For the first time in history, women make up 50% of the American workforce, according to a study released last month. The news comes as no surprise. We’ve been headed in that direction for a generation. Yet, when examined in historical context, reaching statistical equilibrium happened in warp speed.
It took centuries to get the ball rolling, but in the last 30 years alone, the rate of women in the workforce shot from one-third to one-half. Nearly 45% of families with children in 1975 were supported exclusively by a husband/father. By last year, that figure had dropped to 20.7%, with more than 43% of families featuring double earners, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Shriver Report was conducted by California First Lady Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress, and it provides extensive commentary on the workplace shift and on how society has adjusted, or not adjusted. Ten days after the study’s release, Time Magazine’s Oct. 26 cover story, “The State of the American Woman,” kept the conversation going in the blogosphere by pointing out the continuing struggle over issues like equal pay for equal work and family-friendly workplace policies.
Ideas have abounded about what the public and private sectors should do, but one thing is certain: Working women are here to stay. It’s as much a social norm as it is an economic reality.
“We’ve been seeing this trend coming for a long time,” says Tulane University Professor Beth Willinger, the former director of the Newcomb College Center for Research on Women and a member of the Louisiana Women’s Policy and Research Commission. “The amazing thing is that we haven’t seen enough movement to make conditions more family-friendly. We haven’t yet made the shift.”
The average citizen feels pretty good about the evolution. A Rockefeller/Time poll completed in September suggested the battle of the sexes is over, with men and women in agreement that the steady increase of working women is acceptable. [It was higher among Democrats at 88% compared to Republicans at 68%.]
The debate on whether women should work has been replaced by a new one in which dual earners and single parents spend their time negotiating a system still largely designed for sole breadwinners.
Willinger has studied the issue closely in New Orleans, a city where women already occupy a higher percentage of workers than men, albeit a condition caused by poverty rather than social advancement. Like the scholars in the Shriver Report, she argues that reforms need to take place to help the nation adjust to a workforce that looks completely different than it did 30 years ago.
Child care is a good example. The U.S. is the only industrialized nation without a national child-care policy, despite the utter dependence of most working families on day care. A streamlined policy could raise standards and provide subsidies to those who need it.
Some progress has been made in Louisiana. Department of Social Services Secretary Kristy Nichols announced in September reforms to adjust the licensing process for facilities and to make it easier for DSS to close repeat violators of state regulations. The department announced the closure of 12 child-care facilities that month, including two in Baton Rouge. The DSS Web site provides regulatory information on every facility it licenses.
Willinger believes the state also should push for tax credits for businesses to offer child-care facilities on site. Furthermore, child-care subsidies would provide incentives for low-income, single women to enter the workforce earlier—an ongoing challenge in Louisiana.
The state already has a commission charged with the advancement of women, the Louisiana Women’s Policy and Research Commission, launched by former Gov. Mike Foster. The entity, however, has historically focused on domestic violence rather than on building the economic capacity of women, or on promoting employer incentives like flex time, telework and other options that value families while ensuring productivity. Domestic violence deserves every ounce of attention it gets, but it’s time Louisiana broadened advocacy to include working families.
Women aren’t going to quit work—most can’t afford to. The question is how we are going to build a better way of doing business?
