Interrogating Claims of Progress for Black Women Since 1970

Abstract

Utilizing a comparative and historical perspective, we interrogate claims of progress focusing on low-wage Black and White women workers from 1970 to 2000. We begin by offering a historical perspective on occupational segregation by race and gender, which informs the evaluation of low-wage Black women’s occupational progress. We then situate Black women’s occupational attainment since 1970 within the larger context of labor market restructuring, which fundamentally changed the occupational landscape. We find no evidence that industrial and occupational upgrading among low-wage Black women, particularly in the South, from 1970 to 2000 narrowed the racial wage gap among low-wage women. The wage gap between low-wage Black and White women declined because of larger changes in the American economy, which reduced the quality of those jobs, eroding the wage advantage that White women in the white-collar service sector once enjoyed.