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97 Monthly Lab. Rev. 34 (1974)
Women in the Professions, 1870-1970

handle is hein.journals/month97 and id is 526 raw text is: Women t Proportion of women in Jn the professional jobs has declined steadily since 1930 as job professions 'structure has shifted toward professions dominated by men 1870- 970 RUDOLPH C. BLITZ THE PROPORTION OF WOMEN in the labor force' has, growir steadily for many decades. However, the proportion of women in the professions-which, in terms of educational requirements and income, constitute the upper rungs of the career ladder- reached a peak in 1930 and thereafter declined, but r6covered slightly in the last decade. - Changes in the proportion of women in the profes- sions may be analyzed from' two points of view: (1) changes over time in 'the sex ratio in specific professions (for example, law, medicine) and (2) .changes over time in the relative importance of specific professions in'the total-of all professions., To isolate these trends we have devised a sex coipo- sition index (Index I) and an occupational structure index (Index II) for the professions. For these analyses 24 professional groups were used, based on census classifications (table 1). Over time,.census occupational classifications have become increasingly refined by subdivision of earlier broader categories. Consequently, the degree of dis- aggregation determines the time period which can be covered. A substantially more aggregative classi- fication .would allow- carrying the analysis back beyond 1900, while a more refined breakdown would- shorten the period of analysis. The 24 categories, covering a period of 70 years, seemed a good com- promise between these alternatives. Thus, in the first index, the proportion of women in the profession varies over time in each profes- sion and is weighted by the proportion of the respec- tive profession in the total of all professions in 1900. In the second index, the proportion of women in the specific profession serves as the 1900 weight, and the relative importance of the various profes- sions in the total of all professions is 'allowed -to vary over time. Table 2 gives the results and also the formulas for the two indexes. It is thus clear that, in general, the proportion Rudolph C. Blitz is profesor of economics, Vanderbilt Uni- v34t. 34 of women has risen historically in the various pro- fessions, but simultaneously there has been a shift to professions traditionally dominated by men. Sec- ond, the trend of Index I is closer to the actually observed trend than is the trend of Index 11. (See .chart 1.) Third, Index I rose by almost 9 percentage points between 1900 and 1920, compared with a change of only 2.82 percentage points for 50 years from 1920. to 1970. -Fourth, -until very recently the proportion of 'women in: the professions was al- ways substantially higher than the proportion of women in the total labor force and, as a matter of fact, from 1870 to 1930 the f rmer was approxi- mately twice as high as the latter. Changes in sex ratio-Index I 'If the professional structure of 1900 had pre- vailed, by 1920 women would have constituted well over -40 percent of all professionals. Not all of this movement can be viewed as genuine advance in opening the professions to women.2 Some profes- Table 1. PTofesslonalr groups used In Index number analysis for 1900-70 Acountants, auditn, and so fofth. Acton. dancm. esdtartinirs; Includes athlets and asorts instrUCto Artise and art teibers. Authnfl Chemists Cllega prnonns, prndants, and Instr n. Dontist. Designes and draffsmna. Editonn and reportes. Salinas. Farmand mqnaumea advnisn Lamys mad judsas. Muslans and nmsc tm ars. Phylians and urmrnns; Indndaa ostaapaft ddirsvlctom and thrsidsts and safar. SoIcal woirri aid dlermmn; Iddudas ralislou workers. TanifM. aldarp. Teackaa soardaq. Taadtos ndt alaiwir classified. Pharnmacis - Profesals not dsnwba dassdflid; Includes funeral diratars, airptlna pints. navittn. thncismn sarveyonni,aentisM. vnatarladans. and so lot.

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