Many women are well aware of the problem of sex discrimination. In a 1985 national survey, 57 per cent of the women sampled believe that women face discrimination in pursuing executive jobs in business or top posts in government. Fully 69 per cent believed that they would have a better chance of obtaining a mortgage or a major bank loan if they were male.
There has been observed a disturbing trend in the United States since World War II: the feminization of poverty, that is, the increasing proportion of America's poor who are female. As noted earlier, in 1959 female-headed households accounted for 26 per cent of the nation's poor; by 1986, that figure had risen to 52 per cent. About half of American women in poverty are in "transition", coping with an economic crisis caused by the departure, disability, or death of a husband.
A key factor in the feminization of poverty has been the dramatic increase in single-mother households. Since 1970, the number of American households with women as single heads has increased by 97 per cent, while the number of families headed by never-married mothers has increased by 35.6 per cent. As a result, 20 per cent of all American children live with only one parent, usually the mother. These families, whether headed by divorced or never-married mother, represent the fastest-growing segment of the female poor. Among single mothers with children under 16, the poverty rate is 43 per cent for whites, 67 per cent for Hispanics, and 68 per cent for blacks.
It must be emphasized that poor women share many social characteristics with poor men: low educational attainment, lack of market-relevant job skills, and residence in economically deteriorating areas. However, in the view of conflict theorists, the higher rates of poverty among women can be traced to two distinct causes. Because of sex discrimination on the job and sexual harassment, women are at a clear disadvantage in the labor market in terms of both horizontal and vertical social mobility. As one reflection of this problem, the average full-time, year-round, female worker made only $16,843 in 1986, as compared with $25,894 for a comparable male worker.
Welfare payments to single mothers are also far from adequate. About 4 million women receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) benefits for themselves and their 7 million dependent children. However, in 1986, the average AFDC monthly payment for a family was only $313. In the view of the Children's Defense Fund, AFDC benefits in most states ore "intolerably low, failing to provide even a minimum level of decency". As concern has increased about the feminization of poverty, members of the Congressional Caucus on Women's Issues have developed a remedial legislative package, which is known as the Economic Equity Act. This act, as originally proposed in 1981, addressed economic discrimination against women in such areas as public and private pension plans, insurance, the armed forces, government employment, and the collection of alimony and child support.
In 1984, both houses of Congress unanimously passed the Retirement Equity Act. This bill lowered; the "vesting age" (the age at which an employer must begin counting service for a pension) from 22 to 18 and lowered the age that workers must be covered by a pension plan from age 25 to 21. These provisions are especially important for female workers; women have the highest participation in the labor force in the 20 to 24 age bracket.
In mid-1987, the Congressional Caucus on Women's Issues launched a new campaign to pass a revised Economic Equity Act. The 17 bills constituting this legislative package cover both work and family issues affecting women and their children. The work sections of the package would require pay equity for jobs of comparable skill, equal access to commercial credit, health and pension benefits for temporary and part-time workers, and other measures of economic security. The family sections cover a wide range of issues, including the need for high quality, affordable day care services and for stronger enforcement of child support laws. One of the most controversial proposals involves revising Social Security benefit formulas.
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