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Computer Chips
and Paper Clips
Technology and Moments Employment
<~1 ~
VOLUME II
Case Studies and Policy Perspectives
Heidi I. Hartmann, Editor
Panel on Technology and Women's Employment
Committee on Women's Employment and Related Social Issues
Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
National Research Council
NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
Washington, D.C. 1987
OCR for page R2
National Academy Press · 2101 Constitution Avenue, NW · Washington, DC 20418
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing
Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils
of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the
Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were
chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to
procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the
National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute
of Medicine.
The National Research Council was established by the National Academy of Sciences
in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's
purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. The Council
operates in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy under the
authority of its congressional charter of 1863, which establishes the Academy as a
private, nonprofit, self-governing membership corporation. The Council has become the
principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National
Academy of Engineering in the conduct of their services to the government, the public,
and the scientific and engineering communities. It is administered jointly by both
Academies and the Institute of Medicine. The National Academy of Engineering and the
Institute of Medicine were established in 1964 and 1970, respectively, under the current
charter of the National Academy of Sciences.
This project has been supported by funding from the Women's Bureau of the U.S.
Department of Labor, the National Commission for Employment Policy, the Economic
Development Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and by the National
Research Council (NRC) Fund. The NRC Fund is a pool of private, discretionary,
nonfederal funds that is used to support a program of Academy-initiated studies of
national issues in which science and technology figure significantly. The NRC Fund
consists of contributions from a consortium of private foundations including the Carnegie
Corporation of New York, the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation, the William and Flora
Hewlett Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation;
the Academy Industry Program, which seeks annual contributions from companies that
are concerned with the health of U.S. science and technology and with public policy
issues with technology content; and the National Academy of Sciences and the National
Academy of Engineering endowments.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
(Revised for vol. 2)
National Research Council (U.S.~. Committee on Women's Employment and Related
Social Issues. Panel on Technology and Women's Employment. Computer chips and
paper clips.
Bibliography: v. 1, p. 183-199.
Includes index.
Contents: v. 1. [without special title] v. 2. Case studies and policy perspectives /
Heidi I. Hartmann, editor.
1. Women white collar workers Effects of technological innovations on. 2. Office
practice Automation. 3. Microelectronics Social aspects. 4. Women Employment.
5. Women Employment- Goverment policy United States. I. Hartmann, Heidi I. II.
Kraut, Robert E. III. Tilly, Louise.
HD6331.18.M39N38 1986 331.4 ' 8165137 '0973 86-18113
ISBN 0-309-03688-7 (fir. 1)
ISBN 0-309-03727-1 (v. 2)
Printed in the United States of America
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Panel on Technology and Women's Employment
LOUISE A. TILLY (Chair), Committee on Historical Studies,
Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research
TAMAR D. BERMANN, Work Research Institutes, OsIo, Norway
FRANGINE D. BLAU, Department of Economics and Institute of
Labor and Industrial Relations, University of Illinois
DENNIS CHAMOT, Professional Employees Department,
AFRO, Washington, D.C.
MARTIN L. ERNST, Arthur D. Little, Inc., Cambridge, Mass.
ROSLYN FELDBERG, Massachusetts Nurses Association, Boston,
Mass.
WILLIAM N. HUBBARD, JR., Hickory Corners, Mich.
GLORIA T. JOHNSON, International Union of Electronic,
Technical, Salaried, and Machine Workers, AFL-CIO,
Washington, D.C.
ROBERT E. KRAUT, Bell Communications Research, Inc.,
Morristown, N.~.
SHIRLEY M. MALCOM, American Association for - the
Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C.
MICHAEL J. PIORE, Department of Economics, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
FREDERICK A. ROESCH, Citicorp, New York
TERESA A. SULLIVAN, Population Research Center, University of
Texas
DONALD J. TREIMAN, Department of Sociology, University of
California, Los Angeles
ROBERT K. YIN, COSMOS Corporation, Washington, D.C.
PATRICIA ZAVELLA, Merrill College, University of California,
Santa Cruz
HEIDI I. HARTMANN, Study Director
LUCILE A. DIGIROLAMO, Staff Associate
GILLIAN MARCELLE, Editorial Assistant
,¢ ~
· ·—
111
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Committee on Women's Employment and
Related Social Issues
ALICE S. ILCHMAN (Chair), President, Sarah Lawrence College
CECILIA P. BURCIAGA, Office of the Dean and Vice Provost,
Stanford University
CYNTHIA FUCHS EPSTEIN, Graduate Center, City University of
New York, and Russell Sage Foundation, New York
LAWRENCE M. KAHN, Department of Economics and Institute of
Labor and Industrial Relations, University of Illinois
GENE E. KOFKE, Montclair, N.~.
ROBERT E. KRAUT, Bell Communications Research, Inc.,
Morristown, N.~.
JEAN BAKER MILLER, Stone Center for Developmental Services
and Studies, WellesTey College
ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, Georgetown University Law Center
GARY ORFIELD, Department of Political Science, University of
Chicago
NAOMI R. QUINN, Department of Anthropology, Duke University
ISABEL V. SAWMILL, The Urban Institute, Washington, D.C.
ROBERT M. SOLOW, Department of Economics, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
LOUISE A. TILLY, Committee on Historical Studies, Graduate
Faculty, New School for Social Research
DONALD J. TREIMAN, Department of Sociology, University of
California, Los Angeles
1V
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CONTENTS, VOLUME I..
PREFACE .
Contents
· .
V11
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I. OVERVIEW
xv
Technology, Women, and Work: Policy Perspectives 3
Eli Ginaberg
II. CASE STUDIES OF WOMEN WORKERS AND
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
The Technological Transformation of White-Collar
Work: A Case Study of the Insurance Industry
Barbara Baran
"Machines Instead of Clerks": Technology and the
Feminization of Bookkeeping, 1910-1950
Sharon Hartman Strom
New Technology and Office Tradition: The
Not-So-Changing World of the Secretary 98
Mary C. Murphree
25
63
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v'
Integrated Circuits/Segregated Labor: Women in
Computer-Related Occupations and
High-Tech Industries
Myra H. Strober and Carolyn L. Arnold
III. TECHNOLOGY AND TRENDS IN WOMEN'S
EMPLOYMENT
Women's Employment and Technological Change:
A Historical Perspective
Claudia Goldin
Recent Trends in Clerical Employment:
The Impact of Technological Change
H. Allan Hunt and Timothy L. Hunt
Restructuring Work: Temporary, Part-Time,
and At-Home Employment 268
Eileen Appelbaum
CONTENTS
136
.................... 185
223
IV. POLICY PERSPECTIVES
Employer Policies to Enhance the Application of
Office System Technology to Clerical Work ..
Alan F. Westin
............. 313
New Office and Business Technologies: The Structure
of Education and (Re)Training Opportunities...
Bryna Shore Fraser
The New Technology and the New Economy: Some
Implications for Equal Employment Opportunity
Thierry J. Noyelle
Managing Technological Change: Responses of
Government, Employers, and Trade Unions
in Western Europe and Canada............................
Felicity Henwood and; Sally Wyatt
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF CONTRIBUTORS...
343
..373
395
....433
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Contents, Volume ~
1. TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AND WOMEN WORKERS
IN THE OFFICE
2. HISTORICAL PATTERNS OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE
3. EFFECTS OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE: EMPLOYMENT
LEVELS AND OCCUPATIONAL SHIFTS
4. EFFECTS OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE: THE QUALITY
OF EMPLOYMENT
5. C ONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
REFERENCES
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PANEL MEMBERS AND STAFF
INDEX
·.
V11
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Preface
Striking advances in microelectronic and telecommunications
technology have transformed many worlds of work. These changes
have revolutionized information storage, processing, and retrieval,
with immediate and long-range consequences for clerical work.
Since women nearly 15 million of them are the overwhelming
majority of clerical workers, they are and will be disproportionately
affected by this type of technological change. Jobs may be created
or eliminated, but they are also transformed. So far, knowledge
about these large processes of change has been scattered and in-
complete. Thus, there is great need for more systematic evaluation
and understanding of technological change and its specific effects
on the conditions of and opportunities for women's employment.
In light of this need, the Committee on Women's Employment
and Related Social Issues established its Pane} on Technology and
Women's Employment in March 1984. The tasks of the panel
included gathering existing data, identifying areas in which re-
search is most needed and commissioning scholars to undertake
this research, and preparing a conference and a two-volume report
to present the panel's findings and recommendations. This work
was supported by the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department
of Labor, the National Commission for Employment Policy, the
1X
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x
PREFA CE
Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Department of
Commerce, and the National Research Council fund.
A number of questions faced the panel: To what extent do cur-
rent changes differ from earlier ones? Is the new microelectronic
and telecommunications technology creating or eliminating jobs?
In what ways is it affecting the quality of employment for those
whose job organization and content are being transformed? Are
there differential effects that depend on the skill, occupation, in-
dustry, or demographic characteristics, such as minority status or
age of workers? If jobs disappear or change drastically, what kind
of support training, retraining, or relocation might be needed
for displaced workers? What institutional arrangements might be
necessary or desirable for planning and implementing change or
devising support programs?
The panel's answers to these questions are presented in Vol-
ume ~ (a listing of its contents precedes this preface). This second
volume gathers many of the papers commissioned by the pane!
during the course of its work. Each illuminates, from the author's
own perspective, one or more aspects of those questions examined
by the panel. Often these perspectives differ, indicating the con-
tradictory interpretations of fact that characterize the research on
technology and employment, particularly because the phenomena
being studied are still unfolding and the data are very much less
than adequate to the task. Each paper has been revised by its
authorts) to take into account the comments of panel members
and others who participated in a workshop held in February 1985
to discuss early versions of the papers.
Professor Eli Ginzberg's overview provides a context for the
volume. He presents his view of the changes that have taken
place in the participation of women in the labor market, noting
that some of the economic sectors that in the past provided the
bulk of job growth for women workers may no longer do so, at
least partly due to new office technologies. He stresses, however,
that technological change is a critical factor in fostering economic
growth and creating new types of jobs. His policy prescriptions
include continued research and development to enhance techno-
logical change and economic growth, full employment, improved
education and retraining, continued enforcement of equal employ-
ment opportunity laws and regulations, and increased provision of
child care.
TAT _ I 1 · · d . ~ ~ . ~ . ~
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Xt
The four case studies in Part IT describe the impact of infor-
mation technology in the insurance industry, among bookkeepers
(between 1910 and 1950), among secretaries, and in computer-
related occupations. The first three case studies trace how the
opportunities of women workers tend to change along with al-
terations in the organization of work and the implementation of
innovations. Barbara Baran, Sharon Strom, and Mary Murphree
all argue that women's opportunities have become more limited as
the division of labor has become increasingly structured. Baran
notes the current contradiction within the insurance industry that
as jobs become more skilled in many ways as a result of comput-
erization they also offer less mobility; she also anticipates declines
in the number of jobs likely to be available to clerical workers,
particularly the least-skilled workers. Strom's history of changes
in women's role in bookkeeping, an important clerical occupa-
tion, gives equal weight to changes in the organization of work
and to the various innovations in calculating machines available
to bookkeepers over the years. Up to 1950, bookkeepers grew in
number and became preponderantly female; their work was in-
creasingly tied to machines and their opportunities increasingly
circumscribed. Murphree's contemporary case study shows how
the effects of office technologies on secretaries vary according to
the way these technologies are used. A critical variable, Murphree
finds, is the number of bosses the secretary serves; accordingly,
with new equipment, her work may become more or less chal-
lenging. In nearly all cases, however, Murphree finds that the
patrimonial nature of office work, in particular its strong reliance
on differences in gendered roles, remains little changed.
Strober and Arnold examine the newly emerging occupations
related to computers: computer scientists and systems analysts,
computer programmers, and computer operators. Using data
available from the Census Bureau, they find that even in these
new occupations gender-based earnings differentials exist. One
explanation suggested IS that women and men in these occupa-
tions tend to work in different industries, with women less likely
than men to work in the "high-tech" industries.
The pessimistic impression left by these case studies of the im-
pact of computers (and their forerunners) is somewhat mitigated
by the sweeping historical analysis provided by Claudia Goldin.
The first of three authors in Part Ill who connects technological
change with trends in women's employment, Goldin reviews the
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· ~
at'
PREFA CE
history of ~vomen's employment and productivity growth since the
1800s. She reports that across industries women have tended to
increase their representation where productivity growth has been
greatest and also notes that the entrance of women into manufac-
turing in the 1800s, where technological and organizational change
was especially pronounced, tended to raise women's wages. To-
gether these facts indicate that technological and organizational
change generally enhance women's opportunities. In the more
recent period, however, Goldin sees the increase in women's ed-
ucation as the single most important factor in changing women's
labor force status.
Alian Hunt and Timothy Hunt, in their review of trends in
clerical employment from 1940 to the early 1980s, attempt to iden-
tify specific impacts of office automation. Like Ginzberg, they note
that it Is easier to attach technological explanations to areas of
decreasing employment than to anticipate the new jobs technol-
ogy may create. Their findings suggest that although employment
growth in clerical jobs has slowed (probably permanently), techno-
logical change cannot in most instances be identified as the reason.
For example, despite the increased capital investment in the finan-
cial sector, no trend toward increased productivity (and possible
job displacement) was discerned.
Eileen Appelbaum points to other important trends in the
recent period: the significant increase in temporary work, shifts
in part-time work, and the modest increase in home-based work.
All these shifts, she argues, are facilitated by computerization, but
also reflect changes in the organization of work. In Appelbaum's
view, these new forms of work are likely to become increasingly
important as employers continue to face the need to minimize
costs. Although new work may provide some important options
for women workers, Appelbaum believes that on the whole these
trends have more negative consequences than positive ones.
The four papers in Part IV provide policy perspectives on
important subjects. Alan Westin reviews recent experiences of a
sample of major employers with office automation and offers his
suggestions for how best to implement new office system technolo-
gies. He reports that increasing attention is being given in work-
places to enhancing the quality of employment and notes that the
most important factor in determining how well an employer uses
new technology is the overall quality of its human resources policy.
Bryna Fraser describes available options for attaining education
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PREEN CE
· · ~
x''t
and training related to new technologies and recommends impor-
tant improvements in the delivery of education and training. Like
many of the authors in the collection, she notes the importance of
continuing education over a lifetime. Thierry Noyelle, on the basis
of his analysis of changes in the service sector, argues that edu-
cation will become even more important in the future in ensuring
employment opportunity. Like Appelbaum, Baran, and others,
Noyelle believes the structure of employment opportunities within
firms is undergoing fundamental change. Internal labor markets,
with clear job ladders providing upward mobility, are disappear-
ing. Instead, increased hiring of skilled workers is occurring, and
workers must have greater skills to obtain entry-level jobs; on-
thejob training is a less sure route to upward mobility for the
less skilled. Felicity Henwood and Sally Wyatt, two researchers
from the United Kingdom, provide an overview of employment
policies related to technological change in Western Europe. They
note that workers are more involved in decisions involving the im-
plementation of technological change in many European countries
than they are in the United States. Henwood and Wyatt also re-
view European education and training policies and policies related
to easing unemployment, some of which may be due to technologi-
cal change. Throughout, they stress that women, because of their
specific locations in paid and unpaid employment, tend to have
perspectives and needs different from those of men. They note
in particular that women have often been more sensitive to issues
concerning quality of work.
The panel offers these papers, with their divergent viewpoints,
not only because they were helpful to it in its own deliberations,
but also in the belief that they will stimulate further discussion
and research. The issues raised in these papers about the current
transformations in employment concern both men and women
workers, although the particular examples are taken primarily
from areas of predominant employment for women.
LOUISE A. TILLY, Chair
HEIDI I. HARTMANN, Study Director
Pane! on Technology and
Women's Employment
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Acknowledgments
These papers were commissioned by the pane} to inform its
work. The authors have earned our appreciation for the insight and
timeliness of their research. Many of them present here the fruits
of original data-collection efforts, vastly more involved than could
be described in the space allotted to them here. Others have spent
considerable effort to create consistent data series from published
and unpublished sources. All have brought their considerable
analytical skills to bear on questions of importance to the panel.
Thanks also to the pane] members for identifying topics for the
papers, thinking carefully about the questions that needed to be
addressed, and reviewing the work of the authors at many stages.
Even after the major effort of summarizing research results
in a written product has been completed, producing a published
volume of collected papers is a formidable task. IJucile DiGiro-
lamo, staff associate to the panel, ably organized much of the
process, from the contracting and fiscal management involved in
commissioning papers to keeping track of the numerous drafts and
assisting in checking references and tables. She ably elicited coop-
eration from the authors in matters both of format and substance.
Gillian Marcelle, a student intern with the panel, who served as
xv
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xvl
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
editorial assistant for this volume, made important intellectual
contributions to the overall shape of the volume. She also edited
several of the papers, making organizational and substantive im-
provements. In this era of incomplete automation, many of these
papers were produced on word-processing systems incompatible
with that used by the National Academy Press. Much of the
translation and cleanup involved were done by William Vaughan,
staff assistant to the panel, and Estelle Miller, electronic composi-
tion specialist, National Academy Press, in addition to Lucile and
Gillian. Estelle Miller used laser composition software to produce
camera-ready copy. Nancy Winchester, project editor, National
Academy Press, supervised the production of the manuscript. To
all we express our appreciation for a great deal of hard work, often
performed under tight time pressures. Throughout this process,
too, the authors were unusually responsive.
We also thank Alice S. [Ichman, chair of the Committee on
Women's Employment and Related Social Issues, for the many
ways in which she facilitated the panel's work. Eugenia Grohman,
associate director for reports for the Commission on Behavioral
and Social Sciences and Education, provided useful advice and
coordinated production with the Press. David A. GosTin, executive
director of the commission, has our appreciation for his continued
support of the work of the committee and its panels.
Several organizations made this report possible through their
financial support. We thank both the organizations and the in-
dividuals who provided liaison. At the Women's Bureau of the
U.S. Department of Labor, we thank Collis Phillips, Mary Mur-
phree, and Roberta McKay. In addition, we would like to recognize
Lenora Cole-Alexander, former director of the Women's Bureau,
for her interest in and strong support of the project. Carol Romero
and her staff at the National Commission for Employment Policy
provided the impetus and the funds for a major review of cleri-
cal employment trends, which was carried out by AlIan Hunt and
Timothy Hunt and reported briefly here. Beverly Milkman and
Richard Walton, at the Economic Development Administration of
the U.S. Department of Commerce, aided the panel with a grant to
allow it to complete the project in a timely manner. Crucial early
funding was provided by the National Research Council Fund.
LOUISE A. TILLY
HEIDI I. HARTMANN
