ROLE OF THE WORKING MOTHER

A presentation brought to you by PD&T and DMD

In association with the University of Limerick

Oisin Mc QuinnTadgh DoyleKate SedasNiamh BegleyKillian VignaLiam KennySean MallenEmma O’ Leary

THE DECADE OF WOMEN

o “Women do two-thirds of the world’s work, receive 10 percent of the world’s income and own 1 percent of the means of production.”

o — Richard H. Robbins, Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, (Allyn and Bacon, 1999), p. 354

THE WOMAN’S LAND ARMY 1939

o Advertised as Glamorous and Patriotic by the Government.

o Work was hard and young women usually worked in isolated communities

o They were paid 32 shillings a week – about £1.60 (€1.85)

o Skilled women earned £2.15 (€2.48), the wage of an unskilled man

o Rolls Royce strike – Glasgow, wage raise to that of a semi-skilled man.

FORD DAGENHAM - WOMEN'S STRIKEo 7th June 1968 - 850 Women Sewing

Machinists go on Strikeo Women paid 87% of a mans wage for

equally skilled roles.o Car production ceases for 3 weeks before

the intervening of Barbara Castle.o Women's wage increases to 92% and the

'Equal Pay Act 1970' is passed.

MODERN WOMEN'S WAGE

o 80% of paid females work in Agriculture around Asian and African regions providing up to 90% of the worlds food.

o By 2008, 59% of Women worldwide work in Agriculture earning around 17% of men's wages working the same job.

CHANGING ROLE FOR WOMEN IN THE WORKFORCE

o In the beginning of the 20th century, women were regarded as society's guardians of morality; they were seen as made finer than men and were expected to act as such. Women were expected to hold on to their innocence until the right man came along so that they can start a family. The role of men was to support that family financially

o However, at the turn of the 20th century, social attitudes towards educating young women were changing. Americans and Western Europeans were now educating their women more and more. By 1900, four out of five colleges accepted women.

o World War 1 was first to make space for women in the workforce, due to the rise in demand for production during the raging war, more women found themselves working outside the home.

o World War 2 allowed for millions of jobs for women. Over 16 million men left their jobs to join the war in Europe and elsewhere, opening even more opportunities and places for women to take over in the job force. Although two million women lost their jobs after the war ended, female participation in the workforce was still higher than it had ever been.

REVOLUTION From 1890 to 1930, women in the workforce were typically

young and unmarried. They had little or no learning on the job and typically held clerical and teaching positions. Many women also worked in textile manufacturing or as domestics. Women promptly exited the work force when they were married, unless the family needed two incomes.

During the “Transition Era” the time period between 1930 and 1950, we enter into the second phase, married women begin to exit the work force less and less. Labor force productivity for married women 35–44 years of age increased from 10% to 25%. As the number of women graduating high school increased they began to hold more 'respectable', steady jobs.

“Roots of the revolution" encompasses the time from 1950- mid-to-late 1970s. Women's expectations of future employment changed. Women began to see themselves going on to college and working through their marriages and even attending graduate school.

THE QUIET REVOLUTION The fourth phase, known as the "Quiet Revolution", began in the

late 1970s and continues on today. Beginning in the 1970s women began to flood colleges and grad schools. They began to enter profession like medicine, law, dental and business.

The percentage of women majoring in education declined beginning in the 1970’s, education was once a popular major for women since it allowed them to step into and out of the labor force when they had children.

Instead, majors such as business and management were on the rise in the 1970s, as women ventured into other fields that were once predominated by men. Women worked before they got married, and since women were marrying younger they were able to define themselves prior to a serious relationship. Research indicates that from 1965 to 2002, the increase in women’s labor force participation more than offset the decline for men.

The Quiet Revolution is called such because it was not a "big bang" revolution; rather, it happened and is continuing to happen gradually.

Gender Inequality by Social Roles

During WW2, women had to enter the workforce to support their families and  the local economy. Instead of returning to work at home when their husbands returned, they stayed in the workforce. 

Girls now had easier access to higher education which helped them achieve higher paid careers. The availability of birth control meant that women could finish their educations and advance in their careers before starting a family 

Women that didn't have a higher education behind them ended up in low paying jobs. They would be paid far less then a male doing the job, as it was seen that a woman's earning were less important than a males in regards to supporting a family. Sexual harassment was a part of everyday life for most working women. They were dependent on male approval for hiring and career advancement.

QUOTAS Quotas are mechanisms by which governments seek to increase

the number of women represented in the governing bodies and board rooms of companies

History saw males being hired over females because of old legislations which made women to quite their public service jobs when they had a child and had to take on the role as a mother fulltime instead, with this and other factors it lead to male dominance in promotion in the workforce for centuries

Other aspects such as maternity leave had made people perceive women as unpredictable when they might be out and the cost involved which effected the rate of women to men being hired

Under new EU laws being put into place Europe’s listed companies will be forced to reserve at least 40 per cent of their non-executive director board seats for women by 2020

Just 13.7pc of board positions in listed companies in the EU comprised of women 2013

EU countries – including France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands – have already adopted their own national quotas

France, introduced them in January 2011, increasing the number of women on boards by 10 percentage points to 22 per cent in one year

There are pros and cons to introducing mandatory legislation and quotas such as;

- Tension arising other women who oppose them are just terrified of the idea of women being judged of having got into a position of power through extra help

- It will reintroduce women to a workforce to a level that would be expected if existing legislation/ traditions which saw women having to leave work

WORKING WOMEN AND THE LAW

The equal pay act of 1970

The Sex Discrimination act of 1975

The Employment Protection (consolidation ) Act 1978

SEX DISCRIMINATION ACT 1975

Prevent discrimination which can create obstacles for women in

obtaining and retaining employment.

Recruitment : Use of sexist terminology in advertising

Promotion and Training : Access to particular skills training

Availability for work: Part time work

THE EMPLOYMENT PROTECTION ACT 1978

The right to not be unfairly dismissed because of pregnancy

The right to return to the same job after confinement

The right to paid time off for ante-natal care

The right to statutory maternity pay

BARRIERS TO EQUAL PARTICIPATION

Wages Field, position and period of absence all have an

impact. If grounds to get certain salary are open, it is more possible for everyone to get the same wage. The fields that are mostly women workers are usually paid less. Also in the same field, women tend to get less, as they are placed in different tasks. Even in the same task women get less wage on average than male colleagues.

If cost of maternity leave and parenthood are not equally divided between employers, the temptation to hire a man is higher thus creating an expectation for women to take care of children and paternity leave is shorter and less likely to be taken.

FROM GOLF FIELDS TO DRINKING DINNERS

A lot of socializing and networking is done outside the office or meeting places. In some of these places there are restrictions to people who can attend. A lot of deals and agreements are often done in these places. If you can´t get access to these because of your sex, you are much more less likely to be involved and may be out of the loop. In the past, this included many clubs and pubs, and the golf course is a fine example of both work related socialising and also gender discrimination in certain clubs.

APPRECIATION

Technical fields are often more valued than jobs among other human beings, usually fields with a lot of women workers. Usually this difference is taught in school without any real studies behind; boys or girls are better in some subjects just because. Or still somewhere boys are send to school as girls are rather seen as a household helpers."universities rated the application materials of a student—who was randomly assigned either a male or female name—for a laboratory manager position. Faculty participants rated the male applicant as significantly more competent and hireable than the (identical) female applicant. These

participants also selected a higher starting salary and offered more career mentoring to the male applicant."

-Corinne A. Moss-Racusin, 2012

HIERARCHY

Amount of women is smaller the closer you get to higher hierarchy, more competitive and more valued tasks. The way women lead differs from men and sometimes this is understood as a weakness instead of resource. Sometimes women are too critical, as men seem to see themselves competent for the task when women are still considering. Lack of role models, prejudices, coordination of family and work life, work distribution and possible sexual harassment are all factors.

“women who present themselves as confident and ambitious in job interviews are viewed as

highly competent but also lacking social skills. Women who present themselves as

modest and cooperative, while well liked, are perceived as low on competence. By

contrast, confident and ambitious male candidates are viewed as both competent

and likable and therefore are more likely to be hired as a manager than either confident

or modest women.”- Psychology of Women Quarterly, Julie E.

Phelan, 2008

WOMEN IN POWER , POLITICAL AND HUMANITARIAN

“Thatcherism” was both substantial and essentially about

political economy.

Thatcher introduced a series of political and economic

initiatives to reverse what she perceived to be Britain’s

precipitous national decline.

Margaret Thatcher revitalised Britain’s economy, curbed

the trade unions, and re-established the nation as a world

power.

She has been criticised as being divisive and for

promoting greed and selfishness.

In terms of modern day politics she was the most

powerful and influential women.

The Princess developed an intense interest in

serious illnesses and health-related matters

outside the purview of traditional royal

involvement, including AIDS and leprosy.

In addition, she was the patroness of charities

and organisations working with the homeless,

youth, drug addicts, and the elderly.

In 2007, Tina Brown wrote a biography about

Diana as “restless and demanding ... obsessed

with her public image” and also a “spiteful,

manipulative, media-savvy neurotic.”

“one of the most beloved female public figures

“

THE GLASS CEILING

DEFINITION"A gender or racial difference that

is not explained by other job-relevant

characteristics of the employee.“

“the unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that

keeps minorities and women from rising to the

upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless

of their qualifications or achievements

The Pipeline Theory describes the situation in

which women are placed on a track that would

eventually promote them to a top executive

position. However, this process is long, and

women sometimes spend 20–35 years in the

pipeline waiting to advance to CEO positions

STATISTICS

While there is a slight upward trend in the number of women leaders, the

overall figures are still very low. In business leadership in 2009, women held

49% of the jobs in the U.S. and 50% of all managerial positions.

In 2010 only 2.4% of the U.S. Fortune 500 chief executives were female. In the

FTSE 500 the statistics are even worse--only 1.8% of its companies are led by

women. Women's access to boardroom seats is also troubling, particularly in

the U.S. and U.K. In the FTSE 100, for example, 12.5% of directors are women,

a tiny improvement on the 12.2% in 2009 and 11.7% in 2008.

REFERENCES Perkin, Joan (1993). Victorian Women. London: John Murray

(Publishers) Ltd. p. 189. ISBN 0-7195-4955-8. Davis, R.L: "The Social and Cultural Life of the 1920s" p.10. Holt,

Rinehart and Winston, Inc. 1972 Walker, R.H: "Life in the Age of Enterprise" p. 120-121.

Capricorn Books. 1971 Green, E:"The Uncertainty of Everyday Life, 1915-1945" p. 57-

58. HarperCollins 1992 Goldin, Claudia.

The Quiet Revolution That Transformed Women's Employment, Education and Family. The American Economic Review, Vol. 96, No. 2 (May, 2006), pp. 1-21.

http://www.economist.com/node/21549953 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/65f494e6-f5e7-11e1-a6c2-00144f

eabdc0.html#axzz2PrGfqZuJ http://

www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/9519251/EC-could-fine-companies-if-they-miss-female-board-quota.html

Morris, A. and Nott, S. (1991) Working Women and the Law : Equality and Discrimination in Theory and Practice