Abstract
For the first time in history, most American women are employed or actively looking for work. The upsurge of employed women has been both rapid and massive: in less than thirty years, the proportion of women who are employed has risen from one-third to over one-half, far exceeding official Labor Department predictions. As of 1976, women accounted for 38 percent of employees in private industry and 42 percent of the work force as a whole. The long-term ramifications of this for the labor market and for women themselves, collectively and individually, are only beginning to be explored.
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Notes
Kathryn E. Walker, “Household Work: Can We Add It to the GNP?” Journal of Home Economics (October 1973).
Louise Kapp Howe, Pink Collar Workers: Inside the World of Women’s Work ( New York: Putnam, 1977 ): 8.
Jerolyn R. Lyle and Jane L. Ross, Women in Industry: Employment Patterns of Women in Corporate America (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1973 ): 3.
Quoted in James W. Singer, “Affirmative Action for Jobs: Is the Sears Suit on Target?” National Journal (March 10, 1979 ): 388.
Wall Street Journal (November 14, 1978): 1.
Mitchell Meyer, Women and Employee Benefits( New York: The Conference Board, 1978 ): 15.
Howe, Pink Collar Workers, p. 253.
Meyer, Women and Employee Benefits, p. 22.
Charles E. Lewis and Mary Ann Lewis, “The Potential Impact of Sexual Equality on Health,” New EnglandJournal of Medicine297 (October 20, 1977 ): 865.
Abstract of Constance A. Nathanson, “Illness and the Feminine Role: A Theoretical Review,” Social Science and Medicine 9 (February 1975): 57–62, in Women and the Health System: Selected Annotated References (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, n.d. ): 9.
Barbara Ehrenreich, “Is Success Dangerous to Your Health?” Ms. (May 1979): 53–54.
Hans Selye, The Stress of Life (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956 ): 3.
Rachelle Barcus Warren, “Stress, Primary Support Systems and Women’s Employment Status,” testimony before the City of New York Commission on Human Rights hearings on women in blue-collar, service, and clerical occupations, April 22, 1975.
Lewis and Lewis, “Sexual Equality and Health,” p. 866.
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 868.
Ibid., p. 865.
P. E. Enterline, “Sick Absence for Men and Women by Marital Status,” Archives of Environmental Health 8 (1964): 466–470. Quoted in ibid., p. 865.
Boston Globe (May 29, 1979): 32.
Meyer, Women and Employee Benefits, p. 19.
Ehrenreich, “Is Success Dangerous?” p. 54.
Ibid., p. 98.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Men and Women of the Corporation ( New York: Basic Books, 1977 ): 161–162.
Boston Globe (May 29, 1979): 32.
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Guidelines on Pregnancy and Work (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Center for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 1977 ): 12.
New York Times (February 14, 1979): C7.
Wall Street Journal (November 7, 1977): 1.
William D. Kuntz, “The Pregnant Woman in Industry,” American IndustrialHygiene Association Journal(July 1976): 424.
Jeanne Mager Stellman, Women’s Work, Women’s Health: Myths and Realities ( New York: Pantheon, 1977 ): 152–153.
Wall Street Journal (August 1977): 1.
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Guidelines, p. 3.
Stellman, Women’s Work, Women’s Health, p. 161.
Ibid., p. 173.
Robert Stewart Smith, The Occupational Safety and Health Act: Its Goals and Its Achievements(Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1976 ): 84.
Ibid., p. 75.
This section is based on a proposal by Dr. William J. Bicknell, Director of Special Health Programs, Boston University Health Policy Institute.
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Lebowitz, A. (1980). Overview: The Health of Working Women. In: Walsh, D.C., Egdahl, R.H. (eds) Women, Work, and Health: Challenges to Corporate Policy. Industry and Health Care, vol 8. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8077-1_2
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