Women’s Status in the Workforce and Its Evolution

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Women of the First World: feminism ‘grandmothers’
Women in Great Depression
Labor front: women during and after World War II
The situation of women in the turbulent 1950s
The second wave of feminism
Modern challenges
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Over the past decades, women’s activity in the labor market has raised significantly, and their economic opportunities have increased ‑ I see this by my own example. I have grown up in a world where women have always had equal working rights and I did not see any discrimination regarding women’ labor rights. I saw a lot of successful women, who achieved not only absolute financial independence but became recognized experts in the fields that previously were considered as predominantly men’ ones. I was born in 1998 in the small town of Kingston, NY, with a population of only 23,000, causing s kind of “antique” feeling due to its architecture and traditions.

The Kingston Jazz Festival plunges into the atmosphere of Harlem of 20’s-30’s of the last century, but the social situation is completely different than in those days, including with regard to the rights and status of women. In addition to artistic freedom, I see social freedom – I am sure that not only the position, but also the worldview of modern Kingston women is strikingly different from that which was characteristic of the first half of the 20th century.

Ever since school, I was lucky enough to communicate with purposeful girls planning their studies and careers in the STEM field, including in IT. In the process of studying at the University, I became even more convinced of the presence of both unlimited possibilities and unlimited potential of women in the modern labor market. In particular, my older friend – a girl of 25 ‑ works as a project manager in an IT company, successfully implementing innovative startups.

I am doing my best to take advantage of the opportunities for professional and personal development. However, I was interested in taking a historical excursion into the evolution of the position of women in the labor market and understanding how women of the last century felt in the labor market and how they eventually managed to achieve labor equality.

Women of the First World: feminism ‘grandmothers’

The United States of America is known for its feminist traditions, and this is no coincidence. In no country in the world women’s studies occupy such an important place. An important role was played by the first wave of feminism, which began in the 1840s and ended in 1920 with the victory of the suffrage movement (Boris 18-23). The first wave of feminism and the struggle of women, in particular for labor rights, is considered to be the suffragist movement, which swept the United States and European countries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The purpose of the movement was to rectify the powerless position of women at the legislative level (Kessler-Harris 24). It was a struggle for the adoption of laws, according to which women could receive education, right to vote, have the right to own property, receive wages equal to men’s wages for their work.

The First World War radically changed the role of women in society, opening the door to the feminist revolution that happened many years later. The woman, from the “guardian of the hearth” has turned into a full-fledged employee. The general mobilization of the male population required the involvement of women in work and in service in exchange for men who had left for the front. Left without a breadwinner, they responded to the patriotic appeal, went to work. They had to stand up for machine tools in factories, learn male professions.

During World War II, women worked on lathes, worked on molding, read blueprints, and serviced aircraft. They repaired roads, worked as locomotive lubricants, loaders, blacksmiths, turners (Braybon 31-32). However, a period of uncertainty has created compromises that marked new attempts to maintain stability in some areas and provide freedom in others. They are most visible in the context of wider changes in the system of social values.

In the early 1900s, America developed from a free capitalist market to government regulation of a corporate state. This change reflected a growing public desire to accept corporate efficiency and rationality as the foundation of an industrial society. Large-scale industry promoted both the formation of a homogeneous labor force (devaluing and abolishing control over skilled labor force) and the artificial separation of workers (based on special knowledge and skills, ethnic and gender affiliation).

This division of labor, ‘effectively’ limiting the professional mobility of many groups, was sanctioned by legislation that legitimized this new hierarchy. This trend was well seen in the requirements for obtaining state licenses for doctors and social workers, as well as for many professional schools. This also includes the so called protective labor laws for women.

“Protective” legislation served two functions: segregation of labor force and the return of women to families, defining the types of work that they could perform. From about 1900 to the mid-1920s, women discovered that they were subject to an increasing ‘ramp’ of laws that limited their working hours, set minimum wages, and determined sanitary conditions (May 46-48). These laws effectively served to transform women into a special work force group, whatever their real value in eliminating the most terrible abuses against the majority of the working population.

Many women have argued that protective laws discriminate against women workers; the proponents of this legislation argued that these laws best served the interests of the state (May 44). It is clear that the interests of the state contributed to the allocation of women in a special category. Protective legislation deeply affected unskilled poor female workers, but had minimal effect on female office workers. Male workers supported laws establishing minimum wages for women only because it was holding back on the reduction of their own wages.

On the other hand, legislation recognized the needs of employers. The federal law ‑ National Vocational Education Act ‑ adopted in 1917 and applied to both men and women, was widely supported by teachers, owners of industrial enterprises, trade union leaders, social workers, and philanthropists. Schools and professional agencies opened their doors to women who were encouraged to become teachers and social workers. Corporations and the state have taken on some of the social insurance functions previously provided by the family. Also, it should be noted that women got the right to vote.

In the era of the 1920s, in the labor market, there was a carefully prepared return of new women ‑ spiritually free girls, who joined the middle class from offices, with a “pen and notebook” in their hands. However, married and poor women remained mostly at home until work became an absolute necessity for them. Employers, dissatisfied with the minimum wage and short working hours, often sought other labor force, in particular immigrants and male workers. An unstable compromise was established between the social order, which rested on family foundations, women, and the need for labor resources.

Between 1900 and 1940, the percentage of working women increased quite slowly. In the 1940s, when there was a sharp increase in it in connection with the war, this was accompanied by a carefully prepared propaganda campaign (Weatherford 18-19). Nevertheless, there was a period between the First and Second World Wars, which is also of great interest from the point of view of the evolution of the working situation of women ‑ the period of the Great Depression.

Women in Great Depression

Since 1920, after the adoption of the 19th amendment to the US Constitution, female Americans began to participate in the elections on a par with men. However, they still did not receive equal economic, social, legal, and other rights, so their position of subordinated nature remained almost unchanged. Women constituted a minority at all levels of political life; they were extremely rarely represented in high professional positions. Moreover, they were discriminated against in all spheres of employment, they were paid less than men; social guarantees were designed for a husband-dependent position, and for many women, advantages of a new affluent society were clearly inaccessible.

The period just after the beginning of Great Depression in 1930s and up to the end of the 1950s can be characterized as calm period, the time of step-by-step attenuation of the feminism energy of the 1920s. Evaluating the situation for American women in the 30s and 40s of the 20th century, scientists focus the labor sphere changes occurred at that time. Thus, “the Great Depression and World War II caused a “crisis” that changed the role of women at home, at work, and in public life” (Bird 38-39).

Interestingly, a huge impact on public mind was made by the media. Greenwald states that in the 1930s and the first half of the 1940s, women were encouraged to adapt to the new role, to meet economic needs of national scale (Greenwald 62-63). However, in the era of the Great Depression, many women-employees had to take on the role of housewives in order to concede their jobs to “breadwinners” ‑ men.

Nancy Woloch notes that during both of these crisis periods, the number of working women was increasing: there was slow increase in the 1930s and sharp one during the Second World War, when a great number of women became hired employees (Woloch 32). Both crises have also attracted new groups of married women to the labor market. In the era of the expansive 1920s, new women’s aspirations for economic independence and individualism were suppressed by Depression. This is because the Depression which very quickly made these aspirations an “unjustified luxury” amid unemployment rising to 25% of the total employment in the economy, which amounted to more than 12 million people (Woloch 35).

Ten million women who received wages in 1929 specialized in a small number of professions: teaching, clerical work, housework, and textile manufacturing. As the service sector expanded in the US economy, the presence of women grew in it: if in 1900 women made up about 18% of workers, then by 1930, there were already 22% of them; by the onset of Great Depression, one in four women was considered employed (Kessler-Harris 47).

The typical worker was not married and was under 25; married mothers were practically not represented on the labor market, although the growth rate of this category was three times faster than the general increase in female employment (Kessler-Harris 49). The traditional family division of labor continued; new methods of family planning were gaining popularity – especially, among white city dwellers.

Labor front: women during and after World War II

After millions of men were drafted into the army during World War II, American military contractors began to feel an acute shortage of workers for the production of ammunition and various military vehicles. In this regard, a national campaign began in the United States, the purpose of which was to attract women to the ranks of workers. So, a month after Pearl Harbor, 60 widows decided to go to work at the aircraft factories in California, urging all other women to support them in this endeavor (Colman 19).

Women’s work, for which they typically earned half the salary of a typical man, was a source of inspiration for creating the propaganda image of well-known “Rosie the Riveter.” In addition to traditional administrative posts, during the war, women worked as workers and engineers in metallurgical and tank factories, as well as in the aviation industry.

When US men went to war, the state urgently needed to fill vacant jobs. A media campaign was launched (posters, ads, articles, songs, movies), aimed primarily at housewives. It was conducted by the Department of Military Information (1942-1945), Madison Avenue (common name for the American advertising industry as a whole), women’s magazines, radio stations, and Hollywood. It is curious that this part of the general internal propaganda relied heavily on the idea that “fashion has changed, now chic is a working girl.” The result of this megacampaign was not only millions of women who successfully replaced men in their work, but also a qualitative change in the self-awareness and sense of self of American women.

Despite some progress in involving women in social and economic life, the new opportunities provided by the war were temporary, as millions of women lost their jobs again after demobilization. Already in 1944, when the United States became convinced of the victory, state-sponsored propaganda changed dramatically ‑ it began to urge women to return to homework. There were strong fears that returning men would not find enough new jobs, and then the preconditions of the Great Depression would be created again. The US Department of War’s widely circulated brochure stated bluntly: “A woman is just a substitute, akin to using plastic instead of metal” (Boris 56).

After the war ended, most women workers wanted to keep their jobs, enjoying financial independence and respect for them. However, almost all of them were fired, due to a decrease in military production and the return of male soldiers who needed work (Weatherford 69). After World War II, changing economic needs simultaneously created new areas of employment and changed the structure of families and the functions of women in them. The structure of labor resources has also changed dramatically: from blue-collar workers and physical labor before World War II to white-collar workers and employment in the services sector in the post-war period.

Sectors such as education, social work, services, healthcare, publishing, and advertising have expanded and have long been considered “reserves” for women. On the one hand, the spread of mass education and the demand for various kinds of office workers encouraged women to participate in wage labor; on the other hand, it was unprofitable for these employees to strive for career advancement and high wages; therefore, the belief that work should be secondary to home was encouraged.

According to Howard Zinn, “best of all, Americans manage to make their first jailbreak of marriage, motherhood, femininity, homework, self-care and isolation when the country desperately need their services: industry, wartime, or social movements. Every time, for practical reasons, a woman is pulled out of her confinement (something like correctional labor with conditional release), an attempt is made to push her back as soon as the need disappears, which leads US female residents to the struggle for change” (Zinn 64-65).

The diverse effect of It the impact of World War II on the USA women should be noted. Women were not only increasingly more attracted to work – they also mastered men’s professions of riveters, turners, and even welders. Unfortunately, these skills lost their value in the post-war period, as light industry enterprises became a traditional place of work for women. The only thing that remained unchanged was that the new wage earners among women were mostly married women of the middle age. In the post-war period, they belonged more to the middle class than before the depression.

According to C. Bird, further changes in the female professions diversity were in no way connected with the conviction about the necessity for a woman to play a significant role in society (Bird 40-42). On the opposite, the situation of crisis in the 1930s-1940s fixed the ‘popular’ belief that a woman’s place was at home, regardless if it is good times or difficult times. Nearly twenty years of extremely difficult and turbulent period have only emphasized the striving for stable, traditional American families, with fathers earning money and diligent mothers, devoting themselves almost exclusively to family life.

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, there were no changes in American ideals. Having established itself in the Great Depression era and continuing in the years of war, these ideas of patriarchal order revived and gained strength after the war. To the end of the 1940s, pone could observe the rooting of the housewife ‘cult.’ Thus, the crises years of 1930s-1940s did not lead to real equality, at least at the level of ideology. On the contrary, they put a basis for a conservative separation of sex roles, the apparent removing of women from crucial public affairs, and a clear anti-feminist mood.

The situation of women in the turbulent 1950s

In the post-war years, stories about women “in blue overalls who stood shoulder to shoulder with men” (Weatherford 80) continued to be published, but now they were stated in a reproachful tone, accusing the female patriots of being engaged in a “non-female” business and taking away work from returning men. Women’s magazines, instead of enthusiastic stories about brave women, were instantly filled with frightening articles that career and higher education lead to the development of secondary male sexual characteristics in women and lead to dangerous consequences for the country, home, and children.

Again, it was believed that there is no more important work than being a wife and mother, and, therefore, a housewife. It should be noted that all together this led to an unprecedented idealization of the ‘nuclear’ family.

It should be noted that in 1952, the number of working women reached 20.4 million. More than 4.5 million women were employed in industry (Boris 73). However, their average salary was 39% lower than men’s salaries (Boris 73). In these years, a woman could receive a more or less decent salary only by working as an actress or dancer. The drama of this period is well depicted in the film Imitation of Life (1959).

Provincial actress Lora Meredith, a widow, sets off to ‘conquer’ Broadway. On the beach, the paths of Lora and her 6-year-old daughter Susie intersect with the black woman Annie and her fair-skinned daughter Sarah Jane. Despite her own plight, Lora allows Annie to live in the apartment she rents, in order to housekeeping and look after Susie.

The purposefulness of Lora brought the fruits to which she aspired ‑ she became the “muse” of a successful playwright and the star of the Broadway scene. At the same time, the pancakes that Delilah prepares with her daughter were becoming incredibly popular, and transformed into a network of successful restaurants in which they became the main dishes.

In addition to a visual “description” of the situation and aspirations of women of that era, the film raises serious moral questions ‑ how much the pursuit of chimeras can affect ethical values. So, for example, Sarah Jane is ready to abandon her native mother, who ‘discredits’ her claim to be considered white by the color of her skin, and Lora, in fact, offers herself “for sale” to the property as an expensive thing.

Decisions on the fate of women, as before, were made by men. In production, in fact, there was professional segregation ‑ simple, less paid, monotonous labor was defined as “easy,” and, therefore, more suitable for women. Among married American women aged 20-24, in 1950 only 26% were professionally employed, and among women 25-29 years of the same marital status, this index was 22% (Woloch 79). Moreover, as a rule, only women from the lower social layer worked as hired employees. Material need, forced them to go to work, regardless of the number and age of children.

In the late 50s, a new sociological phenomenon was suddenly discovered: working women made up about one third of all American women, but most of them were already young and did not seek to make a professional career. These were married women who worked part-time as sales assistants or secretaries so that their husbands or sons could graduate from college or these women worked to help repay the loan. In other cases, they were widows who had to support their own families (Woloch 82). At the same time, the number of women professionals was getting increasingly smaller.

However, the American women did not choose the role of home recluses voluntarily ‑ they were forced to do this by circumstances. First of all, they were forced to stay at home by a patriarchal life orientation (similar to Lora’s beliefs from the aforementioned film Imitation of Life). The propaganda was especially zealous, assuring that education and career were the main enemies of the woman. By focusing efforts on the chosen profession or social activity, the woman allegedly loses the qualities given to her by nature.

America in the twenties was the country where young women made records, like pilot Amelia Earhart, in the thirties ‑ amazing discoveries like Cecilia Payne. In the forties, they showed that they can literally do anything by replacing the men who have gone to the front in many areas of work, from factories up to science. However, in the fifties, high school students when asked who they would like to become, hesitantly answered that they would most likely get married (May 91). They did not even imagine that a woman could become a person, as if there had not been three decades of a breakthrough before.

A housewife from the suburbs ‑ this image became the dream of young American women and, as they said, the subject of envy for women around the world. The American housewife, thanks to the achievements of science and the availability of household appliances, was freed from hard and tedious housework and protected from the dangers associated with childbirth and from the diseases her grandmother was sick with. She was healthy, beautiful, educated, and worried only about her husband, children, and home.

According to statistics, in the 1950s girls went to college mainly to meet a ‘status’ husband; after marriage, they usually dropped out of the educational institution. In 1964, 40% of American freshmen girls aspired to ‘realize’ themselves their marriage (May 90). The propaganda of the female image worked: it was believed that a woman can be realized as a person only by becoming a wife, mother and housewife. Women who aspired to develop in a career met with commiseration and misunderstanding. In the 50s, a woman’s desire to participate in social work was seen only as a manifestation of selfishness on her part.

Over the fifteen years since the end of World War II, this special gift of feminine self-realization has become the very essence of American culture, its carefully preserved and self-reproducing basis. Millions of women got used to the images from these lovely pictures, in which housewives from the suburbs kiss their husbands goodbye by the window with a picturesque landscape. They drive up to the school in large cars, which are ‘packed full’ of their own children, and smile while rubbing a perfectly clean floor in the kitchen with a new electric polo-fan.

However, gradually, housewives dared to speak. In 1961, the first mass demonstration for peace took place, in which they took the main part. In 1963, the first documentary was released about a housewife who felt trapped, and even later, the Redbook family magazine created the Why Young Mothers Feel Trapped column and received in response more than 24 thousand letters from American women (Boris 89). The second wave of feminism was steadily gaining its momentum.

The second wave of feminism

The second wave of feminism swept in the 60s of the last century. It all started namely in the United States, where, under the influence of the civil rights movement and the student movement, the issue of gender equality has already been raised by the other side. The emphasis was on the fact that discrimination against women and their position of submission to men is a consequence of patriarchal ties that prevail in public and private spheres. That is, it was necessary to identify and eliminate the social constructs that define a woman as a “second sex,” intended to serve the interests of males.

The revival of the women’s movement was served by the following events: the struggle for the civil rights of the black population of the United States, the left student movement of the West as a whole, and the campaign against the Vietnam War. Beginning with political demonstrations and participation in leftist movements, the second wave of feminism gradually went into the autonomous phase, creating independent female structures: consciousness-raising groups, female and feminist research courses at universities, crisis centers for women, national women’s associations (for example, the National Organization of Women in the USA ‑ NOW), international networks and coalitions.

The second wave of feminism has not reached a number of stated goals related to the elimination of discrimination against women in the family and at work. However, due to the fact that feminists of the second wave in the West massively entered the labor market, there was a push towards rethinking gender roles. In 1987, the number of women employed in production was already 56%, and in the 1990s only 11% of American women were not constantly employed (Boris 142).

In general, in the second half of the 20th century, there was a radical change in the position of American women in society. Two hundred years after the US War of Independence, a peaceful revolution for women’s independence took place. The efforts of several generations were required for the struggle for equality to succeed.

Modern challenges

The United States has the world’s largest national economy and is one of the most populous countries in the world, second only to China and India. The country’s economy is thriving, primarily, due to the abundant amount of natural resources and developed infrastructure, labor with high labor productivity, in particular among women. By the beginning of the 21st century, the status of women in the United States had changed significantly in all areas of life ‑ from the private to socio-economic and socio-political. The structure of women’s employment is changing ‑ for example, already, there is 20 percent of women among software developers and 31 percent among lawyers (Boris 152-153).

There are a number of clear trends regarding American women in the labor market in the second decade of the 21st century: increased participation of women in the labor market, especially among women with children. Currently, a large proportion of women work full time and all year round; there is increase in the number of women with higher education; the influx of women into occupations and industries previously traditionally occupied by men is observed. It seems logical to conclude that American women’ participation in the labor market is relatively high by historical standards.

The situation of female American on the labor market, their special status as key consumers responsible for the implementation of family consumer demand, their own contribution to the American economy as subjects of business entrepreneurship are factors that determined the significant role of Americans in the socio-economic life of the country, which can hardly be overestimated.

However, Americans continue to face obstacles to getting into the labor market, choosing a job, experiencing difficulties in achieving a balance of work and life, in a combination of family and office responsibilities. The feeling of balance or harmony is exclusively individual for each person, which, moreover, changes more than once in the course of life. Nevertheless, there are some patterns in the perceptions of modern American women.

Over the past thirty years, the share of family households has been declining. According to the 2010 census, their share fell to 66.4%, including households including spouses ‑ to 48.4% (Boris 79). This is due to a decrease in the number of complete families. At the same time, the number of single people and couples living in a civil marriage, as well as single-parent families, increased. Another manifestation of the “mutations” of the mating (and with it, the reproductive) behavior of Americans is the delay in marriage.

The “aging” of marriage or the rejection of it, the increasing prevalence of divorces and partnerships have significantly changed the marriage structure of the population. The family in the United States has undergone a significant transformation. Remaining the central institution of American society, the family now plays a less important role than before.

It is widely believed that after the sexual revolution in the United States a liberty of morals prevails. However, the reality is more complex ‑ women later marry, making their choice consciously, already being “worldly enough, relaxed enough, financially secure enough” (Brown 4). Accordingly, with this approach to marriage, it is easier for a woman to achieve a balance between work, family life, and the birth of children.

Back in the 70-80s of the last century, most business leaders considered the work and personal lives of their employees as mutually exclusive competitive priorities, where gaining in one meant losing in the other. Today, many employers striving to maintain the image of a socially responsible company provide working mothers with flexible working hours, shorter working day, social insurance, etc.

Conclusion

History shows that neither men nor women choose roles in society ‑ they are ‘inherited.’ Perhaps only a permanent struggle for their own freedom and choice is able to throw off the blinks of conformism. This is clearly demonstrated by the whole history of the struggle of women for equality in the world of work. Moreover, greater gender equality not only increases absolute income levels, but also helps reduce income inequality. Improving the opportunities for women’s education and employment can increase income equality that has taken decades to achieve.

I was lucky to be born and live in an era when women can use all the opportunities and benefits achieved through the efforts and struggles of previous generations of both feminists and just bold and active women with a high level of self-awareness and intelligence. They sought to meet the needs of the highest level ‑ the needs for self-realization, constant development, and recognition. Today, the only obstacle for women in the field of labor relations can be created only by themselves ‑ in the form of certain stereotypes associated with the combination of family and professional duties and directly affecting the degree of manifestation of their career activity.

Thus, the fact that a woman in the world of work should have an objective self-esteem, be aware of her own importance to achieve the goals of the organization is important. However, perhaps, the easiest way to break down stereotypes is to talk about women fighting for their rights in the difficult socio-economic and political conditions of the 20th century. Acquaintance with the history of the struggle of women for equal rights in the labor sphere helped me to a greater extent realize what opportunities are open for me today and how I can use them in the best way for self-development and, possibly, to help other women in their self-determination in professional and personal spheres.

Works Cited

Bird, Caroline. The Invisible Scar: The Great Depression and What It Did to American Life, From Then Until Now. David McKay, 1966.

Boris, Eileen. Making the Woman Worker: Precarious Labor and the Fight for Global Standards, 1919-2019. Oxford University Press, 2019.

Braybon, Gail. Women Workers in the First World War. Routledge, 2014.

Brown, Helen Gurley. Sex and The Single Girl. Bernard Geis Associates, 1962.

Colman, Penny. Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II. Yearling, 1998.

Greenwald, Maurine Weiner. Women, War, and Work. Greenwood Press, 1980.

Imitation of Life. Directed by Douglas Sirk, Universal Pictures, March 17, 1959.

Kessler-Harris, Alice. Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States. Oxford University Press, 2003.

May, Martha. Women’s Roles in Twentieth-Century America. Greenwood, 2009.

Weatherford, Doris. American Women and World War II. Castle Books, 2009.

Woloch, Nancy. Women and the American Experience. McGraw-Hill Education, 1984.

Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2005.

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