Page 353 - Sociology and You

Chapter 10 Inequalities of Gender and Age
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1870
Male 85.2% Female 14.8%
1900
Male 81.9% Female 18.1%
1930
Male 78.1% Female 21.9%
1960
Male 67.9% Female 32.1%
2006 (projected)
Male 52.5% Female 47.5%
Figure 10.2 Composition of the U.S. Labor Force, by Sex: 1870–2006.
As this figure demonstrates, the male-female composition of the U.S. labor force has steadily moved toward parity. The female percentage of the labor force has moved from less than 15 percent in 1870 to just under 50 percent today. What do you think is the most important social consequence of this change?
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2001.
The greatest change in patterns of work involves married women with children under six years of age. The proportion of women in this group who work outside the home rocketed from 19 percent in 1960 to 37 percent in 1975 to 64.6 percent in 2000 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2001). (A dis- cussion of working women’s effects on the family appears in Chapter 11.)
What kinds of jobs are women doing? Although women are partici- pating in the labor force at increasing levels, they are concentrated in lower- status occupations. This is known as occupational sex segregation. Only 11 percent of engineer positions are held by women, and about 29 percent of attorney jobs. By contrast, women occupy nearly all of the “pink-collar” jobs—secretaries, clerks, stenographers—whose purpose is to support those higher up the occupational ladder (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2000d). Moreover, when women are in high-status occupational groups, they are concentrated in lower-prestige, lower-paid jobs. Female lawyers in firms sel- dom occupy the higher-level administrative positions. Even within female- dominated occupations, such as public school administration, a disproportionate share of higher positions are filled by men.
Do women earn less than men? As you read in the Using Your Sociological Imagination feature at the beginning of the chapter, there is a
Visit soc.glencoe.com and click on Textbook Updates–Chapter 10 for an update of the data.
occupational sex segregation
the concentration of women in lower-status positions