Women In The Workplace By: Crystal Esparza ‘12

20 th Century  It Produced dramatic changes & opportunities for women.  Women won the right to vote and increased their educational and job possibilities.  The growth of commercial laundries and expanding factory production of clothing, processed foods, and other household items relieved women of many tasks and created hundreds of jobs for them outside the home.  Despite some of the early efforts by women to organize on their own behalf within individual factories or within specific trade, by 1900 little more than 3% of female industrial workers were unionized.  What was it like?

20 th Century  Manufacturing, retail and wholesale trade, banking and services grew rapidly.  Women dominated the teaching and health care professions as well.  The only problem was that low salaries and failure of school boards to provide pay for female and male teachers, as required by state law, led many women to leave classrooms for the greater financial rewards of office employment.  Many women began to fight for better working conditions.  In 1930 about 2% of all American lawyers and judges were women.  In 1989, about 22% were women.

20 th Century  Carries Chapman Catt is known for her work in the woman’s suffrage movement.  Women were a driving force for progressive reform.  They figured that it was an indication that their status was improving.  They were involved in studying certain issues.  National Women’s Clubs devoted to the study of issues that were common.  Julia Lathrop became the first head of the federal Children’s Bureau, created the Department of Labor and now a part of Health and Human Services.

20 th Century  “Even when I was a young woman in the 1950’s—things were better, but not nearly as good as they are today for females. Women still earn less than most counterparts. We used to have what was called the “glass ceiling” which meant women could only be promoted so far—never to the top position.”  —Ms. Barba

21 st Century  Aracelia Esparza:  Women still face discrimination  It is not as noticeable as years in the past.  The number of women in the work force is much greater today.  There are more women working in different fields which were male dominated at one point in time. There has been an increase of women graduating from college and becoming professionals in the workplace.

Oral History Segment Suzanne Barba has been an Hispanic Community Affairs Council (HCAC) board member for over 25 years. She retired from the Alameda County Office of Education where she served as Public Information Officer for 14 years. She also was elected and served on the Eden Healthcare District Board of Directors for 16 years. Suzanne is active in the League of Women Voters and in the community and was honored as Woman of the Year in 2003 by the Legislature for the 18th Assembly District. She earned a B.A. from CSU-Fullerton in Mass Communications.

Ms. Barba’s Perspective Women were discriminated against in getting a good education, paid less then men even though they did the same job—like being teachers. Many women who went into the sciences had their research stolen or the credit for it given to the men they worked for. It was not an ideal world for women back then. Our career choices then were teacher, nurse, airline stewardess or secretary. Of course, that was what we were lead to believe were are only choices. Other courageous women said “to heck with that” and pursued careers for which they had the skills or potential. However, many young women got married right out of high school, didn’t seek jobs and stayed home to raise a family.

Barba’s Life  I was one of those stay at home moms until my youngest of three children entered first grade. I went back to college to get my degree in journalism and got involved in lots of groups that worked to help our schools—groups like the PTA.  That experience led me to an interest in government and politics. An interest in making sure government decisions were “transparent” meaning that the public was made aware of these decisions, led me to run for elected office in I won a seat on a hospital district board and served 16 years. During that time I joined the League of Women Voters and continue to be involved with ensuring that the public understands the issues that impact their communities and have the opportunity to participate in decision making at all levels.

Continued  So it seems like things have come full circle for me. I owe a deep sense of gratitude to the women in the 1900’s who fought so valiantly to get women the right to vote.  Now in the 2000’s I am working with the League to ensure that voters have the information they need to make an informed decision. Thank you Carrie Chapman Catt.