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new doctrine. Instead of equal pay for equal work, the law should require equal pay for
jobs of comparable worth.

Comparable worth or, as it was sometimes called, pay equity, sought to rearrange wage
scales not simply for workers doing jobs that were relatively similar, such as a subway
motorman and a long-haul trucker, but also for jobs that were highly dissimilar--a truck
driver and a registered nurse, for example. Pay equity called for sweeping job evaluations
to determine whether certain positions were undervalued because they were
predominantly filled by women, and whether some jobs were overvalued because they
were predominantly held by men. Comparable-worth plans encountered considerable
resistance in the court system, and their impact has thus far been largely restricted to the
public sector.

Women's rights advocates have been more successful in persuading the government and
the courts to take steps against sexual harassment in the workplace and in education. A
series of court decisions have held both individuals and corporations responsible for acts
of sexual harassment, patterns of harassment, or a work environment that is deemed
hostile to women. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination on the
basis of sex in the workplace, is the key federal law cited in harassment cases. Another
important statute is the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which added provisions to Title VII that
expanded the rights of women to sue and collect punitive damages in harassment cases. In
1980, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) had issued regulations
defining sexual harassment and stating that it was a form of discrimination outlawed by
the Civil Rights Act.

The federal judiciary has been equally important in curtailing sexual harassment. In case
after case, the courts, including the Supreme Court, have defined sexual harassment; set
standards for employer liability; established whether speech, as opposed to conduct, can
create a hostile environment; allowed psychological effects to be included in the
assessment of damages; set standards for assessing same-sex harassment; and set
standards for giving harassment suits class-action status. Approximately 15,000 sexual
harassment cases are brought before the EEOC each year.

Access to Education

The American economy has evolved into one in which good jobs require knowledge and
specialized skills, elevating the role of education as an instrument of social mobility. In the
past, many new immigrants and working-class households were able to attain middle-class
status through well-paid union jobs in industry and construction, or in certain skilled
trades. The dwindling of the blue-collar option has put particular pressure on segments of
the population that may have relied on it for generations, whether out of tradition or due
to past bias that excluded them from higher education.

Critics like William Julius Wilson have pointed to the decline of the blue-collar sector as the
principal reason for the failure of African Americans to make more substantial strides
toward economic equality. Others have pointed to the danger of an emerging two-tiered
economy, in which the well educated and their children attain interesting careers and

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