How does the past shed light on women's work?
© J. Howard Miller — U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
What is the history of women's place in the workforce? By exploring the unpaid work carried out by women over the last 150 years in the United States, economists Barbara Petrongolo, Claudia Olivetti and Rachel Ngai reveal the often underestimated importance of their role.
The twentieth century marked a decisive turning point for women in the professional world. Between the struggle for equal rights, social change and economic upheaval, women gradually took over the world of work. In the United States, women represented 14% of the workforce in 1966, compared with 53% in 2013. The profile of women workers has also changed: they are no longer young girls leaving their jobs after marriage, but women of all ages and from all walks of life1.
Despite progress, inequalities persist. Women are predominantly employed in lower-skilled, lower-paid jobs, often in the service sector. They also remain under-represented in positions of responsibility and high pay.
Studies on work often focus on paid work, neglecting unpaid work, which leads to an underestimation of women's participation. Unpaid work includes domestic chores, but also professional tasks performed 'free of charge', such as 'helping out' in the family business.
Taking into account all forms of women's work reveals not only their significant presence in the world of work, but also that they have, like men, undergone transformations in the economy. Economists Barbara Petrongolo, Claudia Olivetti and Rachel Ngai have examined these changes over the last two centuries in the United States.
Work and industrial revolutions
The economists' analysis focuses on North American workers from 1870 to 2019, a period marked by almost uninterrupted economic growth and profound transformations in both modes of production and the very definition of work.
Over the 150 years studied, the United States went through three industrial revolutions. The first, in the early 19th century, was characterised by the rise of the steam engine, the railway and large-scale industry. The emergence of electricity and oil paved the way for the second industrial revolution, which enabled mass production. The third revolution, in the second half of the 21st century, is based on electronics and digital technologies. Under the impetus of these revolutions, the American economy, initially based on agriculture, became industrial and then evolved towards a post-industrial society, where the tertiary sector dominates. These structural changes have affected both male and female workers.
© J. Howard Miller - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Every economic development brings with it a change in the role of women.
Census data in the United States sheds light on the evolution of the population, its geographical distribution and its activities. From 1870 to 2019, the employment of women and men has followed very different paths. While the employment rate for men has remained relatively high, gradually falling to around 80%, the rate for women began at a much lower level (16%) before rising sharply in the second half of the 20th century and stabilising at over 70% in the 1990s.
Although the census data covers a large population over a long period, it has its limitations. They only consider paid work, which leads to an underestimation of women's participation in the world of work. This hypothesis was reinforced by the 1890 census, which counted only 23,000 female workers for a female rural population of nearly four million. This bias could certainly also apply in the rural world to women working in family businesses, such as shops. The participation in the world of work of hundreds of thousands of women would thus have been invisible, as they would have been considered "housewives".
Taking unpaid work into account offers a different perspective on the evolution of women's activity rates. During the pre-industrial period, more than half of all women worked in predominantly agricultural and unpaid activities. With industrialisation and the weakening of the agricultural sector, the female employment rate fell to 45% in 1960, its lowest level ever. From 1960 onwards, women's participation in the labour market rose again, reaching 73% in 2019, with a transfer of women into the services sector. These two peaks intersected by a trough give the curve of women's participation in the world of work a U shape. This transformation can also be seen in the number of hours worked each week. For men, the tertiary sector is also becoming more important, to the detriment of the secondary and primary sectors, which now account for a tiny proportion of the working population.
Taking into account both paid and unpaid work highlights the importance of women in economic development. Although the data comes from the United States, these results can be transposed to other countries. For example, 36 developing countries are currently undergoing a phase of decline in agriculture and a transition towards manufacturing and services. These transformations are marked by a similar trend in the female employment rate in the United States, as well as in India and China at the beginning of the 21st century.
In addition, the U shape can be seen again today, if we compare the female labour force participation rate with the GDP per capita of developing countries. Women are more involved in the world of work in countries with a low or high GDP, such as Madagascar (82.5% for $1,502) or Iceland (70.31% for $55,567).
Photo par Sheena sur Flikr, Gambie
Women in the digital age
During the period under study, the United States underwent two major structural transformations: a transition from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy and finally to a post-industrial economy. This metamorphosis is reflected in the evolution of the respective shares of the three occupational sectors, culminating in the dominance of the tertiary sector.
Over the last few decades, the tertiary sector linked to information and communication technologies has become increasingly important. Given the scale and growth of this sector, some people are talking about a "quaternary sector", part of a fourth industrial revolution.
Where will women fit into this rapidly developing ecosystem, which has historically been dominated by men? The challenge is to avoid a fall in the female employment rate, as happened during the transition to the industrial era. This challenge cannot be met without the involvement of governments, training centres and employers, to better support and recognise the role of women while removing the barriers that still exist.
