Women in the Workplace

Companies throughout the U.S. are boasting hiring and promoting women in every field of work to encourage a face of equality. What is it about promoting increased levels of females that sends a few reeling into outrage over the issue, and others feel quite comfortable with it?

First of all 19-out-of-20-men don't mind a female working in the same capacity as them. Secondly, most men admire a woman that can garner a decent income regardless of job title. Third, men are impressed by women that have climbed the ranks of a corporate ladder based on her abilities not nepotism.

The reality is that it's actually just 1-out-of-20 men that have harsh feelings about women in a leadership role equal to or higher than his current title. Ironically, while 1-out-of-20 men object a female in a historically male dominated role, 45% of women vying for the same role express anger and jealousy for being overlooked. The numbers look much higher when people of the same belief system that aren't interested in having women on-board are clustered in the same community or company.

In my own field however, I rarely see a manager of any kind doing any lifting or have any use for a loud voice. Yet, the given answer to why women shouldn't be employed in certain fields is based on lift capacity and voice projection.

When it comes to knowledge or expertise about a particular field it is entirely dependent on how much exposure or field training either individual has had, not whether one of them is a particular gender. This is affected by the reality many hiring authorities eschew hiring females into certain roles, and refuse to provide the same exposure to training experiences and opportunities that men receive which augments their known "abilities" which are later recorded on such documents as resume of qualification for future roles. - - This is a primary reason why in year 2020 that my industry sustains a low percentage of women in mid-upper level management at 9-12%.

Believe me, I've spotted and corrected more labor errors and contractual mis-steps than most colleagues in my field...because I pay a lot of attention to detail every day. One of the frequent comments that I receive from those under my leadership is that it's easier to work with me. They would rather work with me, because I truly listen to their concerns, I form relationships between the interacting tradesmen and help them to succeed rather than snapping at them and forcing them to act on poor decisions.

In my role over all of the years I've been in my career, I've only encountered one other person that was female. I've also encountered nine men over my career that stood in my face and had a hysterical tantrum over the fact that a woman was in a role equal to or above them. Their disgrace was because of their belief system and had nothing to do with me.

We all know how companies typically handle isolated issues where a person has a tantrum over female employment. What we should be examining are stale belief systems that are no longer a societal standard because society no longer supports them.

Most believe that women don't need to earn higher incomes because it's expected that a female will marry and her husband will take care of her financially or substantially supplement her income. Many of you are laughing at this...I think it's comical too, but it's what I hear often especially while working in southern states.

Defending the belief that most males are the family bread winner, compared to the facts according to the Census Bureau, Child Support, and several other government reports is that half of all adults are currently not married. Almost all unmarried couples both work. 48%(men)-60%(women) of parents applying for Child Support for their school age children were not married to the child's parent. 50% of marriages end in divorce leaving both men and women single again. 82% of Custodial Parents of school age children are women, 18% are men. More than 30% of ALL child support payments aren't made, of that amount 68% of non-payers are men, 32% of non-payers are women. 43.5% of ALL custodial parents get the full amount of support they're entitled to which is evenly divided between both male and female payers, while 26.5% of ALL custodial parents receive a partial payment lower than the amount owed. The average Child Support payment "received" for a school age child is between $1,600-$2,500 per year although the average amount owed for this group was $4,800 (an average of $4.38-$6.84 received per day).

While job loss does factor into those statistics, men aren't the only ones that have lost jobs or experienced financial disaster.

Close to every three decades women see historical changes to their economy. In 1929 the population was 121,767,000 people, 13-million women were in the workplace, approximately 1.5 million men abandoned their families during the Great Depression, leaving wives and children with no income or support. The divorce rate in 1929 was 1.6 per 1,000.

Three decades later in the early 1960's women in the workplace rose to 38 percent in 1960, women and people of color fought for job and pay equality and won, but the new rules were not applied by most companies. The divorce rate was 9.2 per 1,000.

In 1990, the female employment rate was 54.3 percent, the divorce rate was 9.7 per 1,000.

In 2020, three decades later the female workforce participation is at 56.6% and the divorce rate is 16.9 per 1,000.

Well, that was certainly depressing statistics! However, it is proof that year 1964 societal norms are no longer followed, and that all men should support women in their efforts to acquire equal wages and roles. Women half the time are the ONLY bread winner in a school aged child's life. When women aren't promoted or historically hired into certain roles it automatically determines the fate of her and her children, their ability to live in safer neighborhoods, the type of vehicle she drives, it limits her ability to purchase goods that benefit her and her family, and often the hidden costs that aren't mentioned such as increased insurance premiums and increased move-in fees for housing and utilities.

In year 2020, many women entering the workforce are still held to 1964-standards at most companies to "take care of things in the background", which is related to the relationship that men and women had in that era where men made all of the major decisions and women took care of all of the details. The reason for that belief system is directly related to the fact that men and women in 1964 and earlier were destined by societal standards to quickly marry and never divorce, the wife would be unemployed while the husband became the sole breadwinner and the wife would raise their children. Which is also related to the belief system that only women are capable caregivers and can be custodial parents.

Personally, I don't know any men today in year 2020, that have accepted full financial responsibility for their spouse indefinitely. I have witnessed the result of children in poverty living with an unmarried working female parent. While some are quick to say that all poverty is a choice, the "decision maker" isn't always the applicant.

The 1964 societal contract expired in 1965 when women were working due to family separations, abandonment, poverty, and to supplement the family household income.

It's 2020, most people in the workplace today are not living in a lifestyle of the 1960's where men carried most of the cost burden. We have nuclear family units, skyrocketing housing costs, and financial demands that are more than ever before. There is no longer a good reason to limit opportunities to a single gender because both genders have the same expenses.