“At a time when the world is short of causes for celebration, here is a candidate: within the next few months women will cross the 50-percent threshold and become the majority of the American workforce,” according to an article in The Economist. “Women already make up the majority of university graduates in (western) countries and the majority of professional workers in several rich countries, including the United States.”
So I may have missed out on free love and revolution in the ”60s, but I”m happy to have been born in a generation where my family expects excellence and pushes me as hard as my brother, if not more.
Family support can”t be the only factor for women my age.
My best friend”s mother asked her why she wanted to go to college and leave her “good job” in Galt. She did because, like me, she wanted something more ? a challenge.
I think education, along with hard work and people skills, is key to advancement in the workforce. I see how not having that signed and stamped bachelor”s degree holds my parents back.
Women have a competitive edge in this economy.
“Three out of four people thrown out of work since the recession began are men; the female unemployment rate is 8.6 percent, against 11.2 percent for men,” according to the article. “The Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates that women make up more than two-thirds of employees in 10 of the 15 job categories likely to grow fastest in the next few years. By 2011 there will be 2.6 million more women than men studying in American universities.”
With more women getting degrees, advancement into the upper echelons of the workforce can”t be too far behind.
Politics play a part in the rise of women working with feminists decrying discrimination and governments passing equal opportunity employment acts.
“At the end of her campaign to become America”s first female president in 2008, Hillary Clinton remarked that her 18 million votes in the Democratic Party”s primaries represented 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling,” according to The Economist article. “In the market for jobs rather than votes the ceiling is being cracked every day.”
Rich countries demand women”s labor, as intelligence matters more than brute strength. The rise of the service sector and decline of manufacturing reinforces female labor growth.
“Demand has been matched by supply: women are increasingly willing and able to work outside the home. The vacuum cleaner has played its part. Improved technology reduced the amount of time needed for the traditional female work of cleaning and cooking,” according to the article. “But the most important innovation has been the contraceptive pill. The spread of the pill has not only allowed women to get married later, it has also increased their incentives to invest time and effort in acquiring skills, particularly slow-burning skills that are hard to learn and take many years to pay off. The knowledge that they would not have to drop out of, say, law school to have a baby made law school more attractive.”
Still, 2 percent of women are bosses of Fortune 500 companies and women make up less than 13 percent of board members in the U.S.
Also, the typical full-time female worker earns about 80 percent as much as the typical male in America and Britain.
With a lack of paid time off and benefits, women are forced to choose between motherhood and careers.
“The change is dramatic nevertheless. A generation ago working women performed menial jobs and were subjected to casual sexism ? and casual sexism is for losers.”
The news editor, Mandy Feder, and other supervisors participated in sexual harassment training Wednesday. Although training tends to focus around lame outdated movies, the shift in administration requiring sexual harassment training illustrates how far women have permeated the workforce.
Women and men should celebrate as what some people still call “the weaker sex” becomes as strong in the workforce as their male counterparts.
Katy Sweeny is a staff reporter for the Record-Bee. She can be reached at ksweeny@record-bee.com or at 263-5636, ext. 37.
Katy Sweeny is a staff reporter for the Record-Bee. She can be reached at ksweeny@record-bee.com or 263-5636, ext. 37.
