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Womens Role In The Economy

Womens Role In The Economy “The Transfer of Women’s Work from the Home to the Market” “The transfer of women’s work from the household to commercial employment is one of the most notable features of economic development” (Lewis, Historical Perspectives on the American Economy P. 550). In colonial America there was a distinct sexual division of labor. Men were property owners and heads of households. A man’s responsibilities included staple crop farming, hunting, and skilled craftsmanship in order to produce commodities for market (An Economic History of Women in America Pp. 30-33). Women were responsible for a variety of different jobs. In the home and the fields women ensured the survival of the family. They were responsible for child rearing, housework, food processing, cloth and clothing manufacture, candle and soap making, household furnishings, and farm chores (EHWA P. 31). A few unmarried women would work outside the home as domestics or farm servants. Women would also handle the sale of handicrafts and household manufacture. In the early nineteenth century only a very small fraction of women in the United States worked in the agricultural, industrial, and service areas of the market sector. Wages of women relative to those of men were exceptionally low within the area of agriculture. With the spread of industry, relative wages for women increased, and their employment appeared to be linked to the technological advances of the factory system. As the country became more industrialized, more women began to work outside the home, in factories and in the clerical sector, and their wages began to increase relative to the wages of men. Late in the nineteenth century there was a rising demand for clerical workers. By 1890, only 18.2% of adult women participated in the labor market. Of that 19%, 40.5% were single women (aged between fifteen and twenty-four). Only 4.6% were married women. (HPAE P. 560) It was not until the twentieth century that married women entered the labor force in any substantial way. They first entered the labor force in the 1920’s when they were young, and later in the 1940’s and 1950’s, in their post-child-rearing years. There have been important gains in the participation of married women in the labor force, with particular age groups, or cohorts, affected during particular decades. In her essay, Goldin examines the movement of women into paid employment between 1890 and 1980. She focuses on white married women because of “their numerical importance among all women, and because changes in their economic role have had repercussions transcending the economic sphere.” (HPAE P. 547) Goldin takes the life cycle approach to understanding change in the economic role of married women. A change in one part of a woman’s life cycle can effect her employment in another. In taking this approach Goldin focused on three important factors that have effected the long-term changes in the economic role of white married women. One of these factors is cohort specific effects. Goldin defines cohort specific effects as primarily predetermined effects such as education and fertility. Cohort specific effects are the most important factors that influenced how and at what point in a woman’s life cycle she participated in the labor force. Each cohort has been influenced in its decision to participate in the work force both by economic and social conditions at a particular date. Aspects of early socialization and training carried with it through time have also affected the cohorts. For every cohort born since 1855 participation in the labor force had increased within marriage, at least until age 55. There are numerous factors that have had influence over the entrance of women in the labor market. These factors are the reason for the differentiation of one cohort’s work history from another. Of these numerous factors, three relate to each cohort’s early experiences: schooling, work in the market economy, and work in the home. Data on the median years of schooling show a rise in educational attainment of young American women beginning approximately with cohorts born between 1900 and 1910. For a brief period young women increased their years of education by about 33% from the ages of 9 years to 12 years. Early education lead to a later increase in high school education. These women left school from 1915 to 1928. The percentage of women who attained four or more years of college increased most rapidly with cohorts born after 1940. The labor force participation rate of native-born white, single women of 15 to 24 years old was 30% in 1890, 33.5% in 1900, 45.1% in 1920, and about 40% from 1930 to 1960. This cohort carried with it through time a labor market experience and education that differed from those of prior generations. When it was single, this cohort was employed mainly in the clerical sector of the market economy when it was employing young single women almost exclusively. Cohorts of women born around the early twentieth century were able to achieve both an increase in their educational attainment and in increase in their labor market experience when single, by spending less time “at home” helping their mothers. In 1880 over 50% of unmarried urban daughters between the 16 and 24 years old were full-time workers in their parents’ households. By 1900 about 30% were, and by 1930 practically no post-adolescent single women were either not in school or not in the labor force. This shift away from home chores by teenage girls and young women may have been an influential factor both in delaying the entrance of older married women into the labor market and in encouraging labor market work for these younger women when they married. The data on the schooling, market work, and home work of post-adolescent daughters suggested that experiences early in the life cycle of women might have greatly affected their market involvement when older. The increased attainment of education for women effected their involvement in both the areas of market work and home work. Due to schooling, single women spent less time working in the home with their mothers. Also, at the time when these women finished their schooling there were more opportunities for them to work in the clerical sector of the market economy. The cohorts who experienced schooling and early work force participation were those whose labor market participation rates, both in their early years and in their later married years, substantially increased over previous levels. Another theory of change in the economic role of married women falls under Goldin’s category of cohort specific effects. It stresses the concept of relative income and the importance of fertility decisions. Goldin distinguished between changes in the labor force participation rate of younger and older women by using the fertility rate as the prime determinant. The reason for the change in fertility rate was because of alterations of the relative income of younger men, presumably the prospective husbands of the younger women. Goldin defined relative income as income in comparison to what one had anticipated earning, relative to the incomes of older cohorts. The cohort of young men born between 1920 and 1930 was a relatively small cohort. This cohort of young men married in the relatively prosperous post-World War II era. These two facts are important because together they lead to these men marrying young and commanding higher salaries, which lead to a rise in the fertility rate. This increase in the fertility rate meant that there were fewer young women who were able to participate in the labor force. Therefore, there was only a slight increase in the labor force participation rate for younger women. The two reasons for this are as follows: these younger women were raising larger families; and their husbands had relatively high incomes, generally a factor deterring female labor market participation (HPAE P. 562). During this time, in the post-1940’s, there was an increased demand for labor. This increased demand for labor combined with the relative shortfall of young women led employers to seek a new pool of labor, older married women. The new increased demand for older married women led to a great increase in their labor force participation rate. Work for married women in America’s past frequently came from an economic necessity, but it has also implied economic autonomy. The rise of economic independence for women has resulted in many social and societal changes such as the formation of wider and less family-dependant social networks, a greater chance for marital dissolution, and the possibility of less constrained and structured gender roles (HPAE P. 571). Today, there are almost as many women in the work force as there are men. It is now a rarity for a woman to work exclusively within the home. In our current economy it is almost a necessity for both the man and woman to work outside the home in order for the household to survive. It was interesting to learn about the economic factors affected women’s participation in the work force in the past and relate that to women’s role in the work force today. Bibliography: Bibliography Matthaei, Julie A. An Economic History of Women in America: Women’s Work, the Sexual Division of Labor, and Development of Capitalism. New York: Schocken Books, 1982. Whaples, Robert and Betts, Dianne C. Historical Perspectives on the American Economy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

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