Women in the new economy

BY ALISON ZHANG YANG

"Women play a key role in the New Economy for weal or for woe," said Mary C. Murphree, a Regional Administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor, "while female small-business owners are succeeding as never before, on average, women and their children are still the poorest Americans."

Mary C. Murphree and Jacqueline Cooke, both administrators of the Women’s Bureau within the U.S. Department of Labor, spoke to a small gathering at Linsly-Chittenden Hall on Thurs., March 22 in a lecture entitled "Women's Work in the 21st Century Economy."

They explored the paradoxes in the role of working women in the U.S. economy both of the past and of the future. Reflecting on the diverse experiences of American women, they emphasized the unfeasibility of generalizing the many facets of the lives of working women.

"It's impossible to answer the question whether American women have their cup half full or half empty," said Murphree, "while there are many extraordinary women excelling in male-dominated careers, there are also countless women struggling while having all strikes against them in terms of education and the availability of opportunities."

Cooke and Murphree were the opening speakers for the series "A Taste of Inequality," a seven-part program hosted by the Yale Women's Center. Distinguished women such as the award-winning poet Alix Olson, attorney Lynn Paltrow, and educator Ann Tisch are invited to present their perspectives on a wide array of controversial women's issues, including single-sex education, reproductive rights, the image of women in religion, and trans-feminism.

Jacqueline Cooke, the Regional Administrator for all of New England, focused on the historical contributions of the Women’s Bureau, a small and often under-credited agency within the Department of Labor. Cooke spoke of the Bureau’s mission—promoting the interests of wage-earning women—and some of the agency's specific goals—helping women in poverty make the transition from welfare to work and women of the corporate world to break the "glass-ceiling."

It’s often said that the women's movement in the U.S. had its groundwork laid during the 1920's and then took great leaps forward during the 60's. Murphree echoed this point by explaining how the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave the women’s movement real muscles in the legal arena. Another aspect of the success she described is the formation of targeted groups—the association of both women and men—that took on issues in organized and systematic ways. Murphree described the founding Commission of Labor in 1964 and the how the foundations for women's centers across the nation were laid thanks to a generous grant from the Ford's Foundation.

Reflecting on her own experiences decades ago as a Ph.D. researcher, Murphree described the once lack of interest in women issues in the academia. She wrote her Ph. D. thesis on the social status of secretaries. Initially, she was hesitant because she was convinced that others must have done similar academic studies on the subject. Searching through dissertations abstracts, however, she found almost nothing on what was the largest occupation employing women in the U.S.

She expressed her hope that women of Yale will take the role as the researchers of the future and carry on the task of evaluating women’s status in the New Economy. "The politicians—the policy makers—often do not have the answers to urgent issues that are impacting women," said Murphree, "there are a string of devils—violence, welfare, growing substance abuse, homelessness, AIDS, and poverty—which we need to combat. Women need to come out of their shells, reaching out and engaging in these issues."

While women are gaining a better status and a greater presence in the work place, they continue to shoulder the primary family care responsibilities. Jacqueline Cooke presented intriguing statistics on this paradox and explored the challenges it poses for working mothers. Over three out of four mothers are working today. In 1999, around 64 percent women with children under the age of six were in the work force. As a result of in the increasing numbers of "office moms," Cooke concluded that providing adequate child-care has become a leading concern for many families.

Since divorce is a reality for half of all adults, over 8 percent of divorced mothers with children are working. Cooke described how supporting a household as a single, working mother can be extremely difficult in terms of economics. In 1999, around 53 percent of families living below the poverty line were households headed by women.

She shared a heart-wrenching story on how the lack of affordable and accommodating child-care programs has affected low-income, blue-collar families. "There is a couple working in a potato-processing plant in Idaho," Cooke recollected, "they worked the night-shift, and they couldn't afford child-care for their children. They had to resort to having their children sleep in the car outside the plant at night."

To address this problem, the Women's Bureau launched a business-to-business mentoring program through which employers who are already doing something in terms of child-care for their workers can advice and mentor other employers to provide the similar assistance.

"The New Economy" is a term that has been flooding editorial columns of financial publications over the past year. Murphree discussed the many conflicting visions of the New Economy and the key role of women regardless of how the term is defined. "Our job at the Women's Bureau is to push the policy makers so that they understand and appreciate women’s importance in the New Economy," said Murphree, "women function as the managers, producers, workers, consumers, teachers and trainers in this New Economy. In almost every case, we are the central link between the work place and the home."

Some economists believe that the New Economy is the "hour-glass economy" based on increasing income disparity—the rich are getting richer and the poor are falling even lower down the ladder. In fact, the 10 percent of Americans hold over 70% of all wealth in this nation. Murphree emphasized that women should be central to any discussion of the "hour-glass economy." Women and their children are the poorest Americans.

Murphree presented alarming research data. Women today are making the famous "72-cents-for-every-dollar" that men make. She added that she finds it very discouraging that recent studies show that this figure has actually gone back down. Three out of five minimum-wage workers are women; nine out of ten working-women earn less than $45,000 a year; half of all working-women make less than $22,000 a year. "These are astounding, alarming figures," she explained, "when you consider the rising cost of living and the fact that increasing numbers of households are supported single-handedly by women."

Murphree also described how the work of women activists around the globe has inspired and motivated her. She stressed that the promotion of women's interests is of global concern —not bound by nationality or race.

"I have never thought of women's rights as human rights," she reflected, "until I went to Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. I came back with a refreshed view on all the diverse lives of women in this country."

The concept of "human security" was discussed in the closing of the talk. "It's an international concept that states it's not enough to simply perceive women’s rights as human rights," said Murphree, "everyone needs to be able to depend on those rights. These rights aren't temporal—they can’t be there one year and gone the year after."

Among the handful of students and faculty who attended talk, only two were men. Josie Rodberg (DC ’03), the Special Events coordinator of the Women's Center, expressed her disappointment about the turnout. "Apathy about political or semi-political events at Yale really upsets me," she explained, "it's very easy to be at Yale and think that gender inequality is a thing of the past, which is exactly the perception that this series is supposed to counter."

Rodberg, however, expects the that the interest in the speakers’ series will build in momentum over time. "The upcoming talks are about ‘sexier’ topics," she said, "like the drug wars and a slam poetry performance, so I no too worried."

Rodberg also commented on that fact that there is a misconception among students that the Women's Center targets for a very "extremist" group and does not represent the diverse interests of women at Yale.

"We try to be as open to different viewpoints as possible," Rodberg says, "As far as I can tell, the problem is that we're not afraid to use the "f-word"—feminist. As a politically active group of people, and as individuals we do have strong opinions and we aren't afraid to express them, but that doesn't mean that we aren't extremely eager to engage with anyone on campus who wants to become involved."

Back to YH Features...