women in the work place
The effects of women in the workforce
Women in the workforce earning wages or a salary are part of a modern reality, one that developed at the same time as the growth of paid employment for men; yet women have been challenged by inequality in the workforce. Until recently, legal and cultural practices, combined with longstanding religious and educational conventions, restricted women's participation in the workforce. Dependency upon men, and consequently the poor economic status of women, have had the same impact.
Women's lack of access to higher education had effectively excluded them from the practice of well-paid and high status occupations. Entry of women into the higher professions like law and medicine was delayed in most countries due to women being denied entry to universities and qualification for degrees; for example, Cambridge University only fully validated degrees for women late in 1947, and even then only after much opposition and debate. Women were largely limited to low-paid and poor status occupations for most of the
19th and 20th centuries, or earned less pay than men for doing the same work. However, through the 20th century, public perceptions of paid work shifted as the workforce increasingly moved to office jobs that do not require heavy labor, and women increasingly acquired the higher education that led to better paying, longer-term careers rather than lower-skilled, shorter-term jobs.
The increasing rates of women contributing in the work force has led to a more equal hours worked across the world.However, in western European countries the nature of women's employment participation remains different from that of men. For example, few women are in continuous full-time employment after having a first child.
Women are today a permanent part of the waged workforce and the union movement. But women’s work remains generally low paid and undervalued. Sexist attitudes and practices are rampant in and out
Women in the workforce earning wages or a salary are part of a modern reality, one that developed at the same time as the growth of paid employment for men; yet women have been challenged by inequality in the workforce. Until recently, legal and cultural practices, combined with longstanding religious and educational conventions, restricted women's participation in the workforce. Dependency upon men, and consequently the poor economic status of women, have had the same impact.
Women's lack of access to higher education had effectively excluded them from the practice of well-paid and high status occupations. Entry of women into the higher professions like law and medicine was delayed in most countries due to women being denied entry to universities and qualification for degrees; for example, Cambridge University only fully validated degrees for women late in 1947, and even then only after much opposition and debate. Women were largely limited to low-paid and poor status occupations for most of the
19th and 20th centuries, or earned less pay than men for doing the same work. However, through the 20th century, public perceptions of paid work shifted as the workforce increasingly moved to office jobs that do not require heavy labor, and women increasingly acquired the higher education that led to better paying, longer-term careers rather than lower-skilled, shorter-term jobs.
The increasing rates of women contributing in the work force has led to a more equal hours worked across the world.However, in western European countries the nature of women's employment participation remains different from that of men. For example, few women are in continuous full-time employment after having a first child.
Women are today a permanent part of the waged workforce and the union movement. But women’s work remains generally low paid and undervalued. Sexist attitudes and practices are rampant in and out