THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN WORK IN THE UNITED STATES

From the period of civil war up-to-date women have taken the role of fighting for equal rights in the workforce as with men. According to Donnelly (2016), women have finally gained the freedom that they have sought after and have attained equal rights with men. However, as women are rising in the workforce and their roles are expanding, there are some pitfalls that women are encountering in the labor force. Nonetheless, women have taken roles in the job market with most of women as identified by Donnelly (2016) have mainly taken jobs in accounting in the United States. The evolution of the Role of Women in the United States Before the civil war, women hardly has any role on the work force. After the civil war, the whites took in the habit of unequal treatment of black and white women; a character than was even carried forward to the work force.

The labor unions in America soon started to open up membership to women to allow for equality of women in the labor force since unequal treatment between American women and African American women was highly rampant. Actually, in the 1880s, The Knights of Labor which was a labor union in America during that period provided equal work and paid equal pay for both African and American women (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). Additionally, women were given a lower minimum wage compared to men and the women were also required to balance between their work and the families. However, women did not lose their grip to make a living from the work force where women that included Lucy Hale and Mother Jones motivated women to continue working (Travis).

The campaigns to allow women into the labor force continues for a couple of years when it was elevated in the late 20th century when women acquire the right education and joined the work force again. During this time, women earned equal pay since the equal wage rate was enacted by the government (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). Women got the opportunity to fill up position in the government sector and other professional opportunities that were male dominated. The shift in the workforce of America continued up to the present day where women have become a substantial part of the work force. All the activities in history that have shaped to work force in America have also defined the roles of women in the labor force (Goldin 2017).

Fifty years after women got into the work force serving in both service and professional jobs, women have caused a notable difference in both their lives and the economy (Travis). The additional productivity provided by women over time has accounted to 25 percent of the Gross Domestic Product of the American’s economy. In simpler terms the statistic shows that if the women in the United States had not joined the work force, then the economy of the country would be 25 percent lower than is currently stands. As the number of women getting into the work force is increasing, the number of men getting into the labor force is shockingly decreasing (McGinn, and Oh 2017). For instance, in 1970, the number of men in the work force was at 76.

With a decrease of around half the number of women getting into the work force compared to that of men shown to the cost of hiring and maintaining a woman in the work force is lower than that of men (Jensen 2017). Also, given that the same parameters were used to reduce the percentage of both men and women in the work force and if the cost of hiring and maintaining women and men in the work force would be equal, then percentage of both the women and men who were reduced from the work force should stand at 6 percent in both men and women. However, with the aim of promoting equality in the work force, the right parameters were used in 2010 to meet the equilibrium; a case that favored women due to their low cost of maintenance in the job market (United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics 2013).

Additional to the job description that women have in their place of work, women have also taken the job of mentoring young women. The role of initiating mentorship programs aim at helping and motivating young women into taking the jobs and being open to attaining higher ranks in the jobs (Travis). Evidently as stated by McGinn, and Oh, (2017), women are promoted in the job places due to their performance while men are promoted depending on their potential. From the statistics carried out by Jensen, (2017), they find that in an organization, there are more men who are likely to be promoted but, the number of women is also rising. Therefore, as much as women were considered to be inferior, they are proving their potential and strength through their performance in the organizations.

While considering the performance of women at work, some of the factors that are considered include the individual managerial skills and styles, the nature of the organization as well as the nature of the duties performed by the women in the organization (Donnelly, et al 2016). Now, considering that numerous number of women have been considered for promotion and given positions to manage huge organizations, then it can be deduced that the performance of women in delivering the right managerial skillset as well as general performance in the duties they are allocated in the company is commendable (Jensen, 2017). Notably, not only do women do significantly well in performing the assigned duties but also, they take on the responsibility of mentoring young women.