ABSTRACT
The percentage of women in the labor force has grown systematically since 1900. At the turn of the century, 20 percent of women worked; in 1989, more than 57 percent of the labor force were women. Only 5 percent of married women were employed at the turn of the century, but at the beginning of World War II 15 percent were employed, and that has increased to more than 50 percent today. Current percentages are even higher for both married and divorced women with children. This period of time was also characterized by two major shifts in economic dominance—from primary industry dominance at the turn of the century (farming, fishing, ore gathering, logging) to secondary or multiple-process industry (smoke-stack industry) dominance. From there, the shift at mid-century was to the dominance of postindustrial, third-sector service industries and fourth-sector production of information and other intangibles such as creative art and music. While first- and second-sector industries were dominated by men, both in their productive aspects and administration, and while the male administration of business in the postindustrial enterprises has been the rule, women have statistically dominated the third sector of interpersonal-service industries. Despite their lower-paying reward structures (women still make only about two-thirds of the salary commanded by men), and despite their subordination to public control and oversight in most instances, the aggregate numbers of women providing these services has increased with the availability of national surplus wealth. In 1956, services were already providing more than 50 percent of the nonagricultural employment and more than half of the nonagricultural contributions to the Gross National Product. In aggregate, thus, employed women had come to dominate the expanding portions of the employment market, despite the low value placed on their work. This employment-market dominance has also been reflected in women's increasing impact on the dominant culture, even in the absence of rapidly increasing numbers in positions of political power. Their aggregate impact on the occupations they dominate has placed them, thus, in the forefront of social change.
