It`s time for a ”destination check,” when even the busiest role-jugglers are asked to pause and consider an important question: What is the status of women today?
A Washington think-tank that monitors such things says the American woman continues to explore and conquer new terrain in the business world, despite some serious rough spots, personally and economically.
On the plus side, she is more likely to apply to medical school, start her own business and chart her own career by working part-time or as a free-lancer. She is holding her own in traditionally male-dominated careers, including veterinary medicine, journalism and computer programming.
On the down side, she is more likely than ever to be grappling with poverty and unable to afford decent housing. She is gripped with guilt over returning to work after the birth of a child and is worried about the quality of her child`s day care. Her home business is likely to be producing a modest income; her part-time job pays little or no benefits.
This is a composite view from the Women`s Research and Education Institute in Washington, the non-partisan research arm of the Congressional Caucus for Women`s Issues. The institute has been tracking the status of women since 1977, but it wasn`t until three years ago that it decided to compile a major status report in book form, commissioning researchers nationwide to write chapters on their areas of expertise.
Reaction from politicians, scholars, the press and the general public was so positive, publication dates of the updated editions have become events. TempoWoman received an exclusive preview of the third edition, ”The American Woman 1990-91: A Status Report” (W.W. Norton, $22.95), which will be officially unveiled to the news media Monday at a news conference in Washington`s National Press Club.
”The news is mixed for women,” says Sara E. Rix, institute research director and editor of the three reports. Rix, in briefing TempoWoman about the findings, said, ”Women are making tremendous strides, but they continue to bear the burdens of many of the cultural problems in this country.”
The issues WREI surveys in this year`s edition include child care;
housing; women-owned business; contingent work (including part-time and contract labor); women in medical school; minorities; women in art, TV, international development and the peace movement; and the growth of women`s studies programs.
Using statistical snapshots as a base, the authors offer suggestions to improve women`s conditions in these areas. The solutions often call for legislation and money from the federal government. With that goal in mind, the annual reports are delivered free to each member of Congress.
WREI was founded to provide research that would shape policies set forth by the Congressional Caucus for Women`s Issues, a bipartisan group organized to improve women`s status. The 100-member caucus has an executive committee of 21 women and is cochaired by Reps. Patricia Schroeder (D.-Colo.) and Olympia Snowe (R.-Maine).
”Our book is the only document of its kind that gives a sort of measurement of how women stand,” says Betty Parsons Dooley, executive director of WREI. ”Other organizations may present one point of view about an issue but we try very hard to aim for objectivity so what we present has more weight and isn`t seen as propaganda.”
What follows are highlights of the book`s categories, supplemented by interviews with the authors. Together they provide a glimpse of some of the concerns and gains of contemporary women.
Child care
”Bad day care is bad for kids and this country,” says Fern Marx, a fellow at Yale University`s Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy and author of the chapter on child care. ”Why more people aren`t recognizing this as a national crisis I don`t know.”
Some 80 percent of all children will have working mothers by the next decade, according to a recent report by the National Research Council. NRC`s 19-member committee, made up of child-development researchers and one representative each from the AFL-CIO and Bank of America, called for an infusion of up to $10 billion in federal funds.
Child care aid currently costs the government $7 billion a year, primarily in the form of tax credits, but the need for more federal support is expected to become acute.
After more than a year of persistent lobbying by family rights activists, Congress appears to be on the verge of action.
The House of Representatives last month passed the Early Childhood Education and Development Act, legislation that would provide more than $5 billion per year over the next five years to supplement day care costs.
The Senate last year passed its own day care legislation, the Act for Better Child Care Services, which called for $1.7 billion a year in direct aid.
Both bills now go to House-Senate conference, where a compromise measure is expected to be hammered out.
President Bush has threatened to veto the House bill in its present form because of its high price tag.
The Act for Better Child Care, which has been supported vigorously by the Children`s Defense Fund, a Washington-based children`s advocacy group, was introduced in the House last year but stalled after Democratic leaders disagreed on how to distribute the funds. The House Ways and Means Committee favored channeling money through an existing government child care program in addition to providing tax credits for poorer families.
The Early Childhood Act, a compromise between the sparring factions, provides more tax credits to poor families, offers state-issued day care subsidies, expands the Head Start program, and sets minimum standards for day- care centers.
Marx is most concerned about the skill level of day care staff. She cites a national day care staffing study by three leading universities that showed the average annual salary for a day care employee working 35 hours a week was $9,000 in 1988. Average turnover rate was 40 percent or more.
Marx is encouraged by the actions of some corporations, which have voluntarily provided on-site day care facilities and other family perks. However, most employers have yet to find profit in providing such expensive benefits, notes Marx. ”There has been progress, but it`s a terribly slow process,” she says.
Marx, who has been researching women and family issues since 1968, believes corporations should shoulder some, but not all, of the burden for providing quality day care. ”The real danger is that we want the private sector to become more involved, but we can`t let the government off the hook,” she says.
Marx says that while the pending child care legislation is ”not a panacea,” she sees it as a good step toward building a better future for day care.
She would like to see more grassroots participation in such groups as the Children`s Defense Fund and Voices for Children in Illinois.
”We have to keep this issue in the political forefront because the need for decent child care is not going to go away.”
Contingent workers
Most people know a few ”contingent” workers: the professional woman who has a baby and continues working from home; the working mother who cuts back her hours; the frustrated career woman who decides to try her own business at home; the grown daughter who must work part time to care for an infirm parent. The contingent work force (defined as temporary, part-time and contract workers) is among the fastest growing segments of the labor force, according to researcher Elizabeth Conway.
”Employers traditionally viewed employees who didn`t work full time as
`marginal,` working for pin money,” says Conway, a family benefits policy analyst currently working for a major insurance carrier in Washington. But today, she notes, women no longer are working for ”pin money,” but they are seeking flexibility.
”They`re looking at their work differently,” Conway says. ”They are trying to balance work and family life and need something beyond a 50-hour work week.”
Precise numbers are hard to track because of the transient nature of such work, but the contingent work force is estimated at 29 to 35 million. The vast majority are female, notes Conway.
Contingent work gives women the control they crave over scheduling, choice of assignments and co-workers, but such autonomy does not come without a price.
”Contingent work is still thought of as less serious than `real` jobs,” says Conway. ”These positions are often low-paying, with little security and almost no benefits.”
Part-time employees account for only one-sixth of the labor force, but represent two out of three workers earning minimum and subminimum wages, notes Conway. Three out of four full-time employees receive health insurance benefits. Only one-third of part-time workers receive such a perk.
Conway says contingent workers should be concerned about this gap because it reduces their take-home pay. Company benefits made up nearly 20 percent of an average worker`s salary in 1988, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Free-lancers and contract workers` net pay is further diminished because employers do not contribute payroll taxes on their behalf, notes Conway.
Rix believes contingent work ”can be good in the short term, especially if a woman is developing technical skills,” however, she cautions against being ”stuck in that situation for the next 20 years or so with minimal Social Security benefits.”
As more skilled women-and men-find the contingent work force preferable to the fast track, and as the birth dearth leaves a plethora of vacant service jobs, benefits for independent workers probably will become more common, note Conway and Rix.
”The employer may have a big investment in a female employee and not want to see her walk out the door because she has a 5-year-old to take care of at home,” says Conway.
The crucial factor in deciding benefits for contingent workers, according to Rix, is employee bargaining power.
”The more education and skills a woman has, the more bargaining chips she can use in negotiating a better at-home work arrangement,” she says.
The corporate tide may be turning, says Conway, who leads executive seminars on family benefits. ”Three years ago it was hard to find a CEO to talk about work and family issues,” she says. ”Now companies are actively seeking out new ways to recruit and retain good workers who want to maintain happy personal lives.”
Until such attitudes become more common, Conway suggests contingent workers share information through professional associations, such as the Association of Part-Time Professionals, Suite 216, 7700 Leesburg Pike, Crescent Plaza, Falls Church, Va. 22043; 1-703-734-7975.
