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OCR for page 83
,1 Reducing Sex Segregation
in the Workplace
In Chapter 2 we noted that over the past
decacle women have increased their repre-
sentation in some occupations and industries
that historically had been predominantly or
exclusively male. This chapter presents evi-
dence that at least a portion of this increase
resulted from direct interventions in train-
ing and labor market processes, in the form
of either prohibitions against sex cliscrimi-
nation or programs designed to enhance
women's occupational opportunities. The
best examples of the former are Title VII of
the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits
sex discrimination in several conditions of
employment, and Executive Order 11246
(11375), which requires nondiscrimination
and positive action by federal contractors.
Positive actions include the affirmative ac-
tion programs instituted by some profes-
sional schools and special programs for
women by some private employers.
Although the threat of enforcement action
by government agencies can be a powerful
incentive for employers to change their
practices, incentives need not come from
government or the courts. They may also
emanate from female employees, women's
organizations, or changing public opinion
about permissible behavior. The evidence
83
we review in this chapter suggests that laws
and regulations, legal action, and private
programs have facilitated women's progress
in several fields. Of course, not all deliberate
efforts to reduce sex segregation have pro-
duced measurable effects. Interventions by
government may be ineffective if they are
misdirected or when enforcement is weak
and evasion easy. By examining the effec-
tiveness of various programs whose goals in-
cluded promoting sex equity, we identify
strategies that are likely to be effective in
the future as well as barriers to the effec-
tiveness of some existing programs.
Most of the interventions to reduce sex
segregation have been directed at the work-
place and applied specifically to hiring prac-
tices, on-thejob training, and promotion
opportunities. Others, such as the 1976 Vo-
cational Education Amendments anal the
1978 reauthorization of the Comprehensive
Employment and Training Act (CETA),
mandated sex equity in job training. Laws
or programs establishec] to eliminate sex in-
equity in education, such as Title IX of the
1972 Educational Amendments, may also
have implications for sex segregation in the
workplace.
Drawing conclusions about the effective
OCR for page 84
84
WOMEN'S WORK, MEN'S WORK
ness of any particular intervention is diffi-
cult. Even sophisticated research methods
cannot isolate the extent to which changes
in women's occupational status can be at-
tributed to a particular intervention as op-
posed to other changes that occurred during
the period in which the intervention was
instituted. Of course, the lack of an im-
provement in women's occupational status
does not necessarily mean that an interven-
tion was ineffective. The implementation
might have prevented a decline that oth-
erwise would have occurred. Assessing the
effectiveness of a law presents an additional
difficulty. Under one theory of law enforce-
ment, a law propels "voluntary" actions that
would not occur in its absence: enforcing a
law in one instance deters others from vi-
olating it. As a result, the indirect result of
a single law enforcement action on other
employers cannot be adequately isolated
from other effects. Standard social science
methods such as cross-sectional and time-
series regression analyses of aggregate-level
data are considered inadequate to discover
the impact of changes in law enforcement
practice on compliance behavior.
We emphasize particularly the difficulty
of attributing any difference in a group's em-
ployment status to enforcement rather than
other forces operating during the same pe-
riod. The civil rights and women's liberation
movements of the 1960s and 1970s high-
lighted job discrimination and reshaped so-
cial values about how minorities and women
should be treated. The women's movement
influenced attitudes about the kinds of oc-
cupations women should be able to pursue.
Women in customarily male occupations
were featured in news stories, advertise-
ments, and to some extent in popular tele-
vision programs. The aspirations of individual
women expancled. The women's movement
unquestionably contributed also to the pas-
sage of laws and regulations, the issuance of
guidelines with respect to sex, and the car-
rying out of enforcement activities. During
the same period, sex discrimination in em-
ployment became both morally suspect en c]
illegal, and employers, unions, and educa-
tors were also subject to direct pressure from
women's groups to provide equal opportun-
ities and compensatory training. Both the
women's movement and the threat offederal
sanctions encouraged women to press em-
ployers for better jobs and made the in-
creasing numbers of women interested in
"male" jobs visible to employers whose nor-
mal hiring practices may have missed them.
The difficulty of isolating the effects of
alternative explanations for change limits the
conclusions we can draw about enforcement
effects. Our review of the evidence, how-
ever, has convinced us that enforcement of
existing antidiscrimination laws has contrib-
uted to reducing sex segregation. To support
conclusions about the impact of interven-
tions, we draw on a variety of evidence,
including time series data; statistical studies;
case studies of specific establishments, oc-
cupations, and training or educational pro-
grams in which litigation occurred or policy
changed; and surveys. Where we can, we
also review what is known of the enforce-
ment practices for laws and regulations. We
begin by considering intewendon within the
workplace federal laws and regulations
aimed at eliminating sex discrimination and
efforts by employers to promote sex equity.
Next, we examine remedies involving job
training and vocational and general educa-
tion. Finally, we consider interventions that
enhance access to jobs for people with family
responsibilities~hild care and work sched-
uling. Throughout this chapter we empha-
size federal laws and federal programs; our
resources did not permit the examination of
numerous state and local initiatives.
INTERVENTIONS DIRECTED AT THE
WORKPLACE
Laws, Regulations, and Enforcement
Efforts
During the 1960s and early 1970s, several
federal laws ant! regulations were enacted
OCR for page 85
REDUCING SEX SEGREGATION IN THE WORKPLACE
_
prohibiting sex disenmination in emnlov_
meet. Most important in setting out the
principle of equal employment opportunity
is Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The
act forbids employers from discriminating in
several conditions of employment on the ba-
sis of race, color, sex, national origin, or
religion. The second important instrument
for reducing employment discrimination
based on gender is Executive Order 11246
(1965; amended by Executive Order 11375
in 1967~. As amended, Executive Order
11246 prohibits federal contractors from em-
ployment discrimination on account of race,
color, religion, sex, or national origin (cer-
tain contractors are, however, exempted).
Under subsequent regulatory revisions, con-
tractors must also pledge to take affirmative
action to ensure nondiscriminatory treat-
ment of minorities and women, including
recruitment and training, employment, and
upgrading. In view of the large number of
workers employed by covered contractors-
31 million (Women Employed, 1982 - the
order's potential impact is great. In the next
sections we describe these laws and regu-
lations in more detail, assess their imple-
mentation, and review evidence regarding
their effectiveness in expanding women's job
opportunities.
Title All and the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission
According to Title VII of the 1964 Civil
Rights Act, employers can neither refuse to
hire nor discharge any person on the basis
of color, race, sex, national origin, or reli-
gion. Neither may they discriminate on these
bases with respect to compensation, terms,
conditions, or privileges ofemployment, nor
limit, segregate, or classify employees or ap-
plicants in any way that deprives them of
employment opportunities or otherwise ad-
versely affects their employment status. The
law applies also to labor organizations and
forbids discrimination by employers, labor
organizations, and joint labor-management
committees that control apprenticeship and
85
other training programs. As amended in
1972, it covers the federal government, state
and local governments, and most firms with
at least 15 employees; in October 1981 the
Pregnancy Discrimination Act included
within the scope of Title VII discrimination
based on pregnancy. The Civil Rights Act
also created the Equal Employment Op-
portunity Commission (EEOC) to admin-
ister the employment provisions of the law.
In 1969 the EEOC issued guidelines on sex
discrimination that barred, among other dis-
criminatory acts, hiring based on stereo-
typefd characterization of the sexes, ciassi
~ . . `` , ,, Tic , .. .
tying Jo as as men s ant women s, and
advertising under male and female headings
(U. S. Department of Labor, Women's Bu-
reau, 19781.
The EEOC monitors employers through
annual reports required ofthose with at least
100 workers. Although the reports do not
provide detailed occupational breakdowns,
substantial race and gender disparities in the
large categories reported have been used by
the EEOC to target employers for investi-
gation of systemic discrimination (U. S. De-
partment of Labor, Women's Bureau, 1982a).
Initially, the EEOC had limited enforce-
ment powers: its fi'nctions were to investi-
gate charges of discrimination and to at-
tempt to resolve them through conciliation,
but the EEOC could not bring suit if con-
ciliation failed until 1972, when the Civil
Rights Act was amended by the Equal Em-
ployment Opportunity Act.
Some observers have questioned whether
the agency carried out its functions of in-
vestigation and conciliation effectively in the
early years (U. S. Commission on Civil
Rights, 1975; U. S. Comptroller General,
1976). Two General Accounting Office stud-
ies (U. S. Comptroller General, 1976) indi-
cate little follow-up after conciliation agree-
ments and suggest that agreements did not
always improve women's emDlovment stn
tus.
In gaining the right to sue for complain-
ants in court in 1972, the agency obtained
enforcement power. Most charges are, of
-
~, _
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86
WOMEN'S WORK MEN'S WORK
course, settled without going to court
through the agency's administrative pro-
cesses. By the early 1970s almost SO, 000 new
charges of discrimination were being filed
annually, on average, and a large backlog
had accumulated. By 1977, 130,000 charges
were awaiting action by the EEOC. Be-
tween 1965 and 1975 the courts were not
very likely to grant class relief and did so
half as often in sex cases as in race cases
(Duniap, cited in Greenberger, 19781. When
the EEOC went to court, however, settle-
ments outnumbered cases dismissed with-
out appeal by a three to one ratio (U.S.
Comptroller General, 19761. It is important
to note that litigation in Title VII class action
cases is very complicated and often takes
several years.
A variety of performance measures have
been used to assess the effectiveness of the
EEOC: predeliberation settlement rate,
conciliation success rate, case resolution rate,
processing time, etc., but few time-series
data are available to assess activity levels or
effectiveness over time. Some evidence sug-
gests improved performance after the EEOC
was reorganized in 1977 with new case pro-
cessing procedures and increased budget and
authorized staff (more than 3,500 positions
at the peak between 1979 and 1981; Bur-
bridge, 1984). Approximately 70,000 charges
were being filed each year. The agency im-
plemented a procedure to expedite new
charges and to reduce the backlog ("rapid
charge processing"), first in model offices in
three cities and then, aDcer determining its
effectiveness, nationwide. Rapid charge
processing enabled the agency to emphasize
cases of systemic discrimination. Expedited
procedures for rapid settlement also led to
more settlements and fewer complaints dis-
missed for no cause (Women Employed,
19801. By July 1981 the backlog had fallen
to about 15 percent of its size in 1977. After
1981, however, the budget fell in real terms,
authorized positions decreased somewhat,
and more important, the settlement rate fell
from 43 percent in 1980 to 28 percent in
1983, and the no-cause rate increased from
29 percent in 1980 to 41 percent in 1983.
During the same period, however, the num-
ber of cases closed annually increased about
25 percent and the remaining small backlog
shrank further (Burbriclge, 19841. In fiscal
1981 the EEOC filed 368 lawsuits (which
included charges of discrimination based on
race, religion, or national origin as well as
sex). Between 1981 and 1983, the number
of cases filed in court fell dramatically. Only
110 cases were filed in 1982 and 136 in 1983.
The number of systemic cases filed also fell,
from 25 in 1981 to 10 in 1983; in 1982 none
was filed (Burbridge, 1984~.
Conclusions about the agency's effective-
ness must be drawn cautiously. When the
EEOC pursued systemic cases involving
large employers, the visibility of such cases
presumably had a deterrent effect, and, in
fact, a survey of major employers revealed
that managerial awareness of enforcement
efforts at other companies was positively re-
lated to having effective programs to en-
hance women employees' opportunities at
their own companies (Shaeffer and Lynton,
1979; Wallace, 19791.
The major contributions of the EEOC in
advancing women's occupational opportun-
ities may have been in establishing such
principles as disparate impact, pregnancy
discrimination, and a narrow definition of
bona fide occupational qualification in the
courts and in shaping the remedies and per-
sonne} changes to be undertaken by dis
criminating firms (O 'Farrell and Harlan,
19841. Consent decrees tended to take a
comprehensive approach to developing in-
tervention strategies that included improv-
ing women's access to sex-atypical jobs, job
upgrading, allocating resources to train
women for male-dominate(l jobs, and de-
veloping monitoring procedures (O'Farrell
and Harlan, 19841. Case studies (described
below) illustrate the implementation of these
strategies. Most extensively stuclied are the
events at American Telephone and Tele-
graph, Inc. Other important cases litigated
OCR for page 87
REDUCING SEX SEGREGAT10.\' I.N' THE \170R~CE
_
by the EEOC under Title VII led the courts
to overrule state protective laws specific to
women (usually maximum hours or weight
laws) and company policies against hiring
women with preschool children. In a chal-
lenge to Pan American Airlines refusal to
hire male flight attendants, the court ruled
that customer preferences are irrelevant un-
less a business's essential ourDose is to sat-
isf; them.
Successful individual and class action suits
brought under Title VII also led organiza-
tions to make their operating procedures
more equitable. Between 1964 and 1981 fed-
eral district courts decided snore than 5,000
cases, of which about one-third were class
actions (Leonard, 1984a). Certainly many
times this number were settled through con-
cfliation or in the state courts. Thus, con-
cfliation and litigation under Title VII have
led to changes in the practices of individual
employers as well as to an increasingIv broad
interpretation of the statute that restricted
employers' rights to consider sex in em-
ployment decisions.
Whether the EEOC's impact will contin-
ue over the next few years is an open ques-
tion. In a recent Urban Institute report,
Burbridge (1984) concludes, from changes
in the types of cases filed and other infor-
mation, that the EEOC has shifted its en-
forcement effort toward the investigation and
settlement of individual charges and away
from systemic or class action cases that affect
larger numbers of workers at lower cost with
larger deterrent effects. Early in 1985, the
EEOC announced at a press conference that
it was shifting its enforcement policy from
systemic to individual cases (Evans and
Fields, 19851. The EEOC also seems to be
moving away from earlier policies that es-
tablished a broad interpretation of Title VII.
It has declined to pursue a broad policy on
comparable worth, for example (U. S. Con-
gress, House, 1984; Williams, 1985c), has
reduced the number of filings of amicus
briefs, and has cut back the number of at-
torneys in appellate litigation by 20 percent
87
when budget cuts sustained were 5.5 per-
cent (Burbridge, 19841. In one instance, the
EEOC withdrew, at the request of the U. S.
Department of Justice, an amicus brief it
had filed in support of a New OrIeans Police
Department quota-based consent decree
providing a re~nedv for past discrimination
when it was challenged in federal court. In
spring 1985 the Department of Justice filed
suit against the District of Columbia Fire
Department challenging its affirmative ac-
tion plan because it uses sex and race quotas
(Saperstein, 19851. Other Justice Depart-
ment suits against state and local govern-
~nents have followed.
These policy shifts point toward an em-
phasis on getting redress for"itlentifiable
victims" of discrimination, deen~phasizing
class actions and quotas. These shifts are
consistent with statements of senior officials
of the Justice Department and reflect the
recent broad and significant change in civil
rights policy (Peterson, 1985a; Williams,
1985b; Knight-Ridder, 1985).
E.recutive Order 11246 and the 019ice of
Federal Contract Co,~l,vliance Programs
Executive Order 11246 (11375) extended
the prohibition of discrimination based on
sex, race, color, national origin, or religion
to federal contractors. The executive order
differs from Title VII in three important ways.
First, noncomplying contractors can have
their federal contracts terminated, and vi-
olators can be debarred from future con-
tracts. Second, contractors are required to
take affirmative actions to ensure nondis-
criminatory treatment in recruitment, train-
ing, and upgrading of minorities (under Or-
der Number 4, 1970) and women (under
Revised Order Number 4, 19711. Third, in-
dividuals do not have the right to initiate
private legal actions in court.
Originally 13 federal contracting agencies
were responsible for ensuring that their con-
tractors did not discriminate before con-
tracts were signed, for monitoring com
OCR for page 88
88
WOMEN'S WORK, MEN'S WORK
pliance, and for investigating discrimination
complaints. The Office of Federal Contract
Compliance in the U. S. Department of La-
bor coordinated their activities, but a mech-
anism to implement these regulations did
not exist until December 1971, when Re-
vised Order Number 4 extended the affirm-
ative action requirement to women (Wal-
lace, 19791. In 1978 all federal contract
compliance activities were consolidated
within the Office of Federal Contract Com-
pliance Programs (OFCCP) in the Depart-
ment of Labor. In the same year special
OFCCP regulations directed at sex discrim-
ination by construction contractors became
effective. In June 1970 the OFCCP issued
guiclelines that forbade advertising under sex-
labeled classifications, using sex-based sen-
iority lists, denying jobs to qualified appli-
cants because of state protective laws, dis-
tinguishing marital status among one sex but
not the other, setting different retirement
ages for the sexes, and penalizing women
with children (U. S. Department of Labor,
Women's Bureau, 19781.
In the first few years after the executive
order was amended to include sex discrim-
ination, this provision was essentially ig-
nored. Sex was not included in the first rules
issued to implement the order, and guide-
lines regarding sex discrimination were not
available until Revised Order Number 4 was
issued (Simmons et al., 1975~. Federal con-
tracting agencies appear to have been re-
luctant to invoke available sanctions for either
sex-based or race-based discrimination. Un-
til 1971 no federal contractor in violation of
the order was debarrecl from future con-
tracts, and only about two contractors were
debarred per year over the next seven years
(Brown, 19821. Only 27 contractors have ever
been debarred, and over half of these were
in the last three years of the Carter admin-
istration. At least through 1978 no federal
contracts were terminated or contractors de-
barred because of discrimination by sex
(Greenberger, 1978~. However, as a result
of a nationwide effort by the Women's Eq
uity Action League, which brought a large
number of complaints in 1970-1971, by July
1972 the U. S Department of Health, Edu-
cation, and Welfare had temporarily with-
helcl hinds from 11 universities that failed
to comply with the order (Simmons et al.,
1975~. The U.S. Department of Justice has
authority to bring suit directly against Ex-
ecutive Order 11246 violators, bypassing
OFCCP enforcement procedures, but has
seldom used it.
The primary tools to enforce the executive
order have been compliance reviews and
voluntary conciliation, but for many years
compliance reviews were infrequent. Be-
tween 1970 and 1972 fewer than one con-
tractor in five were reviewed (Goldstein and
Smith, 19761. ~ In addition, some compliance
agencies approved affirmative action plans
that did not meet the guidelines (Ahart,
19761. In each of fiscal years 1981 and 1982
the consolidated OFCCP in the Department
of Labor completed over 3,000 reviews and
investigated over2,000 complaints, but over
2,000 complaints remained bacldogged at the
end of fiscal 1982 (OFCCP, Quarterly Re-
vieu; and Analysis Reports for 1981, 1982~.
A standard of six reviews per month en-
couraged compliance officers to focus on
small contractors (Ahart, 19761. Some ana-
lysts have surmised that the elects of the
executive order may have declined as con-
tractors learned how to show good-faith ef-
forts without significantly changing their
personnel policies (Brown, 1982~. [Iowever,
a 1976 Bureau of National Affairs survey in-
dicates that the overwhelming majority of
firms subject to OFCC regulations had af
~ Different federal contracting agencies varied in their
propensity to review contractors. The National Aero-
nautics and Space Administration, the Environmental
Protection Agency, and the U. S. Department of Com-
merce reviewed at least half, whereas the U.S. De-
partment of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of
the Treasury reviewed about 2 percent of their con-
tractors (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, in Brown,
1982, note 10).
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REDUCING SEX SEGREGATION IN THE WORKPLACE
_
firmative action plans and one-third ofthem
evaluated managers in terms of EEO per-
formance (Freeman, 19811. While we cannot
conclude from these data that the establish-
ments were making effective efforts to im-
prove job options for women and minorities,
Hey show Mat employers were aware of their
responsibilities and were taking at least the
minimal steps required.
The system in which individual federal
contracting agencies were responsible for
enforcement contributed to the initial low
use of sanctions (Ahart, 19761. When the
compliance program was consolidated into
a single office in 1978, it targeted banking,
insurance, and mining for special attention.
Subsequent gains in women's representa-
tion in largely male occupations in these in-
dustries demonstrate the agency's potential.
To illustrate, the proportion of female un-
der~ound miners increased from 1 in 10,000
in 1978 to 1 in 12 in 1980 (Betty Jean Hall,
Director, Coal Employment Project, Sept.
4, 1981; Byrne, 19831. Data for the banking
industry indicate that the small gains women
had been making among financial managers
rose sharply after the special enforcement
effort, almost doubling from 17.4 percent in
1970 to 33.6 percent by 1980. This increase,
however, may partially reflect job title in-
flation as well as the rapid expansion in small
bank branches, which helped to create low-
er-leve} managerial positions for women. 2 In
insurance, women's representation in-
creased the most among adjusters, an oc-
cupation that was 9 percent female in 1961
2 Beller (1984) considers whether the increase during
the 1970s in the number of women in managerial oc-
cupations represents the upgrading of job titles. She
cites Current Population Survey data that show almost
no improvements in the ratios offemale to male median
weekly earnings for full-time wage and solaced workers
in managerial occupations between 1973 and 1978 (.582
and .586, respectively), an indicator that is consistent
with-although it does not demonstrate job title in-
flation.
89
and 58 percent female 20 years later (Work-
ing Women, 19811.
Budget and authorized positions for the
OFCCP increased markedly during the two
years following the 1978 consoliclation. In
real terms the budget fell after 1981, as did
positions; both have since remained rela-
tively stable. The estimated 1985 budget is
approximately $50 million, with 1,000 au-
thorized positions (compared to $160 million
and 3,100 positions for the EEOC). Since
1980, the number of complaint investiga-
tions and compliance reviews completed an-
nually has increased steadily, but the num-
ber of administrative complaints filed and
debarments has fallen. No debarments oc-
curred in 1982 or 1983, comparer! with five
in 1980. Back pay awards have also de-
creased dramatically, from $9,300,000 in
1980 to $600,000 in 1983. The U.S. Com-
mission on Civil Rights reported that the
proportion of investigations and reviews that
resulted in findings of discrimination or con-
ciliation when fault was found had fallen,
and the proportion of cases closed without
a full investigation had risen. As Burbridge
(1984) points out, the pattern is similar to
that of the EEOC. Less thorough attention
is given to an increased number of cases.
The agency has decreased its use of its more
stringent enforcement tools.
Policy shifts are also illustrated by a series
of propose(l changes in regulations that would
reduce federal contractors' affirmative ac-
tion obligations and exempt certain previ-
ously covered contractors from the regula-
tions. A set of changes proposed in 1983
would limit back pay awards to identifiable
victims of discrimination and limit the re-
troactivity of the awards to two years. The
OFCCP did not consult with the EEOC as
required by law until substantial time had
elapsed, and, although it has not yet posted
the final rules, the OFCCP may already be
implementing these changes (Burbridge,
19841. These policy shifts at OFCCP, like
those at the EEOC, are consistent with stat-
ed objectives of the current administration
OCR for page 90
Do
WOMEN'S WORK, MEN'S WORK
-
(Knight-Ridder, 1985; Saperstein, 1985;
Williams, 1985a). More recently, in the fall
of 1985, a fundamental change in the ex-
ecutive order was proposer] by the Justice
Department; it would virtually eliminate the
use of goals and timetables.
Construction Contractors
The OFCCP monitors construction con-
tractors in a separate program. In 1978 the
OFCCP published regulations requiring
construction contractors to carry out equal
employment and affirmative action pro-
grams for women and minorities. Contrac-
tors were required to ensure that work sites
were free of harassment, assign at least two
women to each project, notify recruitment
sources for women in writing of job oppor-
tunities, notify the OFCCP if the union re-
ferral process impedes affirmative action ef-
forts, and actively recruit women for
apprenticeship and other training. As a re-
sult of a lawsuit by women s groups, Acl-
vocatesforWomen v. MarshatZ, the OFCCP
initially set employment goals for construc-
tion contractors of 3.1 percent women for
the first year, 5 percent for the second year,
and 6.9 percent for the third year. The 6.9
percent goal still stands.
Between 1978 and 1980 the proportion of
women construction workers increased from
1.5 to 2 percent. In 1980 women construc-
tion workers were twice as likely to be la-
borers as crafirworkers-2.6 and 1.3 percent,
respectively (U.S. Department of Labor,
Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1981c:Table 271.
But it may be too soon to expect much prog-
ress in construction, particularly in view of
the lengthy apprenticeship programs through
which workers often obtain craft jobs.
Two recent studies of OFCCP efforts to
increase women's participation in the con-
struction trades, one by an investigator at a
training organization for women (WestIey,
1982) and one done in-house (U. S. Depart-
ment of Labor, Employment Standards
Administration, 1981), concluded that goals
and timetables have created a small in-
creased demand for women construction
workers and are essential to achieving equal
access for women in the construction in-
dustry. Each examined OFCCP compliance
review files and interviewed OFCCP and
Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training of-
ficials, women construction workers and ap-
plicants, women's training program pro-
viders, contractors, union business agents,
and joint apprenticeship and training coun-
ci] coordinators. According to both studies,
most of the contractors and unions favored
eliminating the goals and timetables, yet they
admitted that without them women would
not be hired.
Observers agree that conscientious en-
forcement provided construction jobs for
women but that enforcement was not uni-
form and that staff lacked procedures for
uncovering discrimination. The OFCCP in-
house study cited its lack of an enforcement
strategy and haphazard compliance activi-
ties as tending to dissipate its efforts (U.S.
Department of Labor, Employment Stan-
dards Administration, 1981). None of the
agency staff whom WestIey (1982) inter-
viewed had ever found a company not in
compliance, and the majority of contractors
interviewed reportedly felt no pressure from
OFCCP to adhere to the contract compli-
ance provisions in their federal contracts. Of
2,994 reports on file at the OFCCP for Oc-
tober 1980, only one-fifth even indicated the
number of hours female construction work-
ers were employed, and of these only 5 per-
cent met the 6.9 percent goal (U.S. De-
partment of Labor, Employment Standards
Administration, 19811. According to the
OFCCP's own study, compliance reviews
resulted in increased employment of wom-
en, but We gains were sometimes short-lived.
In view of the generally weals enforcement
efforts it is not surprising that few contrac-
tors achieved the 6.9 percent goal /`Federal
Register, 1981:46~13441.
OCR for page 91
REDUCING SEX SEGREGATION IN THE WORKPLACE
91
Federal Employees
Executive orders also prohibit cliscrimi-
nation against federal employees, and in 1972
the Equal Employment Opportunity Act
brought federal employees under the pro-
tection of Title VII. Although it is not pos-
sible to determine whether these regulations
directly affected women's opportunities,
women have increased their representation
in higher-level federal government jobs dur-
ing the period in which the directives have
been in force. In 1974 women were only
18.9 percent of the full-time work force in
grades GS 9-12 and 14.8 percent in grades
13-1~; in 1980 women constituted 26.9 per-
cent and 8.2 percent, respectively; by 1983
women constituted 30.4 percent and 10.3
percent, respectively (U. S. Comptroller
General, 1984:33~. A detailed investigation
of women attorneys (Epstein, 1981) found
that their recent advancement into govern-
ment law positions resulted from concerted
efforts by government agencies to recruit
minorities and women. Epstein reported that
the percentage of women lawyers in the Of-
fice of the U. S. Attorney General went from
3.7 in 1970 to 17.3 in 1979. By 1980, 31.5
percent of the newly hired lawyers in the
Justice Department were women. It seems
probable that affirmative action require-
ments were a factor, both through influenc-
ing agency behavior and, by publicizing new
opportunities or creating the impression that
jobs existed, through encouraging women
to train ant] apply for such jobs.
Conclusion
From the outset, enforcement of both Ti-
tle VII and Executive Order 11246 was un-
even and often inadequate. For several years
enforcement agencies lacked real enforce-
ment powers. They were also hampered by
insufficient budgets, lack of personnel, and
administrative difficulties (Greenberger,
1978; Brown, 19821. In addition, some have
argued that the enforcement agencies did
not take the prohibition against sex discrim-
ination seriously in the early years (Green-
berger, 1978~. For example, in early pub-
lished guidelines the EEOC explicitly
permitted sex-labeled cIassifiec] advertise-
ment columns (Eastwood, 19781. Finally,
detecting violators may be difficult under
the best conditions. Nevertheless, these ac-
counts of EEOC en c! OFCCP enforcement
practices suggest that when Title VII and
Executive Order 11246 (11375) were en-
forced, significant numbers of jobs were
opened to women.
We turn next to an examination of evi-
dence from case studies of enforcement ac-
tions directed toward particular estab-
lishments and findings Dom statistical studies
that have attempted to examine the more
general impact of the laws and regulations.
The Effectiveness of Enforcement
Evidence From Case Studies
The consequences of the EEOC inter-
vention at American Telephone and Tele-
graph (AT&T), the country's largest com-
pany in 1970, provide compelling evidence
for the effectiveness of a single enforcement
action on women's job opportunities. In 1970,
in 92.4 percent of all jobs at AT&T at least
90 percent of all workers were of one sex.
The following year the EEOC petitioned the
Federal Communications Commission to
deny AT&T a rate increase. Ultimately AT&T
agreed to provide salary adjustments and
back pay to employees who hail been injured
by discriminatory employment practices.
They also agreed to modify hiring, promo-
tion, and training policies and to develop an
affirmative action plan with targeted goals
for women and minorities for jobs from which
they had been excluded. As a result, female
employment in several male-dominated oc-
cupations increased markedly between 1973
OCR for page 92
92
WOMEN'S WORK MEN'S WORK
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OCR for page 93
REDUCING SEX SEGREGATION IN THE WORKPLACE
93
and 1979. The proportions of women who
were officials and managers or worked in
sales crafts, and service all increased by at _
least 5 percentage points; while men's rep
resentation in predominantly female admin
istrative, clerical, and operator jobs in
creased from 3 to 6 percentage points
(Northrup and Larson, 19791. Women's in
creased representation across a finer break
down of occupations is shown in Table 4-1.
A 1974 consent decree signed by nine ma-
jor steed companies3 and the United Steel-
workers of America illustrates changes in
employment practices that facilitate wom-
en's integration into traditionally male pro-
duction and maintenance jobs. In order to
meet the hiring goals for minorities ant!
women in crap jobs that the agreement caller!
for, one firm began a preapprenticeship
training school for certain craft apprentice-
ships that was open both to current female
and minority employees and to CETA par-
ticipants (UlIman and Deaux, 19811. One
plant also arranged for a nonprofit agency
experienced in recruiting and training mi-
norities for construction apprenticeships to
recruit and screen prospects for craft an-
prenticeships. Consistent with findings for
other crafts and industries (Briggs, 1981;
Kane and Miller, 1981), these special out-
reach and pretraining programs were highly
effective in attracting women to craft jobs.
The consent decree also required firms to
restructure their seniority systems from de-
partmentwide to plar~twide systems so that
women in typically female jobs would be
competitive bidders for male-clominated jobs
in other departments (and could make such
moves without losing seniority; UlIman and
Deaux, 1981~. The neecI for this kind of mod-
ification is demonstrated by women's lack of
3 One company withdrew Dom the consent decree
negotiations, claiming that it had not discriminated in
hinag and placement, but it subsequently signed two
conciliation agreements with the EEOC after four years
of negotiation (Ullman and Deaux, 1981).
progress in one plant in which seniority
changes were delayed because of collective
bargaining agreements. In that plant most
of the women whose bids for craft jobs were
unsuccessful lost because they lacked suf-
ficient seniority. The effects of the consent
decree can be seen clearly in women's in-
creased representation in certain jobs. In
the less than four years between 1976 and
the end of 1979, the numbers of women in
production and maintenance positions in two
steel mills increased almost threefold from
763 to 1,938, while their number in craft
jobs increased from 27 (0.4 percent of all
craft workers) to 197 (2.2 percent; 4.7 per-
cent in the plant whose program had been
in existence longer). One company hired
more than 1,500 women for production jobs
between 1977 and 1979, and in the other
women were 32 percent of the new hires in
1979. Moreover, the aluminum industry
voluntarily accepted the steed industry's
consent decree virtually verbatim in their
own collective bargaining agreement (Brown,
1982~.
Other large firms that have entered into
consent decrees with the EEOC include
United Airlines (1976), Menill Lynch (1976),
General Electric (1978), and General Mo-
tors (19831. These are the largest firms in
their industries, and smaller firms may fol-
low the industry leader in their labor prac-
tices (Wallace, 1979~.
A review of case studies of firms subject
to litigation and consent decrees that the
committee commissioned (O'Farrell and
Harlan, 1984) concluded that the federal
presence significantly motivates companies
to facilitate women's movement into non-
traditional jobs. In general an increase in
the numbers of women in traditionally male
jobs correspon(led to pressure by federal
agencies, either through direct actions
against large companies or through the in-
direct effect of companies complying rather
than risking federal action (as occurred in
the aluminum industry). Many companies
reported that federal enforcement activities
. . .
, ~
OCR for page 112
112 WOMEN'S WORK, MEN'S WORK
_ . _
the differential success of various states in
implementing the 1976 Vocational Educa-
tion Amendments suggests that a legislative
mandate coupled with federal money is not
enough. Active monitoring of schools, par-
ticularly the administration of pre- and in-
service courses for teachers and counselors,
seems to be important. The data support the
conclusion reached in the study mandated
by the 1976 Vocational Education Act and
executed by the American Institutes for Re-
search (Steiger et al., 1979~: vocational ed-
ucators cannot assume that opening
traditionally male programs to female stu-
dents will neutralize family and peer group
pressures; rather, affirmative programs will
be necessary to attract women to these pro-
grams. Second, for training to be effective,
programs must also have placement provi-
sions. Third, state programs that were most
successful in attracting females to less tra-
ditional specialties established a broad base
of support for them by setting up orientation
programs and providing connections with
potential employers (Evenson and O,Neill,
19781.
General Education
In Chapter 3 we concluded that sex ster-
eotyping in teaching materials, the behavior
of leachers end counselors, and tracking lead
to sex differences in education and training,
which in turn tend to perpetuate sex seg-
regation by limiting women's knowledge of,
interest in, and preparation for occupations
that have been labeled male. In addition,
sex differences in high school mathematics
training, type of vocational training, college
major, professional training, and postgrad-
uate study all have implications for students'
subsequent occupational opportunities.
Laws, Regulations, and Enforcement
Efforts
During the 1970s, Congress passed sev-
eral laws designed to reduce sex stereotyp
ing and sex discrimination in federally sup-
ported education. These laws may contribute
to reducing sex segregation in employment
by modifying wo~nen's occupational social-
ization and by specifically preparing them
for jobs typically held by finales. Most im-
portant of these laws is Title IX of the 1972
Educational Amendments. Title IX was the
first law specifically designed to protect stu-
dents from sex discrimination. It covers ad-
missions, financial aid, and access to and
treatment in curricular and extracurricular
programs sponsored by educational insti-
tutions and agencies. Thus, courses of study,
counseling, and extracurricular activities are
all included. It also prohibits discrimination
in the treatment of workers in educational
programs that receive federal funds.
Federal agencies that provide financial as-
sistance to educational institutions are re-
sponsible for enforcing Title IX and may ter-
minate funding if the recipients fail to
comply. Originally HEW had primary en-
forcement responsibility. In 1977 the Office
for Civil Rights (OCR), first in HEW and
after 1980 in the Department of Education,
assumed that responsibility. OCR investi-
gates complaints and carries out compliance
reviews. When violations are detected, the
agency seeks voluntary compliance. If ne-
gotiations are unsuccessful, OCR may ini-
tiate proceedings to terminate financial as-
sistance or refer the case to the Department
of Justice for prosecution. In Grove City
College v. Bell (104 S. Ct. 1211 [19841), the
Supreme Court narrowed the scope of Title
IX to only those specific programs that re-
ceived federal funds whereas OCR had been
applying an institutionwide definition of the
impact of federal Binding. The Justice De-
partment's position in the Grove City case
provides another illustration of the signifi-
cant shift in civil rights policies between the
current and previous administrations (Pe-
terson, 1985a). Whereas previously the OCR
had applied Title IX broadly, the Justice
Department in 1983 entered the Grove City
case on the side of limiting the applicability
OCR for page 113
REDUCING SEX SEGREGATION 1~1 THE WORKPLACE
_
of Title IX, changing the government's po-
sition by submitting a second brief. The De-
partment of Education immediately an-
nounced plans to drop many pending cases
against colleges and universities. Since the
Grove City decision, a congressional reso-
Jution supporting the broader interpretation
has been passed and legislation to mandate
a broader interpretation, called the Civil
Rights Restoration Act of 1985, is pending.
The administration opposes the proposed
legislation; debate has been intense, and how
the issue will be resolved is not clear.
In the Women's Educational Equity Act
(WEA) of 1974 and 1978, and in subsequent
reauthorizations in 1981 and 1984, Congress
authorized funding for mode] programs to
eliminate sex stereotyping and promote
educational equity for women and girls. The
WEA provides grants, contracts, and tech-
nical assistance for developing materials and
mode} programs to achieve educational eg-
uity for girls and women. It also provides
grants to help school districts and other in-
stitutions meet the requirements of Title IX
(U. S. Department of Labor, Women's Bu-
reau, 1982a). Thus, Title IX prohibits dis-
crimination and the Women's Educational
Equity Act is geared toward encouraging
intervention strategies to promote sex eq-
uity.
Implementation of the sex equity and
antidiscrimination laws directed at educa-
tiona] institutions was slow. Although Con-
gress approved Title IX in 1972, final
regulations implementing it were not issued
by HEW until 1976. The Project on Equal
Education Rights (1978) of the National Or-
ganization for Women's Legal Defense and
Education Funs] outlined other reasons why
Title IX had little effect during its first four
years. A large backlog of complaints had ac-
cumulated by 1976. Students change schools
Frequently, so complainants could not be lo-
cated and complaints were often moot by
the time HEW responded. Investigations
were allegedly often perfunctory, and 22
percent of the cases filed during the period
~3
were closed without an investigation. When
HEW did obtain commitments from school
officials to eliminate illegal practices, OCR
did not monitor whether they actually did
so. The large number of school districts
against which no complaints had been filet!
were not adequately monitored. It is diffi-
cult to determine how much enforcement
has improved subsequently, but the OCR
director commented that HEW's enforce-
ment efforts had been neither widespread
nor energetic (U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights, 19801.
In December 1977 in A clams v. Califano,
the Court directed HEW and the Depart-
ment of Labor to institute enforcement pro-
ceedings. Approximately 20,000 school
districts and institutions of higher education
receive federal assistance, but the OCR
completed only S compliance reviews in 1978
and 24 in 1979 (U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights, 19801. Between 1972 (when Title IX
was enacted) and 1980, OCR issued 33 no-
tices of intent to initiate administrative pro-
ceedings to terminate funds and actually
proceecled to hearings in only a few cases
(U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1980~.
Five cases that involved employment dis-
crimination were referred to the Depart-
ment of Justice for prosecution through 1980,
but the department declined to act on any
of them (U. S. Commission on Civil Rights,
19801. As of 1980, no school had ever lost
federal funds for noncompliance (Project on
the Status and Education of Women, 1981~.
In 1981 the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
reported that, although the Office for Civil
Rights, then the authorized enforcement
agency, had made improvements, enforce-
ment of Title IX was still unduly slow and
at times inadequate (Project on the Status
and Education of Women, 1981~. In the same
year, an evaluation by the National Advisory
Council on Women's Educational Programs
(1981) concluded that progress had oc-
curred, but offered only anecdotal evidence
documenting this conclusion.
Studies of particular enforcement regions
OCR for page 114
114
WOMEN'S WORK MEN'S WORK
trace the consequences of enforcement in-
activity (Miller and Associates; Michigan
Department of Education; both cited in U.S.
Commission on Civil Rights, 19801. A study
of one region found few of the schools in full
compliance and many exerting only minimal
efforts to comply. This poor record resulted
partly because they had not received ade-
quate information regarding their obliga-
tions or the guidelines for implementing the
requirements, but also partly because they
did not take the threat of sanctions seriously.
The U. S. Commission on Civil Rights (1980)
found that when both OCR staff and recip-
ient institutions knew that sanctions would
not be imposed, the former pressed in ne-
gotiations for compromise rather than fills
compliance. According to the Commission
on Civil Rights, several studies have shown
that adequate technical assistance, particu-
larly in self-evaluation, promotes voluntary
compliance, but that this assistance has not
oRen been offered by OCR staff.
In sum, the OCR has been criticized as
being slow to issue guidelines and process
complaints and for showing little commit-
ment to discovenng violations or helping
institutions prevent them (U. S. Commission
on Civil Rights, 1980~. ii No research exists
ii In view of the minimal enforcement efforts, it is
perhaps not surprising that changes regarding employ-
ment in educational institutions covered by Title IX
have not been dramatic. In 1974 women were 13 per-
cent of elementary and secondary school principals;
four years later their share of these jobs had increased
by 1 percentage point (National Advisory Council on
Women's Educational Programs, 1981). Between 1972-
1973 and 198~1981, the number of female school su-
penntendents increased from 65 in 13,000 (Brenner,
1981) to 154 in 16,000 (National Advisory Council on
Women's Educational Programs, 1981). Women col-
lege faculty, usually covered by Title IX as well as the
amended Executive Order 11246 and Title VII of the
1964 Civil Rights Act, showed prowess on some di-
mensions, such as salary, but the sex disparity in the
percentage who were tenured widened (Astin and Sny-
der, 1982).
that has statistically estimated the impact of
Title IX on sex equity in higher education.
The law was passed when strong political
pressure pushed for sex equity in education,
and its passage may have fileled that move-
ment. Women's participation in professional
and postgraduate education has increased,
and sex segregation across college majors has
declined (see Chapter 31. Research has not
established, however, the extent to which
Title OX has contributed to these changes.
Exemplary Programs
We located little research assessing spe-
cific programs to combat occupational sex-
role stereotyping in secondary schools. Ac-
cording to a review by Evenson and O'~eill
(1978), the following factors contribute to
the effectiveness of such programs: in-ser-
vice training for school staff, basing course
content on students' actual experiences, early
intervention, providing follow-up support,
and involving parents in support networks.
For example, Project Eve in the Houston
school system, which provided information,
counseling, and encouragement to high
school girls, resulted in increased female en-
roliments in every vocational course, and
dramatic increases in auto mechanics, met-
als, radio and television, plumbing, and air
conditioning courses (Evenson and O'Neill,
1978~. The importance of institutional in-
volvement is suggested by the fact that one
review (Beach, 1977) could locate no in-
stance in which individual teachers or coun-
selors initiated change on their own.
Evaluations of programs to increase gids'
enrollment in mathematics courses and to
encourage women's participation in science
and engineering suggest that some have been
quite effective. For example, in an experi-
ment in which fourth through sixth graders
were asked to figure out how science toys
worked (described in Rossi, 1965), some girls
were reluctant to take part, explaining that
girls were not supposed to know about such
OCR for page 115
REDUCING SEX SEGFtEGAT10N IN THE WORKPLACE
things. The children's teachers ant! parents
were informed of this result and its impli
cations for the girls' understanding of sci
ence. When the experiment was repeated
the following year, girls did the task willingly
and with apparent enjoyment, and the sexes
performed almost identically. Some reme
dial programs serve adult women who are
either returning to school or in the labor
force; others at the secondary level attempt
to change the learning environment or at
titudes of girls, their teachers, or parents.
A mode] remedial program demonstrably in
creased women's career aspirations (Ernest,
1976; MacDonald, 19809.
Effective programs use various tech
niques, including female instructors who
serve as role models or mentors and prein
struction counseling to reduce any anxiety
toward mathematics. Casserly (1982) sur
veyed several high school programs to de
termine what factors were most effective in
encouraging girls' study of mathematics.
More important than parents or peers were
teachers, especially those with a mathe
matics or science background (rather than a
background! in mathematics education), with
advanced degrees, and with prior profes
sional employment that used their math
skills. Adult role models also apparently il
lustrate the value of mathematics. Fennema
(1983) found that young women avoided
mathematics courses because they were less
likely than men to believe that math is use
fi~l, and that a brief intervention chant
that belief. The evidence that all-female
classes are more effective is rather strong
(Fox, 1981; Casserly, 1982~. At the aggregate
level, several data sets show a narrowing of
the sex differential in mathematics back
grouncI: 1960 Project Talent data revealed
that 9 percent of the girls and 33 percent of ~
theboystookfouryearsofhighschoolmath- mode! projects designed to increase wom
ematics; the 1977-1978 National Assessment en's participation in engineering have been
of Educational Progress data for 1,776 high more effective than those oriented toward
school seniors showed considerable conver- science (Lantz et al., 19821. Several expla
gence: 31 percent of the boys and 27 percent nations for this difference are possible. Not
115
of the girls had four years of math (Brenner,
19811. It seems unlikely that these changes
are due primarily to special programs, but
many such programs have been demonstra-
bly successful (Fox, 19811.
Since 1974 the National Science Foun-
dation (NSF) has supported experimental
programs to encourage women to pursue
careers in science, mathematics, and engi-
neering. In 1976 Congress authorized NSF
to develop methods to increase the flow of
women into scientific careers. Over the next
four years, NSF funded programs at 99 col-
leges and universities as well as a Visiting
Woman Scientist Program for high school
students. Evaluation indicated that high
schools welcomed the women scientists' vis-
its, which encouraged girls to seek infor-
mation about scientific careers (Lantz et al.,
1980~. NSF also supported programs to pre-
pare women with bachelor's or master's de-
grees in the sciences to enter and find
employment in fields in which women were
markedly underrepresented. Extensive
evaluation indicates that these programs also
were very successful. Lantz's conclusions re-
garding successfill programs to encourage
women to pursue scientific careers probably
hold also for nonscience programs: they
should identify and eliminate barriers in the
workplace, alter management's perceptions
of women's potential contributions, increase
women's understanding of what employers
want, and create support systems for women.
In 1981 the National Science Founclation
Authorization and Science and Technology
Equal Opportunities Act was passed to fur-
ther encourage full participation by women
and minorities in scientific, engineering, and
technical fields. Preliminary evaluations of
some of the programs NSF has supported
under this and the 1976 act suggest that
OCR for page 116
116
WOMEN'S WORK MEN'S WORK
only did the engineering schools as a group
cooperate, but a bachelor's degree in en-
gineering is often a terminal degree that
qualifies the holder for a job, and job op-
portunities recently have been excellent.
Concision
The impact offederal laws prohibiting dis-
crimination in federally supported public
education on reduced sex segregation in the
workplace is difficult to measure, but it is
probably not large. Implementation of Title
IX has been slow, and few school districts
or universities have been reviewed for com-
pliance with the law. The decline in sex dif-
ferences in various educational achievements
during the 1970s cannot be directly attrib-
uted to the existence or enforcement of an-
tidiscrimination laws, although some state
and regional studies show a link between
amount of enforcement of Title IX and
changes in certain indicators. In general,
little scientific research has been carried out
to evaluate the effectiveness of various pro-
grams to combat occupational sex stereo-
typing in the schools. Sundry evidence
suggests that when decision makers are com-
mitted to sex equity, staff are more coop-
erative and change more likely. Evaluation
of programs designed to encourage girls and
women to study mathematics and science
have shown them to be effective. Generally,
the evidence suggests that small programs
funded under sex equity laws have been more
likely to succeed than large-scale interven-
tions, probably because of the difficulties in
ensuring the implementation of the latter at
the local level.
INTERVENTIONS TO ACCOMMODATE
FAMILY RESPONS~=TIES
We noted in the previous chapter that,
despite mixed empirical evidence linking
women's work in family care to specific labor
market outcomes such as job segregation and
lower wages, it seems likely that the tradi
tionally greater responsibility of women for
family and child care and housework affects
their labor market participation in a variety
of ways. Interventions by the federal gov-
ernment aimed at changing the traditional
division of labor between the sexes have been
virtually nonexistent, but in recent years
some effort has been directed toward at-
tempting to accommodate women's respon-
sibilities, particularly for children, to their
wage-work lives. For the most part, these
accommodations have also been available to
men.
Before fuming to them, however, we point
out that several long-established areas of
federal policy actually reinforce the tradi-
tional division of labor between women and
men. The federal income tax system (and
many state systems as well) treat the family
as the tax-paying unit and use a progressive
rate structure. As Gordon (1979a) and others
have pointed out, these two practices tend
to discourage the labor market participation
of secondary family earners, usually women.
Because wives generally earn less than their
husbands, their earnings are viewed as the
additional or marginal earnings, which are
taxed at higher rates because of the pro-
gressivity of the tax structure. Although the
joint taxation of the husband and wife and
the income-splitting provisions of the fed-
eral tax code benefit families with a non-
wage-earning wife, they actually provide a
disincentive to the married working couple
who pay higher taxes together than if they
were not married. This marriage penalty is
generally greatest when husbands and wives
earn similar incomes in the middle and up-
per income ranges. It has come under in-
creasing scrutiny in recent years, as
increasing numbers of women work for
wages. Despite the recent addition of a tax
credit for working spouses, however, the
penalty has not been entirely eliminated.
The social security system also rewards the
traditional family at the expense ofthe work-
ing couple (Gordon, 1979b). Again because
women's earnings tend to be lower than those
OCR for page 117
REDUCING SEX SEGREGATION IN THE WORKPLACE
Of their husbands, women often receive
higher retirement benefits by Liaising the
benefits they are entitled to as spouses rather
than those based on their own earnings. In
essence this means that the return a wife
gets on her payments as a worker over her
lifetime are nil. In general, working couples
get a lower return to their social security
payments than do single-earner couples.
Such policies, while they may not contribute
directly to job segregation by sex, provide
negative incentives to wo~nen's paid e~n-
ployment in general and accordingly prob-
ably affect women's careers at work as well.
Child Care
Except during periods of war and depres-
sion, the role of the federal government in
providing organized child care has been small
(U. S. Department of Labor, Mannower
Administration, 19751. Over the past 20
years, however, the federal government ant!
some private employers have tried to reduce
the constraint that the lack of child care rep-
resents for many women. The federal efforts
have included both direct subsidies to child
care centers as well as tax credits to parents
and tax incentives to employers. Federal
legislation that provides funds for child care
services sought to reduce poverty by en-
abling low-income mothers to participate in
job training programs or enter the labor force.
These programs included Head Start, Aid
to Families With Dependent Children,
WIN, and CETA (U. S. Department of La-
bor, Manpower Administration, 1975 U. S.
Department of Labor, Women's Bureau,
1982b).~2 But these programs have been
helpful to varied and often limiter] degrees
(U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1981b).
For example, CETA programs were locally
|2 Other federal programs me discussed in greater
detail in reports on day care by the U.S. Commission
on Civil Rights (1981b) and the Women's Bureau (U. S.
Department of Labor, Women's Bureau, 1982b).
117
administered, and unsler block grants most
local programs preferred to use their re-
sources in other ways that provided more
visible payoffs. No national data exist on the
number of women who received child care
under CETA since it was grouped with other
social services supported with CETA funds.
Because these programs have been geared
toward low-inco~ne women, eligibility re-
quire~nents involve main income levels
that may actually restrict women's oppor-
tunities. The U. S. Commission on Civil
Rights report on child care and equal op-
portunity for women (1981b) noted instances
of women forced to turn down better-paying
and less sex-stereotyped jobs to avoid ex-
ceeding the allowable income and thus los-
ing eligibility for child care assistance.
Recently the federal government's policy
toward child care has shiRed from providing
direct support or subsidies to child care cen-
ters to offering tax credits to individuals and
providing incentives to employers. De-
pending on their income, employed parents
can deduct between 20 ant! 30 percent of
child care expenses from the taxes they owe,
thereby reducing the financial burden child
care represents. Not everyone can afford the
remaining costs or obtain acceptable care,
however. The 1971 Revised Order 4 that
the Office of Federal Contract Compliance
issued as a guideline for Executive Order
11246 recognized that federal contractors can
provide child care to employees as a form
of affirmative action. It does not require them
to do so, however, and it seems unlikely that
many have implemented the suggestion.
Branches of the military, in contrast with
other federal employers, have often provid-
ed extensive child care facilities (U.S. De-
partment of Labor, Women's Bureau,
1982b). Other public and private employers
also address employees' child care needs
through direct subsidies, on-site facilities,
sick-child programs, and participation with
other employers in child care consortia. In
1981 the Economic Recovery Tax Act re-
vised the Internal Revenue Service code to
OCR for page 118
718
WOMEN'S WORK, MEN'S WORK
allow employers to provide child care ser-
vices as a tax-free benefit to employees (Ka-
merman and Kingston, 19821. Both em-
ployees and employers report benefits from
workplace child care facilities (U. S. De-
partment of Labor, Women's Bureau,
1982b), including a decline in turnover and
absenteeism, improved employee morale
ant] productivity, and public relations and
recruiting benefits to the company.
Flexible Work Scheduling
Employers can also mitigate the con-
straints that women's child care responsi-
bilities place on their access to certain jobs
by permitting workers of both sexes flexi-
bility in scheduling their working hours. The
potential benefit to working parents of"flexi-
time" or related alternatives such as job shar-
ing and voluntary compressed workweeks is
obvious. A wide range of public and private
employers have experimented with permit-
ting employees more flexibility in schedul-
ing their working hours (Barrett, 19791. Many
federal agencies have instituted venous forms
of flexitime and recent civil service legisla-
tion requires that a certain proportion of
federal jobs be available on a part-time basis,
with all of the protections and benefits ac-
corded full-time workers. While we discov-
ered no assessment of the impact of flexible
work scheduling on women's access to tra-
ditionally male jobs, workers as well as su-
pervisors overwhelmingly judge experi-
mental programs as successful (Krucoff,
1981~. One project that sought to encourage
employers to permit flexible work sched-
ulinc; for welfare mothers participating in
workers, not only because many women de-
pend on these jobs for income, but also be-
cause the availability of well-paying, career-
enhancing part-time work would contribute
to a general reassessment of the allocation
of paid employment and family work be-
tween husbands and wives. Of course, flexi-
time and job sharing cannot foster women's
integration into predominantly male jobs or
men's greater participation in family work if
they are available primarily in the tradition-
ally female sectors.
CONCLUSION
During the 1960s and 1970s numerous
federal laws and regulations were enacted
and promulgated prohibiting certain forms
of discrimination in employment, training,
and education. Assessing their effect is not
easy. Enforcement agencies have had in
adequate resources and enforcement has
been uneven. Evaluation has not had a high
priority for agencies, and statistical attempts
are weakened by the difficulty of ruling out
alternative explanations. In particular, the
prominence of the women's movement dur
ing these same years, and its contributions
not only to the passage of the laws but also
to changes in attitudes and behavior, com
plicates the study of cause and effect. Never
theless, a variety of evidence suggests that
these remedies have contributed to ob
served decreases in occupational segrega
tion.
Several types of evidence, both direct and
indirect, demonstrate the impact of antidis
crimination laws and regulations in the em
ployment area. First, information about par
WIN garnered considerable cooperation ticular establishments against which
(U.S. Department of Labor, Employment enforcement agencies brought action or
and Training Administration, SYNC). rart
time work is more frequently available in
traditionally female jobs than others and is
often penalized by the lack offringe benefits
and advancement opportunities. Barrett
(1979) points out the importance of improv
ing the working conditions of part-time
~ _
And` ~about industries that were targeted for spe
cial enforcement efforts provide the most
direct evidence. Although compliance
agreements have often not been adequately
monitored, evidence for some cases (e.g.,
AT&T, the steel industry) shows clear in
creases in women's representation in jobs
OCR for page 119
REDUCING SEX SEGREGATION IN THE WORIULACE
that had been held almost exclusively by
men. Consiclerable change has also occurred
in women's participation in formerly pre-
dominantly male jobs in the three industries
that the Office for Contract Compliance Pro-
grams targeted for special enforcement ef-
forts: banking, insurance, and mining. Sec-
ond, in-depth studies of federal contractors
in construction revealed a broad consensus
that the goals required by contract compli-
ance regulations accounted for women's small
gains in construction jobs. Third, increas-
es sometimes dramati~in women's rep-
resentation in several male-dominated
professions (for example, accounting, engi-
neering, law) have been creclited by many
either directly or indirectly to affirmative
action. Fourth, after the Equal Employment
Opportunity Act (1972) extended the pro-
tection of Title VII to federal employees,
the representation of women in higher gracles
increased. Fifth, surveys of large establish-
ments indicated that awareness of federal
enforcement by top management is common
and is associated with successful programs
to integrate male-dominated jobs. Finally,
statistical studies of the effect of Title VII or
the executive order barring discrimination
by federal contractors show positive enforce-
ment effects. Although some ofthese studies
can be individually criticized, taken togeth-
er they suggest that antidiscrimination laws
have modest effects in the intended] direc-
tion.
With respect to employer initiatives,
companies have used a wide variety of mech-
anisms that were outside their normal per-
sonne} practices to place women in jobs sel-
dom held by them. Sometimes internal labor
markets including job requirements, sen-
iority systems, and job ladders had to be
restructured. In blue-collar jobs, success re-
qu~red innovative recruitment programs, in
some cases involving outside agencies that
specialized in preparing women for such po-
sitions. Pretraining and on-thejob training
proved to be very important, as did support
systems and involving immediate supervi
~9
sors in developing tactics. Increasing wom-
en's representation in managerial jobs de-
manded fewer special practices. In
organizations that were most successful in
broadening the occupational outcomes of
women, top-level management was typically
committed to equal employment opportu-
nity. Successful organizations set goals and
timetables, established monitoring systems,
and allocated sufficient resources.
Studies of women in apprenticeship pro-
grams inclicate that genuine affirmative ef-
forts, required by guidelines issued by the
Department of Labor in 1978, are effective
in attracting women to male-clominated pro-
grams, but that typical features of appren-
ticeship programs, such as age limits, clis-
courage women from participating in them.
Pretraining appears to enhance women's
chances to qualify for programs and to suc-
ceed within them. Available evidence sug-
gests that the regulations requiring equal
employment opportunity for women in fed-
erally registered apprenticeship programs
have contributed to women's small gains in
customarily male programs. Although en-
forcement has reportedly been minimal,
where good faith efforts have been made,
women's representation has increased. In a
few instances in which strong efforts were
documented (e.g., the maritime industry,
the construction industry in Seattle), wom-
en's gains have been more impressive. The
least progress has occurred in construction-
related programs, in which informal barriers
and employer resistance are reportedly high.
Since many of these programs fall under the
executive order for federal contractors, es-
tablished goals and enforcement tools exist;
their implementation has apparently been
problematic.
Federally fi~nded employment training
programs, evidence indicates, have done lit-
tle to reduce segregation. Although a 1978
amendment to the 1973 Comprehensive
Employment and Training Act (CETA) stip-
ulated that all programs contribute to elim-
inating sex stereotyping, most CETA pro
OCR for page 120
120
WOMEN'S WORK MEN'S WORK
grams were segregated by sex. Nevertheless,
CETA supported some very effective small
programs specifically geared toward training
women for sex-atypical occupations. Fed-
erally sponsorec! training programs have de-
monstrably fostered women's integration into
certain occupations when they were admin-
istered with this goal. The new programs
under the lob Training Partnership Act (ef-
fective in 1983) do not generally have effec-
tive EEO enforcement mechanisms.
Vocational education in the public schools,
which prepares many students for jobs, has
been highly sex-segregated since its incep-
tion. Although the effects of vocational ed-
ucation on students' subsequent employ-
ment outcomes are not well documented or
understood, it seems likely that vocational
education has helped to prepetuate sex seg-
regation in the workplace. The 1976 Voca-
tional Education Amendments addressed this
by requiring federally Ended vocational
programs to eliminate sex stereotyping and
sex discrimination and specifying mecha-
nisms for the individual states to achieve
these goals. The states have varied consid-
erably in their responses. In those that im-
plemented the regulations fully, female en-
rolIment in sex-atypical courses increased.
States with detailed plans including goals
and timetables have shown the greatest de-
cline in segregation. The varying degrees of
progress across the states indicate that fecI-
eral funds for desegregating along with a
legislative mandate is not enough. Active
monitoring of schools is essential.
Overall, segregation across major voca-
tional program areas has declined. Women
continue to be concentrated in stereotypi-
cally female programs, however, and most
integration has occurred in programs with-
out a strong masculine image, such as draft-
ing and graphic arts. The most successful
state programs have established a broad base
of support for women in mixed and nontra-
clitional courses. Effective local programs
have used affirmative action to attract stu-
dents and have developed procedures, such
as female role models and counseling, to
neutralize peer group pressures. They have
also cleveloped ties with the community, fos-
tered contacts with prospective employers,
and provided special training and support
services for vocational instructors.
Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amend-
ments was designed to protect students from
sex segregation in educational programs at
all levels, but its implementation was slow
and few school districts or universities have
been reviewed for compliance with the law.
Sex differences in various educational out-
comes (years of mathematics, college major,
graduate and professional study) clid decline
during the 1970s, however. Although these
declines cannot be directly attributer! to the
existence or enforcement of antidiscrimi-
nation laws, some state and regional studies
observed a link between enforcement of Ti-
tIe IX and women's gains on certain indi-
cators. Generally, however, little scientific
research has been carried out to evaluate
the effectiveness of programs geared toward
increasing sex equity in the schools. A few
evaluations do suggest the importance of
commitment by decision makers for genuine
efforts by staff and for real progress. In con-
trast to the limited assessments of the impact
of Title IX, evaluations of programs designed
to increase girls' and women's participation
in scientific and mathematics education in
particular, programs funded by NSF show
them to have effectively trained women in
these fields. We know less about their in-
direct impact on women's subsequent entry
into these fields, but in view of the strong
link between training and professional em-
ployment in science, it seems likely that Hey
have helped to reduce sex segregation in
scientific and technical occupations. The re-
sults for programs aimed at reducing sex
stereotyping and promoting sex equity in
education are consistent with those we have
seen for job training programs: small but
adequately funded programs are more likely
to show measurable success than large-scale
interventions, probably because of the dif
OCR for page 121
REDUCING SEX SEGREGATION IN THE WORKPLACE
.
ficulties in ensuring the implementation of
the latter at the local level. We must point
out, however, that despite the success of
several exemplary programs, there is no evi-
dence that the effects on sex segregation in
the workplace of federal laws prohibiting
discrimination in federally funded education
are large.
Improving women's employment oppor-
tunities by seeking to better accommodate
women's family responsibilities to the de-
mands of the work world has not been a
common domain of federal interventions.
Indeed, many federal policies, particularly
in income taxation and social security ben-
efits, tend to reinforce a division of labor
within the family in which one aclult takes
primary responsibility for wage earning and
one takes primary responsibility for family
care. These policies are increasingly prob-
lematic in an era when the majority of wom-
en work for wages throughout much of their
lives. In several surveys, women state that
lack of adequate child care limits their par-
ticipation in the labor market. While it is
not clear to what extent inadequate chilc]
care contributes clirectly to sex segregation,
improved availability of child care would no
doubt improve women's employment op-
portunities generally. We note that the im-
proved availability of chilc! care is important
for fathers and children as well as mothers.
Finally, we report and comment on recent
changes in civil rights policy and enforce-
ment. Several measures inclicate that the
federal enforcement effort has decreased
since 1980. According to the Office of Man-
agement and Budget, total government out-
lays for civil rights enforcement have de-
clined in real terms by 15 percent between
1980 and 1983. Moreover, since 1980, as
reported by Burbridge (1984), the number
of employment discrimination cases filed in
the courts has grown by more than 50 per-
cent, but cases filet! by the U. S. government
have declined by more than 25 percent. Bur-
bridge also reports that, in the OFCCP, al-
though the number of complaint investi
121
gations and compliance reviews completed
annually has increased stea(lily, the number
of administrative complaints filed and de-
barments has fallen, and the proportion of
cases closed without investigation has risen.
Similarly in the EEOC, the agency's budget
and number of authorized positions were
significantly reduced, the settlement rate feD
nearly 20 percent, and the no-cause rate
increased about 10 percent.
The evidence reviewed above suggests
that, in the employment area, quotas, goals,
and timetables have been important in in-
creasing opportunities for women and mi-
norities. At the same time, public opinion
is divided with respect to their efficacy and
fairness. With recent changes in the philos-
ophy and practice of federal civil rights en-
forcement, the current administration is
moving away from these remedies. Since
1981, for example, the Department of Jus-
tice has joined several cases to argue against
the use of quotas in hiring, promotion, and
layoffs. It has interpreted the Supreme
Court's decision in Firefighters v. Stouts (104
S.Ct. 2576 [19844) broadly, arguing that it
suggests that all court-ordered quotas are
illegal. Many civil rights lawyers believe the
decision applies only to court orders that go
beyond original consent decrees and that the
major impact of the decision will be on sen-
iority and rayons. To date the Justice De-
partment view has been rejected by the fed-
eral district and appellate courts. i3 The
]3 See EEOC v. Local ~8 . . . Local 28 of Sheet
Metal Workers' International Association, 759 F.2d
1172, 1185-86 (2d Cir. 1985); Turner v. Orr, 759 F.2d
817 (llth Cir. 1985); Vanguards of Cleveland v. City
of Cleveland, 753 F.2d 479 (6th Cir. 1985); Diaz v.
AT&T, 752 F.2d 1356, 1360 & n. 5 (9th Cir. 1985);
Janowiak v. Corporate City of South Bend, 750 F.2d
557 (7th Cir. 1984); Van Aken v. Young, 750 F.2d 43
(6th Cir.1984); Johnson v. Transportation Agency, 748
F.2d 1308, 1314 (9th Cir. 1984); Wygant v. Jackson
Board of Education, 746 F.2d 1152 (6th Cir. 1984),
cert. granted 104 S. Ct. (1985); Kromnick v. School
District of Philadelphia, 739 F.2d 894 (3rd Cir. 1984),
OCR for page 122
122
WOMEN'S WORK, MEN'S WORK
Department of Justice also changed its po-
sition on the Grove City College case, ar-
guing, in its second brief, for a narrow inter-
pretation of Title IX.
The evidence also shows that leadership
and commitment to equal opportunity and
affirmative action are important to their ef-
fective implementation. The recent changes
in the direction of federal civil rights policy
clearly signal a shift in the philosophy of
appropriate enforcement and remedies. Al
cert. denied, 104 S. Ct. (1985); Grann v. City of Mad-
*on, 738 F.2d 786 (7th Cir. 1984~.
though this shift is viewed by its proponents
as more effective in advancing their concept
of equal opportunity, some observers have
interpreted these changes as reduced com-
mitment to equal opportunity (Peterson
1985a, 1985b; Williams, 1985b). Obviously,
evidence about the effectiveness of the new
policy directions in terms of employment
opportunities for women and minorities is
not yet available. However, the evidence
discussed above suggests that policies intro-
duced during the preceding two decades
have been effective in improving employ-
ment opportunities for women and minor-
ities when adequately enforced.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
sex segregation
