The Barack Obama Administration Should Hire More Women
By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
Linda Hirshman makes several excellent points in her op-ed today in the New York Times. As the incoming Obama administration prepares to create millions of government jobs, officials should make sure women are hired in numbers proportional to their numbers in the workforce.
But I differ from Hirshman in her solution to the problem. She suggests the Obama administration create jobs in female-dominated sectors of the economy such as social work and teaching. I think women should be trained and hired in equal numbers to participate in fields where they are now underrepresented, such as construction and energy:
The bulk of the stimulus program will provide jobs for men, because building projects generate jobs in construction, where women make up only 9 percent of the workforce.
It turns out that green jobs are almost entirely male as well, especially in the alternative energy area. A broad study by the United States Conference of Mayors found that half the projected new jobs in any green area are in engineering, a field that is only 12 percent female, or in the heavily male professions of law and consulting; the rest are in such traditional male areas as manufacturing, agriculture, and forestry. And like companies that build roads, alternative energy firms also employ construction workers and engineers.
Instead of asking the Obama administration to treat women like less capable men, the Obama administration should make sure women have entree to higher-paying fields where men now dominate. Construction work, as is the case with the military, is now more high tech than brute force. If you can drive a crane or a tractor or use a jackhammer, you're just as important a member of the construction crew as anyone else. And few jobs in construction these days require brute force.
Certainly in the clean-energy business, which is made up of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, business managers, etc. there is no reason why women can't compete for those jobs and government contracts. In science and engineering, or S&E, for example, the National Science Foundation has reported ad nauseam about women and persons of color leaving the field because of overt sexism and racism. The number of master's degrees earned by women rose more rapidly than for men.
- The number of S&E master's degrees awarded annually to women rose almost 10-fold from 5,469 in 1966 to 53,051 in 2005.
- In 2005, women earned 44% of S&E master's degrees and 64% of non-S&E master's degrees.
- The number of S&E master's degrees awarded to men rose from 35,580 in 1966 to 66,974 in 2005.
So, women need no longer be treated like victims or softies. And the longer women treat themselves as if they are somehow less powerful and less career-oriented than men, the more they hurt themselves.
- Read more by Bonnie Erbe.
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Tags: working women | feminism | Obama administration
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Reader Comments
Equality Now
It's funny that you write this as this is exactly what I was thinking myself. Obama's plans seem to focus on making men richer.
I've lived thru the women's movement and have yet to find a decent job. Not only do I get the worst jobs but they treat me like crap. I feel like employers read so much into things instead of just letting me do my job. I feel like I should be judged on my performance and not my grey hair.
When' it going to be my turn?
Nonsense
I've worked in male dominated jobs all my life. I've trained horses, worked as a chemist for oil refineries, been maintgenance forman for a small town and now I regulate irrigation wells. I have an M.S. in Water Resources Engineering. I started competing with men for jobs in high school, when I was riding horses. If my horses performed better, I got the horses to train. In other words, it was up to me to prove my worth.
I find the notion that the government should make more "woman's work" kinds of jobs offensive. Women can do anything we set our minds to, and it is time to stop treating us like we are "less capabale men" or helpless. I was never given anything because I was a woman. I got the jobs I had because I worked my ass of and was better qualified than the men I replaced.I do think that sometimes I got the job in spite of being a woman. But, I proved I could do those jobs as well as or better than anyone else.
So, stop whining that the jobs are all hard work. Work hard. There is no reason why a woman cannot work on a highway crew. I know many who do. Not as many as there should be. I worked in a wastewater plant. It was interesting and I liked it. Women are not going to melt if they get a little dirty and strain a few muscles.
Stop telling women they should settle for low paying "women's work". I heard all the time for years that I was "taking a man's job". My response was I'm better qualified, I work just as hard and I hd a family to feed just like those men. My mother never once in my life told me I needed to settle for being less. I was told I could do anyting.
If all the new jobs are hard work, trhere is no reson women are exempt from working hard. The difference between waiting tables and working on a highway crew is not the amount of strength or knowledge it takes to do the job. It is what you get paid for doing it.
Equal opportunity has to actually be equal
I agree with Ms. Erbe that women can and should participate in greater numbers in the construction industry. It isn't just about college educated individuals. Tradeswomen learn on the job. The trouble with getting in is that who you know is important. Like anyone, if you know your buddy is out of work, you will try hard to get him hired on to your job so that he makes money to support himself and family. The lower penetration of women in the industry makes the converse more difficult. That is why sometimes quotas are good. They keep us considering the whole universe of choices rather than taking the easy way out.
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