The Kansas City Star
(U.S.), January
14, 2010
For women in the work force, halfway isn't equal
By Diane Stafford
For several months
now, we’ve been watching the percentage of women in the workplace
creep toward the 50 percent mark.
The most recent numbers
from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Employment
Statistics survey show that 49.9 percent of establishment payroll
jobs are held by women.
The Economist magazine
this month looked to the tipping point and illustrated its cover
with the iconic biceps-flexing woman from World War II, altering
the poster’s origin headline — “We Can Do It!”
— to “We Did It!”
But as a former president
once said, it depends on what the definition of “it”
is.
“It” may
be cause for shrugs for celebrations or concern.
Before I explain, please
permit what I think is an interesting historical aside: Contrary
to popular belief, that “We Can Do It!” woman is not
the fabled Rosie the Riveter.
Rather, the poster
was based on a United Press International photograph of Geraldine
Doyle, a factory employee. An artist, J. Howard Miller, used the
photograph to paint the “We Can Do It!” poster for the
Westinghouse Co. It was one of a series of patriotic posters that
hung in-house at Westinghouse.
The “real”
Rosie the Riveter image was painted by Norman Rockwell, who used
a 19-year-old telephone operator in Vermont named Mary Doyle for
his model for a 1943 Saturday Evening Post magazine cover. Rockwell’s
title gave homage to a popular 1942 song about a defense industry
worker.
But back to the present
— and cautionary comment about crowing, “We Did It!”
First (and this is
important to statistical wonks), saying that women are poised
to hold half of all establishment payroll jobs is not the same
as saying that women represent half of the work force.
They don’t.
In fact, there still
are about 10 million more men than women in the labor force.
It’s true that
this recession has been a “mancession,” with about three-fourths
of job losers being men. Layoffs hit industries and jobs dominated
by men (construction and manufacturing) harder than those dominated
by women (education and health care).
Even so, according
to the labor bureau’s Current Population Survey, there still
are about 7 million more employed men than women. That’s
because the population survey is a household survey. As such,
it captures farm workers and other self-employed individuals who
aren’t included in the establishment payroll survey.
But even the household
survey undercounts men; it excludes the military.
Whichever statistical
series you put more weight on, though, it’s still obvious
that women’s presence in the workplace is a given —
but far from a domination.
•Women, largely
because of biology (they bear the children) still work less over
their lifetimes than men.
•Women, because
of their preponderance in “pink collar” jobs, still
earn less than men.
•Women, because
they work fewer years and at lower-paying jobs, have fewer savings
and less income in retirement.
•Women continue
to be largely unrepresented in the top business power structure.
The Catalyst organization reports that only 15.4 percent of Fortune
500 corporate officers are women; only 14.8 percent of Fortune
500 board seats are held by women; and only 6.7 percent of Fortune
500 top executive earners are women.
•Women, who now
head 40 percent of U.S. households, are more likely (with their
children) to live in poverty.
•Women are more
than twice as likely as men to hold part-time jobs.
You can, of course,
cite individual exceptions to those generalities. But in the aggregate
they show that merely being in the workplace doesn’t equate
to empowerment or equality.
And, as The Economist
noted in its cover story, the United States has been slow among
developed nations to create workplace policies that accommodate
the realities of child- and elder-care giving that tend to fall
on women.
So that’s why
saying, “We Did It!” may be premature celebration.
But it’s also
OK to recognize the inherent gains for women. For many, the benefits
of financial liberation are great.
And, it also should
be noted that workplace gains are going hand in hand with education.
Women already make
up more than half of college students. As women’s education
and professional work-force participation levels grow along with
the service economy, there may, within a generation, be a time
where “We Did It!” truly deserves the exclamation point.
To reach Diane Stafford,
call 816-234-4359 or send e-mail to stafford@kcstar.com . Read
her past columns at http://economy .kansascity
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