Women began teaching younger children in classrooms, and men taught older children. During this time, an ultra-domestic feminine ideal reigned, known as the cult of domesticity and true womanhood. Women were supposed to be guardians of virtue and to build domestic, pure homes while isolating themselves from a world that grew coarser and further from religion.
World War I and II
Between 1800 and 1850, there were a multitude of social and institutional reforms as cities began to industrialize. White women’s literacy rates nearly matched men’s by 1850, and women began to have a larger role in primary education. Girls and boys were taught together in classrooms by the 1850s (Strober and Lanford, p. 216).
Understanding Pink Collar Work
Young women were supposed to be pious, pure, submissive, and domestic, and were generally expected to become mothers, except for a few who had occupations caring for other people’s children. In the 1840s, the National Board of Popular Education sent 600 female teachers to frontier towns in the West to educate children and bring prestige to small towns in the Midwest and West. These women were drawn from evangelical churches, and learned to rely on themselves rather than their families as they traveled out west. “Because the pioneer women teachers were highly intelligent and articulate, undoubtedly among the brightest persons in their home communities, teaching was the route they chose to achieve independence” (Kaufman, p. xxii). Throughout this time, women, particularly young, unmarried women, were considered the guardians of religious virtue, civilizing and bringing to God those around them.
t-century female working world (United Kingdom)
A yellow-collar job refers to a profession within a creative industry or sector, such as filmmaking. It is a term that has emerged to describe specific types of jobs within the creative field. The 1930s proved successful for women in the workplace thanks to federal relief programs and the growth of unions. For the first time women were not completely dependent on themselves, in 1933 the federal government expanded in its responsibility to female workers.
- Providing non-financial benefits, like company-sponsored childcare and flexible working arrangements, plays a crucial role in worker motivation and helps foster an employment culture that supports pink collar workers.
- Because she came from a family of engineers, her father encouraged her to try something different and, with his help, she gained a three-year position as an Apprentice Draughtsman’s Tracer at D.
- Women who worked after the war were often paid around half of what men were paid for doing the same job and were expected to give up their jobs when they got married.
- On her own initiative, she also attended night classes at Clydebank Technical College to learn technical drawing, an opportunity she had been denied at school because she was female.
In addition, organisations such as Girl Geek Scotland, Equate Scotland, Education Scotland, and the Scottish Government are working together to promote STEM subjects to girls and widen interest. However, in 1975, the Sex Discrimination Act came into force, along with the implementation of the Equal Pay Act of 1970. The Sex Discrimination Act meant that discriminating against women in employment, training and education was illegal, and this included refusing to employ married women (Court, 1995). Around this time in the UK, the percentage of women in couples without children who worked was around 68%, while the figure for women in couples with children who worked was 48% (Roantree and Vira, n/d). Therefore, there was still a substantial minority of women who did not work outside the home. An aging population in many developed nations has led to an increased demand for healthcare workers, with female-dominated industries like home healthcare services experiencing growth.
What are pink collar jobs?
Families in the South and more rural areas tended to rely on home-produced goods, so the value of women’s work was seen as higher than in more urban areas where manufactured goods dominated. The few women who worked as teachers in the South had salaries closer to men’s than did women in northern and urban areas, probably because few people in rural areas possessed enough education to teach. While some young men providing tutoring would become professionals, most teachers were not destined for high status. In some areas, teaching positions and other jobs such as bell-ringing were set aside for people at risk of becoming social dependents, such as young single women. It was thought that when a woman married, her husband would provide for her and she would focus on raising children, so her job would not then be necessary or appropriate. Even in the colonial period, teaching was a relatively low-status occupation, performed only by young people or those with few other opportunities.
Teachers would hold other jobs during the non-school months, and taught only when other jobs were not available. In the South and other rural areas, young, male, educated teachers traveled around teaching while preparing for professional careers before the responsibilities of raising their own families. In the urban centers of the North, established schools catered to the large populations of families with school-age children. Securing fair compensation and benefits for pink collar workers encompasses the implementation of pay equity policies, the provision of non-financial benefits, and the recognition and reward of exceptional performance. Historical disparities have resulted in pink-collar jobs paying less and offering limited career advancement, necessitating the establishment and enforcement of pay equity policies accompanied by regular pay audits to address wage disparities.
A belief that women, with their smaller fingers, were better able to operate these machines, reflected early gender stereotypes in job roles. The term ‘pink-collar’ was legally recognized under US law in the early 1970s to describe positions traditionally filled by women, such as non-professional office staff. The term was coined in 1983 to jobs that have been feminized, such as teaching or secretarial work, are also referred to as describe the limits women have in furthering their careers since the jobs are often dead-end, stressful and underpaid. Pink ghetto was more commonly used in the early years, when women were finally able to work. Pink-collar work became the popular term once it was popularized by Louise Kapp Howe, a writer and social critic, in the 1970s.
During the recruitment process, employers often face the considerable challenge of overcoming gender stereotypes. This involves using gender-neutral language in job descriptions and focusing on skills over experience. Employers can attract a diverse workforce to pink collar jobs by implementing broad recruitment strategies and inclusive workplace policies. For instance, the percentage of women holding secretarial positions has stayed stable at approximately 93% for the past 80 years. This dominance extends to the current day where a significant number of women continue to work in pink collar jobs. A pink collar worker is an employee who undertakes roles traditionally considered to be women’s jobs, such as teacher, florist, child care, secretary, nurse, domestic helper, etc.
Women were more likely to be working in part-time jobs and many of the jobs they did were seen as traditional female roles, such as secretaries and receptionists. Women who worked after the war were often paid around half of what men were paid for doing the same job and were expected to give up their jobs when they got married. However, employers were still keen to employ women, as they cost less to employ than men.