cjh@csin.UUCP (Chip Hitchcock) (05/22/84)
Another response to the question of why women pursue careers known not to
pay well....
In many cases this is a matter of direction rather than pursuit. In a huge
study of civilian workers in the [subdepartment of the] Army in 1972, it was
found that women were consistently assigned to career tracks that peaked at low
GS ratings (i.e., 6-10) (GS ratings are a ranking device covering the entire
civil service---top is 18, managers are 13(?) and above, college graduates
start around 6), where men who started in very similar work would find that
promotions (increases in GS#) came much more easily. (Note that promotion is
the primary method of raising salaries, especially to hold on to specialists
who would earn significantly more in the private sector than other people of
their age and years of school.) The "why" (i.e., "who's responsible") of this
is a much stickier question, but the effects were very clearly observable.
CHip
(Chip Hitchcock)
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