Worthless in the Workplace
According to BLS, the unemployment in June rate fell to 10.2% for adult men and 11.2% for adult women. Although the difference in unemployment rates between men and women is abating we must not brush this 1% off as nothing because just 3 months ago in April 55% of jobs lost belonged to women and the disparity in unemployment rates between men and women was just about three percent, with women receiving the short end of that stick. In June unemployment fell at 10.1% for White people, with POC’s unemployment rate falling just about 4% above that. There is no question that the contrasts in unemployment rates and jobs lost benefit the white male as the United States has a long and deep-rooted history of pushing women and people of color out of the workplace. In this Op-Ed, I am going to focus on the history of women in the workplace.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the working woman was not accepted in society however there were a few jobs that were seen as tolerable. These jobs included a secretary, nurse, flight attendant, and teacher. Being a mother and a homemaker was seen as the top priority for women at the time.
That all changed in the 1940s when all the men went off to war and the women were asked to pick up where the men left off, taking jobs in factories. Perhaps the most notable symbol of this time in women's history is “Rosie the Riveter” who encouraged women entering the workforce famously saying “We Can Do It.”
Then, in the 1950s, after the war ended women were ushered back into the life of a housewife, as they were no longer necessary in the workforce, and therefore unwelcome. Starting in the 1980s the working women became popular again and in the ’80s and '90s the ‘women who do it all’ was gaining fame. The ‘woman who does it all’ meaning the woman who holds a 9 to 5 job and still takes care of her family.
In the 2010s the ‘girl boss’ was born. The 'girl boss' is essentially a woman who thrives in the patriarchal systems and embraces the misogynistic culture in the workplace. The 'girl boss' also focuses on benefiting and uplifting white women, leaving WOC behind. The main issue with the girl boss is that rather than striving to change the systems that are rigged against her, she decides to attempt to thrive within them. The movement holds a false sense of feminism, because the wave of feminism we are in right now is all about changing the system, and the 'girl boss' goes directly against that.
One of the benefits of the 'girl boss' movement is women becoming fully accepted in the workplace, well, almost. There is still a wage gap that has yet to be closed. According to Payscale, women make 81 cents to every dollar a white man makes with Native, African American, and Hispanic women making even less. So even though a woman might finally be eligible to get a job, her pay is still not evolved.
Normally, I would not make a claim as wild as this, but as recent news has shown, President Trump knows very little about what's going on in the world and often ignores briefings. So, with that taken into consideration: I wonder how enthusiastic Trump would be about opening the economy if he knew that Women and specifically Women of Color were being hurt much more than white men by it being shut down.
