Women Managers: the Present and the Future

Despite the recession, unemployment and subtle political moves to keep them out of the work‐force, more women are working than ever before. Throughout Europe, however, there is still job segregation based on gender—the arbitrary division between ‘men's jobs’ and ‘women's jobs’, which is often taken for granted. In all EEC countries over 50% of women are employed in the services sector, which includes retail, trade, education, health care and clerical duties. Approximately 20–25% of women workers are employed in the textile and food industries, and large numbers in the chemical and electronics industries. Women's advance into what have been traditionally men's jobs is still very small. In the UK, for instance, the Economic Activity Tables of the 1981 Census—published in 1984—reveal seven occupation orders, in which women were outnumbered by men by more than ten to one: professional and related in science, engineering and technology; managerial; security and protective services; processing, metals and electrical; construction and mining; transport and storage; miscellaneous. The groupings accounted for a mere 19% of the entire female work‐force both in 1971 and 1981. No inroads had been made.