Abstract
This article examines the past experience of women-with a focus on black women-in employment and training programs. In spite of the fact that women have been underrepresented in these programs and often steered toward training in “traditionally female” occupations, they exhibit higher postprogram earnings gains than males. Overall, however, the training provided has at best shifted women into low-wage clerical fields with average annual earnings barely above the poverty level. Therefore, these programs-taken alone-can not be expected to have a major impact on an important problem facing blacks: welfare dependency.
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Notes
D. Betson and J. Van Der Gaag, “Working Married Women and the Distribution of Income,”Journal of Human Resources 19, no. 4 (1984).
These data come from the following sources: L. Burbridge, “Employment and Training Programs for Youth: An Interpretation and Synthesis of Measured Outcomes,” Urban Institute Project Report (Washington D.C., 1983); Westat, Inc., “Characteristics of Enrollees Who Entered Adult Oriented CETA Programs During FY 1980” (Rockville, Md., 1982), and “Characteristics of Youth Enrollees Who Entered CETA During FY 1980” (Rockville, Md., 1982); Abt Associates,Post Program Impacts of the Youth Incentive Entitlement Pilot Projects (New York: Manpower Demonstration Research Corp., 1984); J. Grasso and J. Shea,Vocational Education and Training: Impact on Youth (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1979); S. Masters and R. Maynard,The Impact of Supported Work on Long Term Recipients of AFDC Benefits (New York: Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, 1981); Pacific Consultants, Camil Associates and Ketron, Inc., “TheImpact of WIN II: A Longitudinal Evaluation of the Work Incentive Program” U.S. Department of Labor Contract No. 53-3-013-06 (September 1976); H. Harper, “Black Women’s Participation in JTPA and Issues for the Future,” in this volume.
S. Berryman, W. Chow, R. Bell.CETA: Is It Equitable for Women? (Santa Monica: Rand, 1981).
A. Sum, A. Hahn. P. Harrington, and P. Simpson, “Programs for Economically Disadvantaged Youth: Their Size, Operations and Impacts Upon Participants” (n.p., n.d., Mimeographed).
See D.T. Ellwood, “Teenage Unemployment: Permanent Scars or Temporary Blemishes?” and M. Corcoran, “The Employment and Wage Consequences of Teenage Women’s Nonemployment,” in R. Freeman and D. Wise, eds.,The Youth Labor Market: Its Nature, Causes and Consequences (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982).
See F. Levy, “The Structure of CETA Earnings Gains,” Urban Institute Project Report (Washington, D.C., November 1982).
S. Berryman et al.,CETA: Is It Equitable for Women?
J. Crowley, T. Pollard, and R. Rumberger, “Education and Training,” in Michael Borus, ed.,Tomorrow’s Workers (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, 1983).
I. Strecker-Seeborg, M. Seeborg, and A. Zegeye, “The Impact of Nontraditional Training on the Occupational Attainment of Women.”Journal of Human Resources 19, no. 4. (1984).
Results from the following studies are presented: N. Kiefer, “The Economic Benefits of Four Government Training Programs,” in FE. Bloch, ed.Evaluating Manpower Training Programs (Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press, Inc., 1979); O. Ashenfelter, “Estimating the Effect of Training Programs on Earnings,Review of Economics and Statistics 60, February 1978); H. Bloom, “Estimating the Effect of Job Training Programs, Using Longitudinal Data: Ashenfelter’s Findings Reconsidered,”Journal of Human Resources 19, no. 4 (1984); L. Bassi, “Estimating The Effect of Training Programs with Nonrandom Selection” (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1982); Congressional Budget Office and National Commission for Employment Policy,CETA Training Programs: Do They Work For Adults? (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1982); Westat, “The Impact of CETA on 1978 Earnings: Participants in Selected Program Activities Who Entered CETA During FY 1976,” Net Impact Report No. 1, Supplement No. 1 (Rockville Maryland, 1982); Mathematica Policy Research,The Lasting Impacts of Job Corp Participation, Youth Knowledge Development Report 3.4 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1980); Abt Associates,Post Program Impacts.; Grasso and Shea,Vocational Education.; S. Masters and R. Maynard,The Impact of Supported Work.; Pacific Consultants, Camil Asssociates, and Ketron, Inc., “The Impact of WIN II.”
Congressional Budget Office and National Commission for Employment Policy,CETA Training Programs.
For example, see Robert Taggart,A Fisherman’s Guide, An Assessment of Training and Remediation Strategies (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 1981).
Westat,The Impact of CETA.
Congressional Budget Office and National Commission for Employment Policy,CETA Training Programs.
F. Levy, “The Structure of CETA Earnings Gains.”
For example, Kiefer, “The Economic Benefits,” mentions it, as do Russell Rumberger and Thomas Dayton in their analysis of vocational education using NLS data, “The Economic Value of Academic and Vocational Training Acquired in High School,” in Michael Borus, ed.,Youth and the Labor Market: Analyses of the National Longitudinal Survey (Kalamazoo, Mich: Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 1984). See also J. Mitchell, M. Chadwin, and D. Nightingale,Implementing Welfare Employment Programs: An Institutional Analysis of the Work Incentive (WIN) Program (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1980).
S. Masters and R. Maynard,The Impact of Supported Work.
R. Taggart,A Fisherman’s Guide.
Such a review can be found in D. Nightingale and L. Burbridge, “Measuring the Reduction of Welfare Dependency: The Experience of Job Training Programs,” Urban Institute Project Report (Washington D.C., 1984).
L. Bassi, M. Simms, L. Burbridge, and C. Betsey, “Measuring the Effect of CETA on Youth and the Economically Disadvantaged,” U.S. Department of Labor Contract No. 20-11-82-19 (Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute, 1984).
Pacific Consultants, Camil Associates, and Ketron, Inc., “The Impact of WIN II.”
C. Presser, “Occupational Salary Levels for White-Collar Workers, 1984,”Monthly Labor Review, October 1984.
See G. Silvestri, J. Lukasiewicz, and M. Einstein, “Occupational Employment Projections through 1995,”Monthly Labor Review, November 1984.
D. Nightingale, “Federal Employment and Training Policy Changes During the Reagan Administration: State and Local Responses,” Changing Domestic Priorities Project (Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute, May 1985).
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Burbridge, L.C. Black women in employment and training programs. The Review of Black Political Economy 14, 97–114 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02689878
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02689878