I remember many years ago, anthropologist, Margaret Mead making the same point concerning helping professions. As I recall her favorite example was the veterinary profession in Great Britain, which suffered a decline in status and pay levels when women began to enter it in significant numbers.
Jim F.
On Wed, 29 Jan 2003 22:36:04 +0200 "Kevin Robert Dean"
<qualiall at union.org.za> writes:
> Social Work, Female-Dominated Fields Suffer from Low Pay
> Library: LIF-SOC
> Keywords: PAY GAP LOW INCOME WOMEN CAREER SOCIAL WORK LOW
> PAY
> Description: A social work researcher finds evidence to
> support that the more a service profession is dominated by
> women, the lower the worker's average weekly salary.
> (Social Work, Jan-2003)
>
>
>
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
> January 28, 2003
>
> Contact: NASW Public Affairs
> Lahne Mattas-Curry 202-336-8228 lcurry at naswdc.org
> Gail Woods-Waller 202-336-8236 gwaller at naswdc.org
>
> Study Finds Social Work and Other Female-Dominated Fields
> Suffer from Low Pay
>
> Washington-- In the January issue of Social Work: The
> Journal of the National Association of Social Workers, a
> social work researcher finds evidence to support that the
> more a service profession is dominated by women, the lower
> the worker's average weekly salary.
>
> "The data revealed that as the percentage of women in the
> identified occupational groups increases, the weekly salary
> decreases," Margaret Gibelman, DSW, director of Yeshiva
> University's Wurzweiler School of Social Work said. "Minor
> exceptions exist in specific industries, but within the
> groupings of industries, the pattern is consistent and
> strong."
>
> Using year-end Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 1998,
> Gibelman looked at service industry jobs with 75 percent or
> more women, those with between 50 percent and 75 percent
> women, and those with less than 50 percent women.
>
> "These patterns in different professions and industries
> suggest the continued pervasiveness of salary inequities,"
> Gibelman adds. "Are the services performed by nurses
> (predominantly women) less valuable in this society than
> the services performed by surveyors (predominantly men)?
> One would be hard- pressed to make such a case." (Nursing
> and personal-care facility staff made an average weekly
> salary of $318.18, compared to surveyors, who made an
> average of $522.77 per week.)
>
> Equal work for equal pay has been part of political and
> legislative agendas since the 1960s, notes Gibelman. Yet
> most or all of the initiatives related to the topic have
> lacked sufficient specificity to eradicate the problem. And
> it's likely that government support of this legal right
> will continue to wane in the same manner as its support of
> equal rights more generally, she writes.
>
> Female social workers and other women in the human service
> professions, therefore, must take matters into their own
> hands and devise and implement strategies to combat this
> continued inequity, Gibelman contends. These can include
> group action, such as determining the pay scale in one's
> own institution and collectively taking action if it is
> inequitable; professional action, for example sending
> educational newsletters through a main membership
> organization; and policy action, such as political
> advocacy.
>
> Female social workers should take these steps not just for
> themselves, but for their clients, she adds, "Many social
> work clients are women who are not getting adequately paid.
> Asserting one's right to equitable pay can provide them
> with good role modeling."
>
> For a complete copy of the study, journalists may contact
> NASW Public Affairs at media at naswdc.org.
>
> Gilbelman, Margaret, "So How Far Have We Come? Pestilent
> and Persistent Gender Gap in Pay," Social Work, January
> 2003, Vol. 48, No. 1/22-32.
>
> March 2003 represents National Social Work Awareness
> Month--please consider a story on social work during the
> month of March. For more information about Social Work
> Month, please visit www.socialworkers.org or contact NASW
> Public Affairs at media at naswdc.org.
>
> The National Association of Social Workers (NASW), in
> Washington, DC, is the largest membership organization of
> professional social workers with 150,000 members. It
> promotes, develops and protects the practice of social work
> and social workers. NASW also seeks to enhance the well
> being of individuals, families and communities through its
> work and through its advocacy.
>
> ###
> ---
> Sent from UnionMail Service [http://mail.union.org.za]
>
>
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