U of Ideas of General Interest -- September 1999
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Contact: Mark Reutter, Business & Law Editor
(217) 333-0568; [email protected]
WOMEN AND LABOR Changing status of female workers fosters social changes, scholar says
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The rapid influx of women into labor markets worldwide is one of the most significant developments of the 20th century, a University of Illinois professor writes in an upcoming journal issue devoted to the subject.
Many social changes -- ranging from the rise in divorce rates to declining fertility -- have been influenced by the changing status of female workers, according to Marianne A. Ferber, professor emerita of economics and women's studies. Her comments preface a forthcoming special issue of the Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance.
The increase of women in the labor force has occurred in much of the developing world as well as in economically advanced countries. It began slowly in the United States at the end of the last century, then accelerated in this century, especially during the 1970s. As a result, working women have climbed from 18.2 percent of the female population in 1890 to 60 percent in 1994. This is all the more striking "because during the same period men's participation declined from 84.3 percent to 77 percent," Ferber writes.
The historic gap between black and white female workers has virtually disappeared. Whereas in 1955, 46 percent of black women and 34 percent of white women worked for pay in the United States, by 1995 the labor force participation of both groups was nearly identical -- 60 percent versus 59 percent.
Equally striking is the widening gulf of employment based on level of education. In 1995, 82 percent of white women and 91 percent of black women with a college or more advanced degree were employed, while the comparable figures for women with less than 12 years of schooling was 48 percent and 46 percent respectively.
Employment segregation has been changing only slowly, Ferber writes, so that there continue to be many occupations that are almost entirely male and others that are as predominately female, and gender segregation by specialty and rank remains within such groups as medical doctors and university professors. The same is true for the earnings gap between men and women, which is relatively large in the United States compared to many other economically advanced nations.
The increasing incidence of poverty among women has been linked to the rising divorce rate and the increasing proportion of families headed by females without a husband present. In developing nations, "lack of access to capital is one of the most serious impediments for women" with or without husbands, Ferber notes. A program in Indonesia, described in the special issue, tells how very poor women who were able to get loans raised their standard of living, especially when the loans were coupled with skills training.
The rise of "non-standard" work also has affected American women who are overrepresented in help-agency work, on-call work, and other temporary and part-time jobs that tend to pay lower wages and benefits than standard positions.
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