The Odds Against Women

Abstract

can life today, none remains more pervasive or more invidious than that directed against women. In industry, government and academia, women by and large are excluded from positions of power, as defined by salary, prestige and decisionmaking authority. There is as much sexual segregation in jobs now as sixty years ago, and although one-third of all women now work, most are still restricted to occupations defined as feminine. In some instances women have been allowed to take over such previously male occupations as elevator operators, or have been recruited for such monotonous new jobs as key punch operators. Occupations that segregate heavily have been growing faster than those that do not. Dale Hiestand, in his study of employment opportunities for minorities (Economic Growth and Employment Opportunities for Minorities, New York, Columbia University Press, 1964), shows that in occupations in which incomes increase most rapidly, the acceptance of women is very slow. On the other hand, men enter jobs in which income rises rapidly whether or not they have been traditionally female occupations. Men, for example, now comprise the majority of secondary school teachers, and the nursing profession now wants to recruit men because only then will wages and hours improve. Women now earn 40 percent of the bachelor degrees awarded, but their degrees aren't much help. Men right out of college are recruited for executive training, while women with the same qualifications are offered secretarial jobs. The American woman's share of the employment market has risen in recent years, but her share of professional and technical jobs has actually declined. Women are found predominantly in the less well-paid, uncompetitive jobs; they are more often overqualified in their work, and their median salary is below that of American men, both white and black. Sixty-six percent of employed women with from one to three years of college, 20 percent of employed women with a college degree, and 7 percent of employed women with one or more years beyond the first degree are sales ladies, office clerks, nursemaids and household cooks.