The Challenge For Women 2011-2020: The Economy

It has been noted that women are very close to representing the majority of the workforce in the United States.  This milestone can be accredited to a number of factors. One being the effort to interview, hire and promote women in the workforce without bias. Another reason is that jobs that were thought to be, without question,  best suited for males, are the very types of jobs, heavy manufacturing, mining etc. that have become scarce in this country. More and more of those types of jobs have either been outsourced, automated (robots and computers), or completely eliminated. Where they have remained, women with the use of technology are taking them on in the so called “nontraditional occupations.”

Technology has begun to level the playing field between men and women and with the recent recession tilt the scales in the favor of women for some time to come. However, salaries are still out of balance though through legislation and corporate policies the gap is being decreased.  Here is the irony, women are not being afforded the luxury or time  to pro-claim victory for their gains as they are part of the workforce that will need to reckon with the jobs lost over the last 3 years, many of which  may be lost forever, leaving an untrained and idle workforce to be considered. Add to this, there is also the challenge of the reality that a significant percentage of the workforce will be of retirement age in the next 5 years.

This phenomenon, is not in the United States alone. All western countries face similar issues finding themselves moving away from heavy (muscle) economies, to ones that require more service-orientated skills. This is the challenge.