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Angelica Hunt

Professor Lori Bedell

CAS 137H

26 November 2018

Working Women Through the Years

An American woman goes to college, gets a degree, and finds a full-time job, then, much

later, gets married and starts a family. Is that a shocking concept? Maybe not in today’s society,

but years ago in the earlier 1900s, a situation like this would warrant a good amount of disbelief

by those around a woman like that. Over time, changing societal norms and gender roles in the

late 20th century and early 21st century have led to the movement of society seeing women as

integral parts of the workforce. Originally, there was a more conservative standpoint that barred

women from freely entering the labor pool to fulfill familial duties, but that viewpoint has

changed drastically due to many factors. Women working full-time- once a rarity- has become

somewhat of an expectation for American society. Several factors and shifting viewpoints have

contributed to the way American women have been treated, viewed, and included in the

workplace since the early 1900s, including changes to educational opportunities, access to birth

control, and sexual harassment in the workplace, which all in turn have affected the way women

are perceived and currently impact the workforce today.

Before World War I and II, the workforce in the United States was dominated by men,

and few working women were considered equals to men even if they were employed. During the

two world wars, many women filled the positions of men, which was a change from the

traditionally feminine jobs that they had been doing in years prior (Khan). Women had been

working before the war, about 25 percent of women worked before 1940, but they only worked
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as typists or seamstresses in factories and were societally expected to leave work once they had

their first child or got married (Khan). When the war started, women rushed to fill men’s factory

or manufacturing positions and completed their jobs as well as men had, which propagated the

idea that women could do the same jobs that men did. In the five years that the United States was

involved in the war (Khan), the percentage of women working went from 27 percent to 37, and

married women made up a quarter of the jobs holders at this time (“American Women…”).

This sequence of events started the trend of more women entering positions that were

previously reserved for men only. When the war was over and in the decades following World

War II, participation in the workforce increased steadily into the 2000s, albeit with a drop

immediately following the war (Khan). There were many setbacks, as women went back into

their homes following the war because they were laid off by companies that preferred to rehire

men from the war, and even if they could get a job they were not the same jobs men held

(“American Women…”). In the 1950s, the jobs that women traditionally filled were considered

more ‘feminine’ and this is still common to this day with certain occupations. While they briefly

took over men’s jobs during World War I and II, women reverted back to doing “female” jobs

once the wars ended (“American Women…”). Women have always been seen as inferior to men,

in physical and mental capability, and this has translated to the jobs that they are most likely to

pursue in college.

In many cases in the past, girls in elementary and secondary school were not encouraged

to pursue more difficult majors in their postsecondary careers, or it was reinforced within them

that certain fields were not for women. Before women started attending college at greater rates

than men, girls were supposed to follow their mothers’ footsteps by getting married and having

children rather than going to school. Following the women’s labor force participation rate
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spiking over 10 percent in the 1950s, it became more socially acceptable for women to enter the

workforce or pursue an education. Between 1957 to 1972, women were entering the workforce at

a rapid pace, but there was a definitive lack of education and skills needed to complete the open

positions (Goldin et al.). This galvanized women to pursue an education because they had gotten

a taste of being a part of the labor force and wanted to progress further in more advanced

professions, leading to an increasing number of women going to school to obtain their degrees in

varying subjects (Goldin et al.).

Starting in the 1940s, men were much more likely to be attending college because they

were the ones becoming the breadwinners for their families. The rate at which women attended

and completed a bachelor’s degree was, for over twenty years, at least seven percent less than the

number of men who completed their four-year degrees (Statista). In the late 20th century, this

gap started to steadily close, until around 1980 when the rate at which women obtained

bachelor’s degrees surpassed that of men (Statista). Ever since 1980, women have earned more

four-year degrees than men, and the gap has since widened in women’s favor. These trends can

be attributed to the fact that labor market barriers for women have decreased in recent years, and

the benefits of obtaining a college education for women has increased more for women than for

men (Lopez). College investment by women has increased because the anticipated economic

returns have been increasing since firms are becoming more willing to hire and pay educated

women higher wages with their degrees (Goldin et al.).

Women in college following the end of World War II often had other intentions than to

obtain a degree for employment. At the time, there was a concept known as the “Mrs. Degree”,

which was basically women going to college in order to increase their chances of finding an

educated husband (Huggins). The goal for women was to get married as early as they could, and
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this was expected at the time- being young, married, and starting a family was the norm for

women, and most followed this mold (Huggins). This ideal has changed over the years, as now

more women are earning bachelor’s degrees than men and are obtaining employment following

their degrees (Statista). Studies have shown that employment does not decrease the likelihood of

a woman getting married, as employed women actually have a higher likelihood of getting

married anyway (Huggins). Women who obtain degrees in certain fields, such as the technical

sciences and health are sometimes more likely to be stay at home mothers, but the majority of

married women today who obtain degrees are likely to be working full-time, or at least part time

(Huggins). Once women realized that an education was one of the only ways to get a decently

paying job and that employment would not affect their ability to get married, they put more

effort into their degrees rather than college relationships.

Another contributor to the shift of the view of women in the workforce is acceptance of

birth control and increased access to it starting in the 1960s. Birth control has allowed women to

make use of more opportunities presented to them and not have to worry about becoming

pregnant. Having to deal with the issues associated with maternity leave are difficult, and

contraceptives allow women to create their ideal family structure on their own time. In 1938, the

federal ban on birth control was removed, and birth control for the first time was legalized so

women could start to use these mechanisms of contraception (Davids Landau). Before the birth

control pill and other contraceptives were legalized, women were limited in their ability to

prevent pregnancy and often ended up with unwanted pregnancies since they were unable to use

some form of contraception (Davids Landau). There is a correlation between the number of

women working and birth control, as women’s participation in the labor force is determined by a

mother’s family situation. Women with younger children had, and still continue to have, a more
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difficult time keeping a full-time job; the inability to reduce family sizes can be attributed to a

lack of birth control.

One-third of the wage gains made by women in the United States since around 1960 can

be attributed to the use of oral contraceptives; the birth control pill, the most common oral

contraceptive, was legalized by the Food and Drug Administration in 1960 (Davids Landau).

This legalization also contributed to about a thirty percent increase in the rate of women entering

careers related to medicine and law, also allowing them to stay in college longer without having

to worry about becoming pregnant and having to drop out (Goldin, et. al). However, there were

negative side effects to the earliest contraceptives allowed by the FDA, and women protesting

these negative side effects eventually convinced scientists to study the hormones, and in turn

they discovered the high doses of hormones in the contraceptives were unnecessary, so these

dosages were decreased for health purposes (Davids Landau). Even though these methods were

available, the allowance of birth control for all women was not given until 1972 when the

Supreme Court passed Baird v. Eisenstadt, giving everyone in the country access to birth control

(Davids Landau). Once women had full access to multiple types of contraceptives, they could

focus on their careers or education and not worry about unwanted pregnancies. This availability

of birth control has led to women having children later, and this can be seen in the increase of the

average ages that women have their first children and with the ages that they get married. The

ability to afford and obtain birth control has both widened and helped to level the playing field

for women in that they can better acquire and use their advantage of a college education in the

labor market (Goldin et al.).

Over the years, the marriage rate of women has decreased, and the age that women first

get married has been slowly rising (Cohn). Now, the average age for women to get married is
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about 27 years, up from the average age of marriage in the early 20s in 1960 (Cohn). These

numbers are directly related to the age women are when they have their first children, which has

shifted dramatically after 1960 due to the accessibility of birth control. The average age for

women to have their first child is 26, which is an increase from the average age of 23 in the mid-

1990s (“Trends from Government Data”). Since there is a direct connection in the number of

hours a mother works depending on the ages that her children are, this affects a mother’s ability

to keep a full-time job. When children are younger, mother spend more time at home taking care

of them and can in turn not work as many hours. For example, women today spend 14 hours per

week on child care compared to men spending 7 hours per week (Parker). All the hours women

spend taking care of children reduces the number of hours they can spend working at their jobs,

so waiting longer to have children allows them to use these additional 14 hours weekly for

furthering their careers (Parker). Women having children and not being able to put their full

focus on a career leads employers to pay them less because they have a harder time being as

productive as their male counterparts in the same positions. Contraceptive use has allowed

women to wait longer to have children, and instead of having to take care of a young family,

women can stay in post-secondary education longer and eventually become employed in

positions that are on average higher paying than jobs that do not require as much education.

Since women often are spending much of their time with child care and household duties,

they cannot work as many hours as men can in their full-time positions, there is a definitive pay

gap between men and women. The national figure states that women make, on average, about 78

cents to a man’s dollar (Brown et al.). This is because of educational attainment, occupational

segregation, and in part due to gender discrimination. Additionally, women are much more likely

to take significant amounts of time off of work to care for a child or another family member,
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about 40 percent, and almost 27 percent of women have quit their occupations in order to

accomodate familial situations (Graf et al.). As women have trended towards later marriages and

later ages of having children, they often have several extra years to further their careers and go to

school for more years to get better career job opportunities. The pay gap has decreased from a 36

cent difference in the 1980s to around an 18 cent difference due to changes in familial structure

(Glazer).

Since 1950, women have been working in positions considered traditionally feminine and

there is a gap in the occupation distribution of women in more technical fields. Sometimes,

women are employed in positions that require fewer skills than men, which explains a slight pay

gap, but when a man holds the same position as a woman, he will typically make higher wages

(Glazer). Even today, many women gravitate towards professions like teachers, nurses, and

psychologists; this is seen in that jobs like registered nurses are comprised of 91 percent of

women, elementary school teachers are 80 percent women, and dental hygienists are 98 percent

of the time female (“Occupations by Gender…”). These statistics influence women in the

degrees they pursue in college, but this viewpoint has been shifting ever since women have

started to surpass men in the number of degrees being earned from universities. Previously,

women were expected to pursue careers that were traditionally considered easier, and this was

reflected in the occupations women are most likely to get involved in (“Occupations by

Gender…”). Since businesses have realized that women provide a valuable perspective in jobs

that they are currently underrepresented in, they in response have started initiatives to get

younger girls to study these subjects (Levere). Public service campaigns like “She Can STEM”

and other advertisements from the Ad Council have been created specifically to encourage young

girls to get into STEM fields (Levere). The view of women entering the workforce has shifted
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because society as a whole has slowly come to realize that girls entering all careers without

limitation is important to furthering society as a whole.

Sexual harassment in the workplace has also contributed to the treatment of women in the

workplace and society’s view of women in the workforce. The term sexual harassment was

coined by Lin Farley in 1975 as a result of a women’s social movement protesting the way

women were being treated in the workplace by men who happened to be their superiors or

coworkers (McLaughlin et al. 625). Women were often afraid to speak up about any harassment

directed towards them, and few lawsuits were brought up in the late 20th century because women

were afraid of being fired or having their wages cut. Oftentimes, sexual harassment occurs in

male-dominated work settings (McLaughlin et al. 627), and once there was a name associated

with the act, women started coming forward and speaking towards their experiences

(Blakemore). More and more women started to come forth through lawsuits against their

coworkers, which led to laws being passed to prevent and protect women from sexual assault

(Waxman). High-profile sexual assault cases involving publics figures such as President Bill

Clinton among others created a precedent for treating women and harassment in the workforce

(Waxman). This eventually has translated into women coming forward to talk about their sexual

assault experiences, sparking the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, which have put justice for

sexual assault victims to the forefront and made it more difficult for men to “get away” with acts

of harassment (Siegel). Because women are now fighting against acts of sexual harassment and

assault in the workplace and there is much more scrutiny on working men as well (McLaughlin

et al. 627), some amount of discrimination in the workplace has been alleviated and women can

worry slightly less about being blamed or mistreated in the case of harassment (Waxman).
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In the final analysis, women have made great strides in the American workforce since

before World Wars I and II. Arguably, women are not yet reaching their full capacities in the

workplace, but it can be said with little hesitation that drastic changes for the positive have been

made towards workplace equality. While there have been many regulations passed by the

government in order to reduce the gap between men and women in terms of pay, treatment, and

occupational discrimination, there is still a noticeable difference between the potential of males

versus females in the American workforce. Although great strides have been made to prevent

sexual assault and reduce the wage gap, there is not full equality and stigmas still exist for some

working women. It is clear that women have much higher probabilities of attaining their goals,

whatever they may be, now that so many changes have been made in favor of inclusion and

equality. Much still must be done to continue closing the inequality gap, and as a society change

must continue if equality really is the end goal.

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