Lecture Eleven

You've come a long way, babycakes. In the last century, the number of women in the workforce went from 5.3 million women to 65 million women—and today, about three-fourths of all working women are working full time. So what work are women doing? What are the barriers that they face and the challenges they are up against? How do they navigated these obstacles and succeed at their jobs?

We know that there isn't much work that women haven't signed up to do. They are working in all segments of the labor force, even those dominated by men. Interestingly, however, they are much more likely to be found in some sectors than other and are—for the most part—crowded into a small number of fields . I'm sure that you can guess these off the top of your head—more women work as teachers, secretaries and cashiers than any other line of work. Most jobs that involve care-giving and cleaning are thought of as “women's work,” while jobs that involve working with machines and things are imagined as being “men's work.” The fact that women and men often work at different jobs termed horizontal segregation, meaning that the vast majority of us follow this social distinction between men's and women's work. This segregation isn't problematic in and of itself, but becomes troubling when we realize that what gets called “men's work” is usually compensated much higher than, well, what society sees as “women's work.” Is it fair that a childcare worker earns about $300 less than a truck driver or $475 less than a mail carrier, when they all have about the same skill level? And as you well know by now, gender isn't the only thing that keeps the workforce segregated—race has come to be seen as a tougher barrier than gender in the workplace. Today, only 8% of African Americans and only 5% of Hispanic workers (men and women) hold jobs that could be classified as professional or managerial .

We can all agree that women and men are encouraged to do different jobs, and this lifetime of gender socialization leads to a pattern of horizontal segregation. But in addition to the horizontal stuff, there is also vertical segregation going on. This means that within the same job classification you see a vertical hierarchy with more men on top and more women down low. Think about doctors. In what specialty do you find the most women doctors? Pediatrics. In what specialty do you find the fewest women doctors? Surgical specialties. In and of itself, this is no biggie. But things change when we realize that, on average, female physicians make only 77% what male physicians make. The same can be seen with law . A bumper crop of them practice family law and just a smattering of them work in criminal law. Women in law make only about 70% of what their male counterparts make. It happens in real estate (residential versus commercial) and even here in academia (humanities and social sciences versus physical and applied sciences.) Vertical segregation isn't necessary a problem, but becomes one when we recognize that the specialties and fields that men occupy are for the most part seen as more prestigious and pay higher salaries. So it's not just that women and men often do different jobs, it's that the jobs that they do are valued differently and have different levels of status and power.

For the last 40 years, feminists have brought attention to these inequalities in the workforce. They have coined the term glass ceiling to draw awareness to the barriers facing women's advancement—women are not promoted at the same rate as men and continue to face obstacles when entering the most prestigious and best-paid occupations. Why is it that women hold only 2% of the most powerful positions in the corporate world? Why is that number even lower for women of color? Feminists have blown the whistle on a number of different ideas about the workplace that are inappropriate and sometimes downright sexist. Research continues to show that employers are more likely to hire a man over a woman when both candidates have identical qualifications. Employers are more likely to promote men in traditional families than those in dual earning families if both candidates are equally qualified. In fact, more has been coming out suggesting that many firms, companies, groups, etc. are worried about a loss of prestige associated with having too many women or minority workers on staff —in academia there is a fear that becoming a female-dominated department would compromise the status of the program! Unfortunately, there is some truth to this concern because women's work is regularly seen as less valuable. As an occupation goes from being male dominated to female dominated, the wages (and the prestige) often plummet. Consider clerical work. This was seen as men's work until the turn of the century and then (for a variety of reasons that I'm not going to get into here) the field became dominated by women. The same thing is happening now with the field of pharmacy. Until quite recently, it was men's work, but now the status and wages are falling as more and more women enter the field. We can see the same thing with bank telling, teaching, bar tending, and even psychology.

What does it all mean for women? First of all, it means that the work that is done by women is regularly seen as less valuable and less prestigious than the work done by men. Realistically, it means that women are compensated less for their work, have less upward mobility in their jobs, and are less likely to have union protection and other benefits. Unfortunately, these patterns of segregation often reinforce inequality and can foster conditions that encourage sexual harassment. In fact, between 50-75% of women in the workforce experience sexual harassment at some point during their work lives, and women who work in male-dominated environments experience more than women who do conventional “women's work.” This systematic devaluation of women's work has material consequences as well. Women earn 77% of the wages that men earn , and women of color earn only 64% of men's earnings. Over a lifetime, the average 25-year-old woman who works full time, year-round until she retires at age 65 will earn about $500,000 less than the average working man. Today, 24% of men and only 13% of women earn over $50,000 and 10% of men and only 3% of women earn over $75,000. And women who are pregnant or who have children fare even worse than women who are childless in the workforce. Even with the various Equal Employment legislative gains throughout the years, women continue to struggle for equality in the workplace.