Photo by Chris Meyer Lynn Duggan, Department of Labor Studies, IUB Ruth Needleman instructing class at IUN Swingshift College Women installing fixtures and assemblies to tail fuselage section of a B 17F bomber, 1942 Lunch break, 1942 Riveting machine operator, 1944 “Indiana could radically reduce its poverty rate and strengthen Hoosier families by addressing the gender gap in pay at the legislative level. The state’s poverty rate would be cut by a third for families with single mother breadwinners. The equity adjustment would also virtually eliminate poverty in single working women.” —Lynn Duggan, assistant professor, Division of Labor Studies, IU Bloomington

Ruth Needleman is alarmed by what she sees as a growing trend. “It’s not usual for women, especially single mothers, to be working two or three part-time jobs just to make ends meet. If you are too poor, too overworked and too stressed out, you simply have no time to be a citizen!” said Needleman, professor of labor studies and coordinator of Swingshift College at IU Northwest. (See related story)

Women comprise 46 percent of the U.S. workforce and face challenges above and beyond the reality that finds Americans working longer hours than ever before. Today, 70 percent of women with children under the age of 18 work outside the home, up from 45 percent 20 years ago.

“The problem is exacerbated for women, because in order to accommodate demands of raising children, many of them must take part-time and temp work, which almost never include health insurance and other benefits,” said Needleman.

But whether women are working one job or several, they are likely to face pay inequity, 40 years after Congress passed the Equal Pay Act. In Indiana, as across the nation, working women earn less than working men. A 2002 report released by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) indicates that in the U.S., women earn 72.7 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. In Indiana, a working woman earns 66 cents for every man’s dollar. In the institute’s state-by-state ranking, which included the District of Columbia, Indiana was 47th, with the gender gap in pay being larger only in Ohio, Utah, Louisiana and Wyoming.

“When you examine the statistics, it’s apparent that there has been virtually no progress for the past 20 years,” said Lynn Duggan, assistant professor in IU’s Division of Labor Studies. “Many men in female-dominated jobs such as nursing, child care and clerical work also suffer from wage discrimination. Indiana received the grade D in the composite employment and earnings index.” Duggan is a member of the Bloomington Pay Equity Committee, which has the mission to publicize and seek remedies for the low earnings of full-time working women and people of color in Indiana. She said that the Statehouse has recently passed a resolution for the House Committee on Labor to hold hearings to study the gender gap in wages.

An important part of the problem in Indiana, as elsewhere, is that women employed in female-dominated jobs such as nursing, child care and clerical work receive lower wages than workers in similar jobs not dominated by women. Many men in such jobs also suffer from wage discrimination. Correcting the inequities would significantly boost earnings. The IWPR’s study on the status of women in Indiana indicates that annual wages for women would rise 19.6 percent, or an average of $3,116. For low-income working mothers who are struggling to pay for child care, this adjustment would be especially significant. Currently, nearly 30 percent of a low-income working mother’s income is spent on child care. With less of an already meager income to apply to living expenses, many single working mothers find it necessary to take on another part-time job.

“Indiana could radically reduce its poverty rate and strengthen Hoosier families by paying women as much as comparable men, based on skill, responsibility, effort and working conditions,” said Duggan. “Poverty among single mother families would be cut by a third. Pay equity would also virtually eliminate poverty among single working women. People could start living healthy, balanced, poverty-free and family-friendly lives on wages earned in a 40-hour work week.”

Camilla Saulsbury, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at IUB, teaches “Women and Work” in the Division of Labor Studies. For her students, 25 percent of whom are male, the reality of the gender gap in wages comes as something of a shock. “Many younger students think we’re already there. They tend to find the reality of continued inequality depressing—at least initially—especially when they learn about the important contributions that working women have made,” she said. “I hope they come out of the course realizing that the gains that have been made have come as a result of solidarity and mobilization.”

Saulsbury said that the concept of “cultural lag” can help explain the continued gender gap in wages and other obstacles facing women in the workplace. Although women are participating in the workforce now more than ever, our culture “lags” behind in terms of how to deal with the consequences of that reality. “Child care, work flexibility and other support systems are woefully inadequate to meet the needs of American families, where 58 percent of all married couples with children both work,” she said. “Even though women have been pouring into the workforce for the past three decades, the American landscape does not reflect the change.”

According to a 2002 report released by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a working woman in Indiana earns 66 cents for every man’s dollar. In the institute’s state-by-state ranking which included the District of Columbia, Indiana was 47th, with the gender gap in pay being larger only in Ohio, Utah, Louisiana and Wyoming.

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