She Should Run to Help Women in the Workforce

Many of us at WCF recently had the chance to attend the Feminist Majority Women, Money, Power Summit.  I heard an interesting fact repeated there several times: women will soon hold the majority of jobs in the American workforce. This made me think: where is their representation in office?  Lisa Belkin at the New York Times reports, “[women] have gone from holding 34.9 percent of all jobs 40 years ago to 49.8 percent today. They are on track to hold more than half of them any moment now.” With women wielding such influence in the workforce, it is disturbing to think that they only hold 17% of congressional seats, and 24.4% of statewide elected offices.

Without more women in political office, women’s disadvantages in the workplace will persist.  In fact, women’s new majority in the workforce came about in part because of the persistence of the gender wage gap. Women currently only earn 77 cents to every dollar earned by a man.  Belkin argues that this wage gap makes women a cheaper hire, and therefore more attractive to employers in a recession. “It is not good news when women surpass men because women are worth less. Perversely, real progress might come when we reach the place where a financial wallop means women lose as much ground as men.”

The first bill President Obama signed upon entering office was the Lilly Ledbetter Act. This act amended the statute of limitations for responding to an act of pay discrimination. It was an important step to help women close the wage gap in the US; however, there is clearly still a long way to go. We need more women in office helping to change the status quo and fight the wage gap.

On a broader level, with women constituting a majority in the workplace, and still acting as primary caregivers in the majority of families, we must re-evaluate our national model of a “worker.” Things like quality maternity leave, reliable family health care, and flexible scheduling are more important than ever. With more women in politics who understand the complex needs of women in the workforce there will be better legislation that improves the lives of average American working, care-giving women.

If it is important to you that women be represented in politics the same way that they are represented in the workforce and in the population, please ask a friend, a coworker, or an acquaintance to run for political office today! See Trish’s post on the Women and Politics blog for another perspective on these statistics.

This post by WCF Fellow Bonnie O’Keefe.