A Short History Of Big Business For Real Women

Women in business

Women have always worked. Ever since the dawn of the human race, women have worked both in the home and outside of the home. Whether it was gathering while the men hunted in ancient times, working as shopkeepers or clerks, manning the textile mills of the industrial revolution, working as secretaries, taking over for soldiers at war in the mills and factories, or the modern CEO – women have played a huge role in business and work.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, women’s employment prospects were scarce. If a woman was married, she was expected to have children and tend to the home. If it was absolutely necessary for a woman to work, it was almost always as a shopkeeper or artisan. Usually, the women who took on these jobs either were widows or had never been married. Married mothers simply did not have a need to venture outside the home, as their husbands were expected to support the family. There are, of course, always exceptions to these general rules.

Opportunities For Women To Work

Elizabeth Timothy operated a print shop in South Carolina and Cornelia Smith Bradford operated a binding shop in Boston in the 18th Century. Their shops played significant roles in the American Revolution.  The Revolution, as wars tended to do, created more opportunities for women to work (usually out of necessity) as their husbands left the home front to fight, and often give their lives.  This era also gave birth to piecework that gave roots to today’s modern work-from home trades.

As time marched on and industrialization took place, women were seen as a source of cheap labor. Textile factories were the most common employers of women in the late 18 and early 1900’s.  As more immigrants arrived in the United States, the labor force grew. These immigrant families also required two incomes, as they were often only hired for menial jobs when they first arrived in the US. Immigrant wives were three times as likely to have a job in these years as women who were born in the United States.  
The Civil War also created a change for the female labor force in the US. As the men went off to war, women became teachers and entered the white collar world as clerks and secretaries. Nursing also exploded as a career during these years.

Women In Factories

By the turn of the Century, over 20% of women worked for a wage in a variety of industries. In the census of that year, women were found in 295 of the 305 occupations listed on the survey. Factories were the biggest employers of women in the post-industrial era. More than a million women were employed in factories in 1900. These jobs paid very little and there was zero job security. Conditions were poor. Eventually, this led to protests and the formation of many women-only labor unions.

During this time, women began creeping steadily into clerical positions. From 1900 to 1920, women employed as clerks rose from 187,000 to 1.42 million.  When World War I took off, women assumed the jobs left behind by men fighting overseas. Of course, once the war ended, women were ousted from these jobs and sent either back home, or back to more menial tasks.

Women And War

World War II saw the same pattern. Women flooded the workforce in all types of positions. It is estimated that six million women entered the working world during the war. It was considered their patriotic duty to get out of the kitchen and into the factory. But of course, once the war ended, it was their familial duty that they returned to. Although they were swept out of the workforce at the close of the war, by 1947 employment levels of women were at the same number as they were during World War II. By the 1950’s one third of women worked outside the home.

Since the 1950’s women have continued to enter the workforce in greater numbers. Laws have been enacted to ensure equal pay and to prevent discrimination on the basis of gender. Pregnant women are guaranteed not to be fired. Affirmative action helped level the playing field in hiring and promoting. And as time marched on and the global economy began to take on a new life, more and more families required two incomes just to stay afloat. Now, in the 21st Century, staying home to raise a family is considered a choice, and that choice is often given to those who fall in the upper levels of the social caste system.

As women's roles in society began to shift, more and more women began to attend and complete college. In 1963 Harvard's graduate school of business began to admit women to their program. By 1989, half the MBA degrees granted by that institution were given to women. Women began to emerge in other male-dominated areas as well. In 1869 one woman was admitted to the Iowa Bar Association. IN 1981, Sandra Day O'Connor was seated on the Supreme Court. Today, women make up over half of all attorneys and a significant portion of judges and magistrates. The American Medical Association accepted women into its membership in 1876, but it wasn't until the 1990's that women made up 20% of physicians.

The Glass Ceiling

Despite these significant professional gains, women are still vexed by the glass ceiling phenomenon. The glass ceiling is used to describe the invisible, but fully felt "ceiling" that women hit in their professional lives, unable to advance into the world of men. For example, only 10 percent of women faculty members at universities are granted positions as full professors. 1/3 of male professors are granted this tenure. Despite massive gains in business, only 2.5% of Fortune 500 companies have women seated as CEOs.

The women who currently make up the workforce (at all levels) are varied. Women are single, married, young, old, white and of color. Currently white females make up the largest percent of the female workforce, but women of color are emerging as the fastest growing sector of the entire labor force. As women continue to expand their work status, and their job titles at work, new issues are emerging for both employees and employers, including how to deal with child care, elder care and other family/financial issues.

More women are raising children on their own, and this is creating a huge demand for child care. In years and Centuries past, women had to fend for themselves when it came to child care. Family member and neighbors helped out when they could, and when they couldn't; kids were left to fend for themselves. This lack of child care reflected the view of society that women should stay home with their children rather than enter the workforce. During the World Wars, the government stepped in and offered subsidized child care for working mothers, but when the war ended, so did the day care centers.  It wasn't until the 1970's that child care was seen as an absolute necessity. The tax code was changed to provide relief for parents who had to pay for day care for their children, and a few large corporations began offering child care in their benefits packages. 

Elder Care - A Ticking Time-Bomb?

The most recent issue emerging for women who work outside the home involves elder care. The current generation of women in their 40's and 50's are referred to as the "sandwich generation." They have their own children and grandchildren to tend to, while at the same time caring for elderly parents. Elder care is often even more expensive than child care, and can put a significant financial and emotional strain on families. This problem gave rise to laws being changed to allow workers to take time off to care for sick and infirm family members and legally be guaranteed a job upon their return to work.

Pensions are also changing. Workers used to work for one or two companies their entire lives, and would retire knowing they would collect a paycheck for the rest of their lives. In modern times, people are expected to save for their own retirements, and in recent years more and more people have seen their retirement funds disappear due to medical costs, the cost of raising children, eldercare, or in some tragic cases, fraud on the part of the retirement plan administrator.

The Bottom Line For Women In The Workplace

And finally, despite women's gains in the workforce, they still represent only a small portion of Corporate CEOs and upper management. There is still significant wage disparity as well. For every dollar a man makes, women are only making, on average 77 cents for the same work.

Because of these stresses on women in personal and work life, more women than ever are branching out and starting their own businesses. Women today crave flexibility in their work schedule, and for many women the only way to achieve this flexibility is to branch out on their own.  Working as their own boss, women can set their own schedules and can control how much money they make and save. Owning a business means no glass ceiling, and no gender-based wage disparages. 54% of all new businesses are started by women, and the number continues to grow each year. The face of women in business is continuing to shift and change, and only the future will tell where women in business will go.