Gender and the Workforce - Essay Example

Gender and the Workforce The paper concentrates on the overall picture of gender disparity in workforce for both US and UK. There are chronic disparities in the employment rate, wage structure and labor participation rates between the sexes in the labor markets of both the countries, leading to perturbations in the overall economic advancement of the world as a whole. The paper attempts to throw light on the labor supply assimilation profiles of the two nations on a comparative basis and upholds a difference between the origins of the gender based disparity that apparently produce similar effects on the present economy. In the following paragraphs an attempt has been made to analyze the unequal distribution of labor between the genders associated with unemployment, wage gaps and workplace discrimination that are at a much aggravated level in UK than in US, though the socio-economic implications are more or less the same. Workplace discrimination is more pronounced in UK than in the US, where gender segregation in profession is attributed to the preferences of women for more flexible female dominated sectors. In US occupational segregation is somewhat countered by gender crossovers in professions, which is not a common trend in UK. Thus, the origins for such gender based disparity are evidently distinct due to the subtle socio-cultural differences between the workforces of two countries. This interplay between gender and the workforce largely regulates the fulcrum of the eternal demand - supply balance in the labor market, thereby assisting in the economic growth of a country. An unequal distribution of workforces due to differences in gender issues is liable to create disparity in employment standards leading to professional inactivity in the society. This does have serious implications in the demand aspect of the contemporary labor market, which can further be aggravated under the present recessionary conditions. The paper aims to focus on this grave situation resulting from a widespread economic inequality due to gender bias. The participation and wage gap based on gender differences are seen to adverse effects on the overall socio-economic balance of US and UK that are prone to inflict projected imbalances in a global scale. In view of the present job market perturbations, there is indeed a need for making a firm stand on a much stabler platform with newer principles, rectified vision and modern outlook through legislation, organization, litigation and proper evaluation to generate employments based on the facets of equality. The question of gender is an important aspect of any structured analysis determined to feature the socio-economic condition of a system. By system we indicate the interdependent circle of people and institutions defining a state, or a commune, or even the existing global setting. The social distinction based on class, gender, race and other pertinent strata are regulated as per the directives of the system ultimately defining its manifesto leading to far fetched effects having socio-economic implications. Differences in gender result in a disparity in the levels of socio-economic utilization and employment benefits in a functional system. As a matter of fact, the question of gender gap on the state of employment has been dealt in a number of popular literary sources. The main issues that need to be addressed are the effects of the division of labor between sexes, the implication of gender based discrimination on wages and the consequences occupational segregation based on gender distinction. But the effect of gender bias on unemployment is an issue that has been singled out in most contemporary arguments. Let us start our argument with a hard fact - the Labor Statistics Bureau in US created more than 8.3 million allocations for employment since August 2003 out of which almost 1.5 million jobs created over the next one year ceased to exist. (Associated Content, 2008) The picture has not much improved since then and more jobs are going into oblivion with each passing day. Labor market figures also lead to a similar observation in the UK perspective. It has been seen that recently in UK the rate of unemployment has risen to almost 5.7% with a considerable hike of 0.5% throughout the last quarter. This is much ado of the current redundancies faced by the people at their work places. As a result, unemployment rose by almost 164000, largely due to the availability of out of work benefits as over-adjustments to eradicate the effects of the current recessionary market. The present situation is not much different in the US. With lesser number of job vacancies and a considerable pay squeeze coupled with the increased inflation, a large number of working individuals from both the genders are really falling out of the workforce or are on the point of experiencing serious job insecurity. This is the present picture that is expected to continue throughout the coming winter in both US and UK. The crass decline in the unemployment rate surprisingly didn't cut down the average working hours per week especially for the full time working women. However, the unemployment rate for women is a bit lower in the US making a 4.5% compared to the 5% in UK for the year 2007. In light of the recent global crisis, employment rates though declined in both the countries, the slowdown is comparatively lesser in the United States. With unemployment on the rise, as recorded in the Current Population Surveys conducted by the Census Bureau, the economists and the social strategists are working out figures that indicate gender gap to be a major determining factor behind the nature of the chronic professional inactivity in the society. Due to a disparity in the employment standards between the genders in both the countries, the women are more likely to suffer more than the men in the latter part of the 2008 recession. Now, standing apart from the present situation, let us try to analyze whether gender plays a definite role in predicting unemployment rates. The general belief indicates that higher figure of unemployment corresponds to women due to obvious social implications. Domestic duties and child care tend to put off the women working force from employment. There are certain social bindings for women that leave them with lesser time for outside professions resulting in the gender based disparity among the unemployed population. Apart from voluntary withdrawals of women from labor force due to their greater domestic involvement, common belief also suggests lack of job opportunities to be another potential reason for holding them out of the workforce. However, an interesting phenomenon is revealed in the unemployment analysis for the deteriorating job market since the 2001 recession. It has been observed that in US the rate of unemployment has not increased at an alarming level, as it was expected to be for the weaker job market. Economists suggest that this is due to the eviction of a large number of potential job seekers from the current market contributing to a missing labor force. On applying the principles of gender analysis, the extent of participation in the missing labor force is found to be same for men and women. The commonly accepted view that the greater involvement of women in domestic allocations lowered their labor force participation counts, doesnot hold true. It is seen that the labor force participation for both the educated genders are found to be diminished by the same extent. This clearly indicates that in the educated circle, the missing labor force participations are actually the same for both the genders. The situation in UK is not entirely different, with a presently higher percentage of working women as compared to thirty years ago. It has been found that women's unemployment rate has declined by 10%, as opposed to that of the men that has undergone a hike by the same proportion. This is somewhat, the same growing trend of gradually changing economic activities for men and women that is happening in both UK and US over the past thirty years. This trend is found to be constant throughout the proposed period of time by even considering the shortcomings in the employment prospects of the International Labor Organization to remain unchanged, thereby ruling out the contributions of the earlier global recessions of the '80s and the '90s. This interesting observation obviously leads to the conclusion that women are now less likely to leave jobs for domestic bindings and social involvements; rather the general dearth of job opportunities is the main reason behind the increased unemployment rate. (Economic Snapshots, 2008) Current findings show a fair number of working women in more involving professions like Public Relations, Business and Health Care. Summarizing the above observations, it can be concluded that gender issues change with the passage of time depending upon the gradual transition of the nature of industrial economy of a country. With the gradual industrialization of the society there was progressive development of consumer attitude that slowly increased the participation of women in the labor force that was further accelerated by the civil rights movement and the steady awareness of feminism. This surge of socio-economic awareness slowly did away the traditional barriers leading to labor equity on the question of gender issues. In spite of the initial wave of immigration followed by the advent of the labor unions organizing the working women and the subsequent second shift leading to the emergence of two-wage-earner families, women are still the victims of unequal share of responsibilities. Gender based social predications do still stand as stubborn hindrances to desired economic success and professional freedom of women leading to their untimely eviction from the workforce. The Labor force participation rate is gradually undergoing an overall decline in the United States in the recent years. (Monthly Labor Review, 2006) The progressive decrease in the number of the economically active part of the population as a whole is resulting in a gradual descent in the extent of economic growth of the country. Since early 2000 the labor force participation rate showed a gradual slump from 67.3% to 65.8% till the first quarter of 2005. Among the cardinal factors like gender, age and education criteria that are functional behind the recent downturn of the labor force participation index, the question of gender is definitive due to the sudden and unexpected decline in the number of active women in the present workforce. (Economist's View, 2005) The nature of variation in the labor force participation index, if observed closely, suggests a somewhat erratic pattern over the latter half of the last century, with more women entering the workforce compared to the number of men. There had been a steady rise in the number of American women in labor force after World War II from almost 33% working women in 1948 to around 59% in 1995, compared to contemporary slump in the participation index for men from 87% to 75%, leading to a decreased gender gap in the participation rate. Though the period from '75 to '85 witnessed a considerable hike in the number of professionally active women there was no measurable increase since the '90s. In fact the labor force participation rate was unchanged from 1990, somewhat culminating to a decline. This fact is supported by the decrease in the number of young women under 25 years and married women within the age group of 25 to 44 years in active profession during the '90s. The employment slump due to the 1990 - '91 recessions is also considered to be one of the determining factors behind this observed decline. The abrupt decrease in the number of women in the civilian workforce was thought to be occurring due to their increasing tendency to temporarily leave work for attending to domestic duties, mostly for looking after the kids. This was no more than a hypothesis and was later reviewed from the standpoints of age group and marital status. In order to come to a tentative explanation the socio-economic analysts categorized the working women in different age groups and soon observed that highest number of voluntary withdrawals corresponded to the 16 to 24 age group, whereas the least number of withdrawals were from the 35 to 44 age group. Another interesting observation came up that showed a higher percentage of young women going for enrollment in schools and colleges, especially during the period from mid '87 to 93. A large part of the female population that were going for higher education corresponded to the 16-34 age group, probably due to the shortage of occupations during '90's recession. The same effect has been observed in UK, where the youngest among the concerned age group of women underwent voluntary withdrawals from workforce in pursuit of higher education. The American women corresponding to the 35 - 44 and higher age groups were however still trying to hold on to their engagements, even in the weaker recessionary job market. Though the women in US, 45 years old and higher, were however seen to go back to at-home-lifestyles of the '50s and the '60s, resulting in a further slump in the labor force participation index in the 1990s, the similar age group in UK exhibited an increase in their participation rate. After the decline in the early 1990s, the number of women in the workforce has however started to increase. There has been considerable hike in the number of divorced women in occupations almost amounting to 3 out of every 4 candidates surveyed in the year 1995. The participation rate for married women has also increased over the period, showing constantly appreciable standards of work force participation for especially those without kids, the educated and married younger members of the fair sex and also, quite interestingly, for married women having younger kids. Another study leads to fairly alarming results, indicating 20% hike in the labor force participation index for responsible mothers, compared to a 6% increase of participation for women without children. As a matter of fact, by the year 1995 quite a number of married women with kids one year old or younger constituted a noticeable part of the labor force. The labor force participation trend for women in the United Kingdom is similarly found to increase over the period from 1984 to 2002 with a 7% hike in the number of professionally active women. (Journal of Economic Literature, 2004) The participation rate for men is however, found to decline over the same period of time. Education and fertility are the two most important social demographic factors, functional behind the increased labor force participation index for the women in UK. The change in the general outlook of females was a crucial determinant in hiking their work participation rates. Based on the involving studies of the Labor Force Survey that conducted year long interviews with more than 60,000 British households, the overall female participation trend is found to be influenced by potential determinants like age, marital status and education attainment criteria, even after including the adverse effects of wage gaps due to gender bias. Unlike in the United States there is a potentially strong impact of fertility on the British women's participation in the labor force. Due to the changes in questions of fertility there have been a lesser number of expectant mothers among the female working population in UK resulting in a gradual rise in their labor participation rates. However, by the year 1998 there has been an alarming increase in the female labor force participation rate due to rising involvement of responsible mothers in the workforce, ultimately peaking in 2002. When the gender analysis on the participation rate was done from the perspective of marital status, it revealed an increase in the married women in active profession as opposed to singles, whose participation declined over the period from 1984 to 2002. Interestingly enough, the situation observed in UK was different from that in the US, where hikes were seen in the participation trends for both single and married women. In general, the increased work participation rate for women is attributed to a number of different socio-economic factors. This definitely involves the major social makeover from the early post war era to the present decades, when families started to depend more on hard cash for sustenance, leading to the emergence of two wage earning households. This was more pronounced in the US due to the ever changing attitude of the American society in the light of the fast transforming consumer culture compelled more and more families to look for second employment opportunities. This encouraged the women to work in order to support their families rather than staying at home as before. In 1996 the Congress passed the Welfare Reform Bill in order to improve the working conditions of women, encouraging them to look for better paying regular jobs rather than poorly paid welfare work. (Iceland, P. 132) The traditional jobs for women are now replaced by more responsible professionally demanding occupations with better compensations and greater involvement. This has definitely worked to increase the participation of women in the labor force after the temporary standstill of the work participation rate during the 90s. More interestingly, the social implication of the women's increased participation in the labor force can also be drawn from the results obtained in the northern and more urban parts of United States of America, where employment opportunities are ample and social conditions are similar for both the genders. (Quality & Quantity, 29: 429-432, 1995) With increasing number of women in the workforce the number of active men however, decreased steadily over the years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the participation of men in the workforce underwent a slow but progressive slump from 86.4% in 1950 to 73.3% in 2005. The decline in the labor force participation rate for men is can be connected to similar social and economic predications as in case of women. The downturn is, to some extent, triggered by the Social Security Act amended in 1960, resulting in disability benefits for people less than 50 years of age. The Social Security benefits made it possible for greater number of men to retire from work after 65 years of age. A larger number of men opted for retirement in 1970 than in the '60s due to the increased benefits for adjusting the current inflation. Eventually, by the year 1994, increased Social Security payments and related benefits made it possible for almost 50 % of the men belonging to the age group of 62 to 65 years to completely retire from work. This voluntary withdrawal from work was further accelerated due to the easy availability of pension, leading to a further drop in the labor force participation rate for men by the year 1998. Just like age and marital status, an analysis of the extent of educational attainment can also explain the basic variations in the labor force participation rates between genders. Though men with lower education standards show a decline in their work participation trends, all women in general, except for the really less educated ones, exhibit a steady rise in their labor participation rates. (Jacobsen, P. 97) When considered from the standpoint of educational qualification, the trends in the labor force participation rates is a bit different in UK, where women show a tendency to ponder on their job decisions based on the employment status of their spouses. This doesn't necessarily reflect on their own education criteria, making it difficult for us to draw instructive conclusions from the observed trends. The deductions from the recent observations on the erratic labor force participation trends for women are also clouded by changes in the labor policies including maternity leaves and taxation requirements that have affected the choices of the ever adjusting female minds over the years. The difference in the labor force participation rate between men and women is also attributed to the considerable gender gap in wages. In spite of the anti-discrimination legislation, eradication of the gender gap in educational qualification and regulatory policies to do away with the gender disparity in workforce, gender discriminations are still at large in professional fields with its implications in the structure of wages. Gender based economic inequality is still a serious problem in both US and UK causing economic differences in spite of the progressive libertarianism and growing awareness somewhat induced by the equal rights activists. In US, the IWPR (Institute for Women's Policy Research) conducted surveys on the economic condition of both the working and unemployed women, who are still in the workforce in order to come up with a conclusion about the economic disparity between genders. The disparity is found to be two-fold, namely: the gender wage gap and the gender participation gap that are in turn interdependent to a considerable extent leading to an overall labor force inequality. In UK, the BHPS (British Household Panel Survey) tried to look into this existing disparity in the European platform and analyzed the necessary factors in the contemporary labor market to explain the economic inequality among genders. (British Household Panel Survey, 2003) In fact the disadvantage of women for having to face the challenge of motherhood makes them go for maternity leaves and is found to be one of the main reasons for reducing the human capital resources of women in the labor market. The situation is to some extent similar in the United States where women are less likely to be hired at responsible job positions or are more likely to get lesser compensation packages compared to their male colleagues in similar positions due to the interruptions to employment for motherhood. This is definitely considered to be an economic risk causing unwanted costs to the company. The gap is sought to be bridged to some extent by implementing paternity leaves in many cutting edge firms of both US and Europe, thereby trying to equalize the domestic burden of child bearing between genders. Surprisingly even in this situation, there is a rising number of two wage earning families in US, due to gradually increasing labor market opportunities for women. In order to estimate the relative earnings of the husbands and wives, the Current Population Survey of the Census Bureau conducted systematic analysis of their wage structures by sampling hourly pays obtained by dividing the total annual wages by the total number of hours worked on a yearly basis. (Monthly Labor Review, 1998) The studies led to the observation that apart from some non-traditional couples, where the wives were the primary earners compared to their husbands who were secondary providers, no considerable gender wage gap was recorded. In order to get a hint of the gender based economic discrepancy, one has to observe the traditional households, where, in spite of equal educational attainment and involvement in equally responsible jobs, women are found to earn 73% as much as men as per the data accumulated in the research conducted by the National Science Foundation Survey in 1993. The extent of gender wage gap in US can be understood by a simple self explanatory example. According to the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a woman loses 7% of her wages on moving from an all male to an all female workplace; on the other hand if there was no such gender wage gap there would have been a nationwide hike of 13.2% in a woman's median hourly pay due to regular appraisals and raises in a regular job. In UK there is a similar pay gap that is estimated to be around 24% between genders, with maximum discrepancies found to be in the Southeast and in Scotland. According to the New Earnings Survey conducted by the Office of National Statistics, the women are normally entitled to get only a part of the real compensation as drawn by men at similar working position out of no specific reason. The final component functional behind the pay disparity is the underlying crass discrimination confronted for just being a female. This is more pronounced in UK than in the US, often associated with equal employment choices in order to nullify the effect of occupational segregation, fostering further economic inequality. Summarizing the above mentioned features we can come up with the key factors contributing to gender wage gap in the current labor market. The differences in education attainment are quite pronounced in defining the annual earning gap between genders. In both US and UK, where more education is connected with higher wages, women are seen to experience slightly higher returns to acquired education compared to men. However the gender disparity still exists as women with education are seen to earn cent percent more than women without degrees, while in men the proportion is around 78%. The gender gap is further expressed in UK, where educated women are found to earn 82% of that of men. The number of years involved in part time employment is considered to have a negative effect on the wage earnings of females than in case of males. The effect is mainly observed in UK, where women working part time are considered to be inferior as human capitals from the point of view of both professional responsibility and job expertise. However, in US there is no such considerable gender disparity in part time employments. The 2005 surveys show almost similar median hourly wages for both men and women employed in part time professions. In fact in some cases the surveys conducted in the US indicate reversals in the nature of gender wage gap for part time workers belonging to the relatively lower age group of 16 to 25 years. The next cardinal factor is the negative impact of children on the lower wages of women toiling to thrive in the structured labor market. Studies in UK indicate that married women with full time employment history are found to earn more than those with interrupted job records due to dependent kids. However, the situation is to some extent similar as in US, where the emphasis is on equal pay and equal opportunity policies but not on the family policies that involve maternity leaves and child care. The most important factor that is functional in the gender analysis of the workforce is the phenomenon of occupational segregation, predominantly benefiting the men population as per current labor market trends. Differences in employment experience between sexes is a major determinant in specifying gender wage gap that is turn connected to the increased gender participation gap stemming from occupational segregation in both US and UK. The wage penalty is directly dependent on the extent of occupational segregation, where jobs having greater female dominance are essentially less paying. Particularly due to the female burden of domestic responsibilities, the women are singled out from better paying jobs that demand indiscreet attention and continued involvement. This is more prevalent in UK, than in the United States, where women had made extensive ventures in the workforce, leading to substantial gender crossovers in professions. This has definitely tried to make up for the gender segregation stereotyping jobs, thereby making them gender specific. The gender crossover in the workplaces are however, psychologically not so acceptable at present. Social and personal discomforts are natural consequences. It is really difficult to accept men in day care centers and beauty saloons, whereas women appear inappropriate in trucking, construction work and heavy machinery industry. Hence, there is the segregation in professions with women going for retail sale and service rather than extractive jobs in mining, manufacturing transportation and finance that are more dominated by men. (Giele and Stebbins, P. 25) There is a significant difference in the origin of apparently similar gender based job segregation between US and UK. The data collected by the surveys conducted in the US indicate that the apparent occupational segregation isn't entirely a consequence of gender based discrimination and disparity, but is also due to the growing preference of women for female dominated jobs. This is further supported by the observation that the massive growth of the women's labor force participation rate over the last 35 years has increased the count of educated women professionals in a large number of newly provisioned retail, service and government sectors than in lesser provisioned machinery and manufacturing jobs. As men and women primarily hold different opinions about job satisfaction and flexibility, they automatically find greater solace in their respectively chosen professional sectors and happen to populate them in a likewise manner. The situation is a bit different, even in the US, when the vertical distribution of gender is analyzed on the basis of differentially populated positions in higher professions characterized by power, prestige and authority. An obvious reflection is registered in the ever expanding educational sector, where there are fewer number of women compared to men in the key positions making an insignificant proportion of 16% of all university professors by the year 1995. Occupational segregation has far reaching impacts on the current labor market trends, resulting in negative consequences due to the presence of unequal workforce associated with gender based economic disparity. The effect of occupational segregation is functional in creating wage discrepancies between genders that result in unequal distribution of the workforce leading to serious labor shortages at times of need. Gender crossovers are needed in the job markets in order to bridge the pay gaps that are more likely due to nature of the professions rather than gender based discrimination in the workplace. It is seen that men working in stereotyped women's jobs are lesser paid than their counterparts in so called men's professions. Definitely the adverse effect gender based job segregation can be to some extent be countered by the growing number gender neutral jobs in Information Technology and similar IT enabled sectors. However, this tendency of stereotyping professions based on gender is much lesser in the United States compared to that in UK and the origin of occupational segregation is also to some extent different in the United States, though the apparent consequences seem to be similar. Gender bias and inequality in the workforce continues to be a serious issue standing in the way of the overall socio-economic achievement at both national and international level. We are entirely mistaken in thinking that women nowadays enjoy much more job opportunities than before and no longer require to struggle for equal recognition in the labor market. In spite of the increased labor force participation rate, long term women unemployment is still at large in various professional sectors at home and abroad. Though the World Bank seriously considers promoting gender equality and women empowerment as the principal development goal in the third millennium, 77.8 million women are still unemployed all over the world with more than 3.2 million in the US alone. In order to counter the adverse effects of gender gaps in the workforce on the progressive economic growth, it is necessary to uphold professional equality between genders along with serious considerations for special opportunity equality and equity in ownership policies, thereby reducing the barriers for equal participation ensuring success. References 1. "Economic Snapshots", 2004, Economic Policy Institute, available at: http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_04212004 (accessed on October 27, 2008) 2. "Unemployment in America Today: What Does It Mean", 2008, Associated Content, available at: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/490099/unemployment_in_america_today_what.htmlcat=3 (accessed on October 27, 2008) 3. Mitra Toossi, "A new look at long-term labor force projections to 2050", 2002, Monthly Labor Review Online, available at: http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2006/11/art3abs.htm (accessed on October 27, 2008) 4. Maria Gutierrez Domenech and Brian Bell, "Female labor force participation in the United Kingdom: evolving characteristics or changing behavior", 2008, Bank of England, available at: http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/workingpapers/wp221.pdf (accessed on October 27, 2008) 5. Jeanne Boydston, "Women in the Labor Force", 2005, ANB, available at: http://www.anb.org/cush_wlabor.html (accessed on October 27, 2008) 6. David Lester, "The social meaning of female participation in the labor force", 1995, Springerlink, available at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/k23622u473k5172u/fulltext.pdfpage=1 (accessed on October 27, 2008) 7. John Iceland, Poverty in America: A Handbook, 2006, California Press 8. Joyce P. Jacobsen, The Economics of Gender, 2007, Blackwell Publishing 9. Sylvia Walby and Wendy Olsen, "The UK Gender Wage Gap and Gendered Work Histories", 2003, British Household Panel Survey, available at: http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/bhps/2003/docs/pdf/papers/olsen.pdf (accessed on October 27, 2008) 10. Janet Zollinger Giele; Leslie Foster Stebbins, Women and Equality in the Workplace: A Reference Handbook, 2003, ABC-CLIO 11. Anne E. Winkler, "Earning of husbands and wives in dual-earner families", 1998, Monthly Labor Review Online, available at: http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1998/04/art4abs.htm (accessed on October 27, 2008) Read More