The pink-collar ghetto is alive and well in Utah.
According to an analysis of the U.S. Census published by the Utah Department of Employment Security, little progress was made by Utah's female labor force to move out of typically "female jobs" during the 1980s. Job categories where 70 percent or more of workers are women are considered part of the pink-collar ghetto."In 1980, over one-third of the experienced female labor force worked in only seven of the 519 different occupational categories designated by the Census Bureau. Ten years later, not much has changed - 30 percent of all Utah women work in the same seven jobs," according to Lecia Parks Langston, the department's chief economist.
Those seven jobs are secretary, receptionist, typist, registered nurse, cosmetologist, bank teller and bookkeeper. More than 87 percent of the workers in those categories are women, and it goes as high as 99 percent in the secretary category.
What has changed in the past decade, according to Langston, is that Utah women have moved into the paid labor force in greater numbers. At the same time, there appears to be some movement into nontraditional roles for college-educated women.
Langston notes that Utah remains on par with the nation in most job categories. For example, U.S. women make up 42 percent of managerial positions compared with 39 percent in Utah - about as expected given U.S. women's larger share of the labor force. U.S. women hold roughly 54 percent of professional level jobs, while Utah women hold about 49.8 percent.
"Yes, we are making some progress. What disturbs me is the increases are for college-educated women but not for non-college educated women," she said, "Even though the mix of sexes in certain occupations has been shifting, most jobs conventionally thought of as `women's work' remain more than four-fifths female."
Most notably, women have substantially increased their share of managerial and professional positions. In particular, women's share of executive, administrative and managerial jobs increased from 27 percent in 1980 to 39 percent in 1990. In all, women in managerial and administrative positions increased from 18,600 to 35,200.
In most professional areas, wom-en are still a minority. In the 1980s, women doubled their share of engineering jobs from 3 percent to 6 percent. Women also increased their share of jobs from 10 percent to 13 percent among the state's physicians. Utah women made even stronger gains in law - increasing from 10 percent to 15 percent.
"Enough women are now mail carriers that we probably ought to drop `mailman' from our vocabulary - in 1990, almost one-fourth of mail carriers were women compared with just 14 percent in 1980," she said.
Langston notes, however, that Utah women have lost ground in the technical or blue-collar occupations. For example, women held a higher percentage of precision production/craft and repair occupations in 1980 than in 1990. However, there were small gains in transportation and material moving occupations.
In technical fields, Utah women trail their national counterparts, with Utah women comprising only 37 percent in that category compared with 46 percent nationally.
The implications of the pink-collar ghetto on society is everyone's problem, Langston said.
"In a society headed by single women, this issue soon becomes everyone's issue. If these women are unable to support their families because they choose low-paying, traditional female jobs, society ends up providing the necessary sustenance," she said.
She said that sex stereotyping of jobs yields other unfavorable consequences. When women are concentrated into certain occupations, regardless of their abilities, talents or knowledge, the whole economy loses through underutilization or inefficient allocations of resources.
She says the pink-collar ghetto may spring from women consciously trading higher wages, chances for advancement and job status for flexibility and reduced demands they believe female occupations usually offer.
"In other words, women may choose those jobs because they want to - in order to integrate home and work life," Langston said.
Langston agreed that other societal influences, including the LDS culture, educational system and discrimination may foster the "ghetto" in Utah.
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(Chart)
Female occupations
Utah
Percent of total
1980 1990
Management analysts 27% 28.2%
Engineers 3% 5.9%
Physicians 10.2% 12.7%
Lawyers 10.2% 14.8%
Mail carriers 13.8% 23.8%
Auto mechanics 2.4% 1.3%
Electricians 2.2% 3.3%
Police and detectives 5.2% 12.1%
Carpenters 2% 1.6%
Truck drivers 6.5% 7.9%
Source: U.S. BUREAU OF THE CENSUS