Making progress slowly
By JASON BODNAR,
Burlington County Times, March 7, 2005
One hundred forty years ago, gender inequality was explicit and legal.
Women weren't allowed to vote, and the annual salary for female teachers in New Jersey was set at $200 - $100 less than the salary for male teachers.
Forty years ago, gender inequality was implicit and societal. Women earned 59.9 percent of what men did nationally, and a female had never been elected to a seat on the Burlington County Board of Freeholders.
Today, experts say -- and statistics show -- gender inequality still exists, both nationally and locally, although it may not be as easy to see.
The differences between the sexes in the workplace and positions of leadership are subtle and often hidden, with exceptions sometimes obscuring the rule:
"There have definitely been victories, but the playing field is obviously not level," said Mary Hartman, director of the Institute for Women's Leadership at Rutgers University.
The big national statistical yardstick continues to inch toward gender equality.
Women earned 76.3 percent of what men did in 2001, an increase from 69.9 percent in 1991 and 59.2 percent in 1981, according to U.S. Census data.
In some positions, such as bill collectors, police officers and postal service clerks, women earn just as much, if not more, than men, census information indicates.
In other jobs, the gap is still huge. Female physicians and surgeons, for instance, earned a median annual salary of $50,856 in 2004, compared with $97,448 for males, according to national census data.
Some say comparing those numbers is like comparing apples and oranges, that women are paid just as much as men for the same work.
"When you look closely, females are more likely to be psychiatrists or pediatricians, which means a smaller number of hours she has to work and more control over her hours," said Warren Farrell, author of "Why Men Earn More."
"The males are more likely to be a cardiac surgeon. He has to work 70, 80 hours a week, but he gets paid more."
Mary Gatta, director of Workforce Policy and Research at the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University, said the type of jobs women choose and the time some take off to care for children explain some, but not all, of the salary differences.
"The pay gap does exist. It's real," Gatta said. "Part of it is it's so hard for women to break into male-dominated occupations.
Young women don't even envision themselves in those fields."
In some cases, they may not be welcome in those fields.
Dr. Mary Campagnolo, a physician in Lumberton and former president of the Burlington County Medical Society, said when she was doing her clinical rotations in medical school, she was never made to feel comfortable in the surgical field.
It looks like women will continue to close the numbers gap in the medical field, as 47.9 percent of medical students were females in 2003-2004, up from 30.7 percent two decades earlier, according to the American Medical Association.
The physicians entering the big-paying medical fields, however, are still men.
Only 25.4 percent of residents training to be surgeons are females, according to the association.
That same trend is true outside the medical field. The median annual salaries nationally for aircraft pilots, electrical engineers and mechanical engineers are more than $60,000, but men hold 95 percent of those jobs, according to census data.
Police work, too, is still an overwhelmingly male occupation. In Burlington County, 754 -- or nearly 96 percent
-- of the 789 municipal police officers in 2003 were men.
Women are starting to become more common in that field, but Willingboro police Capt. Donna Dimitri said some female high school students still seem surprised when she visits their school for career days.
"They're like, 'Oh, I didn't know that was a career option,' " Dimitri said.
Even in fields where women dominate, such as education, men are more likely to hold positions of power -- at a higher salary.
Female teachers outnumbered males in Burlington County, 4,440 to 1,424, in 2003, according to the state Department of Education.
Males, however, held 55 percent of administrative positions, such as principal and superintendent.
Gatta said men tend to get promoted faster than women, although the discrimination isn't usually conscious.
"I don't think there is a group of people out there saying, 'Let's not help women,' " Gatta said.
"We're socialized. Sexism has been a part of our society for centuries.
It starts at birth. We engender babies: boys with blue, girls with pink."
Does this mean women are treated differently once they get the job?
Some women in traditionally male jobs say no.
"When I first started, I thought I might have a problem, but I haven't," said Victoria Fallon, who became Pemberton Borough's first female police officer last year.
"They look at you first as being a police officer" rather than as a woman.
Others say they have been treated differently than male colleagues.
Mary Wells, president and chief executive officer of Family Service of Burlington County, recalled a meeting where she was the only female in a group of chief executive officers of mental-health agencies.
"What I said just didn't have the same weight," Wells said. "Later one of them would say the same thing, and (the rest) would all say, 'Ah, what a great idea.' "
Females make up 24 percent of CEOs nationally. They also make up only about a third of business owners, statewide, according to the Center for Women's Business Research.
Politically, women are even more underrepresented, especially in this state.
New Jersey ranks last, nationally, in terms of political participation by women, according to the 2004 Status of Women in the States report conducted by the Institute for Women's Policy Research.
The percentage of women in the New Jersey Legislature, for instance, is 15.8, exactly what it was eight years ago.
The problem isn't the voters, local female politicians said. In fact, 81 percent of people surveyed in a recent poll by the Siena College Research Institute said they would vote for a female president.
Some say the problem is due to the largely male political committees that select Democratic and Republican candidates.
"It's the old-boy network," said Allen, R-7th of Edgewater Park, "which is a wonderful network, if you're an old boy or a young boy."
There are some positives for women.
Seven of 40 mayors in Burlington County are females, up from two in January 2004.
And some female politicians said gender has not been an issue for them, either in winning election or performing their officeholder duties.
"I never felt I was in competition with men," Delanco Mayor Kate Fitzpatrick said.
Others said their gender has played a role in their political career.
"I think the community as a whole accepts me, but you have some of the good ol' boys who don't think women are capable of making their own decisions," said New Hanover Mayor Sharon Atkinson, who last year became the first female to hold that position in her town.
In a nutshell, that's what women say they have to face in order to end gender inequality.
"It's extremely difficult to bring about change, because people don't want to give up power," said Wells, who became the first woman on the Moorestown Township Council 31 years ago.
"They dig in their heels, and boys take care of boys."
Tomorrow: The future of the movement.
Email: jbodnar@phillyBurbs.com
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