[Day 12] Economics & Work
Two years ago rageprufrock began the first 14 Valentines and she spoke of how women are praised in song, worshiped in poetry, and derided in culture. She spoke beautifully and elegantly of women, comparing our bodies to luminous flowers. She spoke of the state of women, and the need to remember what we go through, what women throughout the world suffer through.
We are daughters, sisters, mothers, and lovers. If we choose, we can bring life into world with our blood and nourish it with our bodies, but the world that we helped create, that women have bled for and fought for and cried for, doesn't recognize us. Our history is one of abuse. We are not safe.
Women suffer from domestic violence and rape. We are devalued. We are taught that we are lesser. There is still so much work to do, so much for us to accomplish.
It's 2008 and Hillary Rodham Clinton is, as I write this, campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in the U.S. Yet, even as this is happening, women are being killed the world over, suffering from infanticide, dying from lack of medical care, killing themselves in the fight to be what society tells them they must. One in three women will still experience sexual assault in her lifetime. So much has changed and so much has stayed the same.
It's 2008 and we've come so far, but there is still more work to be done. We deserve better, and we can do more. We're strong. The next fourteen days is meant to remind us of that. It's our time to take back our bodies.
V can stand for vagina, like Eve Ensler's groundbreaking monologues. V can stand for violence, under whose auspices all women continue to make a home.
V can also stand for victory.
Economics & Work
In the 1950s, only 1 in 5 women in the United States were active in the workforce, but that number has grown to nearly 3 in 5 in recent years.
Though we have increased our presence in the workforce, more employed women than men are considered to be at or below the poverty rate according to the Department of Labor. A major contributing factor to this statistic is that over half of the employed women in this country work in low paying support positions, such as clerical and retail jobs.
Non-traditional female fields--those in which less than 25% of the workforce is female--can offer wages that are, on average, 20-30% higher, however.
The Department of Labor, recognizing the need to connect more women with non-traditional fields, has awarded competitive grants to organizations, employers and unions through the Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations (WANTO) Act of 1992. The purpose of the grants has been to recruit, train and place women in non-traditional fields, as well as assist them in overcoming female-specific barriers to success.
Additionally, companies are realizing the need for a more gender-diversified workforce, either because they want to qualify for government contracts/subsidies or because they understand the inherent value of having the best possible workforce without restricting their hiring pool.
The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) has also taken steps to assist women in non-traditional fields by releasing study results and recommendations about specific health and safety (both physical and psychological) concerns for women in construction and other related fields.
The workforce is ever-changing with more and more women are stepping in where we once weren't welcome, where there never used to be a place for us. Of late, the government and, indeed, individual companies have begun to understand the vital contribution that women can make by bringing a "new" perspective to the table.
There's still a long way to go. The OSHA study mentioned above was necessitated by harassment of women who dared to step outside of "female fields" and enter "the boys club." Even in non-traditional fields, salary disparities between men and women exist. But women have been blazing these trails for us in recent years, paving the way, and we don't have to be held back from jobs that keep us out of poverty, that offer better wages, and provide necessary benefits.
The Department of Labor website, though sometimes awkward to navigate, has several departments and sections that offer a variety of links to resources, publications, and initiatives, and it can also connect you with state sites and resources.
The Department of Labor Women's Bureau
Department of Labor: Links by Audience: Women
The DOL listing of non-traditional occupations for women
OSHA's Women in the Construction Workplace: Providing Equitable Safety and Health Protection study results
The National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE) has a great listing of organizations that deal with non-traditional occupations for women
Women Work! is a national network of organizations dedicated to supporting women who are already in, or are seeking to enter, the job market. You can search for affiliates in your area who can offer services to overcome barriers, receive job training, and even job search assistance (regardless of field).
[Today's essay was written by idyll. Thank you so much!]