ABSTRACT
A 1979 article in the Worcester Telegram, entitled “Women face struggle looking for jobs,” began as follows: “Going out and looking for a job for the first time can be an awesome project-especially if you are a woman…. There are so many things to consider. First and foremost, of course, is what you want to do. Running a close second is what you can do-what your abilities, your skills are. And then of course it depends what’s available in this geographic area” (Towne 1979). This article goes on to stress the special struggles that women, as women, face in looking for work: “your situation, if you are a woman, is not only different from a man’s, it is difficult, if not impossible.” Yet the problem, hinted at toward the beginning of the article (“it depends what’s available in this geographic area”) is never taken up. What does “available in this geographic area” really mean? The phrase suggests that women’s labor force participation depends on the “availability” of “appropriate” jobs in the “right” locations. In fact, geography lies at the heart of any understanding of how women’s situation in the labor market is different from (and often more difficult than) a man’s. Geography is also essential to any understanding of the different labor market experiences of different groups of women.
