6
l
FROM JOBS TO CAREERS
Female labor force participation
FIGURE 1.1 The Path from Jobs to Careers for US Women in the Twentieth Century
Informal and agricultural work
Identity and high-skill occupations
Factory work
JOBS
Mid-skill services
Institutional reform Secondary education
CAREERS
National income Sources: Based roughly on Goldin (1995, 2006). Note: The shading of the stages represents the gradual transition, in a probabilistic sense, from jobs (lighter) to careers (darker).
Phase II. In the early 1900s, the expansion of clerical jobs offered a more pleasant alternative to factory work. Goldin (2006) argues that these working environments helped to ease the social stigma that had discouraged women from working in the formal labor market. At the same time, educational opportunities expanded, and women gained what economists call “general” skills that could be applied to a wide range of industries. The shift from Phase I to Phase II (1890–1950) was associated with a significant shift across several indicators related to education, marriage, and the composition of women’s employment in specific industries. Specifically, there was a decline in the share of employed (nonfarm) females in manufacturing, accompanied by a rise in both the share of services workers who were female and the share of females who worked in services. In the United States, this trend was related to the increased availability of clerical work. When women started working in clerical occupations, single women led the way, but later in the 1900s, it became the norm to find married women in these positions. As secondary education expanded between 1910 and 1930, clerical workers earned higher wages, and more women could enter the workforce. In 1890, 32 percent of (nonfarm) employed females had worked in manufacturing and 4 percent as clerical workers; by 1920, these shares were 26 percent and 22 percent, respectively. By 1950, the share of women in manufacturing dipped to 22 percent and those in clerical work rose to nearly 28 percent (Goldin 1984). Similarly, between 1890 and 1920, females’ share of total manufacturing employment dropped from 20 percent to 15 percent, and their
