Research
Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW)
For the past two years, the Institute has been studying the experiences of women in the unionized blue collar construction trades. Using records from NEW, an organization that helps women find nontraditional employment, the Institute has created a database of women who have entered the construction trades from 1978 to the present.
In-depth interviews were conducted with these women to collect their personal narratives of work histories. Issues explored include barriers and opportunities in entering the trades, experiences in apprenticeship programs, and glass ceiling issues. The findings from this case-study have theoretical and practical relevance to the larger population of women who enter nontraditional male-dominated occupations.
Upon project completion, the information derived will provide to legislators, employers, unions, and labor researchers a profile of women who enter the unionized construction trades, including their demographics (age, ethnicity, marital status, education, etc.), job placement and retention, wages, and social and economic status. The database will aid in determining the opportunities and obstacles that women face in obtaining and retaining jobs in the construction trades in New York State. The results are also expected to have implications for welfare-to-work programs in New York State and elsewhere.
Click here to go to The New Working Paper Series: Tracking the Progress of Women in Non-Traditional Employment.
Women in the Labor Force: A Databook
(2006 Edition) [20 November 2006]View U.S. Department of Labor statistics page
or view the PDF version, [full-text, 86 pages]
The following is an excerpt from the Women in the Labor Force: A Datebook:
"The past several decades have been marked by several notable changes in women's labor force activities compared to men's, including rising labor force participation, employment growth in higher-paying occupations, and earnings increases. In 1970, about 43 percent of women age 16 and older were in the labor force. By the late 1990s, the labor force participation rate of women had risen to 60 percent. Though it is still well above the rates that prevailed throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and much of the 1990s, the rate has receded slightly since 1999, to 59.3 percent in 2005. During the past several decades, women were increasingly employed in higher-paying occupations. In 2005, more than half of all the workers in management, professional, and related occupations were women. Women's earnings relative to men's also were substantially higher in 2005 than in previous decades. In 1979, among full-time workers, women's earnings were 62 percent of men's; by 2005 the ratio had grown to 81 percent. The movement of women into the labor force and into higher-paying occupations has gone hand in hand with their pursuit of higher education. For example, in 1970, about one-tenth of women age 25 to 64 in the labor force had completed 4 or more years of college; by 2005, one-third held at least a bachelor's degree.
This report presents historical and current labor force and earnings data for women and men from the Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is a national monthly survey of approximately 60,000 households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unless otherwise noted, data are annual averages from the CPS. For a detailed description of the source of the data and an explanation of concepts and definitions used, see the Technical Note at the end of this report."
