Women’s Work

Inside and Outside the Home

Women do twice as much household labor as men (2006) Married women spend 97 minutes per day doing housework

while men spend 29 minutes (2009) When women marry, they gain 14 hours a week of domestic

labor, compared to 90 minutes for men (husband created labor) Women do the bulk of ‘kin keeping’ – remembering birthdays,

sending cards, buying holiday gifts, etc. As children grow up and become more self-sufficient,

housework demands for mothers may decline (Craig & Sawrikar, 2009). Some evidence suggests that adults become more supportive of gender egalitarianism over time (Fan & Marini, 2000), and husbands' participation in housework may increase over the course of marriage (Lam, McHale & Crouder, 2012)

Household Labor

Among heterosexual couples, housework is often gendered Women: laundry, cleaning, preparing and cleaning up meals Men: bill paying , repairs, outside chores Men “help” – implying it is the women’s responsibility and

men are lending a hand Among lesbian couples, partners reported that more tasks

were done equally often by both partners, and the relative frequency of performing household labor was related to interest in household labor

Lesbian mothers are more likely than heterosexual parents to share responsibilities for childcare and paid employment equally (Patterson, Sutfin, & Fulcher 2004)

Division of Labor

It wasn’t until WWII that women began

working in traditionally male jobs in large numbers

1950s – backlash as women were sent home to focus on household appliances and babies (baby boom: 1946 – 1964)

1960s and 1970s – Civil Rights movement and Women’s Rights movement fought for legislation to help women gain power in the workplace

Paid Labor

1963: Equal Pay Act – sought to prevent sex-based wage

discrimination (equal pay for equal work) 1964: Title VII of Civil Rights Act - prohibits discrimination

based on race, religion, sex, or national origin in organizations of 15 or more employees (expanded to include pregnancy in 1976)

1993: Family and Medical Leave Act - unpaid leave and protection of employment if employee needs to care for a family member or is giving birth/adopting

2009: Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act - unfair pay complaints can be filed within 180 days of a discriminatory paycheck—and that 180 days resets after each paycheck is issued

Legislative Gains

Unwelcome sexual advances or requests for

sexual favors Quid pro quo: sexual favors required in return

for various conditions of employment Hostile Work Environment: being subjected to

a pattern of harassment as part of the work environment

Sexual Harassment

It is unlawful to harass a person (an applicant or employee) because of that

person’s sex. Harassment can include “sexual harassment” or unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature.

Harassment does not have to be of a sexual nature, however, and can include offensive remarks about a person’s sex. For example, it is illegal to harass a woman by making offensive comments about women in general.

Both victim and the harasser can be either a woman or a man, and the victim and harasser can be the same sex.

Although the law doesn’t prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that are not very serious, harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim being fired or demoted).

The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or someone who is not an employee of the employer, such as a client or customer. (EEOC)

Sexual Harassment

1968: Age Discrimination in Employment Act –

outlaws mandatory retirement and prohibits employers with 20 or more employees from discriminating on the basis of age (protects those age 40 and older)

Law was revised in 1978 and 1986, and restricted in 2005: employees now must prove intentional harm

Age Discrimination

1990: Americans with Disabilities Act – prohibits discrimination

against qualified individuals with disabilities (employers must make reasonable accommodations unless they can show undue hardship)

1960s: Affirmative Action – considering a potential employee’s sex/race when hiring - Congress enacted title VII in order to improve the economic and social conditions of minorities and women by providing equality of opportunity in the work place. These conditions were part of a larger pattern of restriction, exclusion, discrimination, segregation, and inferior treatment of minorities and women in many areas of life. The Legislative Histories of title VII, the Equal Pay Act, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 contain extensive analyses of the higher unemployment rate, the lesser occupational status, and the consequent lower income levels of minorities and women. (EEOC)

ADA/Affirmative Action

Primary: relatively high wages and employee

benefits, protection for workers Secondary: lower wages, fewer benefits, less

opportunity for advancement (majority of these workers are women and people of color)

Maintains system of inequality and privilege Globalization: regional economies have

become integrated through interconnected global network (wealthy nations have more influence)

Dual Labor Market

Only 1 in 5 families consists of a stay-at-home

mother Most childcare facilities are privately run and

costly As a result, many women work part-time so

that they can also care for children, which affects their wages significantly over their lifetimes (and thus affects their Social Security income)

Childcare

Occupational Segregation by gender – separating

men and women into different jobs Horizontal segregation – dividing men and women

across different kinds of jobs Vertical segregation – segregation within same

type of job (women earn less and hold less prestigious positions)

Pink collar jobs – feminine occupations that are valued less than masculine occupations (service sector jobs working with people, children, cleaning, and administrative support)

Women at Work

Index of the status of women’s earnings

relative to men’s (median annual earnings for women divided by median annual earnings for men)

For every $1 a man earns, a woman earns 77 cents (full time year round workers)

Why? Horizontal segregation Vertical segregation Discrimination

Gender Wage Gap