Women in the Workforce: Decade by Decade

Hillary Slater

Essential Question

Extenuation circumstances throughout history have allowed women to shift gender roles in the workplace What aare the extenuating circumstances?

How have they gotten to keep these jobs?

Introduction

Women have always been treated differently in the workforce

I will explain how women progressed in the workforce, decade by decade.

1940s

During World War II women left their duties at home and entered the workforce.

With the men off at war, there were many factory jobs available.

Women felt compelled to make this sacrifice to work outside the home, because they were constantly reminded that their loved ones were in danger of not receiving the supplies that they needed.

This was their “Patriotic Duty”

1940s-1950s

Women are discovering that CAN work.

When America won the War in 1945, the women were expected to give up their jobs.

Women were not satisfied with this role anymore.

The government created reverse propaganda to convince women that it was, once again, their “Patriotic Duty”

Early 1960s

There had been a great advancement from the 1940s to the 1960s

Many changes were put in place to help women get on top.

In 1961 Kennedy created the President’s Commission on the Status of Women.

1960s

Women are now wanting to work. They enjoy the sense of independence and experiencing their own individuality.

Women were using contraception after the federal government approved a birth control pill. Women saw this as more freedom.

This decade was a decade of extremes and bizarre contrasts. Flower children and assassins

Alienation and idealism

Rebellion and backlash

1960s

Even with the guilt from the government, many married women continued to work.

By now, there are millions of women in the workforce.

Women were expanding their roles and demanding equality and respect from their husbands, since they now have a larger say in the family finances and also in the marriage.

1970s

Women were starting to graduate from college in 1970 and continued their lives throughout the rest of the decade.

Women were still struggling finding successful business careers they would enjoy.

Professors were strongly encouraging women to take secretarial classes. No young man would have received the same advice.

At this point in history, women are only being paid 45% of what men did.

1970s

Feminism began to grow stronger during the 1970s, led by strong, independent women such as Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Betty ford (Former First Lady) as well as many others.

Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., supported the feminist movement and called for an end to discrimination of all kinds, including against women.

However, not everything was moving forward on the feminist front. The Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution failed to be ratified.

The wage gap between men and women did shrink, but there still remained a significant difference.

End of the 1970s

Many women were still entering the workforce , most men were still considered the bread winner in the family.

Women were only leaving the work force to start a family, but then returning when the child(ren) become school aged.

Women were still torn between their connection to the feminist movement of the earlier years, and their desire to be conservative, loving, mothers.

Late 1970s- Early 1980s

Women still put off having children until the 1990s

Consumers became more sophisticated Shop for foreign cars

Designer clothing

Home became larger

Show off success

1980

42.5% of the nation’s workers were women.

By 1984, 49% of undergraduate college degrees were being awarded to women.

Most women who received a college education, majored in the fields of education, social service, home economics, nursing, and library science.

In the past, only few women were working in the fields of physical sciences, engineering, agriculture and law. In 1989 the proportion of women engineers was still only 7.5%

1990

In the mid-199-s the growth in the percentage of adult women working outside the home was stalled. Many women wanted to take time off to get married,, and have and raise children.

These women found it difficult to get back into the workforce after taking this time off.

Women in the military

The movie G. I. Jane premiered in 1997.

It had a profound impact on female viewers, and empowered many women to enlist in the United States Military.

She was not expected to succeed.

Background Female Naval Officer

Test sublet for Navy Seal Training.

She was not expected to succeed.

2000s

77 percent of women in the prime ages of 25 and 54 were in the workforce.

Any American working mom fall far behind in three areas: Parental leave

Protection of part-time work

Public spending on childcare

The U. S. passed the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993, mandating up to 12 weeks of unaided leave for those who had been at a compact for a year that has over 50 employees.

Current

Women put many more hours into household activities then men do.

This puts a woman’s quality of working at a disadvantage. It is unrealistic to expect gender if workplaces demand that women be available all the time. Because without the women, “Who’s minding the kids?”

Women are being punished for staying home with their sick children. This sets them back in the long run. unable to get a certain promotion

Citations

I Am Proud. 1940. Google Images. Google Images. Web. 24 May 2014.

US Employment Service. 1945. Google Images. Web. 24 May 2014.

Working Women. 1961. Google Images. Web. 24 May 2014.

Birth Control. 1965. Google Images. Web. 24 May 2014.

President’s Commission on the Status of Women. 1961. Google Images. Web. 24 May 2014.

Kennedy. !961. Google Images. Web. 24 May 2014.

Women Graduation. 1970. Google Images. Web. 24 May 2014.

ERA Strike. 1975. Google images. Web. 24 May 2014

Awaiting Parents. 1979. Google Images. Web. 24 May 2014

FMLA. 1993. Google Images. Web. 24 May 2014