What is with Women in the Workplace?

Women began working in the mid 1800s as the industrial revolution powered on. From there, women have made great strides in being valued in the workplace as equal to men. As much progress as they have made, they still have so much more to do before they can be truly valued as equals and imperative to workplace success.

Women really began to be in the workforce during World war I and II as the culture of working shifted. With most of the men being off at war, the women began to work in their vacant positions. While more women were in the workforce, they were not being treated equally. Many women faced harassment and were often paid less than their male counterparts.

Source: https://www.eeoc.gov/special-report/women-american-workforce

In the 1960s and 70s, women began to challenge traditional gender roles and fight for their rights, advocating for equal opportunities in the workplace. One of the legislative changes during this era was the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which aimed to make sure that employers could not pay differently to employees on the basis of gender.

Currently, women continue to try to make changes in the workplace, but some things are still unequal. Women still earn less than men for the same work even though more women go to college and pursue higher degrees than men. There is still workplace harassment and discrimination on the basis of gender.

Occupational segregation on a surface level is the difference between female and male dominated fields, however, some fields that seem equal on the surface can actually be highly segregated inside. An example of this is post secondary teachers. At the surface, this field seems relatively equal, consisting of 52% men. However, when looked at from the inside, the majority of this 52% are in higher positions than the women in this occupation.

Furthermore, as women take over formerly male dominated occupations, the pay for that job will drop. The job is perceived as less important or as requiring less skill. In fact, according to Paula England, a sociology professor at New York University, “pure discrimination may account for 38 percent of the gender pay gap”. This is not something that can just be fixed with a law, it requires changing societal culture to one where women are more welcomed.

Source: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/EDN-20180307-1

While there are many laws banning discrimination in the workplace, this does not mean that it does not exist. There are many smaller, less obvious cases of discrimination in modern society. Small incidents that happen repeatedly can begin to change the way women will express themselves regardless of their own knowledge of the situation. These incidents can lower self-esteem and make women feel like they are not performing well enough. Plus, due to the nature of these incidents, they will likely not be reported. This creates a vicious cycle of incident after incident.

Clearly women have a harder time in the workplace, so what is being done to combat this issue?

Some local efforts in North Carolina include WomenNC and ERA NC.

Source: https://www.womennc.org/

Women NC strives to change the way that women are perceived in the workplace and in society. They offer scholarships to help women get an education, trainings, which are called “Critical Conversations”, and are affiliated with many other organizations including colleges and local groups. “Critical Conversations” contain expert panels that students are allowed to ask questions to. This creates a culture of learning and sharing information, which can be beneficial for the young women participating.

Source: https://www.era-nc.org/

ERA NC is a group that was created as a way to advocate for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in North Carolina. The Equal Rights Amendment is an unratified amendment that would essentially prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex in the workplace. ERA NC holds various rallies and spreads awareness for the ERA to get ratified.

Nationally, there are various efforts and agencies striving to create better working environments for women. The Women’s Bureau works to enforce policies to protect working women. The White House (under Biden) stated that they strived to close gender gaps in male-dominated fields and promote gender equality under the law. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforces many of the laws that make it illegal to treat employees differently on the basis of gender by enforcing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which states that it is illegal to discriminate against people on the basis of their sex, race, color, religion, or national origin.

Source: https://ourworldindata.org/female-labor-supply

Globally, about 47% of women work, however, 70% of women say they want to work at paid jobs. Only six countries give men equal working rights, an exclusive list which does not include the U.S. There are numerous global initiatives that aim to change this though.

The UN Women has initiatives to help the spread of education. The UNDP is the United Nations Development Programme, this program is developing new strategies to combat the lack of women able to work. They have an SDS programme, which has 4 steps:

•  Assessment

• Review and design

• Implementation

• Monitoring and evaluation

Overall, it is imperative that each person makes sure to treat everyone with respect and appreciation. As a society it is important to continue to strive for more equal pay policies, inclusive communication practices, and maintain and grow diverse representation in leadership.

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Cain Miller, C. (2016, March 18). As Women Take Over a Male-Dominated Field, the Pay Drops. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/upshot/as-women-take-over-a-male-dominated-field-the-pay-drops.html

Doering, L., Doering, J., & Tilcsik, A. (2023). “Was it me or was it gender discrimination?” How women respond to ambiguous incidents at work. Sociological Science, 10, 501–533. https://doi.org/10.15195/v10.a18

Equal pay for equal work. (n.d.). DOL. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/oasam/centers-offices/civil-rights-center/internal/policies/equal-pay-for-equal-work#:~:text=The%20Equal%20Pay%20Act%20of,wage%20discrimination%20based%20on%20sex.&text=The%20Equal%20Pay%20Act%20(EPA)%20protects%20individuals%20of%20all%20sexes

History of women in the workforce. (n.d.). https://www.redkap.com/women-workforce-history.html#:~:text=After%20the%20Industrial%20Revolution%20in,that%20number%20increased%20to%2015%25.

Martin-Caughey, A. (2021). What’s in an Occupation? Investigating Within-Occupation variation and Gender Segregation using job titles and task descriptions. American Sociological Review, 86(5), 960–999. https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224211042053

Overview. (n.d.). US EEOC. https://www.eeoc.gov/overview

Prohibited Employment Policies/Practices. (n.d.). US EEOC. https://www.eeoc.gov/prohibited-employment-policiespractices

The Women’s Bureau. (n.d.). DOL. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/wb

Transforming the Future of Work for Gender Equality initiative. (n.d.). UNDP.

https://www.undp.org/asia-pacific/transforming-future-work-gender-equality-initiative

WomenNC - Gender Equality in NC. (n.d.). https://www.womennc.org/