Women in the workforce

Until modern industrialized times, legal and cultural practices, combined with the inertia of longstanding religious and educational traditions, had restricted women's entry and participation in the workforce. Economic dependency upon men, and consequently the poor socio-economic status of women had also restricted their entry into the workforce. Particularly as occupations have become professionalized over the 19th and 20th centuries, women's 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 acrimonious debate. Such factors had largely limited women to low-paid and poor status occupations for most of the 19th and 20th centuries. 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-compensated, longer-term careers rather than lower-skilled, shorter-term jobs.

Restrictions on women's access to and participation in the workforce include the wage gap and the glass ceiling, inequities most identified with industrialized nations with nominal equal opportunity laws; legal and cultural restrictions on access to education and jobs, inequities most identified with developing nations; and unequal access to capital, variable but identified as a difficulty in both industrialized and developing nations.

Although access to paying occupations (the "workforce") has been and remains unequal in many occupations and places around the world, scholars sometimes distinguish between "work" and "paying work," including in their analysis a broader spectrum of labor such as uncompensated household work, childcare, eldercare, and family subsistence farming.

Areas of study

The division of labor by gender has been particularly studied in women's studies (especially women's history, which has frequently examined the history and biography of women's participation in particular fields) and gender studies more broadly. Occupational studies, such as the history of medicine or studies of professionalization, also examine questions of gender, and the roles of women in the history of particular fields.

In addition, modern civil rights law has frequently examined gender restrictions of access to a field of occupation; gender discrimination within a field; and gender harassment in particular workplaces. This body of law is called employment discrimination law, and gender and race discrimination are the largest sub-sections within the area. Laws specifically aimed at preventing discrimination against women have been passed in many countries; see, e.g., the Pregnancy Discrimination Act in the United States.

History and present-day status of women in the workforce

The 1870 US Census was the first US Census to count “Females engaged in each occupation” and provides an intriguing snapshot of women's history. It reveals that, contrary to popular belief, not all American women of the Victorian period were either idle in their middle class homes or working in sweatshops. Women were 15% of the total work force (1.8 million out of 12.5). They made up one-third of factory “operatives,” but teaching and the occupations of dressmaking, millinery, and tailoring played a larger role. Two-thirds of teachers were women. Women could also be found in such unexpected places as iron and steel works (495), mines (46), sawmills (35), oil wells and refineries (40), gas works (4), and charcoal kilns (5) and held such surprising jobs as ship rigger (16), teamster (196), turpentine laborer (185), brass founder/worker (102), shingle and lathe maker (84), stock-herder (45), gun and locksmith (33), hunter and trapper (2).

In the beginning of the 20th century women were regarded as the guardians of morality; they were seen as made finer than men and were expected to act as such their role was not defined as workers or money makers. Women were expected to hold on to their innocence until the right man came along so that they can start a family and inculcate that morality they were in charge of preserving. Yet at the turn of the 20th century, a civil war changed America was now educating their women more and more. By 1900, four out of five colleges accepted women and a whole coed concept was becoming more and more accepted. In the United States, it was World War I that made space for women in the workforce amongst other economical and social influences. Due to the rise in demand for production from Europe during the raging war, women found themselves working outside the home. In the first quarter of the century, women mostly occupied jobs in factory work or as domestic servants, as the war come to an end they were able to move on to such jobs as: salespeople in department stores as well as clerical, secretarial and other, what is called, "lace-collar" jobs. . In July 1920, The New York Times ran a head line that read: "the American Woman ... has lifted her skirts far beyond any modest limitation" which could apply to more than just fashion; women were now rolling up their sleeves and skirts and making their way into the workforce.

World War II allowed for millions of jobs for women. Thousands of women actually joined the military: 140,000 in the Women's Army Corps (United States Army) WAC; 100,000 in the Navy (WAVE); 23,000 in the Marines; 14,000 in the Navy Nurse Corps and, 13,000 in the Coast Guard. Although almost none saw combat, they replaced men in non combative positions and got the same pay as the men would have on the same job. At the same time 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.

The Quiet Revolution

The increase of women in the labor force gained momentum in the late 19th century. At this point women married early on and were defined by their marriages. If they entered the workforce it was only out of necessity.

The first phase encompasses the time between the late 19th century to the 1930s. This era gave birth to the 'Independent female worker.' From 1890-1930, 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. Towards the end of the 1920s, as 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 increase by 15.5 percentage points from 10% to 25%. There was a greater demand for clerical positions and as the number of women graduating high school increased they began to hold more 'respectable', steady jobs. This phase has been appropriately labeled as the Transition Era referring to the time period between 1930-1950. During this time the discriminatory institution of marriage bars, which forced women out of the work force after marriage, were eliminated, allowing more participation in the work force of single and married women. Additionally, women's labor force participation increased because there was an increase in demand for office workers and women participated in the high school movement. However, still women's work was contingent upon their husband's income. Women did not normally work to fulfill a personal need to define ones career and social worth; they worked out of necessity.

In the third phase, labeled the "roots of the revolution" encompassing the time from 1950- mid-to-late 1970s, the movement began to approach the warning signs of a revolution. 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. Many however still had brief and intermittent work force participation, without necessarily having expectations for a 'career'. To illustrate, most women were secondary earners, and worked in "pink collar jobs" as secretaries, teachers, nurses, and librarians. Although more women attended college, it was often expected that they attended to find a spouse—the so-called "M.R.S. degree". Nevertheless, Labor force participation by women still grew significantly.

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. More women were going to college and expected to be employed at the age of 35, as opposed to past generations that only worked intermittently due to marriage and childbirth. This increase in expectations of long-term gainful employment is reflected in the change of majors adopted by women from the 1970s on. The percentage of women majoring in education declined beginning in the 1970s; 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 and when their children grew up to a reasonable age at which their mothers did not have to serve primarily as caretakers. 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. They experienced an expansion of their horizons and an alteration of what it meant to define their own identity. Women worked before they got married, and since women were marrying younger they were able to define themselves prior to a serious relationship.

The reasons for this big jump in the 1970s has been attributed by some scholars to widespread access to the birth control pill. While "the pill" was medically available in the 1960s, numerous laws restricted access to it. See, e.g., Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965) (overturning a Connecticut statute barring access to contraceptives) and Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438 (1972) (establishing the right of unmarried people to access contraception). By the 1970s, the age of majority had been lowered from 21 to 18 in the United States, largely as a consequence of the Vietnam War; this also affected women's right to effect their own medical decisions. Since it had now become socially acceptable to postpone pregnancy even while married women had the luxury of thinking about other things, like education and work. Also, due to electrification women's work around the house became easier leaving them with more time to be able to dedicate to school or work. Due to the multiplier effect, even if some women were not blessed with access to the pill or electrification, many followed by the example of the other women entering the work force for those reasons. The Quiet Revolution is called such because it was not a "big bang" revolution; rather, it happened and is continuing to happen gradually.

Women in decision making

Female decision-makers from around Europe are organized in several national and European wide networks. The networks aim to promote women in decision-making positions in politics and the economy across Europe. These networks were founded in the 1980s and are often very different from the "service clubs" founded in the early days of the century, like Soroptimist and Zontas.

"Women in Management" is about women in business in usually male-dominated areas. Their motivation, their ideas and leadership styles and their ability to enter into leadership positions is the subject of most of the different networks.

As of 2009, women represented 20.9% of parliament in Europe (both houses) and 18.4% world average.

As of 2009, 90 women serve in the U.S. Congress: 18 women serve in the Senate, and 73 women serve in the House.

In the private sector, men still represent 9 out of 10 board members in European blue-chip companies, The discrepancy is widest at the very top: only 3% of these companies have a woman presiding over the highest decision-making body.

List of members of the European Network of Women in Decision-making in Politics and the Economy:

• Committee of Women Elected Representatives of Local and Regional Authorities (Council of European Municipalities and Regions)
• BPW Europe, Business and Professional Women – Europe
• Association of Organisations of Mediterranean Businesswomen
• Eurochambres Women's Network
• European Platform of Women Scientists
• Network of Parliamentary Committees for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in the European Union
• European Network to Promote Women's Entrepreneurship
• European women's lobby
• European Women's Lawyers Association
• CEE Network for Gender Issues
• European Women Inventors and Innovators Network
• European Women's Management Development International Network, EWMD
• Femanet - Eurocadres
• European Professional Women's Network, EPWN
• Women's Forum for the Economy and the Society

The EU Commission has created a platform for all these networks. It also funded the Women to the Top program in 2003-2005 to bring more women into top management.

Some organizations have been created to promote the presence of women in top responsibilities, in politics and business. One example is EWMD European women's Management Development (cited above), a European and international network of individual and corporate members, drawn from professional organisations. Members are from all areas of business, education, politics and culture.

Women who are born into the upper class rather than the middle or lower class have a much better chance at holding higher positions of power in the work force if they choose to enter it.

Barriers to equal participation

As gender roles have followed the formation of agricultural and then industrial societies, newly developed professions and fields of occupation have been frequently inflected by gender. Some examples of the ways in which gender affects a field include:

• Prohibitions or restrictions on members of a particular gender entering a field or studying a field;
• Discrimination within a field, including wage, management, and prestige hierarchies;
• Expectation that mothers, rather than fathers, should be the primary childcare providers.

Note that these gender restrictions may not be universal in time and place, and that they operate to restrict both men and women. However, in practice, norms and laws have historically restricted women's access to particular occupations; civil rights laws and cases have thus primarily focused on equal access to and participation by women in the workforce. These barriers may also be manifested in hidden bias and by means of many microinequities.

Access to education

A number of occupations became "professionalized" through the 19th and 20th centuries, gaining regulatory bodies, and passing laws or regulations requiring particular higher educational requirements. As women's access to higher education was often limited, this effectively restricted women's participation in these professionalizing occupations. For instance, women were completely forbidden access to Cambridge University until 1868, and were encumbered with a variety of restrictions until 1987 when the university adopted an equal opportunity policy. Numerous other institutions in the United States and Western Europe began opening their doors to women over the same period of time, but access to higher education remains a significant barrier to women's full participation in the workforce in developing countries. Even where access to higher education is formally available, women's access to the full range of occupational choices is significantly limited where access to primary education is limited through social custom.

Access to capital

Women's access to occupations requiring capital outlays is also hindered by their unequal access (statistically) to capital; this affects occupations such as entrepreneur and small business owner, farm ownership, and investor. Numerous microloan programs attempt to redress this imbalance, targeting women for loans or grants to establish start-up businesses or farms, having determined that aid targeted to women can disproportionately benefit a nation's economy. While research has shown that women cultivate more than half the world's food — in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean, women are responsible for up to 80% of food production — most such work is family subsistence labor, and often the family property is legally owned by the men in the family.

Discrimination within occupations

See also: Wage gap, Glass ceiling, and Sexual harassment

The idea that men and women are naturally suited for different occupations is known as horizontal segregation.

Statistical discrimination in the workplace is unintentional discrimination based on the presumed probability that a worker will or will not remain with the company for a long period of time. Specific to women, since employers believe that women are more likely to drop out of the labor force to have kids, or work part time while they are raising kids, this tends to hurt their chances for job advancement. They are passed up for promotions because of the possibility that they may leave, and are in some cases placed in positions with little opportunity for upward mobility to begin with based on these same stereotypes.

Women earn less money than men, despite establishing equal pay laws.

Network Discrimination

Part of the problem keeping women out of the highest paying, most prestigious positions is that they have historically not held these positions. As a result, recruiters for these high-status jobs are predominantly white males, and tend to hire similar people in their networks. Their networks are made up of mostly white males from the same socio-economic status, which helps perpetuate their over-representation in the best jobs.

Actions and Inactions of Women Themselves

Through a process known as employee clustering, employees tend to be grouped throughout the workplace both spatially and socially with those of a similar status job. Women are no exception and tend to be grouped with other women making comparable amounts of money. They compare wages with the women around them and believe their salaries are fair because they are average. Some women are content with their lack of wage equality with men in the same positions because they are unaware of just how vast the inequality is.

Furthermore, women as a whole tend to be less assertive and confrontational. One of the factors contributing to the higher proportion of raises going to men is the simple fact that men tend to ask for raises more often than women, and are more aggressive when doing so.

Gender and women's history in particular occupations

Occupational Dissimilarity Index

Choice of occupation is considered to be one of the key factors contributing to the male-female wage differential. In other words, careers with a majority of female employees tend to pay less than careers that employ a majority of males. This is different from direct wage discrimination within occupations, as males in the female dominated professions will also make lower than average wages and the women in the male dominated occupations usually make higher than average wages. The occupational dissimilarity index is a measure from 0 to 100; it measures the percent of laborers that would need to be rearranged into a job typically done by the opposite sex in order for the wage differential to disappear. In 1960, the dissimilarity index in America was measured at 62. It has dropped since then, but at 47 in 2000, is still one of the highest of any developed nation.

Women's participation in different occupations

below are a list of encyclopedia article links detailing women's historical involvement in various occupations.

• Sciences - See generally Women in science and List of female scientists
  • Women in computing (see also Women in the Information Age research project)
  • Women in engineering
  • Women in geology
  • List of female mathematicians
• Medical professions - See generally Women in medicine
• Legal professions - See generally Women in the United States judiciary

Though women comprise approximately half of the student body of American law schools, they represent only 17% of partners at major law firms and less than a quarter of tenured law professors. Similarly, on the national level, we have had only one female U.S. Attorney General, three female Secretaries of State, two women Supreme Court Justices, and one acting Solicitor General.

• Arts, writing, media, sports and entertainment
  • Women artists (visual arts)
  • Women Surrealists
  • Performing arts
    • Vulcana Women's Circus (organization for women in the circus)
  • Writing
    • Women's writing in English
    • Women in journalism and media professions
    • List of female rhetoricians
    • List of early-modern women playwrights (UK)
    • List of female poets
  • Film
    • List of female film and television directors
    • Women's cinema (discusses women screenwriters & directors)
  • Music
    • Female composers in the United States during the 20th century
    • Women composers of Catholic music
    • List of female composers
    • List of female composers by name
    • List of female film score composers
  • Sports
    • Women's professional sports
    • Women's sports and browse the category
• Humanities:
  • Women in philosophy and List of female philosophers
• Crime: Women in piracy
• Government: Women in politics
• Military:
  • Women in the military
  • Women in the military by country, in Europe, and in the Americas
  • History of women in the military; Timeline of women in ancient warfare; Timeline of Women in Medieval warfare
  • List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture
  • Category:Female military personnel;
  • Women's Land Army;
  • Category:Female wartime spies

Gender Inequality In the Different Social Classes

In the last 50 years we have experienced great changes toward gender equality in America. With the feminist movement of the 1960s, women began to enter the workforce in great numbers. Women had also had high labor market participation during World War II as so many male soldiers were away, women had to take up jobs to support their family and keep their local economy on track. Many of these women dropped right back out of the labor force when the men returned home from war to raise children born in the generation of the baby boomers. In the late 1960s when women began entering the labor force in record numbers, they were entering in addition to all of the men, as opposed to substituting for men during the war. This dynamic shift from the one-earner household to the two-earner household dramatically changed the socioeconomic class system of this country.

Effects of Women in the Workforce on the Middle and Upper Classes

The addition of women into the workforce was one of the key factors that has decreased social mobility over the last 50 years. Female children of the middle and upper classes had increased access to higher education, and thanks to job equality, were able to attain higher-paying and higher-prestige jobs than ever before. Due to the dramatic increase in availability of birth control, these high status women were able to delay marriage and child-bearing until they had completed their education and advanced their careers to their desired positions. In 2001, the survey on sexual harassment at workplace conducted by women's nonprofit organisation Sakshi among 2,410 respondents in government and non-government sectors, in five States recorded 53 per cent saying that both sexes don't get equal opportunities, 50 per cent women are treated unfairly by employers and co-workers, 59 per cent have heard sexist remarks or jokes, 32 per cent have been exposed to pornography or literature degrading women.

In comparison with other sectors, IT organisations may be offering equal salaries to women and the density of women in technology companies may be relatively high but this does not necessarily ensure a level playing field. For example Microsoft (US ) was sued because of the conduct of one of its supervisors over e-mail. The supervisor allegedly made sexually offensive comments via e-mail, such as referring to himself as "president of the amateur gynecology club." He also allegedly referred to the plaintiff as the "Spandex Queen. E-harassment is not the sole form of harassment. In 1999, Juno Online faced two separate suits from former employees who alleged that they were told that they would be fired if they broke off their ongoing relationships with senior executives. Pseudo Programs, a Manhattan-based Internet TV network, was sued in January 2000 after male employees referred to female employees as "bimbos" and forced them to look at sexually explicit material on the Internet. In India HR managers admit that women are discriminated against for senior Board positions and pregnant women are rarely given jobs but only in private. Recently a sexual harassment suit against a senior member shocked the Indian IT sector.

Recognising the invisible nature of power structures that marginalise women at the workplace, the Supreme Court in the landmark Vaishaka versus High Court of Rajasthan (1997) identified sexual harassment as violative of the women's right to equality in the workplace and enlarged the ambit of its definition. The judgment equates a hostile work environment on the same plane as a direct request for sexual favours. To quote: "Sexual harassment includes such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour (whether directly or by implication) as: physical contact and advances; a demand or request for sexual favours; sexually coloured remarks; showing pornography; any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature". The judgement mandates appropriate work conditions should be provided for work, leisure, health, and hygiene to further ensure that there is no hostile environment towards women at the workplace and no woman employee should have reasonable grounds to believe that she is disadvantaged in connection with her employment.

This law thus squarely shifts the onus onto the employer to ensure employee safety but most mid-sized Indian service technology companies are yet to enact sexual harassment policies. Admits K Chandan, an advocate from Chandan Associates, "I have a few IT clients. When I point to the need for a sexual harassment policy, most tend to overlook or ignore it. Its not high on the agenda." An HR Manager of India's premier technology companies rues: "I am going to use the recent case to push the policy through. Earlier the draft proposal was rejected by the company." Yet another HR manager from a flagship company of India's leading business house, oblivious to the irony of her statement, admitted that the company had a grievance redressal mechanism but no sexual harassment policy in place. The lax attitudes transgress the Supreme Court judgment wherein the Court not only defined sexual harassment, but also laid down a code of conduct for workplaces to prevent and punish it, "Employers or other responsible authorities in public or private sectors must comply with the following guidelines: Express prohibition of sexual harassment should be notified and circulated; private employers should include prohibition of sexual harassment in the standing orders under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946." As for the complaint procedure, not less than half of its members should be women. The complaint committee should include an NGO or other organisation that is familiar with the issue of sexual harassment. When the offence amounts to misconduct under service rules, appropriate disciplinary action should be initiated. When such conduct amounts to an offence under the Indian Penal Code, the employer shall initiate action by making a complaint with the appropriate authority. However, the survey by Sakshi revealed 58 per cent of women were not aware of the Supreme Court guidelines on the subject. A random survey by AssureConsulting.com among hundred employees working in the IT industry revealed startling results: Less than 10 per cent were familiar with the law or the company's sexual harassment policy. Surprisingly, certain HR managers were also ignorant of the Supreme Court guidelines or the Draft Bill by the National Commission of Women against sexual harassment at the workplace.

Not surprisingly many cases go unreported. However given the complexities involved, company policy is the first step and cannot wish away the problem. Says Savita HR Manager at Icelerate Technologies, "We have a sexual harassment policy that is circulated among employees. Also the company will not tolerate any case that comes to its notice. But the man at home is no different from the person at the office," thus implying the social mindset that discriminates against women is responsible for the problem. Considering sexual censorship and conservative social attitudes emphasising " woman's purity," the victim dare not draw attention for fear of being branded a woman with "loose morals". Women would rather brush away the problem or leave jobs quietly rather than speak up, even in organisations that have a zero tolerance policy. Says Chandan, "I do not have exact statistics but from my experience as an advocate one in 1,500 cases are reported." The problem cannot be resolved till more women speak up but the social set-up browbeats women into silence. The social stigma against the victim and the prolonged litigation process for justice thwarts most women from raising their voice. Purports K Chandan "It may take between three and five years to settle a case, and in a situation where the harassment is covert, evidence is hard to gather and there is no guarantee that the ruling would be in favour of the victim. In one of the rare cases I handled a Country Manager was accused and the plaintiff opted for an out of court settlement."

The dice is, thus, heavily loaded against women. Claims of new age companies of creating liberal and egalitarian workplaces are under serious examination. Companies can come clear by adopting a zero tolerance policy against sexism of any form. Probably the recent publicised case may just about drive companies to do so.

Effects of Women in the Workforce on the Working and Lower Classes

While middle and upper class women benefited from entering the workforce and the feminism movement, working and lower class women suffered. Women in lower wage jobs are more likely to be subject to wage discrimination. They are more likely to bring home far less than their male counterparts with equal job status, and get far less help with housework from their husbands than the high-earning women. Women with low educational attainment entering the workforce in mass quantity lowered earnings for some men, as the women brought about a lot more job competition. The lowered relative earnings of the men and increase in birth control made marriage prospects harder for lower income women.

For the first time in the history of this country, there were distinctive socioeconomic stratification among women as there has been among men for centuries. This deepened the inequality between the upper/middle and lower/working classes. Prior to the feminist movement, the socioeconomic status of a family was based almost solely on the husband/father's occupation. Women who were now attaining high status jobs were attractive partners to men with high status jobs, so the high earners married the high earners and the low earners married the low earners. In other words, the rich got richer and the poor stayed the same, and have had increased difficulty competing in the economy.

See also

• Feminisation of the workplace
• Feminization of labor
• Rosie the Riveter
• Women's history
• Women's studies
• Gender studies
• Workplace discrimination, Occupational sexism, and Glass ceiling
• Labor history
• Educational Inequality
• Timeline of women's rights (other than voting)

References

History of women in workforce; see also women's studies, gender studies, and women's history

• Challenging Professions: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Women's Professional Work by Elizabeth Smyth, Sandra Acker, Paula Bourne, and Alison Prentice
• English women enter the professions by Nellie Alden Franz (1965)
• Black Women and White Women in the Professions: Occupational Segregation by Race and Gender, 1960-1980 (Perspectives on Gender) by N. Sokoloff (1992)
• Unequal Colleagues: The Entrance of Women into the Professions, 1890-1940 (Douglass Series on Women's Lives and the Meaning of Gender) by Penina Migdal Glazer and Miriam Slater
• Beyond Her Sphere: Women and the Professions in American History by Barbara J. Harris
• "Challenging Professions: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Women's Professional Work" (Book Reviews) Pamela Sugiman in Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations
• Victorian Working Women: A historical and literary study of women in British industries and professions 1832-1850 (Economic History (Routledge)) by Wanda F. Neff
• Colonial women of affairs;: A study of women in business and the professions in America before 1776 by Elisabeth Anthony Dexter
• What a Woman Ought to Be and to Do: Black Professional Women Workers during the Jim Crow Era (Women in Culture and Society Series) by Stephanie J. Shaw
• In Subordination: Professional Women, 1870-1970 by Mary Kinnear
• Women Working in Nontraditional Fields References and Resources 1963-1988 (Women's Studies Series) by Carroll Wetzel Wilkinson

Social sciences and psychological perspectives; see also women's studies and gender studies

• Suhail Ahmad, Women in profession: A comparative study of Hindu and Muslim women
• Ella L. J. Edmondson Bell and Stella M. Nkomo, Our Separate Ways: Black and White Women and the Struggle for Professional Identity
• Julia Evetts, Women and Career: Themes and Issues in Advanced Industrial Societies (Longman Sociology Series)
• Patricia N. Feulner, Women in the Professions: A Social-Psychological Study
• Linda S. Fidell and John D. DeLamater, Women in the Professions
• Clara Greed, Surveying Sisters: Women in a Traditional Male Profession
• Jerry Jacobs, Professional Women at Work: Interactions, Tacit Understandings, and the Non-Trivial Nature of Trivia in Bureaucratic Settings
• Edith J. Morley, Women Workers in Seven Professions
• Xiomara Santamarina, Belabored Professions: Narratives of African American Working Womanhood
• Janet Skarbek, Planning Your Future: A Guide for Professional Women
• Elizabeth Smyth, Sandra Acker, Paula Bourne, and Alison Prentice, Challenging Professions: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Women's Professional Work
• Nancy C. Talley-Ross, Jagged Edges: Black Professional Women in White Male Worlds (Studies in African and African-American Culture, Vol 7) (1995)
• Joyce Tang and Earl Smith, Women and Minorities in American Professions (S U N Y Series on the New Inequalities)
• Anne Witz, "Patriarchy and Professions: The Gendered Politics of Occupational Closure", Sociology, 24.4, 1990, pp. 675–690. See Sage Publications.
• Anne Witz, Professions and Patriarchy (International Library of Sociology) (1992)

Work and family demands/support for women

• Terri Apter, Working Women Don't Have Wives: Professional Success in the 1990s
• Sian Griffiths, Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Forty Women Whose Ideas Shape the Modern World (Women's Studies)
• Linda Hantrais, Managing Professional and Family Life: A Comparative Study of British and French Women
• Deborah J. Swiss and Judith P. Walker, Women and the Work/Family Dilemma: How Today's Professional Women Are Finding Solutions
• Alice M. Yohalem, The Careers of Professional Women: Commitment and Conflict

Workplace discrimination based on gender

• The Commission on Women in the Profession, Sex-Based Harassment, 2nd Edition: Workplace Policies for the Legal Profession
• Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Off-ramps and On-ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success
• Karen Maschke, The Employment Context (Gender and American Law: The Impact of the Law on the Lives of Women)
• Evelyn Murphy and E.J. Graff, Getting Even: Why Women Don't Get Paid Like Men—And What to Do About It (2006)

Mentoring and "old-boys/old-girls networks"

• Nancy W. Collins, Professional Women and Their Mentors: A Practical Guide to Mentoring for the Woman Who Wants to Get Ahead
• Carolyn S. Duff, Learning From Other Women: How to Benefit From the Knowledge, Wisdom, and Experience of Female Mentors
• Joan Jeruchim, Women, Mentors, and Success
• Peggy A. Pritchard, Success Strategies for Women in Science: A Portable Mentor (Continuing Professional Development Series)

Arts and literature studies on women in the workforce

• Carmen Rose Marshall, Black Professional Women in Recent American Fiction

Professional areas

Teaching, librarianship, and university professions

• Maenette K. P. Benham and Joanne Cooper, Let My Spirit Soar!: Narratives of Diverse Women in School Leadership (1-Off)
• Roger Blanpain and Ann Numhauser-Henning, Women in Academia and Equality Law: Aiming High, Falling Short? Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom (Bulletin of Comparative Labour Relations)
• S. A. L. Cavanagh, The Gender of Professionalism and Occupational Closure: the management of tenure-related disputes by the 'Federation of Women Teachers' Associations of Ontario' 1918-1949, Gender and Education, 15.1, March 2003, pp. 39–57. See Routledge.
• Regina Cortina and Sonsoles San Roman, Women and Teaching: Global Perspectives on the Feminization of a Profession
• Nancy Hoffman, Woman's "True" Profession, 2nd ed. (1982, 2nd ed.) ("classic history of women and the teaching profession in the United States")
• Julia Kwong, Ma Wanhua, and Wanhua Ma, Chinese Women and the Teaching Profession
• See also Category:Female academics

Philosophy

• See also Women in philosophy and Category:Women philosophers

Social sciences

• Kathleen Bowman and Larry Soule, New Women in Social Sciences (1980)
• Lynn McDonald, The Women Founders of the Social Sciences (1994)
• See also: Category:Women social scientists

Social sciences – Anthropology

• Barbara A. Babcock and Nancy J. Parezo, Daughters of the Desert: Women Anthropologists and the Native American Southwest, 1880-1980 (1988)
• Ruth Behar and Deborah A. Gordon, Women Writing Culture (1996)
• Maria G. Cattell and Marjorie M. Schweitzer, Women in Anthropology: Autobiographical Narratives and Social History (2006)
• Ute D. Gacs, Aisha Khan, Jerrie McIntyre, and Ruth Weinberg, Women Anthropologists: Selected Biographies (1989); Women Anthropologists: A Biographical Dictionary (1988)
• Nancy Parezo, Hidden Scholars: Women Anthropologists and the Native American (1993)

Social sciences – Archaeology

• Cheryl Claassen, Women in Archaeology (1994)
• Margarita Diaz-Andreu and Marie Louise Stig Sorensen, Excavating Women: A History of Women in European Archaeology (1998; 2007)
• Getzel M. Cohen and Martha Sharp Joukowsky, editors, Breaking Ground: Pioneering Women Archaeologists (2004)
• Nancy Marie White, Lynne P. Sullivan, and Rochelle A. Marrinan, Grit-Tempered: Early Women Archaeologists in Southeastern United States (2001)

Social sciences – History

• Eileen Boris and Nupur Chaudhuri, Voices of Women Historians: The Personal, the Political, the Professional (1999)
• Jennifer Scanlon and Shaaron Cosner, American Women Historians, 1700s-1990s: A Biographical Dictionary (1996)
• Nadia Smith, A "Manly Study"?: Irish Women Historians, 1868-1949 (2007)
• Deborah Gray White, Telling Histories: Black Women Historians in the Ivory Tower (forthcoming 2008)
• Southern Association for Women Historians

Social sciences – Linguistics

• Davison, The Cornell Lectures: Women in the Linguistics Profession

"STEM" fields (science, technology, engineering, and maths); see also women in science

• Violet B. Haas and Carolyn C. Perrucci, Women in Scientific and Engineering Professions (Women and Culture Series)
• Patricia Clark Kenschaft, Change Is Possible: Stories of Women and Minorities in Mathematics
• J A Mattfeld, Women & the Scientific Professions
• Jacquelyn A. Mattfeld and Carol E. Van Aken, Women and the Scientific Professions: The MIT Symposium on American Women in Science and Engineering (1964 symposium; 1976 publication)
• Karen Mahony & Brett Van Toen, Mathematical Formalism as a Means of Occupational Closure in Computing—Why "Hard" Computing Tends to Exclude Women, Gender and Education, 2.3, 1990, pp. 319–31. See ERIC record.
• Peggy A. Pritchard, Success Strategies for Women in Science: A Portable Mentor (Continuing Professional Development Series)
• Margaret W. Rossiter, Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940 (Women Scientists in America)
• Otha Richard Sullivan and Jim Haskins, Black Stars: African American Women Scientists and Inventors
• See also Category:Women engineers; Category:Women scientists
• See also List of pre-21st-century female scientists

Medical professions

• See Women in the medical professions and Category:Midwives

Legal professions

• Joan Brockman and Dorothy E. Chunn, "A new order of things": women's entry into the legal profession in British Columbia", The Advocate
• The Commission on Women in the Profession, Visible Invisibility: Women of Color in Law Firms
• The Commission on Women in the Profession, Sex-Based Harassment, 2nd Edition: Workplace Policies for the Legal Profession
• Hedda Garza, Barred from the Bar: A History of Women in the Legal Profession (Women Then—Women Now)
• Jean Mckenzie Leiper, Bar Codes: Women in the Legal Profession
• Sheila McIntyre and Elizabeth Sheehy, Calling for Change: Women, Law, and the Legal Profession
• Mary Jane Mossman, The First Women Lawyers: A Comparative Study of Gender, Law And the Legal Professions
• Rebecca Mae Salokar and Mary L. Volcansek, Women in Law: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook
• Ulrike Schultz and Gisela Shaw, Women in the World's Legal Professions (Onati International Series in Law and Society)
• Lisa Sherman, Jill Schecter, and Deborah Turchiano, Sisters-In-Law: an Uncensored Guide for Women Practicing Law in the real world
• See Women in the U.S. Judiciary and categories Category:Women judges and Category:Female lawyers

Religious professions

• Stanley J. Grenz and Denise Muir Kjesbo, Women in the Church: A Biblical Theology of Women in Ministry
• Lenore Friedman, Meetings with Remarkable Women: Buddhist Teachers in America
• See also Category:Female religious leaders and Category:Nuns and List of female mystics

Helping professions (social work, childcare, eldercare, etc.)

• Ski Hunter, Sandra Stone Sundel, and Martin Sundel, Women at Midlife: Life Experiences and Implications for the Helping Professions
• Linda Reeser, Linda Cherrey, and Irwin Epstein, Professionalization and Activism in Social Work (1990) (covers gender as part of history of professionalization), Columbia University Press, ISBN 0231067887
• Sarah Stage and Virginia B. Vincenti, editors, Rethinking Home Economics: Women and the History of a Profession
• See also Category:Governesses

Journalism and media professions

• See Women in journalism and media professions

Architecture and design

• Designing for Diversity: Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in the Architectural Profession by Kathryn H. Anthony
• The First American Women Architects by Sarah Allaback (forthcoming 2008)
• See also Category:Women architects

Arts and literature; see also Women's writing in English and Women artists

• Margaret Barlow, Women Artists
• Whitney Chadwick, Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement
• Liz Rideal, Whitney Chadwick, and Frances Borzello, Mirror Mirror: Self-Portraits by Women Artists
• Jo Franceschina, Women and the Profession of Theater, 1810-1860
• National Geographic Society, Women Photographers at National Geographic
• Laura R. Prieto, At Home in the Studio: The Professionalization of Women Artists in America
• See also Category:Women artists, Category:Female dancers, Category:Female choreographers, Category:Women comedians, Category:Women comics artists, Category:Women composers, Category:Female film directors, Category:Female singers

Entertainment and modeling

• Ann Cvetkovich, "Fierce Pussies and Lesbian Avengers: Dyke Activism Meets Celebrity Culture" (images of female models merging infiltrating other cultures)
• Michael Gross, Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women (2003) (history of female modeling);
• Ian Halperin, Shut Up and Smile: Supermodels, the Dark Side (1999)
• Nancy Hellmich, "Do thin models warp girls' body image?", USA Today, Sept. 26, 2006
• Jennifer Melocco, "Ban on Stick-Thin Models Illegal", Daily Telegraph, Feb. 16, 2007
• Barbara Summers, Black and Beautiful: How Women of Color Changed the Fashion Industry (racism within modeling)
• Barbara Summers, Skin Deep: Inside the World of Black Fashion Models (1999)
• Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women (1991)

• See also Category:Female models, Category:Female pornographic film actors, Category:Beauty pageant contestants

Explorers, navigators, travelers, settlers

• Joanna Stratton, Pioneer Women
• David Cordingly, Seafaring Women: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways, and Sailors' Wives
• See also Category:Female explorers, Category:Female astronauts, Category:Female aviators

Sports and athletics

• Karra Porter, Mad Seasons: The Story of the First Women's Professional Basketball League, 1978-1981
• See also: Category:Sportswomen, Category:Female athletes, Category:Female dancers, Category:Female bullfighters,

Business and leadership

• Roger E. Axtell, Tami Briggs, Margaret Corcoran, and Mary Beth Lamb, Do's and Taboos Around the World for Women in Business
• Douglas Branson, No Seat at the Table: How Corporate Governance and Law Keep Women Out of the Boardroom
• Lin Coughlin, Ellen Wingard, and Keith Hollihan, Enlightened Power: How Women are Transforming the Practice of Leadership
• Harvard Business School Press, editors, Harvard Business Review on Women in Business
• S. N. Kim, "Racialized gendering of the accountancy profession: toward an understanding of Chinese women's experiences in accountancy in New Zealand" in Critical Perspectives on Accounting
• Deborah Rhode, The Difference ""Difference"" Makes: Women and Leadership (2002)
• Judy B. Rosener, America's Competitive Secret: Women Managers
• Robert E. Seiler, Women in the Accounting Profession (1986)
• See also Category:Women in business

European Union initiatives and information

• Report"Women and men in decision-making 2007 – analysis of the situation and trends"
• Database on women in decision-making
• Commission's Roadmap for Equality between women and men (2006-2010)

Public policy and governmental occupations

• See also List of the first female holders of political office in Europe and List of the first female holders of political offices
• See also Women in politics and categories Category:Female diplomats, Category:Female civil servants, Category:Women sheriffs, Category:Female police officers, Category:Women in politics

Military professions

• See: History of women in the military; Women's Land Army; Category:Female military personnel; Category:Female wartime spies

Criminal occupations

See Women in crime and Category:Female pirates

External links

• "The New Majority? The Past, Present and Future of Women in the Workplace", Symposium at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Sept. 9, 2011.