There is also an Office for Women's Programs within the White House.

State labor departments, State human relations commissions, and an increasing number of local labor departments and commissions are also concerned with improved standards for women workers. Federal and State agencies have traditionally worked closely and tried not to duplicate efforts.

Nongovernmental Measures

Employers

In the United States, government regulation of pay and benefits is essentially limited to establishment of statutory minimum wage rates, overtime premium

requirements, the requirement of equal pay and equal employment opportunity, and some government regulation of pensions, and to effective enforcement of lation of pensions, and to effective enforcement of these policies. Beyond this it is the personnel practices of private employers and labor-management agreements that determine the actual pay and benefits that both men and women receive. These practices do not distinguish between men and women in the same job. To the extent that women move in and out of the labor force more frequently and change jobs, however, their actual pay and benefits are affected by the fact that workers with greater seniority often receive higher pay or more liberal benefits. Some employers increase pay within a job with length of service, and longer experience increases opportunities for promotion to higher paying jobs. In addition, the jobs for which employers hire women and their opportunities for promotion have been affected by tradition.

Recently Federal and State equal pay and equal employment policies as embodied in legislation and related Executive orders have resulted in substantial changes in employer practice. A number of major employers have accepted consent decrees to increase opportunities for training and advancement of women and to assure equal pay. There has also been widespread change in employer awareness of the need to provide equal treatment and opportunities. For example, many employers in recent years have liberalized their policies on childbirth absence. Thus, one survey report published in early 1974 shows that over half the responding firms had changed their maternity leave policies to bring them into conformance with the EEOC guidelines, and almost a fourth anticipated making further changes. One particularly striking change from findings of a similar survey taken shortly after issuance of the pregnancy guidelines was that the proportion of employers who set a departure date for pregnant workers had dropped by half-from 35 percent to only 18 percent.

Many employers provide retirement pensions in addition to social security. Such plans cover slightly

more than 1 out of 3 women working full time in private employment. The lower coverage of women than of men by private pension plans is due in part to their heavier concentration in the younger age groups and differences in job tenure. (Because of length of service requirements, workers with relatively long tenure on their current jobs are more likely to be covered by pension plans than those with shorter tenure. More women than men are concentrated in the youngest age group, where job turnover is high.) Much of the gap, however, is explained by concentration of women in industries such as trade and services, where private pensions are less common than in industries where men predominate.

Even for workers of equal job tenure, women are somewhat less likely to have vested rights to pensions (the right to receive a pension even though they change employers). Twenty-six percent of the women reported vested rights to pensions, compared with 34 percent of the men. Vesting requirements will be liberalized as a result of recently enacted pension legislation.

Labor Unions

Although, as pointed out earlier, women represent a smaller proportion of union members than they do of the labor force as a whole, there are still over 4.5 million women union members. At least half the members of several major unions are women. These include the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, the Communications Workers of America, the International Ladies' Garment Workers, the Retail Clerks International Union, and the American Federation of Teachers. In addition, among associations, the American Nurses' Association is made up largely of women. Clearly the policies of these organizations, as well as of unions in which women are relatively less numerous, importance in protecting the welfare and conditions of employment of women. Despite their numbers, few hold responsible elective and appointive positions within the labor movement. Of the 4,800 positions in governing boards of unions and associations, fewer than 7 percent were occupied by women in 1972. Even in several organizations with a large proportion of women members, few served on the national governing body.

women

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During the last 3 or 4 years, women have taken an increasing interest in the status of women in their own unions and the extent to which unions are serving the interests of their women members. Union conferences, held with increasing frequency on the needs and problems of women members, were a major factor in the convening in March 1974 of 3,200 women delegates representing over 58 labor unions. These delegates established the National Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) and set four major goals for the new organization: (1) to encourage the 30 million nonunion

working women to join unions; (2) to increase women's participation within unions; (3) to seek affirmative action on the part of unions against employers' discriminatory practices; and (4) to press for legislation which would further women's interests, such as child care assistance and the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. Many local CLUW groups have been formed throughout the country.

Voluntary Organizations

Employment counseling, information, and assistance have been provided to women for many years by a variety of voluntary civic, religious, and social organizations and by professional and business organizations. Examples are the courses, lectures, and other services provided to women workers and potential workers by the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), the Women's Trade Union League, and summer schools for women workers set up primarily on college campuses; the educational and vocational guidance publications of B'nai B'rith Women, the Jewish women's service organization; the vocational and leadership training provided by such women's service organizations as Altrusa International, Pilot Club International, Soroptimist International Association, Zonta International; and the broad-scale support for working women by groups such as the National Council of Negro Women, the National Council of Jewish Women, the National Council of Catholic Women, and Church Women United.

These activities have been greatly augmented in both scope and amount in recent years by new organizations with a primary goal of improving the status of women. Although the "women's movement" can be said to be at least as old as the suffragist movement to obtain voting rights for women in the early decades of this century, the movement has greatly accelerated in the last 10 or 15 years.

One of the most important developments of the 1960's was the establishment of Commissions on the Status of Women and the Citizens' Advisory Council on the Status of Women as a result of recommendations made in the 1963 report of the President's Commission on the Status of Women.

Commissions on the Status of Women

Members of State and local commissions include both private citizens and members of State legislatures or local councils. As more of the commissions obtain permanent status through State legislation, budgets have increasingly been provided to permit their more effective operation. Commissions serve as bridges between the government and the community, bringing to officialdom the needs and views of women.

At the end of 1974, commissions which were created either by action of State Governors or local officials, or

by State legislation or local ordinances, were active in all but two States and in 43 municipalities or counties. Commissions have been actively combating sex discrimination in economic, political, and legal areas. They have conducted investigations, held hearings, issued reports and lobbied for legislation on a wide variety of issues affecting the status of women.

In 1970, following the Women's Bureau's 50th Anniversary Conference, the State commissions formed the Interstate Association of Commissions on the Status of Women, now known as the National Association of Commissions for Women (NACW). The purpose of the Association is to foster closer relationships and fuller exchange of ideas among members and to further equal legal, social, political, economic, and education opportunity and advancement of all men and women. Another development has been the recent movement toward coalitions of commissions serving a specific geographic area, either a coalition of local commissions serving a large metropolitan area or a coalition of State

and local commissions within a State.

Women's Organizations

During the period that saw the growth of State commissions on the status of women, a variety of new types of women's organizations were growing up throughout the Nation as part of the "women's movement." These organizations ranged from small unstructured groups of women meeting together for "consciousness-raising" to national organizations with State and local branches such as the National Organization for Women (NOW) established in 1966, and the Women's Equity Action League (WEAL), established in 1968.

The services of these groups in the employment area ranged from encouragement of women by local feminist groups to raise their career goals, to wide scale national campaigns to remove specific barriers, such as sex stereotyping in schools and in jobs, which prevent women from utilizing their full talents and skills in the work force. An important part of the activities of some of the large women's organizations has been the effort to compel strict enforcement of laws and orders prohibiting sex discrimination in employment, and financial and legal support to women involved in court tests of these laws.

Business and Professional Women's Groups

Voluntary associations of employed business and professional women have for many years provided special services to their own members in the form of information and education, and in some cases, training, placement, and referral services. Many of these organizations of professional women, such as the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, were established prior to or just after

World War I. Some were in active operation before 1900-included are the American Association of University Women, established in 1882; the American Nurses Association, organized under another name in 1896; and the National Association of Women Lawyers, founded in 1899. While continuing their traditional roles, these long established organizations have in recent years broadened their mission and now seek to upgrade the status of women in their professions. A large number of professional organizations with both men and women members have established special committees or caucuses on the status of women. Many of these have established special talent banks for women. In addition, they have prepared special reports on the status of women in their respective professions and have brought to public attention the barriers to the advancement of women existing within the profession. This has facilitated efforts to expand women's opportunities for employment and advancement in these professions.

and for

There has also been an accelerated growth among minority women's organizations in response to the increased awareness of double discrimination, that of race or ethnic group and of sex, faced by women of minority groups.

Another type of voluntary organization of working women are the associations of trade union women. These were discussed in the previous section of this chapter.

Continuing Education Centers

Mature women seeking to enter or reenter the labor force after a period devoted to homemaking often find that the education programs available in the regular school system are not adequate to meet their needs for additional education or refresher training. These women often need current information on the world of work and counseling on career opportunities. They may also need part-time educational schedules, financial support, day care services, more review and refresher training courses, and teaching methods and courses designed for adults.

The President's Commission on the Status of Women highlighted the value of continuing education for mature women in its 1963 report and recommended a comprehensive program of continuing education geared to the individual woman's needs. As a result, continuing education programs and centers with some or all of the special services needed by mature women were organized by a number of colleges and universities, some secondary school systems, and related organizations. In early 1971 some 450 special continuing education programs for women were known to be in operation." Most of these programs were oriented toward the

1 U.S. Department of Labor, Women's Bureau: "Continuing Education Programs and Services for Women," Pamphlet 10 (revised), 1971.

professional woman seeking to complete or augment her college or university training. Since 1971 the number of such centers located in colleges and universities has continued to increase as the number of mature women enrolled in educational institutions increased. In October 1972, 748,000 women 35 years of age and over were enrolled in school working for a diploma, a degree, or training for an occupation. Of these women, 420,000 were in college or university degree-oriented programs, 55,000 in elementary or secondary schools, and 273,000 in trade or vocational schools.

Information and Referral Centers

It became increasingly evident recently that certain groups were not receiving sufficient information to enable them to function effectively. In many local communities, information centers, designed to acquaint local citizens of both sexes with the governmental and nongovernmental services available in the community, uncovered a special demand for better systems of providing assistance to women. The same needs emerged from conferences of women's groups.

In addition to information about health and welfare services which was being provided, it was found that women were seeking employment information and assistance. They need help in ascertaining their employment rights and in knowing where and how to obtain redress against discriminatory policies and practices. They also need counseling concerning employment opportunities, career planning, child care services, and training programs, and access to job referral and placement services.

referral centers have been established in the last decade To meet these needs, many special information and for women, including a number designed particularly to service employment and job-related needs. They were established by local communities, by women's organizations, by minority groups, and by special groups of women volunteers.

In general, these local information and referral groups are designed for women who are not easily reached by traditional organizations and institutions. These may be members of racial or ethnic groups not in the mainstream of community information channels, or poorly educated, low-income women who do not trade unions. They may be young women whose school. belong to business or professional organizations or to ing has been inadequate to prepare them for the jobs that are available in or near their homes, or they may be mature women whose years of homemaking have left them with inadequate knowledge about the world of work, confidence in their own abilities, and skills necessary for employment.

2 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics: "Going Back to School at 35," Monthly Labor Review, October 1973.

How To Make Better Use of Their Abilities

In the United States rapid changes have taken place during the last 25 years in the work patterns of women, as discussed in chapter 1. Following the rapid rise in labor force participation among mature women during the 1950's and early 60's, the last decade has seen accelerated labor force participation among young women, including those with children. The increases in participation among women during the childbearing and childrearing years seem to indicate that a growing proportion of the young women of today plan more or less continuous work force participation during their lives.

The prospect of this extended work force participation by women has significant implications for educators, for labor policy planners, and for women. Women workers have faced many obstacles in the past in trying to achieve full utilization of their skills and aptitudes. These difficulties are of much more concern for those who expect to work a substantial portion of their adult lives. Major problems include the concentration of women in a narrow range of occupational fields, the slower rate of progression of women than men within an occupational field, and the strong tendency of educators and employers to view women workers or potential workers as a homogeneous group with little realization of the differences existing among women in aspirations, aptitudes, and worklife patterns.

In the United States enforcement and implementation of present laws prohibiting sex discrimination in education and employment is contributing significantly to the solution of all of these problems. For example, as discussed in chapter 2, title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the sex discrimination guidelines specifically prohibit discrimination in all aspects of employment, including classification into men's jobs and women's jobs, promotion, and training. In addition, title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 provides the legal base for the improvement of the position of women in respect to entrance into specific college, university, and graduate school curricula, and to an equal opportunity to qualify for Federal financial aid. As a result of this and the existence of enforcement agencies to implement the laws, flagrant violations are becoming increasingly rare. For example, quotas restricting entrance of women into professional

schools, such as law and medicine, which were fairly commonplace 10 or 20 years ago, are seldom found today.

Unconscious or unintentional discrimination, based on outmoded concepts of women's abilities and women's labor force attachment, is much more difficult to correct. In this area, affirmative action programs, as required by the order for Federal contractors, and the conscious efforts of women workers and women's organizations are making important contributions to an amelioration of this situation.

Significantly, a research survey in December 1973 of 113 large and small companies and agencies in the business, industry, service, and government sectors found that formal affirmative action programs (for minorities and women) were in effect in 79 percent of the companies surveyed.' Furthermore, 62 percent of the respondents reported that changes had been made in selection criteria to implement equal employment opportunity programs. Women are recruited for high level positions with special programs in 45 percent of the companies, while 21 percent have special training programs to prepare women employees for upgrading. Career Counseling Services Provided to Girls and Women

Although changes in the occupational distribution of women workers are occurring, vocational sex stereotyping is still a problem. Moreover, it is a problem which necessitates not only a modification of traditional education and employment policies and practices but a reorientation of the counseling provided women and girls in order to permit them to make more realistic choices in regard to career selection and education.

Career counseling is provided primarily by the school system at the secondary school level either by guidance counselors or by subject teachers. However, by the time a young woman reaches this educational level, she has already been exposed to a set of attitudes concerning the participation of men and women in the world of work and the occupational and career choices open to them.

Efforts are now being made in this country to create greater awareness of changing conditions affecting the role of women in the work force. Realization of the

1 American Society for Personnel Administration and Bureau of National Affairs: Bulletin to Management No. 1244, "Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Programs," ASPA/BNA Survey No. 20, Dec. 13, 1973.

lengthening worklife attachment of today's women, for example, is an important factor affecting the decisions of many young women to prepare for careers outside the home rather than short-term jobs careers which may involve a considerable investment of time in job training (such as in the skilled crafts) or in higher education. Similarly, realization of the broad range of occupations now being successfully performed by women can go far to counteract obsolete ideas concerning so-called "men's jobs" and "women's jobs."

Much remains to be done, however, to overcome stereotyped concepts of masculine and feminine roles traditionally held by parents, educators, and society. Career counseling and career counseling literature still reflect these attitudes to a considerable extent. As a result, women continue to be concentrated in traditionally female occupations which are usually less remunerative than so-called "male occupations."

Despite recent legislation calling for equal opportunity in educational programs, young women are frequently provided information about a narrower range of occupations than are young men and are offered a narrower range of curriculum choices. In fact, a recent vocational education study, financed by the U.S. Office of Education, revealed that in the occupational areas in which girls are concentrated there were only 33 course options for wage earning occupations in contrast to the 95 course options in occupational areas in which boys are concentrated.

A significant step to correct such situations was made with the passage of the Women's Educational Equity Act of 1974 which contains provisions for training of school personnel, with special emphasis on guidance and counseling. Part of the thrust is the revision of career tests to remove sex stereotyping; also emphasized is the expansion of programs for girls and women in career and vocational education and in educational administration.

In addition to governmental measures, many women's groups are active in the drive to free school textbooks and juvenile literature of all stereotyping references. In addition, the career education program of the U.S. Office of Education aims to improve knowledge of the world of work and career possibilities among students from kindergarten through high school and to provide students with increasing exposure to actual job situations. The program also encompasses the goal of reducing occupational sex stereotyping either by sex

or race.

The recent revision of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (see chap. 2) to omit from job titles the implication that the job is limited to men or women should be of further assistance in encouraging women to enter occupations they had not previously considered.

Formal Counseling

High schools, depending upon their enrol nent, are staffed with one or more guidance counselors. According to the U.S. Office of Education, there were 655 secondary school students for every guidance counselor in the school year 1971-72. The ideal ratio is approximately one counselor for every 300 students. Moreover, various other kinds of counseling that must be provided students compete with the time allotted for career planning.

The problem of adequate counseling for women extends also into colleges and universities. Until recent years it was generally assumed that women would pursue professional careers in teaching, nursing, social work, or library work. The degrees women earned, as shown in tables 60, 60a, and 60b for 1970-71, reflect these traditional views. Most colleges provide a combined counseling and placement service, but not necessarily directed at the needs of women. However, many institutions now offer special programs designed to create a new awareness of women's special contributions and to broaden their professional outlook. Significant changes have already been noted in the rising proportion of women among law school and medical school students.

Counseling of Women Workers

A substantial share of the job counseling services provided after school learning age (primarily by the United States Employment Service) goes to women. Counseling services are available for women in each of the more than 2,200 local public employment offices. Local employment service counselors have access to a wide variety of labor market and occupational information which is used in relating vocational planning to problems occasioned by career patterns and individual characteristics of the women and other clients they are assisting. Much of this information comes from the U.S. Department of Labor. In fiscal year 1974, counseling services were provided to almost a million people, of whom 47 percent were women. A quarter of a million people were placed in jobs following counseling, and, of these, 44 percent were women. Employment counselors observe the Federal legislative mandates to eliminate discrimination in employment on the basis of sex.

Employment and training programs developed for special groups, such as women receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children and the Job Corps, described in chapter 2, include job counseling services as well as vocational training. Experimental programs to improve assistance to women in finding employment, also described in chapter 2, include improved career counseling services.

Young women need expanded counseling services to help them plan long-term goals and combinations of