Early in 1997, the nation's largest organization of working women -- the AFL-CIO, with 5.5 million women members -- set out to learn about the issues that shape women's lives on and off the job. Our goal: to help working women make their voices heard -- and make their jobs better.
We went to the experts themselves -- face to face with working women on their jobs and in their homes and communities. We conducted a national tour, with dozens of meetings, from a school library to a construction site. And we commissioned one of the most comprehensive national studies in history, including a scientific telephone survey as well as questionnaires returned by more than 50,000 union and unrepresented women from every occupation and every part of the nation.
We asked working women what they need and what they have; what's getting better and what's getting worse; and who should be there to back them up. And we took special samplings of African American, Hispanic, and Asian American women, as well as women from different occupational groups. The Ask a Working Woman survey gives voice to the nation's 61 million working women. It is the first major study of working women s views since the economic recovery.
Working women said:
Equal pay is their top concern. They are very worried about job security and their families'financial security. Large numbers of them -- including an even larger percentage of the abundant part-timers -- are going without basic benefits, such as paid sick leave, health coverage and pension plans. They want help meeting the demands of work and family. Time is often their scarcest resource and juggling work and family is one of their biggest challenges. Overwhelmingly they say that the way to solve these problems is by working together and getting more help from employers, government, working women's organizations and unions.
These conclusions* stand out from the scientific survey:
1. Families depend on working women. Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of working women report that they provide about half or more of their household income. More than half (52 percent) of married women contribute about half or more of their household income. Forty-one percent of working women head their own households--they are single, divorced, separated or widowed--and 28 percent of them have dependent children.
2. Despite receiving scant public attention, equal pay remains an urgent concern for millions of working women. Since women s earnings are essential to their households, they believe equal pay will help their families. Almost unanimously (99 percent), working women describe equal pay for equal work as important. Ninety-four percent say it is very important. When asked, in an open-ended question, to describe the biggest problem facing women at work, two out of five (41 percent) cited pay, including one in six working women (17 percent) who mentioned equal pay. An additional 24 percent cited one or more related problems--low pay, generally; gender discrimination, generally; and the glass ceiling--limiting women's advancement. Thirty-seven percent report that making ends meet has gotten worse in the last five years, compared with 29 percent who think it has gotten better. Almost one-third say their current job does not provide equal pay for equal work, revealing a great gap between what women want from their jobs and what they get from their jobs.
3. Good benefits are as critical as good wages in providing economic security. Eighty-seven percent say that secure, affordable health insurance is very important. Seventy-nine percent say that pension and retirement benefits are very important. Staggeringly large numbers of working women have jobs that don't provide even the most basic benefits: one in every three working women (33 percent) lacks retirement benefits, and a nearly equal number--three in 10 (30 percent)--lack health coverage. Eighty-nine percent say education and training are important, but only 61 percent say these opportunities currently exist on their jobs.
4. Working women think things are getting worse, not better. For all the official statements and media coverage about a booming economy, job security is a major concern. And job security is something women want but don't have. Forty-one percent think job security has gotten worse for women in the past five years, compared with only 26 percent who think it has gotten better. More than nine out of 10 working women (92 percent) say that protection from layoffs and downsizing is important, including 72 percent who call it very important. Only 34 percent say they are protected from layoffs in their current jobs, one of the largest gaps between what working women want and what they have.
5. Almost one-fourth of working women are part-timers, and they are especially concerned about their pay, benefits and prospects. The survey points up the precarious plight of part-time workers, the issue that prompted the recent strike at UPS. Twenty-three percent of working women are part-timers and their incomes are critical to their families' well-being. Forty percent say they bring home half or more of their family's incomes. Astonishingly large numbers of women who work part time do not have even the most basic benefits. Only 56 percent report that their jobs provide any paid vacations, compared with 83 percent of women who work full time. Only 48 percent of part-timers have paid sick leave. Only 49 percent have pensions and only 45 percent have health insurance of any kind in their current jobs.
Executive Summary : A report on the national survey from the working women's department of the afl-cio. AFL-CIO. 1999. http://www.aflcio.org/women/execsum.htm afl-cio (20 october 1999)
