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PartI
Overview
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Technology, Women, and Work:
Policy Perspectives
ELI GINZBERG
THE CHANGING ROLE OF AMERICAN WOMEN
In the mid-1950s, the National Manpower Council decided
by only a single vote that "womanpower" was a subject worth
exploring (National Manpower Council, 1957~. And in the early
1960s, when Barnard College required that its students attend
a series of lectures on jobs and careers, my lecture elicited] only
bored faces and clicking knitting needles. Most of the students
were not interested in the advice that ~ offered: to study calculus
and to gain mastery over the quantitative approaches in one of the
natural or social sciences, which, ~ assured them, would provide
them not only access to a job, but to a job with prospects. Early
in the era of the feminine mystique, their minds and emotions
were focused in other directions (Ginzberg and Yohalem, 1966;
Ginzberg et al., 1966~.
These recollections are presented to contrast with the situation
today, when many college-educated women are studying a broader
range of subjects and are making an increasing commitment to the
labor force. The growing importance of women in the U.S. labor
market, where they now account for 43 percent of all workers, a
3
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4
POLICY PERSPECTIVES
percentage that continues to grow, is a recent phenomenon. But
during this short time—since around 1950- there have been many
striking changes in the relation of women to work. Witness the
following:
.
Over half of all women aged 16 to 64 work, and the pro-
portion is almost two-thirds for those who are at the end of their
childbearing period.
~ Although it is true that more women than men work less
than full-time, year-round, most women who work, like most men
are regular workers who hold full-time jobs.
~ Gender remains a critical determinant of the types of jobs
and careers available to,~vomen, but it is not nearly as strong a
discrirn~natory influence as it was in the past. In law, medical, and
graduate business schools, women students account for at least
one-third of the graduates, up from less than one-tenth as recently
as the mid-1960s.
For the first time in the nation's history, women outnumber
men among students enrolled in colleges and universities.
~ In the third of a century since 1950, women have accounted
for three out of every five new additions to the labor force.
.
,,
The explosive growth of the service sector, which today
accounts for more than 70 percent of total employment and total
output, was both a cause and an effect of the availability of women
workers (Stanback et al., 1981~.
~ Although the antidiscrimination laws and regulations of
the 1960s and early 1970s and the changed attitudes and behavior
of employers opened up many hitherto restricted fields of work to
women (beyond the professions noted above), women continue to
be heavily concentrated in a narrow set of occupations. Some 20
fields account for two out of every three women workers.
~ Over the last half century the occupational group that
has experienced the most rapid rate of growth has been clerical
workers, which is a reminder of the need to consider not only the
broad potential impacts of technology but to narrow the focus to
specific technologies that are likely to have a strong impact on
women workers.
~ For the first time in the nation's history, white men no
longer constitute the majority of the work force. Women, together
with black, Hispanic, and other minority males, today account for
more than half of the work force.
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ELI GINSBERG
5
These observations suggest that our analysis pursue a middle
road. We must continue to be sensitive to the patterns that un-
derlie the place of women in the world of work, but we must also
consider that women account for close to half of the entire work
force and their future jobs and careers will therefore be affected by
the broad labor market developments that will affect all workers.
OBSERVATIONS ON CHANGING TECHNOLOGY
Technological changes are a way of life for industrial societies,
but most innovations involve changes in processes or products that
are relatively circumscribed. Even when a significant technological
improvement occurs, such as the discovery and manufacture of
nylon or the development of the electric typewriter, the impact
on the labor market is likely to be absorbed without serious job
losses, because among other reasons the lower price or improved
quality tends to increase demand. The number of jobs placed at
risk by even significant new technology is relatively small and is
likely to be stretched out over a period of years. Most textile
mills made the transition from natural to artificial fibers without
having to lay off large numbers of workers; the same was true of
some of the companies that had earlier manufactured standard
typewriters and had made the transition to electric, electronic, or
computerized typewriters.
There have been major technological breakthroughs, however,
such as the development of the railroad, the telephone, electric
power, the automobile, and the airplane, in which the impacts
on work and workers were more pervasive, although it should be
noted that these impacts were fully diffused only after long periods,
often decades or generations. Whereas we will soon celebrate
the hundredth anniversary of the first automobile, some outlying
families still are not connected to an electric grid, and in some
areas a home telephone is still not affordable by every family.
The development of the microprocessor and the linking of per-
sonal computers into communications networks are major techno-
logical breakthroughs that have the promise of affecting the U.S.
economy and way of life on the order of magnitude of the railroad
and the automobile. We must allow for the possibility that the
computer wiD prove even more revolutionary, since it has the po-
tential of altering not only the movement of people and goods but
the nature of work itself (Ginzberg et aI., 1986~.
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6
POLICY PERSPECTIVES
It must be emphasized, however, that no matter how dramatic
the new technology may become, it has been in existence for a third
of a century and it would be difficult to point to its having had
large-scale adverse effects on significant groups of workers, mate
or female, during that period. The most serious charges that can
be levied against it are that there have been "silent firings" (that
is, workers not hired) and other negatives such as some deskilling
of jobs, downscaling of opportunities, and health hazards. But to
date the new technology has been positively correlated with the
continued growth of the service sector and in particular with the
expansion of women's employment.
Of all the effects of economic forces on the labor market—
overall growth, cyclical change, structural shifts, and technological
change the last will surely be the least important a decade from
now. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that in the 1980s
only about 15 percent of the changes that occur in job struc-
ture will be ascribable to technology; 85 percent will be due to
the cyclical and structural movements of the economy (Kutscher,
1985~.
In sum, the following conclusions are evident: (1) women's
share of total employment has been mounting rapicIly and is likely
to increase further, until women account for half of all workers;
(2) this growth has been closely associated with the differentially
rapid growth of the service sector; (3) while women are no longer
as closely confined to a few major occupational fields, they re-
main heavily concentrated; (4) the microprocessor and computer-
communications linkages are likely to affect clisproportionately the
clerical arena in which women workers are heavily concentrated;
and (5) even if the new technology were to have a strong impact
on existing patterns of work, the consequences would be manifest
only over relatively long periods of time.
POLICY PERSPECTIVES
FRAMING THE ISSUES
As noted above, the single most important short-term deter-
mina~t of the labor market experience of women (in fact, all)
workers will be the growth rate of the U.S. economy and the tim-
ing and severity of the next recession. We are now in the fourth
year of recovery from two back-to-back recessions, which started
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7
in 1979 and ended in 1982. If past is prologue, there is only 1
chance in about 100 that, if President Reagan remains in office
throughout the whole of his second administration, the nation will
escape a new recession. At this time (August 1986), the outlook
for the year still appears to most forecasters to be positive. The
expansionary capacity of the economy does not appear as yet to
have met its potential. But it would be an error to overlook the
major economic problems that continue to exist: (1) the $900 bil-
lion debt of the less developed countries (LDCs); (2) the annual
$170 billion deficit of the United States in its foreign trade; (3)
the continuing high value of the dollar against many currencies;
(4) the federal budgetary deficits that loom ahead as far as one
can see; and (5) the still high real rate of interest. In my view,
if the leading industrial countries fad! to attack these five prob-
lems conjointly and effectively, the prospect of a severe recession
with large-scale labor market consequences is not only possible
but probable.
There is steadily accumulating evidence that the United States
and other advanced economies are confronting a sea change in
the internationalization of their economies as evidenced by the
following:
~ the spectacular spurt in imports to the United States from
the LDCs (with adverse effects in this country on many nondurable
manufacturing sectors with large numbers of women workers, such
as apparel manufacturing);
~ the relocation overseas of major labor-intensive jobs in
durable manufacturing such as electronic components (again with
a heavy impact on women workers);
~ the extraordinary transfer of capital funds to the United
States, mostly from Europe and Japan, part of which are for
investment in plant and equipment and part of which are held in
money market instruments;
~ the never-ending trade negotiations that are aimed, in the
short run, at protecting U.S. jobs (as in automobiles and steel)
and, in the longer run, at reducing tariff and nontariff barriers
in international trade (the United States has been taking the
leadership to expand the General Agreement on liade and Tariffs
[GATT] to include services, a high employment area for women
workers [Noyelle and Dutka, 1987~.
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8
POLICY PERSPECTI VES
As long as the U.S. economy remains expansionary, the odds
favor the maintenance, or even the reduction, of barriers affecting
international trade in goods and services. But, in my view, we are
dangerously close to a reversal of our long-term efforts to reduce
trade barriers. If the next recession is severe or prolonged, it is
probable that we wit] not be able to avoid new barriers. Since
the United States is the dominant market for the exports of both
developed and developing countries, we must exercise restraint to
avoid erecting new protective trade barriers. The decade of the
1930s provides one salient example of beggar-your-neighbor policy.
The lessons learned have helped to set and keep the developed
world on the path to freer international trade, but there is a
growing risk that these lessons have begun to fade.
The most important question with regard to the future impact
of technology on women's employment is whether the sanguine re-
sults of the last 20 years can be projected to the remaining years of
this century and beyond. The optimist might contend that there
is no reason to expect more "disturbance" in the years ahead than
we have experienced over the past two decades, which saw the
computer revolution resulting in few, if any, dysfunctional effects.
The pessimist, of course, sees the future differently. In his or her
view, the linkage of the computer to communications networks,
which is only now hitting its stride, will have a range of adverse
consequences for women's employment: first, by eliminating a
number of white-collar positions, and second, by making possible
the further relocation of many back-office positions from central
cities to the suburbs, to distant communities, and also to overseas
locations, particularly to English-literate populations. The pes-
sim~st goes further and points to the downskiDing of jobs and the
degrading of careers that often accompany accelerated computer-
ization.
As an iconoclast, ~ am unpersuaded by either the optimistic
or the pessimistic forecast. There are three key elements in my
view of the future.
First, the computer revolution has reached a point where
it is likely to have a greater "displacements effect on women's
employment over the next 15 years than it has had in the past.
A simple projection of the past fails to take into account the fact
that computer technology is now on a steeper curve; employers and
employees are more willing and able to adapt to it since more than
70 percent of all jobs are in the service sector. Moreover, since U.S.
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ELI GINSBERG
9
management is striving to become and remain cost-competitive in
the world marketplace, it must reduce its white-collar payrolls;
wider reliance on the computer offers reasonable prospects for
success in this effort.
Second, productivity can increase in the service sector. Over
the last half century, employment in agriculture has decreased
from 20 percent of the total labor force to under 3 percent; in
manufacturing, employment has declined from close to two-fifths
to under one-fifth. For many years neither the tools (computer)
and communications resources nor the organizational structure
and managerial know-how were available to run large organizations
without many layers of staff. further, we learned only recently how
to tie large numbers of small units, owned or franchised, into a
single organization, but today we are the worId's leader in these
structures—from hotels and fast food establishments to banks.
This experience has proved that earlier economists were wrong
when they said that services were immune to economies of scale
and postulated that they suffered from the "cost disease," with
continued dependence on additional labor resulting inevitably in
higher costs (Baumol, 1967~.
Third, the new products and services that may be developed
are as yet unknown. The expectation that the computer will
first slow, and eventually reverse, the absolute and relative gains
made by clerical workers in the past several decades is only one
aspect of the future. What remains uncertain is whether and how
quickly the computer-communications link-up is likely to generate
the creation of new products and services that will lead to the
employment of large numbers of new workers, both women and
men. One has to engage in a historical experiment and identify the
types of employment opened up by the widespread introduction of
the automobile from the tens of thousands of people who obtained
new jobs in our national parks to millions of construction workers
who built homes in the suburbs. As the time period is extended
and the technology becomes more pervasive, it is more difficult
and less relevant to assess the impact of a new innovation on total
employment. Too many other factors intervene to influence the
outcome.
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POLICY PERSPECTIVES
TABLE 1 Large Occupations (more than 1 million workers) in Which Women
Accounted for at Least Half of All Workers, 1982
Occupation
All Workers Percent
(millions) Women
Registered nurses, dieticians, therapists
Teachers, except college
Sales workers, retail
Bookkeepers
Cashiers
Office machine operators
Secretaries
Typists
Assemblers
Food service workers
Health service workers (excluding nurses)
Personal service workers
Priorate household
1.7
3.3
2.4
2.0
1.7
1.1
3.8
1.0
1.1
4.8
2.0
1.9
1.0
92
71
70
92
87
75
99
97
54
66
90
77
97
NOTE: Civilians, 16 years old and over.
SOURCE: Bureau of the Census (1983:Table 696~.
ARE WOMEN WORKERS AT RISK?
The question of whether women workers are at risk is critical
for the reasons noted earlier, namely, that such a high propor-
tion of women workers are concentrated within a relatively limited
number of occupational groupings and they account for a differen-
tially larger number of all workers in selected industries. Tables 1
and 2 provide the critical data.
Two important points can be derived from Table 1. First,
the 13 occupational groups shown in the table account for more
than half of all women workers. Second, the six occupational fields
dominated by women (90 percent or more of all workers) account
for one out of every four women workers. What the table does not
show is that the occupational distribution of men workers is much
less concentrated.
Since our primary concern is to assess the probable impact
of technology on women's employment in the remaining years of
this century, it may be helpful to consider what happened in
the years 1972-1982 to the female-dominated occupational areas,
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ELI GINSBERG
11
particularly those areas in which technology in general and com-
puter technology specifically have made significant advances. The
total number of sales workers remained stable during the years
1972-1982, as did the proportion of women workers. There was a
significant increase in the number of bookkeepers, from 1.6 mil-
lion to 2.0 million, and the share of women in the field increased
from slightly under 90 percent to slightly over this proportion.
The number of cashiers increased at a far higher rate than the
number of bookkeepers, from 1.0 million to 1.7 million, but there
was no increase in the proportion of women, which remained at
87 percent. Office machine workers expanded from under 700,000
to 1.l million, and the proportion of women increased from 71 to
75 percent. There was a modest increase in the number of factory
assemblers, from 1.022 million to 1.087 million, and the share of
women increased from 47 to 54 percent.
Several points are worth noting. In a number of fields in
which women workers predominated, total employment (men and
women) increased significantly. For the most part, the proportion
of women workers as a percentage of all workers did not change
appreciably. Most important, none of the data suggest that the
computer and related technology displaced large numbers of work-
ers in fields where women were heavily concentrated.
We can supplement our understanding of what transpired
In the recent past by looking at employment in industries where
women account for half or more of all employees. Table 2 illustrates
that, with the single exception of private household employment,
which sustained a decline of one-half million, the industries char-
acterized by a predominance of women workers expanded in the
years following 1970.
The optimistic implications of this recent experience with re-
spect to total employment trends and their impact on women
workers, however, must not be uncritically projected into the fu-
ture. It is important to review the projections to 1995 of the
Bureau of Labor Statistics [BES]. Table 3 presents the 8 femaTe-
dominated occupational categories of the 13 categories for which
the BES foresees the largest job growth: secretaries, nurses' aides,
salespersons, cashiers, professional nurses, office clerks, waitresses,
and kindergarten and elementary school teachers. Each of the
above categories will add, according to the BES, between 230,000
and 560,000 new jobs by 1995. Together they account for 20 per-
cent of all anticipated job growth. Most of these occupations are
.
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POLICY PERSPECTIVES
TABLE 2 1970 and 1982 Employment in Industries in Which Women Accounted
for at Least Half of All Workers in 1982
Industry
All Workers
(millione) Percent Women
1970 1982 1970 1982
Retail trade 12.3 16.6 46 52
Finance, insurance, and real estate
Banking and finance 1.7 2.8 58 64
Insurance and real estate 2.2 3.5 45 52
Personal services
Private households 1.8 1.3 89 85
Hotels and lodging chains 1.0 1.3 68 66
Professional and related services
Hospitals 2.8 4.3 77 76
Health services 1.6 3.5 71 76
Teachers, all levels 6.1 7.6 62 66
NOTE: Civilians, 16 years old and over.
SOURCE: Bureau of the Census (1983:Table 698~.
TABLE 3 Female-Dominated Occupations with Largest Projected Job Growth,
1984-1995
Change in Total Percent of
Employment Total
Occupation (thousande) Job Growth
Cashiers 556 3.6
Nurses, registered 452 2.8
Waiters and waitresses 424 2.7
Nurses' aides and orderlies 348 2.2
Salespersons, retail 343 2.2
Teachers, kindergarten and elementary 281 1.9
Secretaries 268 1.7
General office clerks 231 1.4
SOURCE: Silvestri and Lukasiewics (1985:Table 3~.
not the most rapidly growing ones, but even a sIow-growing large
occupation adds more to women's employment.
The BES forecasts have held up reasonably well, at least in
total if not in all subsectors. But our concern here is with se-
lected areas where the new technology is likely to have its greatest
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ELI GINSBERG
13
impact and where both total employment and the proportion of
women workers are substantial. We will look more closely at
two industries, banking and hospitals, each of which reveals se-
rious difficulties in assessing the future impacts of technological
and other forces on women's employment. The computer and
computer-communications linkages, including satellites, have had
a head start in banking and finance, and the new technology has
also been making headway, although more slowly, in the admin-
istrative and financial, and more recently, in the clinical areas of
hospitals. Moreover, each industry has a large number of workers:
in 1982 banking and finance employed about 2.8 million workers,
of which women accounted for two-thirds, and hospitals employed
4.3 million individuals, with women accounting for three-quarters
of the labor force (see Table 2~.
Banking and Finance
One reason that it Is difficult to sort out clearly what has
been happening in banking and finance is the multiplicity of forces
affecting the employment profile. In addition to computers taking
over most of the number crunching from clerks, the number of
locations where such work is carried out has grown. The new
technology is also leading to changes in hiring standards. Most city
banks prefer high school and junior college graduates because they
have come to recognize that the dynamism of the new technology
will require the continuing retraining of staff. The high rate of
turnover of new employees, particularly women clerical workers,
has enabled most banks to accommodate the changes to date
without layoffs. But they have reduced new hires (Dutka, 1983~.
The foregoing is only part of the story. In the last decade, while
these changes were occurring in back-office work, many large city
banks were opening new branches, which required more personnel,
and most recently, with deregulation, they moved aggressively to
introduce a wide range of new financial services, adding many new
workers to fill expanding front-office jobs.
To complicate matters further, the narrowed spread between
the rates at which the banks have been able to borrow and to
lend, particularly in the early 1980s, caused an adverse effect
on their profitability and liquidity. In short, the changes from
the side of technology were dwarfed by cyclical and structural
alterations, which have buffeted and continue to buffet commercial
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POLICY PERSPECTIVES
banking. But we must be careful not to rn~nim~ze the technological
factors, since major structural transformations are under way that
will permanently transform conventional banks into providers of
financial services of which the full reach remains to be revealed.
A cautionary assessment of the technological impacts on wom-
en's employment in banking and financial services would have to
include the following:
~ A substantial reduction has already taken place in lower-
skilled clerical positions in insurance and banking as well as in the
other sectors of finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE).
~ It is likely that in addition to back-office clerical positions
that have already been relocated out of urban centers, additional
jobs will migrate to outlying areas and even overseas locations.
This trend will have a particularly adverse effect on the employ-
ment prospects of urban minority women.
~ The raising of hiring requirements will close out most op-
portunities for young women who do not possess at least a high
school diploma and preferably a junior college degree.
~ The likelihood that many middle management positions
will become redundant could have adverse effects on many women
who have been able to gain a toehold on the executive ladder.
~ In contrast to the foregoing, which are "downbeat" fore-
casts, allowance must be made for the extent to which the new
technology will continue to stimulate and possibly accelerate the
growth and development of new financial services for which there
will be a substantial and sustained demand.
Once this last potentiality is taken into account, there is a rea-
sonable prospect that the long-term employment effects of the new
computer-communications technology on women's employment in
FIRE will be positive, not negative (Noyelle, 1987~.
Hospitals and Health Care
Let us now look at what has been happening to women's
employment in hospitals and the likely changes in the future. First,
hospital employment increased in the 12 years after 1970 by no
less than 50 percent, from 2.8 million to 4.3 million, and in both
years women accounted for about three of every four members
of the work force. A little noted phenomenon in this period of
expansion in employment has been the trend of most acute care
institutions to raise the qualifications of their nursing staff and
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ELI GINSBERG
15
technicians by hiring and retaining those with more education and
training, a preference reflecting the increasing intensity of care and
the greater reliance on sophisticated technology. Many hospitals
have shifted their employment patterns in the direction of more
registered nurses and have reduced the numbers of practical nurses
and nurses' aides.
The introduction of the diagnosis-related group (DRG) sys-
tem for the reimbursement of Medicare patients has acted as a
major spur to hospitals to move aggressively to modernize their
administrative and financial record keeping via computerization.
Their survival hinges on how quickly they are able first to under-
stand their admissions and then control treatment regimens and
length of stay, since under DRGs they are paid a fixed price per
· -
ac mission.
As noted earlier, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and most
other forecasters assume that health care in general, and hospitals
in particular, will continue to be a major growth industry between
now and 1995. But that assumption must be inspected anew.
Hospital admissions have leveled oh; length of stay is dropping; the
financing of hospital care is being tightened by third~party payers
(government and insurance); and the DRG system is encouraging
all providers to tighten their cost controls, including their use of
personnel. In 1984 and again in 1985, total hospital employment,
instead of expanding, experienced a small decline.
With for-profit enterprises playing a larger role in the provision
of health care, the future structure of the federal government's
financing of Medicare still evolving, the numbers of older persons
requiring more care continuing to increase, medical knowledge and
techniques continuing to advance, and the shift from inpatient to
ambulatory settings accelerating, it would be a serious error to use
the past as guide to the future, especially if the focus is centered
on hospitals, not on the totality of health care services.
There is no question that the computer and other new tech-
nologies have already left their marks on the hospital indirectly.
The strong trend toward for-profit and nonprofit chains; the shift
from inpatient to ambulatory care settings; radical changes in sur-
gical procedures, particularly cardiac, ophthalmic, and urologic
surgery and many other changes have occurred during the pe-
riod of increased computerization, from the introduction of the
computer into medical education to its use in nurses' procedures.
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POLICY PERSPECTIVES
The combined influence and unpact of these technological
and related changes (economic, organizational, managerial) on
the positive employment of women hospital workers are not clearly
discernible, but the following may be considered a middle-oŁthe-
road assessment.
. The dominant view as of mid-1986 is that hospital employ-
ment has peaked and that a decline of up to 20 percent in hospital
employment over the next decade and a half is possible, some
would say, even probable. Clearly, such a decline would have a dif-
ferentially adverse effect on women workers because they account
for about 70 percent of all hospital employees and also are more
heavily concentrated in the lower-skilled occupational categories
that are most vulnerable to the inroads of the new technologies.
On the basis of selected field investigations in New York
City and in Boston, my associates and ~ have become aware of
the increasing trend of late for hospitals to cut back on hiring
less-educated and less-skilled persons. This means that minority
women who improved their employment prospects in the 1960s
and 1970s by obtaining jobs in hospitals are definitely at risk.
Some are being let go; many more who would have been hired in
an earlier period are not even being interviewed.
It is true that at the upper end of the occupational distri-
bution, women physicians and nurses with a master's or doctorate
degree are well positioned both with respect to employment and
advancement. On the other hand, the much bruited shortage of
nurses that commanded attention only 5 years ago has evaporated
with little likelihood that a shortage will reappear. Part of this
striking shift within such a short time period reflects the pressure
of the new resistant climate on hospital administrators anct their
ability through computerization to exercise much closer control
over their personnel costs, particularly their nursing personnel
costs.
For a more balanced overview, it should be noted that the
above relates solely to hospital employment, not to total employ-
ment in the health care sector. The latter Is likely to expand as
physicians treat more people in their offices and as more patients,
including patients who are quite ill, can now be cared for in their
homes. Women workers, in particular registered nurses, practical
nurses, technicians, and nurses' aides will unquestionably find that
jobs are expanding in these out-of-hospital settings. On the whole,
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ELI GINSBERG
17
total health care employment is expected to continue to increase.
A small percentage of women workers, those with higher-level
skills, will continue to advance; many more with limited skills will
have to work at less attractive jobs with little upward mobility
(Ginzberg, 1985~.
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
Currently, more than half of all adult women are in the la-
bor force and many more would probably work if suitable jobs
were available. Six major factors have accelerated the growing
importance of women workers in the U.S. economy during the
post-World War IT decades:
.
The need of the economy for more labor and the availability
of women willing and eager to fill such jobs.
~ The differentially rapid expansion of the service sector
whose employers were often seeking part-time workers while many
women preferred or were willing to take such jobs.
~ Many of the new service jobs in clerical work and sales
required individuals with a general education and little in the way
of specific skills. Women met these basic requirements.
~ In the long period of rapid expansion and high profits many
corporate employers built up large staffs. Declining profits and
the increased use of the computer have in recent years encouraged
employers to operate with fewer white-collar workers.
~ The increasing participation of women in work has been
paralleled by a greater percentage of women investing in higher
education so as to be able to improve their career prospects.
~ Despite these major changes in the relation of women to
the world of work, the earlier concentration of women workers in a
relatively few occupational and industrial groupings has continued
(although the concentration has been reduced). A high proportion
of all women workers continues to be employed in the service sector
at the lower end of the wage scale.
In light of these six principal changes in the shape of women's
employment, policy makers should focus on the following:
Full Employment Women, like men, need employment op-
portunities if they are to find jobs and enjoy career prospects. The
U.S. economy has been slack since 1979 as we have attempted to
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POLICY PERSPECTIVES
control inflation. We have redefined full employment in terms of
7 or 8 percent not 3 to 4 percent unemployment. Moreover, the
federal government, the only agency capable of affecting macro-
economic policy, has permitted the employment issue to drop off
its agenda, although the Humphrey-Hawkins Act obligates both
the Congress and the administration to address a host of job is-
sues. The first and most important contribution of policy makers
should be to strive to bring and keep the economy as close to
full employment as possible. At a minimum they should avoid
ill-advised actions such as new trade restrictions, radical reforms
in the tax structure, and excessively large defense programs, which
could reduce the capacity of the U.S. economy to move toward a
high and sustainable level of employment.
Continued; RED There is every reason for the government
and the corporate sector to maintain and increase their efforts to
strengthen their R&D structures. These hold the best promise for
the continuing growth and profitability of the U.S. economy in an
increasingly competitive world economy. Although new technology
has the potential for placing people's skills, jobs, and careers at
risk, the penetration of new technology usually proceeds at a rate
that permits adjustments to be made through retraining, attrition,
and early retirement rather than through job displacement. While
a rapidly penetrating new technology can on occasion result in
job losses, most workers who are displaced lose out because of the
inability of their employers to remain competitive, as has been the
case in steel, autos, apparel, and many branches of electronics.
Strengthened Education and Retraining Policymakers should
recognize that the best approach to the prevention of increasing
instability in the world of work is a strengthened educational sys-
tem that will enable workers to be properly educated, trained, and
retrained. The economy needs expanded government and corpo-
rate funding for retraining programs. The large numbers and high
proportion of young minority women, particularly in large urban
centers, who fail to graduate from high school, need special atten-
tion and help. As we noted, the new technology is leading large
employers to raise their hiring standards. Hence young women,
including teenage mothers who do not have high school diplo-
mas, may be permanently restricted to the peripheral labor force.
We need more and better second-chance programs such as the
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ELI GINSBERG
19
Job Corps. The Job Gaining Partnership Act is not adequately
responsive to the needs of the hard-to-employ.
A National Jobs and Education Program The advances in
computer-communications technology will, as we have seen, con-
siderably reduce the demand for clerical workers and result in the
relocation of many clerical jobs from large high-cost urban centers
to outlying and even foreign locations. These developments will
make it even more difficult for the urban high school drop-out to
fashion a permanent attachment to the labor force, particularly
in jobs that offer prospects of advancement. It may be desirable,
even necessary, for our society to reappraise the need for a na-
tional jobs program (with an educational component) that will
assist poorly educated young people to acquire work experience
and at the same time overcome their educational deficiencies. A
national jobs program- could also serve as an important bridge for
older women, particularly those who have been on and off welfare
for some period (Hollister, 1984~.
Continued LEO Enforcement There is no question that the
crowding phenomenon referred to above has been a major fac-
tor in keeping women's wages considerably below men's and in
limiting the opportunities of many to advance into better-paying
jobs and careers. Antidiscrimination legislation and administra-
tive procedures have made some contribution to reducing wage
discrimination, but the major positive force has been the expan-
sion of the economy and the willingness and ability of more and
more women to prepare for technical and professional careers. We
should continue to use legal and administrative techniques to re-
duce discrimination in the labor market, even while we recognize
that major gains to improve women's earnings and career oppor-
tunities depend primarily on the expansionary potential of the
economy. Of equal if not greater importance is the response of the
urban school systems. They currently fail to provide many low-
income women with a proper educational foundation without
which their entrance into and advance in the world of work will be
seriously circumscribed.
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20
POLICY PERSPECTIVES
Child Care No one who has reflected on women's employ-
ment con overlook the importance of strengthening the social ser-
vice infrastructure, particularly the expansion of child care facili-
ties. Most women who work must also care for their children and
run their households. Greater equity and career opportunities for
women require that society recognize that women workers carry
excessive burdens and seek to lighten these burdens (Economic
Policy Council of UNA-USA, 1985~.
A CONCLUDING NOTE
The thrust of the foregoing policy recommendations has been
to emphasize that the major preconditions for the continued ex-
pansion and improvement of employment opportunities for women
hinge on the continuing strong growth of the economy and on
strengthening the educational preparation of women for adult-
hood and for the world of work. A full employment policy and
strengthened educational system are the two principal founda-
tions for further progress. Supplementary support can come from
strong antidiscrim~nation mechanisms and from expanded child
care facilities.
However, it Is unrealistic to expect our economy, or any devel-
oped economy, to perform continuously at a high level of employ-
ment. Similarly, even a well-functioning educational system will
not be responsive to the needs of all young people. A significant
minority is likely to reach working age inadequately prepared for
the world of work. I`arge-scale shifts in markets and new tech-
nological breakthroughs introduce further disturbances that will
result in job losses, skill downgrading, and reduced earnings, even
while they also open up new opportunities for job growth, skill
improvements, and higher earnings. A responsible and responsive
democracy must act to assist those who are most vulnerable to
the inadequacies of our schools and the labor market. It can do so
by providing second-chance opportunities for the many who need
to improve their basic competences if they are to be successful in
obtaining a private-sector job; for interim public employment if
they are not capable of competing successfully for such jobs; and
for access to training and retraining in the event that they are
victimized by market or technological change.
Our society confronts a paradox that it can no longer ignore.
It cannot hold on to its conviction that all persons should work
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ELI GINSBERG
21
to support themselves and their dependents and at the same time
ignore the reality that many lack the required competences for
getting and holding jobs and that many others, competent others,
cannot find jobs. If we reaffirm our commatment to the work ethic,
we must see that everyone, men and women alike, who need or
want to work have an opportunity to do so.
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POLICY PERSPECTIVES
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
policy perspectives
