In 1999, women comprised 47.1% of the total U.S. labor force. Approximately 18% of them (11.1 million) were professional workers, while another 3.6% (2.3 million) were technicians. They accounted for 55% of all workers employed in the professional fields and almost 50% of all technicians. Although women always have comprised a large proportion of the professional and technical work force, the number and percentage of women working in these occupations has increased significantly in recent years. However, though they are well represented in a variety of professional and technical fields, women are heavily concentrated in occupations characterized by low levels of pay and prestige. In 1999, only 10.6% of engineers, 3.1% of airline pilots and navigators and 24.5% of physicians were women. In contrast, more than four out of five librarians, nurses and kindergarten teachers were female.

The largest percentage of female professionals were non-college teachers, while the largest percentage of male professionals were in engineering and science. Among technicians, women were found most readily in the health related occupations while males gravitated toward engineering, science and computer programming.
Though the segregation of females into low paying professional and technical occupations accounts for some pay inequities, the gender gap clearly exists within nearly all professional and technical occupations.

Gender discrepancies in pay which exist throughout the U.S. work force were noted in a 1998 survey of more than 50,000 women workers by the Working Women's Department of the AFL-CIO, which found that an overwhelming majority (94%) cited equal pay for equal work as an issue of primary importance to them. When asked to describe the biggest problem facing them at work, two out of five cited some type of pay issue, including lack of equal pay, low pay in general, and the existence of a "glass ceiling" that limits women's advancement into higher-paying positions.

Generally women in unionized work settings earn more per hour than non-union women, even when the two groups have similar educational backgrounds and work experience (Hartmann, Spalter-Roth and Collins 1994). Unionization also decreases the wage gap between men and women (Ibid.).

Nevertheless, although the benefits of unionization for women are fairly clear, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that only 13% of all female workers were represented by unions in 1999 — 35% of whom worked in the professional or technical occupations (Hartmann, Spalter-Roth and Collins). Clearly, innumerable opportunities exist for further organizing. The effectiveness of such efforts, however, will depend largely on the ability of individual unions to target and convince professional and technical women that their special concerns and issues will be addressed.

Crain (1994), for example, found that effective organizing among all female workers requires targeting the gender-segregated occupations, a strong focus on participation in workplace decision-making and a lot of attention to "women's issues," such as discrimination, pay equity, respect and dignity, and work and family concerns. Also helpful: promoting women as leaders during an organizing drive (Roby 1995; Needleman 1998). Roby suggests that the single most important thing unions can do to gain more female leaders in an organizing drive is to encourage greater one-on-one contact between union leaders and women who have the potential to be leaders. Such contacts should provide opportunities for observation of the candidate's leadership qualities and encouragement.

Roby’s interviews with 159 union stewards bound that by and large women were not given enough encouragement and validation by incumbent leaders.

Needleman observes that a women's progression into positions of union responsibility is facilitated by the "efforts of those in leadership to open doors and provide education and experience, as well as vehicles for sharing responsibility and power" (Needleman, 1998).

Women in professional and technical occupations — as well as working women in general — still face discrimination in pay, job advancement and career opportunities. Clearly unions, through collective bargaining, are helping them address these problems, but more must be done to cultivate women leaders — especially those in the professional and technical fields who are accustomed to taking responsibility and making decisions.

Sources Cited

AFL-CIO Working Women Department, "Executive Summary: A Report on the National Survey from the Working Women's Department of the AFL-CIO," Washington, DC, 1998.

Crain, Marion. "Gender and Union Organizing," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 47, No.2, pp. 227-248, 1994.

Hartmann, Heidi, Roberta Spalter-Roth and Nancy Collins. "What Do Unions Do For Women?" Challenge, July-August, 1994, pp.11-18.

Hayghe, Howard V. "Development's in Women's Labor Force Participation," U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Monthly Labor Review, September 1997, Vol. 120, No. 9, pp. 41-46.

Needleman, Ruth. "Women Workers: Strategies for Inclusion and Rebuilding Unionism," in A New Labor Movement for a New Century? Edited by Gregory Mantsios, New York, Garland Publishing, Inc., 1998, pp. 175-196.

Nussbaum, Karen. "Bye-Bye to Pinkie Rings: Working Women Transform Unions," Working USA, Vol. 2, No. 5, 1999, pp. 54-64.

Roby, Pamela. "Becoming Shop Stewards: Perspectives on Gender and Race in Ten Trade Unions," Labor Studies Journal, Fall 1995, pp. 65-82.

Schur, Lisa A. and Douglas L. Kruse. "Gender Differences in Attitudes Towards Unions." Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 46, No. 1, 1992, pp. 89-102.