Women Now a Majority in American Workplaces

Many of my recent articles have discussed the difficultly women have had in the workplace. They believed that they were not given equal opportunity or pay as men. However, the whole idea of male dominance within the workplace has started to change. Due to the poor economy, men have been losing their jobs faster than women causing "women to outnumber men on the nation's payrolls" (Women Now a Majority in American Workplaces). Historians believed this to be a monumental moment because of the progress women have made over the past century. No one in the 1920s would have believed that women surpassed an employment rate of fifty percent. Back in 1964, "less than a third of the nation's nonfarm payroll jobs were held by women" (Women Now a Majority in American Workplaces). This further proves the significance of the historical jump women had in the workplace. In past decades, women were seen as objects, and had typical, low-wage jobs such as working in their home. Even though many women still work in their home, there are plenty of other jobs now offered to women that never would have been considered in the past. It is clear that they have gone against the stereotype of being "objects" and have further progressed to having successful and well-paid jobs. The main reason for the increase in women's payrolls is the recession. Although both sexes have suffered greatly, men have lost 7.4 million jobs, whereas women have lost 3.9 million jobs. The large gap between men and women is explained through the type of job they hold. A typical job for a man, such as working in industries like manufacturing, will rise and fall depending on the economy. Women on the other hand, "are more likely to work in government, health care and education, among the safest categories in a downturn" (Women Now a Majority in American Workplaces). However, I believe that this fact should not take away any pride from women. They have come a long way from where they began, and will hopefully continue this trend for years to come.
In the beginning of this article, it mentioned that men were losing more jobs than women were. It did not give the reason why until later in the article, but my first guess was that it was possibly because women are paid less. Paying women less than men would make them more affordable, and in the time of a recession, that type of cheap labor is exactly what companies are looking for. I thought that this article would be an example that women are in fact still paid less than men, however as I kept reading, it said that it was because the typical jobs of women are safer during the recession than the jobs men have. From what I have learned from past articles, the typical jobs of women are still somewhat low paying jobs. This goes to show the increasing amount of women with jobs because even if they are getting paid less, they are exceeding men in the nation's payrolls.

Rampell, Catherine. "Women Now a Majority in American Workplaces." NYTimes.com. The New York Times. 5 Feb 2010. Web. 8 Feb 2010.