Susan Heatherfield Women And Work Summary

Women and Work

Summary

In the article, "Women and Work: Then, Now, and Predicting the Future for Women in the Workplace" Susan Heatherfield discusses women experiences in the workplace from the 1950's to the present day. In 1950, there were less women participating in the labor force because most jobs were given to men. Today that is not the case because the number of women in different careers has increased rapidly due to obtaining higher education. With the increasing number of women in the work place, women have had opportunities to different occupations such as high tech occupations. Even though there still is a major problem for women and equality in the work place, women have went against societal norms and strived for greater
"In 1950 about one in three women participated in the labor force. By 1998, nearly three of five women of working are were in the labor force". Most high salary careers were given to men which resulted in women taking jobs in factories for low wages. As more women were added to the labor force, there was greater opportunities available for women in 1998. This has made it much easier for women today to go into careers of their choice. "Among 1998 high school graduates, more women then men enrolled in college". Women are now making it a priority to go to college and receive higher education for themselves. For women with college degrees this meant more money, whereas women without a post secondary education there was little room for advancement. Today women are now going into careers that most would have never imagined in the 1950's and with higher education more opportunities are available to women. Careers like engineering and mechanism occupations will have one of the highest paying salaries in the future due to increasing amount of software and technology being introduced. "Employment of women has lagged in the most of the high tech occupations that show promise for future growth". Because most men go into him tech occupations, women are discouraged to go into these careers because they feel there will be no growth for
Guidelines from the Equal Employment Opportunity exist today to create equality among all employees and should be enforced by all employers. Employers should also provide family friendly solutions fro working people especially since so much has changed since the 1950's Now with so many single parent households, solutions need to include flexible business hours, child care, and reasonable maternity and paternity leave. With employers following these guidelines there will be more women willing to work in different