ABSTRACT
Women’s economic contributions from unpaid work are hidden. Employment enhances a woman’s well-being and that of her family (role enhancement hypothesis). Employment and second shift domestic work and child and elder care increase a woman’s emotional strain (role overload/strain hypothesis). Single-parent women are most at risk for role overload. Benefits of multiple roles outweigh liabilities. Women’s career achievement is compromised by beliefs related to children and family. Legislation helping employed women and families include: Family and Medical Leave Act, Equal Pay Act, Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Affirmative action (designed originally to help minority men) and comparable worth initiatives benefit all women. Women comprise half the professions but are in lower paid ones (teaching and social work) compared to men (engineering and financial accounting). Women are clustered in low pay pink-collar clerical and retail sales jobs. Men outran women regardless of race, age, occupation, education, experience, seniority, and region. The gender wage gap is explained by the human capital model, consistent with functionalism, that any pay gap is due to individual choices in jobs. Social constructionism and conflict theory explain the gap due to power differences, cultural beliefs about jobs perceived to be masculine and feminine. . Corporate women’s advancement is thwarted by the glass ceiling (invisible barriers constructed by male management), sexual harassment, and stereotypes about women’s leadership. Women often leave to start their own businesses. Women entrepreneurs enjoy a better work-life balance but usually compete with women in businesses serving women (caring, catering, housecleaning). Corporate deserters become stockbrokers and financial managers. Microenterprise (microcredit) was designed to benefit poor women in developing countries but recent changes ushering in neoliberal globalization tied to for profit banking are undermining it. If these obstacles are reduced, microcredit can be reignited as steps to empowerment and poverty reduction for women.
