Women and the Market

by Sam Staley

While leading feminists have been seeking political solutions to the problems of women, it has become increasingly clear that the real opportunities for women are coming from a source largely ignored or berated by feminist groups: the market.

Women now make up 44 per cent of the workforce, up from 32 per cent in 1960. This "feminization" of the labor force has dramatically altered the scope and dynamics of the economy, and businesses now realize that they must cater to the needs of women to remain competitive. Herein lie real opportunities for economic progress.

"One of the most interesting things I see happening in the late 20th century is that the corporation is changing because women are starting to participate in it," observed economist Jennifer Roback at a recent policy forum at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. "Women's greater participation benefits small companies at the expense of big ones. Big companies are not willing to be flexible about child care and maternity leave and home emergencies. Small businesses can handle things like that, and, in particular, your own business can handle it."

Women now own 24 per cent of all businesses in the United States. While these companies are still concentrated in low income service areas (over half earn less than $5,000 per year) their representation is increasing. The 1986 White House Conference on Small Business serves as one indicator: participation by women doubled from 1980.

Traditionally, economic success for minority and disadvantaged groups has come through business, not politics. Jews, Asians, blacks, and Hispanics have all succeeded in the American economy through employment in small businesses or entrepreneurship, whether through storefront shops or professional careers. No group has been successful in using the political system to affect wage differentials significantly.

The answer, however, is not merely to get more women into business. Corporations, with their hierarchies of powerbrinksmanship, allow men to exercise their prejudices to the detriment of women. While some corporations are hiring more women, large firms often institutionalize impediments to progress. Furthermore, men may not realize that they are discriminating. In a recent Woman's Day survey, 81 per cent of women polled felt that men underestimate them in the workplace. Since men often dominate decision-making in larger corporations, women are constantly fighting the perceptions of their male supervisors.

Nevertheless, with the current trend toward an economy driven by smaller corporations, prospects for women are improving. Deregulation has sparked entrepreneurship in many sectors of the economy, and this trend has clear implications for the role of women.

Professor Roback notes that "We are starting to observe a strengthening of the smaller firm as opposed to the larger firm because the small firm can accommodate the other needs that women have in their lives." Women are beginning to dominate the labor supply, and newer and smaller firms have the managerial flexibility to use female workers more effectively.

This road to economic development is not without precedent. Every successful minority group in the United States has progressed through entrepreneurship. Asian-Americans provide a telling example. "No people who came to these shores of their own volition," writes Peter Rose, Director of the American Studies Program at Smith College, "ever suffered as much discrimination or ostracism as did those from China and Japan." Yet, AsianAmericans, along with Jews, are the most upwardly mobile group in the United States.

The recent experience of Korean immigrants dramatically illustrates this phenomenon. Ivan Light, professor of sociology at UCLA, recently noted that ethnic and immigrant businesses provide an essential alternative to the general labor market. Self-employment helped Korean immigrants overcome tremendous disadvantages in the workplace and attain more secure work at higher incomes, accelerating the pace of social mobility.

The market provides a remarkable opportunity for minorities and women. When people shop for services in the Yellow Pages, or buy a product on the supermarket shelves, they do not check the ethnic background or sex of the producer. Sexual discrimination, like racism, cannot be legislated away because laws rarely change attitudes. By participating in the market, and taking advantage of the trend toward small companies and entrepreneurship, women will make more headway against discrimination than at any other time in their history.