Opportunity Denied: Limiting Black Women to Devalued Work

Chapter 6. The Illusion of Progress: Black Women’s Work in the Post–Civil Rights Era

After nearly a century of spotty occupational progress , the entire opportunity structure for Black women underwent a dramatic shift in the 1960s. In 1960, more than 60 percent of all employed Black women were in service work, and the vast majority, nearly 63 percent, worked in private households. One decade later, the proportion of Black women doing service work had declined to 42 percent, and of that group, 58 percent worked in nonhousehold settings. This change is significant, given the seemingly intractable association of Black women with domestic work prior to 1960. However, the changes in the post-1960 period extend far beyond escaping the drudgery of domestic labor. Black women finally began making inroads into nonservice occupations from which they had historically been excluded. More than half of the Black women who were employed as domestic servants in 1960 (nearly 21 percent of all Black women workers) had exited by 1970. Although the percentage of Black women employed in nonhousehold service work, another occupation category Black women had been relegated to for decades, increased from 1960 to 1970, the change was slightly less than 2 percent. Hence, Black women did much more than simply change the surroundings in which they performed dirty work. By 1970, clerical work, which hitherto had been reserved almost exclusively for White women, employed more than one-fifth of all Black women workers, more than two and a half times the proportion of Black women workers employed in that occupation category in 1960 Chapter 6 The Illusion of Progress Black Women’s Work in the Post–Civil Rights Era 127 O p p o r t u n i t y D e n i e d 128 and nearly five times the percentage employed in 1950. Additionally, Black women increased their representation in all occupational categories by a significant margin, with the exception of farm labor, which continued to decline, and management, where they held steady at 1960 levels.These shifts reflected a fundamental change in the allocation of occupational opportunities for Black women, and for the first time their occupational structure began to look like that of White women. Table 6.2 presents the proportion of Black women employed in each occupational category compared to the proportion of White women, Black men, and White men in those same categories in 1960 and 1970. If the ratio is 1, then Black women are evenly represented in an occupational category relative to the other group. If the ratio is less than 1, Black women are underrepresented in an occupational category relative to the other group. If the ratio is more than 1, Black Table 6.1 Change in the Distribution of Black Women Workers across Occupational Categories, 1960–1980 (by percent) Occupation 1960 (%) 1970 (%) 1980 (%) % Change Professionals & technical workers 7.3 12.0 15.2 +7.9 Managers, officials, & proprietors 1.1 1.1 3.2 +2.1 Clerical & kindred workers 7.9 20.1 28.3 +20.4 Sales workers 1.6 2.6 3.2 +1.6 Craftsmen 0.9 1.5 2.5 +1.6 Operatives 14.5 17.2 15.5 +1.0 Service workers (household) 38.5 17.7 4.9 -33.6 Service workers (nonhousehold) 23.1 24.7 24.9 +1.8 Farm laborers 4.0 1.5 0.5 -3.5 Laborers 1.2 1.5 2.0 +0.8 Source: Author’s analysis of data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Version 5.0 The Illusion of Progress 129 women are overrepresented in an occupational category relative to the other group. In 1960, Black women were underrepresented in all desirable occupations where White women were found—professionals, managers, clerical workers, sales, craftsmen, and operatives. Although there was quite a bit of variation in the extent to which they were underrepresented, their exclusion from these jobs was consistent.There was a clear line demarcating what work was suitable for women based on race, evidenced by the fact that Black women were overrepresented in dirty jobs—domestic service, nonhousehold service, farm labor, and laborers. Domestic service provides the most striking example of Black women’s relegation to undesirable work. In 1960, the ratio of Black women to White women employed as domestic servants was more than nine to one. Despite the low ratio of Black women to White women in the most desirable occupations, a cursory glance at the comparable statistics...