Social Indicators of Women's Status in America

November 30, 2012 | Social Indicators of Women’s Status in America | -- | | Rachel Herrera | 11/30/2012 |

The progress of women in America in the fields of; Education, Employment and income |

Rachel Herrera
Sociology 106
Chhuon
11-30-2012
Social Indicator of Women’s Status When you think of minority groups in American a few groups might pop into mind. Maybe African-Americans, Mexican-Americans or even Native-Americans would come first. But for centuries women of every race, color, and ethnicity’ in America have been cheated out of holding equal ground alongside men. For years the dominant role for women has been nearly non-existent in almost all aspects like; education, employment and income. And now after hundreds of years have we seen the gap between men and women in these fields start to close, though we are not quite there yet to make it disappear. For many years education among boys and girls was divided. They either physically attended entirely different schools or their curriculums were separated in so-called “coeducational” (Parrillo, 2009, p. 480) schools. These shared the same grounds, but held separate entrances for the boys and girls. Academic schooling for women was thought to be a waste of time. So instead women studied other things like; morals and social graces which include manners and etiquette. Although females have overcome all those setbacks, sexism is still prevalent in classrooms today. Male career goals and aspiration have been held to a higher standard than woman in the classroom. Though it is not their fault, because sub-conscience reinforcement from student counsel and even children’s books. They give the impression that boy’s are to be adventurous and thrill/success seeking. This would result in them to creating things and/or achieving higher education and higher paying jobs. On the other hand, girls were advised to be more passive, and should focus on things like sewing or cooking. This has really taken a toll on the self-esteem and confidence of these young girls. Although women educators’ are the vast majority in America, they tend to lean towards sexual-stereotyping in their classrooms. Allowing boys to be more rambunctious like shouting out in class for answers and considered them as risk taking. This was considered rude if girls attempted. On the other side they were more likely to be praised on things such as neatness. Though gender-bias has become less of an issue in today’s schools, it is still a prevalent and is trying to eliminated by raising the issue and pushing for things like children’s publications to make their books gender-neutral. So young women can too, hold high aspirations and goals for their future, and not just believe that boys get to have all the fun. Men still remain the dominant number in college majors that fall under the physical science and computer technology fields. While females received degrees like; education, health services and home economics. But in a recent study conducted in 1991, women surpassed men in college enrollment, and that differential ratio is steadily growing apart and is even wider for African- American men and women. Though only among the Asian community did the male enrollment rate surpass women. Throughout the mid 1990’s women have drastically participated more in the workforce, but has somewhat remained the same since then. Another major factor that determines whether a woman will join the workforce is if she has any children, and even more so if the children are between the ages of 6-13. That’s up 52 percent since 1975. Which only had about 37 percent, and that gap also remains even larger among African-Americans. Although workforce among men has declined women are less likely to be a part of the labor force than men who are so prevalent, but when they do take part in the labor force they are more likely to just be part time. But by 2009, 59 percent of working-age women in America were in the labor force. Although women persist to spend more time in activities that involve taking care of loved ones; and are also do more volunteer work than men. And even though women have made enormous advances in education and the labor workforce, they still remain underpaid compared to men doing the same tasks. In part, this is so because men and women occupations still differ, with females remaining prevalent in low-wage and female dominant occupations. Because a woman’s wage is less, and because two-income homes have higher earnings, a family upheld by a woman’s income alone is far less than two-income/married households. Also a large issue that holding woman to a lower standard is more commonly called the Glass Ceiling which is “unseen discriminatory policy among companies that limits the upward mobility of women, keeping them out of top management positions high-profile transfers and key assignments” (Parrillo, 2009, p. 485). Women remain out of upper management positions like vice president and CEO’S, and were better of striving for middle management ranks like; assistant vice president and other office managers. Since the mid 1990’s, woman’s equality in the work place has been improving gradually. Women were becoming chief executive officers (CEO’s) of fortune 500 companies by 2006. The amount of women employed, and the income that they bring in differs from occupation to occupation. In 2009, almost a million women who were employed as cashiers earned, at the median about 400 dollars per week. While the 92,000 women employed as pharmacists had median weekly earnings of about 1,500 dollars. Nearly 2 million women worked as middle and elementary school educators, and similar amounts were employed as registered nurses; the median weekly earnings for women in these two occupations were around 900 dollars and 1,035 dollars respectively (chart in reference). But women in the workforce now face issues that their male counterparts never really had issues with, Being a Mommy. Choosing the career oriented life-style leads to; promotions, frequent travel, and commitment to a 60 hour work week. Executives may even opt out being commited to your rising throughout the company fearing that your homelife will interfere with future work. Many women feel the need to choose between the two lives fearing the one of the other will not be tended to adiquitlly. Like for mother of 2 Cheryl Nevins who is quitting her career to become a stay at home mom to tend to her two children and the third that is on the way. "I just want to spend more time with my children," Nevins said. The percent of workforce participation by married women who have children less than a year old fell from 59 percent in 1997 to 53 percent in 2000. A dramatic change, although it impacts only a small group. The choice of being a mother usually forces women to opt of of achieving occupational goals. Thus resulting in women risking their career mobility. Although of course these strains do not pertain to men in the workforce, and that nine out of ten male exectutive have children of their own.

Women in the United State of America have come great distance to achieve equality among their male counterparts. Though Our journey is not over, there is great hope that one day we will be able to dream and achieve our childhood goals. And not let them be tainted by the inequality in such places as; education, employment, and our income. As todays and yesterdays women must fight through. But history shows that we are on out way to becoming equal.

Referrences;
--- Parrillo, V. 2009. Strangers to These Shores: Race and Ethnic Relations in the United States. 9th ed. New York: Allyn & Bacon, Inc.
---“Professional Moms Quit Work for Motherhood” http://abcnews.go.com http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cwg/data-on-women#Employment ---”Women at Work” (March 2011) http://www.bls.gov http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2011/women/ (in addition to the chart below) http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=127965&page=1#.ULmkH6xWyuJ ---“Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being” (2011)http://www.whitehouse.gov

(note: I tried my best to gather information for the citations, but on the webites they did not have the authors names posted for the article or the dates on some)