than native-born women in the United States, due to higher rates of employment in dangerous industries.
Women are at lower risk for work-related death than men. However, personal protective equipment
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury or infection. The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, elec ...
is usually designed for typical male proportions, which can create hazards for women who have ill-fitting equipment.[ Women are less likely to report an occupational injury than men.]
Research is ongoing into occupational hazards that may be specific to women. Of particular interest are potential environmental causes of breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...
and cervical cancer
Cervical cancer is a cancer arising from the cervix. It is due to the abnormal growth of cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body. Early on, typically no symptoms are seen. Later symptoms may include abnormal ...
.[ ]Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...
is an occupational hazard for many women, and can cause serious negative symptoms including anxiety
Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...
, depression, nausea
Nausea is a diffuse sensation of unease and discomfort, sometimes perceived as an urge to vomit. While not painful, it can be a debilitating symptom if prolonged and has been described as placing discomfort on the chest, abdomen, or back of the ...
, headache
Headache is the symptom of pain in the face, head, or neck. It can occur as a migraine, tension-type headache, or cluster headache. There is an increased risk of depression in those with severe headaches.
Headaches can occur as a result ...
, insomnia
Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder in which people have trouble sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low energy, ...
, and feelings of low self-esteem and alienation. Women are also at higher risk for occupational stress
Occupational stress is psychological stress related to one's job. Occupational stress refers to a chronic condition. Occupational stress can be managed by understanding what the stressful conditions at work are and taking steps to remediate those ...
, which can be caused by balancing roles as a parent or caregiver with work.
See also
*Feminisation of the workplace
The feminization of the workplace is the feminization, or the shift in gender roles and sex roles and the incorporation of women into a group or a profession once dominated by men, as it relates to the workplace. It is a set of social theories s ...
*Rosie the Riveter
Rosie the Riveter is an allegorical cultural icon in the United States who represents the women who worked in factories and shipyards during World War II, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new ...
*Employment discrimination
Employment discrimination is a form of illegal discrimination in the workplace based on legally protected characteristics. In the U.S., federal anti-discrimination law prohibits discrimination by employers against employees based on age, race, g ...
*Occupational sexism
Occupational sexism (also called sexism in the workplace and employment sexism) is discrimination based on a person's sex that occurs in a place of employment.
Social role theory
Social role theory may explain one reason for why occupational s ...
*Motherhood penalty
The motherhood penalty is a term coined by sociologists who argue that in the workplace, working mothers encounter disadvantages in pay, perceived competence, and benefits relative to childless women. Specifically, women may suffer a per-child wag ...
Women's participation in different occupations
Below is a sample of encyclopedia articles that detail women's historical involvement in various occupations.
*Women in science
The presence of women in science spans the earliest times of the history of science wherein they have made significant contributions. Historians with an interest in gender and science have researched the scientific endeavors and accomplishments ...
**Women in computing
Women in computing were among the first programmers in the early 20th century, and contributed substantially to the industry. As technology and practices altered, the role of women as programmers has changed, and the recorded history of the fiel ...
**Women in engineering
Women are often under-represented in the academic and professional fields of engineering, however many females have contributed to the diverse fields of engineering historically and currently. A number of organizations and programs have been crea ...
** Women in geology
*Women in medicine
The presence of women in medicine, particularly in the practicing fields of surgery and as physicians, has been traced to the earliest of history. Women have historically had lower participation levels in medical fields compared to men with occu ...
*Arts, writing, media, sports and entertainment
**Women artists
The absence of women from the canon of Western culture, Western Art history, art has been a subject of inquiry and reconsideration since the early 1970s. Linda Nochlin's influential 1971 essay, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?, Why ...
(visual arts)
**Writing
***Women's writing (literary category)
The academic discipline of women's writing is a discrete area of literary criticism, literary studies which is based on the notion that the experience of women, historically, has been shaped by their sex, and so women writers by definition are a g ...
***Women in journalism
Women in journalism are individuals who participate in journalism. As journalism became a profession, women were restricted by custom from access to journalism occupations, and faced significant discrimination within the profession. Neverthe ...
**Film
***Women's cinema
Women's cinema primarily describes cinematic works directed (and optionally produced too) by women filmmakers. The works themselves do not have to be stories specifically about women and the target audience can be varied.
It is also a variety of ...
(discusses women screenwriters & directors)
**Sports
***Women's professional sports
Women's professional sports are a relatively new phenomenon, having largely emerged within the latter part of the 20th century. Unlike amateur women athletes, professional women athletes are able to acquire an income which allows them to earn a ...
*Women in government
In many countries, women have been underrepresented in the government and different institutions. This historical tendency still persists, although women are increasingly being elected to be heads of state and government.
As of October 20 ...
*Women in the military
Women have served in the military in many different roles in various jurisdictions throughout history. Women in many countries are no longer excluded from some types of combat missions such as piloting, mechanics, and infantry officer. Since 1 ...
Sources
References
Bibliography
;History of women in workforce
*''A Woman's Wage: Historical Meanings and Social Consequences'' by Alice Kessler-Harris (updated edition, 2014)
*''Challenging Professions: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Women's Professional Work'' by Elizabeth Smyth, Sandra Acker, Paula Bourne, and Alison Prentice (1999)
*''English women enter the professions'' by Nellie Alden Franz (1965)
*''Black Women and White Women in the Professions: Occupational Segregation by Race and Gender, 1960–1980'' (Perspectives on Gender) by N. Sokoloff (1992)
*''Unequal Colleagues: The Entrance of Women into the Professions, 1890–1940'' (Douglass Series on Women's Lives and the Meaning of Gender) by Penina Migdal Glazer and Miriam Slater (1987)
*''Beyond Her Sphere: Women and the Professions in American History'' by Barbara J. Harris (1978)
*"Challenging Professions: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Women's Professional Work" (Book Reviews) Pamela Sugiman in ''Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations''
*''Victorian Working Women: A historical and literary study of women in British industries and professions 1832–1850'' (Economic History (Routledge)) by Wanda F. Neff
*''Colonial women of affairs;: A study of women in business and the professions in America before 1776'' by Elisabeth Anthony Dexter
*''What a Woman Ought to Be and to Do: Black Professional Women Workers during the Jim Crow Era'' (Women in Culture and Society Series) by Stephanie J. Shaw
*'' In Subordination: Professional Women, 1870–1970'' by Mary Kinnear (1995)
*''Women Working in Nontraditional Fields References and Resources 1963–1988'' (Women's Studies Series) by Carroll Wetzel Wilkinson
*
;Social sciences and psychological perspectives;
*Suhail Ahmad, ''Women in profession: A comparative study of Hindu and Muslim women''
*Ella L. J. Edmondson Bell and Stella M. Nkomo, ''Our Separate Ways: Black and White Women and the Struggle for Professional Identity''
*Julia Evetts, ''Women and Career: Themes and Issues in Advanced Industrial Societies'' (Longman Sociology Series)
*Patricia N. Feulner, ''Women in the Professions: A Social-Psychological Study''
*Linda S. Fidell and John D. DeLamater
John Delos DeLamater (October 12, 1940 – December 13, 2017) was an American sociologist and sexologist who taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he was the Conway-Bascom Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology.
He was ...
, ''Women in the Professions''
*Clara Greed, ''Surveying Sisters: Women in a Traditional Male Profession''
*Jerry Jacobs, ''Professional Women at Work: Interactions, Tacit Understandings, and the Non-Trivial Nature of Trivia in Bureaucratic Settings''
* Edith J. Morley, ''Women Workers in Seven Professions''
*Xiomara Santamarina, ''Belabored Professions: Narratives of African American Working Womanhood''
*Janet Skarbek, ''Planning Your Future: A Guide for Professional Women''
*Elizabeth Smyth, Sandra Acker, Paula Bourne, and Alison Prentice, ''Challenging Professions: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Women's Professional Work''
*Nancy C. Talley-Ross, ''Jagged Edges: Black Professional Women in White Male Worlds'' (Studies in African and African-American Culture, Vol 7) (1995)
*Joyce Tang and Earl Smith, ''Women and Minorities in American Professions'' (S U N Y Series on the New Inequalities)
*
*Anne Witz, ''Professions and Patriarchy'' (International Library of Sociology) (1992)
;Work and family demands/support for women
*Terri Apter, ''Working Women Don't Have Wives: Professional Success in the 1990s''
*Sian Griffiths, ''Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Forty Women Whose Ideas Shape the Modern World'' (Women's Studies)
*Linda Hantrais, ''Managing Professional and Family Life: A Comparative Study of British and French Women''
*Deborah J. Swiss and Judith P. Walker, ''Women and the Work/Family Dilemma: How Today's Professional Women Are Finding Solutions''
*Alice M. Yohalem, ''The Careers of Professional Women: Commitment and Conflict''
;Workplace discrimination based on gender
*The Commission on Women in the Profession, ''Sex-Based Harassment, 2nd Edition: Workplace Policies for the Legal Profession''
*Sylvia Ann Hewlett, ''Off-ramps and On-ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success''
*Karen Maschke, ''The Employment Context'' (Gender and American Law: The Impact of the Law on the Lives of Women)
*Evelyn Murphy and E. J. Graff, ''Getting Even: Why Women Don't Get Paid Like Men—And What to Do About It'' (2006)
*KOLHATKAR, SHEELAH, "THE DISRUPTERS" ''New Yorker'', 0028792X, 11/20/2017, Vol. 93, Issue 37
;Mentoring and "old-boys/old-girls networks"
*Nancy W. Collins, ''Professional Women and Their Mentors: A Practical Guide to Mentoring for the Woman Who Wants to Get Ahead''
*Carolyn S. Duff, ''Learning From Other Women: How to Benefit From the Knowledge, Wisdom, and Experience of Female Mentors''
*Joan Jeruchim, ''Women, Mentors, and Success''
*Peggy A. Pritchard, ''Success Strategies for Women in Science: A Portable Mentor'' (Continuing Professional Development Series)
;Arts and literature studies on women in the workforce
*Carmen Rose Marshall, ''Black Professional Women in Recent American Fiction''
Professional areas
;Teaching, librarianship, and university professions
*Maenette K. P. Benham and Joanne Cooper, ''Let My Spirit Soar!: Narratives of Diverse Women in School Leadership (1-Off)''
*Roger Blanpain and Ann Numhauser-Henning, ''Women in Academia and Equality Law: Aiming High, Falling Short? Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom'' (Bulletin of Comparative Labour Relations)
*S. A. L. Cavanagh, The Gender of Professionalism and Occupational Closure: the management of tenure-related disputes by the 'Federation of Women Teachers' Associations of Ontario' 1918–1949, Gender and Education, 15.1, March 2003, pp. 39–57. Se
Routledge
*Regina Cortina and Sonsoles San Roman, ''Women and Teaching: Global Perspectives on the Feminization of a Profession''
*Nancy Hoffman, ''Woman's "True" Profession'', 2nd ed. (1982, 2nd ed.) ("classic history of women and the teaching profession in the United States")
*Julia Kwong, Ma Wanhua, and Wanhua Ma, ''Chinese Women and the Teaching Profession''
;Social sciences
*Kathleen Bowman and Larry Soule, ''New Women in Social Sciences'' (1980)
*Lynn McDonald, ''The Women Founders of the Social Sciences'' (1994)
;Social sciences – anthropology
* Barbara A. Babcock and Nancy J. Parezo, ''Daughters of the Desert: Women Anthropologists and the Native American Southwest, 1880–1980'' (1988)
*Ruth Behar and Deborah A. Gordon, ''Women Writing Culture'' (1996)
*Maria G. Cattell and Marjorie M. Schweitzer, ''Women in Anthropology: Autobiographical Narratives and Social History'' (2006)
*Ute D. Gacs, Aisha Khan, Jerrie McIntyre, and Ruth Weinberg, ''Women Anthropologists: Selected Biographies'' (1989);''Women Anthropologists: A Biographical Dictionary'' (1988)
*Nancy Parezo, ''Hidden Scholars: Women Anthropologists and the Native American'' (1993)
;Social sciences – archaeology
*Cheryl Claassen, ''Women in Archaeology'' (1994)
*Margarita Diaz-Andreu and Marie Louise Stig Sorensen, ''Excavating Women: A History of Women in European Archaeology'' (1998;2007)
*Getzel M. Cohen and Martha Sharp Joukowsky, editors, ''Breaking Ground: Pioneering Women Archaeologists'' (2004)
*Nancy Marie White, Lynne P. Sullivan, and Rochelle A. Marrinan, ''Grit-Tempered: Early Women Archaeologists in Southeastern United States'' (2001)
;Social sciences – history
*Eileen Boris and Nupur Chaudhuri, ''Voices of Women Historians: The Personal, the Political, the Professional'' (1999)
*Jennifer Scanlon and Shaaron Cosner, ''American Women Historians, 1700s–1990s: A Biographical Dictionary'' (1996)
*Nadia Smith, ''A "Manly Study"?: Irish Women Historians, 1868–1949'' (2007)
*Deborah Gray White, ''Telling Histories: Black Women Historians in the Ivory Tower'' (forthcoming 2008)
Southern Association for Women Historians
;Social sciences – linguistics
*Davison, ''The Cornell Lectures: Women in the Linguistics Profession''
;"STEM" fields (science, technology, engineering, and maths)
*Violet B. Haas and Carolyn C. Perrucci, ''Women in Scientific and Engineering Professions'' (Women and Culture Series)
*Patricia Clark Kenschaft
Patricia Clark Kenschaft (March 25, 1940 – November 20, 2022) was an American mathematician. She was a professor of mathematics at Montclair State University. She is known as a prolific author of books on mathematics, as a founder of PRIMES, the ...
, ''Change Is Possible: Stories of Women and Minorities in Mathematics''
* Jacquelyn A. Mattfeld and Carol E. Van Aken, ''Women and the Scientific Professions: The MIT Symposium on American Women in Science and Engineering'' (1964 symposium;1976 publication)
*Karen Mahony & Brett Van Toen, Mathematical Formalism as a Means of Occupational Closure in Computing—Why "Hard" Computing Tends to Exclude Women, Gender and Education, 2.3, 1990, pp. 319–31. Se
ERIC record.
*Peggy A. Pritchard, ''Success Strategies for Women in Science: A Portable Mentor'' (Continuing Professional Development Series)
*Margaret W. Rossiter, ''Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940'' (Women Scientists in America)
*Otha Richard Sullivan and Jim Haskins
James Haskins (September 19, 1941 – July 6, 2005) was an American author with more than 100 books for both adults and children. Many of his books highlight the achievements of African Americans and cover the history and culture of Africa and ...
, ''Black Stars: African American Women Scientists and Inventors''
;Legal professions
*Joan Brockman and Dorothy E. Chunn, "'A new order of things': women's entry into the legal profession in British Columbia", ''The Advocate''
*The Commission on Women in the Profession, ''Visible Invisibility: Women of Color in Law Firms''
*The Commission on Women in the Profession, ''Sex-Based Harassment, 2nd Edition: Workplace Policies for the Legal Profession''
*Hedda Garza, ''Barred from the Bar: A History of Women in the Legal Profession'' (Women Then—Women Now)
*Jean Mckenzie Leiper, ''Bar Codes: Women in the Legal Profession''
*Sheila McIntyre and Elizabeth Sheehy, ''Calling for Change: Women, Law, and the Legal Profession''
*Mary Jane Mossman, ''The First Women Lawyers: A Comparative Study of Gender, Law And the Legal Professions''
*Rebecca Mae Salokar and Mary L. Volcansek, ''Women in Law: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook''
*Ulrike Schultz and Gisela Shaw, ''Women in the World's Legal Professions'' (Onati International Series in Law and Society)
*Lisa Sherman, Jill Schecter, and Deborah Turchiano, ''Sisters-In-Law: an Uncensored Guide for Women Practicing Law in the real world''
;Religious professions
*Stanley J. Grenz and Denise Muir Kjesbo, ''Women in the Church: A Biblical Theology of Women in Ministry''
*Lenore Friedman, ''Meetings with Remarkable Women: Buddhist Teachers in America''
;Helping professions (social work, childcare, eldercare, etc.)
*Ski Hunter, Sandra Stone Sundel, and Martin Sundel, ''Women at Midlife: Life Experiences and Implications for the Helping Professions''
*Linda Reeser, Linda Cherrey, and Irwin Epstein, ''Professionalization and Activism in Social Work'' (1990) (covers gender as part of history of professionalization), Columbia University Press,
*Sarah Stage and Virginia B. Vincenti, editors, ''Rethinking Home Economics: Women and the History of a Profession''
;Architecture and design
*'' Designing for Diversity: Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in the Architectural Profession'' by Kathryn H. Anthony
*''The First American Women Architects'' by Sarah Allaback (forthcoming 2008)
;Arts and literature
*Margaret Barlow, ''Women Artists
The absence of women from the canon of Western culture, Western Art history, art has been a subject of inquiry and reconsideration since the early 1970s. Linda Nochlin's influential 1971 essay, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?, Why ...
''
*Whitney Chadwick
Whitney Chadwick (born 28 July 1943) is an American art historian and educator, who has published on contemporary art, modernism, Surrealism, and gender and sexuality. Her book ''Women, Art and Society'' was first published by Thames and Hudson ...
, ''Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement''
* Liz Rideal, Whitney Chadwick
Whitney Chadwick (born 28 July 1943) is an American art historian and educator, who has published on contemporary art, modernism, Surrealism, and gender and sexuality. Her book ''Women, Art and Society'' was first published by Thames and Hudson ...
, and Frances Borzello, ''Mirror Mirror: Self-Portraits by Women Artists''
*Jo Franceschina, ''Women and the Profession of Theater, 1810–1860''
*National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world.
Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, and ...
, ''Women Photographers at National Geographic''
*Laura R. Prieto, ''At Home in the Studio: The Professionalization of Women Artists in America''
;Entertainment and modeling
*Ann Cvetkovich, "Fierce Pussies and Lesbian Avengers: Dyke Activism Meets Celebrity Culture" (images of female models merging infiltrating other cultures)
*Michael Gross, ''Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women'' (2003) (history of female modeling);
*Ian Halperin, ''Shut Up and Smile: Supermodels, the Dark Side'' (1999)
*Nancy Hellmich, "Do thin models warp girls' body image?", ''USA Today'', September 26, 2006
*Jennifer Melocco, "Ban on Stick-Thin Models Illegal", ''Daily Telegraph'', February 16, 2007
*Barbara Summers
Barbara Summers (September 6, 1944 – November 2014)
Something About the Author. 2008. Retrieved May 30, 2015, fr ...
, ''Black and Beautiful: How Women of Color Changed the Fashion Industry'' (racism within modeling)
*Barbara Summers, ''Skin Deep: Inside the World of Black Fashion Models'' (1999)
*Naomi Wolf
Naomi Rebekah Wolf (born November 12, 1962) is an American feminist author, journalist and conspiracy theorist.
Following her first book '' The Beauty Myth'' (1991), she became a leading spokeswoman of what has been described as the third wave ...
, '' The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women'' (1991)
;Explorers, navigators, travelers, settlers
*Joanna Stratton, ''Pioneer Women''
*David Cordingly, ''Seafaring Women: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways, and Sailors' Wives''
;Sports and athletics
*Karra Porter, ''Mad Seasons: The Story of the First Women's Professional Basketball League, 1978–1981''
;Business and leadership
*Roger E. Axtell, Tami Briggs, Margaret Corcoran, and Mary Beth Lamb, ''Do's and Taboos Around the World for Women in Business''
*Douglas Branson, ''No Seat at the Table: How Corporate Governance and Law Keep Women Out of the Boardroom''
*Lin Coughlin, Ellen Wingard, and Keith Hollihan, ''Enlightened Power: How Women are Transforming the Practice of Leadership''
*Harvard Business School Press, editors, ''Harvard Business Review on Women in Business''
*S. N. Kim, "Racialized gendering of the accountancy profession: toward an understanding of Chinese women's experiences in accountancy in New Zealand" in ''Critical Perspectives on Accounting
''Critical Perspectives on Accounting'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Elsevier. The aim of the journal is to study how accounting works within society and to promote forms of accounting that are in the public interest. It was es ...
''
*Deborah Rhode, ''The Difference ""Difference"" Makes: Women and Leadership'' (2002)
*Judy B. Rosener, ''America's Competitive Secret: Women Managers''
*Robert E. Seiler, ''Women in the Accounting Profession'' (1986)
;European Union initiatives and information
Report "Women and men in decision-making 2007 – analysis of the situation and trends"
External links
* from the collections of the Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...
"The New Majority? the Past, Present and Future of Women in the Workplace"
Symposium at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University—also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute—is a part of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts, a ...
, September 9, 2011.
Women's Employment, United States and Great Britain in the Early 20th Century
in the Claremont Colleges Digital Library
A collection of historical documents chronicling the role of women in the nation's economy and labor force
with statistical reports and other documents coming from sources such as the Census Bureau, the Supreme Court, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the Women's Bureau.
Women in Business and Commerce in Asia
Asian Development Bank
American Association of University Women
{{DEFAULTSORT:Women In The Workforce
Women's studies
Women by occupation
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...
Employment discrimination
*
Women and employment