What are the main trends among American women workers described in the Kahling article??

How have American women been affected by increased trade??
 

Have American women workers been affected by trade/globalization differently than men workers?
 
 

Why???
 
 
 

 
Changes in Women’s Workforce Participation over the Past Generation (30 years)

Women’s Workforce Participation
1975  46%
1990 59%

By 2010, women are expected to be 48% of the workforce (explain difference here)
 

Mothers Work
Mothers were primarily responsible for this increase!

Since the ‘90s, workforce participation of childless women has not changed.  Only mothers’ rate is increasing.

2000
70% of women with children under 18 work
63% of women with children under 3 work

Note here inverse patterns for men and women ages 25-34:  women with children were less likely to be in the workforce, but men with children are more likely to be in the workforce
 
Generation X Women:  You’ve come a long way, baby, or have you?

Gen Xers b. 1968-1977

Compared with same age cohort in 1975, Gen Xer women have higher rates of workforce participation, more years of education, higher earnings, and more benefits.

Workforce participation of women 25-34 has increased by 20% since 1975

The Price
Gen X women less likely to be married and be mothers than their 1975 counterparts

 
Occupational Status
Which sectors are overwhelmingly women?
Health Services, Educational Services, Social Services

Occupational Segregation
42% of women professionals work in professions where women comprise 80% or more of the workers
e.g., dietician, librarian, nurse, pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and elementary teaching

Men are over 80% of the workers among clergy, dentists and engineers

How’s your typing??
98.4% of the secretaries in the US are female (2001)

 
Differing Effects of the “business cycle”
 

Unemployment –
Note that women’s unemployment was higher than men’s until the early 1980s

What changed??
 
 

How has privatization of government services affected women??
 
 

The Wage Gap
Women’s earnings as a percent of men’s

1955   63.9%
1965   59.9 %
1975   58.8%
1985   64.6%
1995   71.4%
2000   73.3%