This story fits with both 2301 and 2302 this week. The Obama Administration has released a report called : Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being. From the White House website:
In support of the Council on Women and Girls, the Office of Management and Budget and the Economics and Statistics Administration within the Department of Commerce worked together to create the Women in America (pdf) report which, for the first time in recent history, pulls together information from across the Federal statistical agencies to compile baseline information on how women are faring in the United States today and how these trends have changed over time.
It is apparently the first such survey since one commissioned by the Kennedy Administration. Gail Collins reports on the survey, which the Atlantic summarizes here:
Collins runs down some interesting highlight while looking back at how far from the last survey, when Eleanor Roosevelt prepared a similar report for John F. Kennedy. At that time, only a little more than half of all federal civil service jobs were open to women for example, and "it was perfectly legal to refuse to hire a woman for a job because of her failure to be a man." The median age for marriage for a woman was 20, Collins says. While women currently still make on average 20 cents less on the dollar than men in comparable positions, men and women are increasingly sharing the role of supporting the family economically, and that's where the potential for progress on unequal pay lies: a turning point came on "the unknown day when the average American couple started planning their futures with the presumption that there would be two paychecks."
Note the item in bold above:
At the time, there were 454 federal civil service job categories for college graduates, and more than 200 were restricted to male applicants. It was perfectly legal to refuse to hire a woman for a job because of her failure to be a man, or to refuse her credit unless she had a husband to co-sign her loan. The median age for marriage for a woman was 20, and the only job open to most women that involved a chance to travel was flight attendant.
I found this part of Collins' story also telling:
We’re a long way from the Eleanor Roosevelt Commission on the Status of Women, which was formed when there were no women on the White House staff doing anything more impressive than typing or cake decoration. “Men have to be reminded that women exist,” Mrs. Roosevelt tartly told reporters when the all-male list of top Kennedy administration appointees was released.
One of the justifications for affirmative action is that they very fact that members of an excluded group are placed in a particular position creates openings for others.
