8
F
igures released in
the Oct. 27 issue of Woman’s
Day magazine highlighted some
of the changes in women’s jobs
since females began entering
the work force.
Only 2.4 percent of the
lawyers in the United States
were women in 1937. In 1987,
18 percent are women. Also,
the percentage of women
doctors increased from 4.6 to
17.6 percent, and the number
of engineers increased from 0.3
to 6 percent.
Interestingly, the number of
women who are librarians,
nurses and social workers has
dropped.
It seems women are breaking
out of the stereotypes and into
fields previously dominated by
men.
ne reason
women are pursuing jobs in
fields other than the
“traditional” women’s
professions could be their
pursuit of higher education. The
percentage of college graduates
who were women in 1937 was
5 percent, while in 1987 that
number has risen to 22 percent.
It seems more and more
women are looking for
something other than an M.R.S.
degree.
But entering the job market is
only the first rung on the ladder.
Once women break into the
career of their choice, they still
have to deal with conditions on
the job. For instance, everyone
has a boss at one time or
another, but a big question is
whether an employee would
rather work for a woman or a
man.
According to a survey of
16,000 women published in the
June 1987 issue of
Cosmopolitan magazine, 60
percent of the respondents said
gender doesn’t matter, as long
as the boss is fair.
Pat Cornelison, executive
director of Humana Hospital in
Brazos County, agrees with this
view.
“I deal with people as
individuals, not by sex, and 1
think that is the key reason I
have never felt people did not
respect me just because I am a
woman,” she says.
A
mother gripe
women often have is that they
are paid less than men in the
same position. Cornelison says
she has never experienced a
problem in that area.
“In the company I work for,
wages are based on position,
and extra consideration is given
for years of experience, ” she
says. “Sex really doesn’t enter
into it at all. ”
But there are two sides to
every story, and some would
disagree with Cornelison. Dr.
Elizabeth Maret, associate
professor of sociology at Texas
A&M, says women are not
taken seriously as breadwinners
in the labor force.
“At home, women are taken
seriously as breadwinners,”
Maret says. “One-half of
American families are middle-
income families only because of
the economic contributions of
the wife as well as the husband.
“But in the work force,
women are still considered
secondary workers by their
employers, and there are
indications that this situation is
not improving.”
Maret says one of the biggest
indications is the ‘feminization
of poverty,’ a term which
describes the trend toward
female heads of households
living in absolute poverty with
their dependents.
1 or those who have
worked in the restaurant
industry, it is easy to understand
the difficulty women have
making a living in that
profession. A waitress works
long, hard hours on her feet,
and is frequently compensated
by below-minimum wages and
meager tips.
Maret says waitressing is not
the only profession in which
women have trouble making a
living.
“Even in jobs that are
covered by minimum wage
legislation, the pay is not
sufficient for women to
maintain a middle-class
lifestyle,” she says. “This
category includes clerical work,
where about one-third of all
women workers are. People in
this position are called the
‘working poor.’”
)ut what about the
executives? More and more
women are entering high-level
positions. Unfortunately, Maret
says women don’t always get
high-level wages.
“Texas A&M just undertook
a study, ” she says, “and here in
our own backyard there are
wage discrepancies that have
been documented among
professors.
“Even controlling for
publications, lengths of time in
service and prestige of the
degree-granting institution, men
professors, fairly uniformly, are
making more than the women
professors. ”
M
,aret is not alone
in her observations. Several
women who responded to the
Cosmopolitan survey said they
also see wage discrimination.
One woman who answered the
survey has this tale to tell: “1
worked for a company that had
a rule against employees
comparing salaries, so no one
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