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National Academy Press · 2101 Constitution Ave., NVV · 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 Acad-
emy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The mem-
bers 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 ap-
proved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sci-
ences, 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 further-
ing 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 corpora-
tion. 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 govern-
ment, 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 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 Administra-
tion 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 Wil-
liam 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 con-
cerned with the health of U. S. science and technology and with public policy issues with technol-
ogy content; and the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering
endowments.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
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: p.
Includes index.
Contents: v. 1. [without special title]
1. Women white collar workers—Effect of technological innovations on. 2. Office practice—
Automation. 3. Microelectronics—Social aspects. 4. Women—Employment. 5. Women—
Employment—Government policy—United States. I. Hartmann, Heidi I. II. Kraut, Robert E.
III. Tilly, Louise A. IV:. Title.
HD6331.18.M39N38 1986 331.4'8165137'0973 86-18113
ISBN 0-309-03688-7
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, Oslo, Norway
FRANCINE D. BLAU, Department of Economics and Institute of Labor and
Industrial Relations, University of Illinois
DENNIS CHAMOT, Professional Employees Department, AFL-CIO,
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, NJ.
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
WILLIAM A. VAUGHAN, JR., Staff Assistant
· . .
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ComrniRee 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.J.
ROBERT E. KRAUT, Bell Communications Research, Inc., Morristown, N.J.
JEAN BAKER MILLER, Stone Center, Wellesley 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
IV
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Contents
CONTENTS, VOLUME II
PREFACE . .
· · ~
.. V111
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
1. TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AND WOMEN
WORKERS IN THE OFFICE..................
Technological Change, 6
Information Technologies, 7
Social Context of Technological Change, 10
Output and Employment: Trends and Interpretations, 13
Women's Employment, 18
Overview, 18
Why Technology May Affect Women Differentially, 19
2. HISTORICAL PATTERNS OF TECHNOLOGICAL
CHANGE .........................................
The Telephone and Telephone Operators, 25
Workers in Printing and Publishing, 29
The Automated Office and Its Workers, 32
Secretaries, 33
Accountants and Bookkeepers, 38
Insurance Clerks, 40
Bank Tellers, 44
Retail Clerks, 48
Nursing and Nurses, 52
Conclusions, 58
v
.. xv
24
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Vl
3. EFFECTS OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE:
EMPLOYMENT LEVELS AND OCCUPATIONAL
SHIFTS .......................................
Problems in Employment Projections, 63
Underlying Factors, 63
Data Problems, 66
The Supply of Women Workers, 68
Labor Force Participation Rates, 68
Projections of Labor Force Participation Rates, 70
Projections of Age-Specific Rates, 72
Other Features of Women's Labor Force Participation, 73
Educational Attainment of the Labor Force, 75
The Potential Effects of Technological Change, 79
The Influence of Labor Supply, 79
The Demand for Workers, 81
Unemployment, 83
Recent Trends in Clerical Employment, 86
Overall Growth, 86
Occupational Shifts Within Clerical Work, 88
Demographic Trends in Clerical Employment, 89
Sources of Change in Clerical Work, 96
Outlook for Clerical Employment, 103
Overall Growth, 103
Occupational Shifts, 111
Job Loss and Displaced Workers, 124
Conclusion, 125
4. EFFECTS OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE:
THE QUALITY OF EMPLOYMENT .......
Employment Quality, 127
Defining Employment Quality, 129
Workers' Satisfaction and Attitudes, 131
Job Content: Job Fragmentation and the Deskilling Debate, 136
Working Conditions, 143
Economic Considerations, 148
Conclusion, 150
Implementing Technological Change and Improving
Employment Quality, 150
The Role of Managers, 151
The Role of Workers, 157
Conclusion, 165
CONTENTS
.. 62
.... 127
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CONTENTS
5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary, 167
Education, Training, and Retraining, 170
Employment Security and Flexibility, 172
Expansion of Women's Job Opportunities, 173
Adaptive Job Transitions, 175
Identification and Dissemination of Good Technological
Design and Practice, 177
Worker Participation, 178
Monitoring Health Concerns, 179
Data and Research Needs, 179
Epilogue, 181
REFERENCES
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PANEL MEMBERS
AND STAFF .......................................
INDEX . . .
· .
V11
. 167
... 183
... 201
. 207
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Contents
Volume If: Case Studies and
Policy Perspectives
I. OVERVIEW
Technology, Women, and Work: Policy Perspectives
Eli Ginzberg
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
Sharon Hartman Strom
New Technology and Office Tradition: The Not-So-Changing
World of the Secretary
Mary C. Murphree
Integrated Circuits/Segregated Labor: Women in Three
Computer-Related Occupations
Myra Strober anal Carolyn Arnold
. · ~
v'''
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CONTENTS, VOLUME II
III. TECHNOLOGY AND TRENDS IN EMPLOYMENT
Women's Employment and Technological Change: A Historical
Perspective
Claudia Goldin
Recent Trends in Clerical Employment: The Impact of
Technological Change
H. Alian Hunt and Timothy L. Hunt
Restructuring Work: Temporary, Part-time, and At-Home
Employment
Eileen Appelbaum
IV. POLICY PERSPECTIVES
Employer Policies in the Application of Office System
Technology to Clerical Work
Alan ~ Westin
IX
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 ]. Noyelle
Managing Technological Change: Responses of Government,
Employers, and Trade Unions in Western Europe and Canada
Felicity Henwood and Sally Wyatt
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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 retneval, with immediate and long-range
consequences for clericalwork.Since women nearlyl3millionofthem- are
the overwhelming majority of clerical workers, they are and will be dispropor-
tionately affected by this type of technological change. Jobs may be created or
eliminated, but they have also been and will certainly continue to be trans-
formed. So far, knowledge about these large processes of change has been
scattered and incomplete. There is great need for more systematic evaluation
and understanding of this 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 Panel on Technology and Women's Employment in
March 1984. The tasks of the panel included gathering together what is now
known on the subject; identifying areas in which research is most needed and
commissioning scholars to undertake research for the committee; preparing this
report, which discusses the available research and proposes both research and
policy recommendations; and organizing a conference to present the findings
and recommendations. The panel's work was supported by the Women's Bu-
reau of the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Commission for Employ-
ment Policy, the Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Depart-
ment of Commerce, and the National Research Council Fund.
The panel benefited greatly from earlier work of National Research Council
committees that have posed and examined questions about women's employ-
ment. Women, Work, and Wages: Equal Pay for Jobs of Equal Value (1981),
Xl
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· ~
X11
PREFACE
the report of the Committee on Occupational Classification and Analysis, sur-
veyed both earnings differentials between men and women and the relationship
of these differentials to occupational segregation, and evaluated the usefulness
of job evaluation plans and occupational reclassification as tools to achieve pay
equity. The panel's parent body, the Committee on Women's Employment and
Related Social Issues, established in 1981, has produced a volume of essays,
Sex Segregation in the Workplace: Trends, Explanations, Remedies (1984),
and a full report, Women's Work, Men's Work: Sex Segregation on the Job
(1986~.
This earlier work provides background material on the issues that faced the
panel: the rapid introduction of new technologies in clerical work in the last five
years and contradictory interpretations about its consequences in the short and
longer run. To what extent do current changes differ from earlier ones? Is the
new microelectronic and telecommunication technology creating or eliminat-
ing jobs? In what ways is it affecting the quality of employment for those whose
job organization and content are being transformed? Are there differential ef-
fects that depend on the skill, occupation, industry, or demographic character-
istics, such as minority status or age of workers? If jobs disappear or change
drastically, what kind of support training, retraining, relocation might be
needed for displaced workers? What institutional arrangements might be neces-
sa~y or desirable for planning and implementing change or devising support
programs?
The panel's answers to these questions are contained in this volume. Many of
the research papers commissioned by the panel are published in Volume Il.:
Case Studies and Policy Perspectives. (A list of the contents of Volume II
precedes this preface.)
On the basis of its examination of available data and research that identifies
the recent and possible future effects of technological change on the quantity
and quality of women's paid employment opportunities, the panel expects that,
over the next 10 years, the sometimes contradictory patterns of the present will
continue. The changes both the slowdown of growth in clerical employment
and the ongoing shifts in the distribution of clerical jobs merit policy attention
because of their magnitude. Under these conditions, some workers are likely to
be caught in unforeseen transitions and become unemployed. Minority women,
older women, and those with low levels of education or training may find such
transitions especially difficult. For new entrants to the labor market it may be
hard to find ent~y-level jobs. Changes in job content may cause skill mismatch
between available workers and available jobs. We do not expect that the current
rate or type of technological change will be so great as to require fundamental
alterations in employment policy regarding women. We offer policy recom-
mendations directed toward easing what could be difficult transitions for some
workers in terms of lost jobs or reductions in employment quality even in the
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PREFACE
. · ~
X111
best case. The large degree of uncertainty about our central conclusion, how-
ever, leads us to propose more far-reaching policies in the event that the future
holds a more severe set of changes than we now expect. Recommendations
about research and data needs are also offered.
In sum, this report reveals the relationships that exist between and among
various groups, of which women workers are but one, who share significant
interests in solving problems linked to technological change, yet maintain dif-
ferences about solutions and the distribution of costs. The panel's recommenda-
tions are designed quite explicitly to highlight those relationships and shared
interests in order to promote agreement about goals and the means to achieve
them.
LOUISE A. TILLY, Chair
Panel on Technology and
Women's Employment
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Aclmowledgments
A report such as this is a collective product, and it is a pleasure to thank the
many people involved in producing it. The Panel on Technology and Women's
Employment consists of academic scholars in several relevant disciplines, ex-
perts in the design and application of technology, and business and labor lead-
ers. Although panel members held differing views and frequently voiced differ-
ences of opinion, each one contributed generously to the group endeavor.
Drafts of specific parts of the report were prepared by both individuals and
working groups, and many individuals prepared memoranda commenting on
those early drafts. Panel member Robert Kraut deserves special acknowledg-
ment for drafting all of Chapter 4. The process of integrating the materials and
sections written by members, consultants, and the study director was truly col-
lective. That process was exemplary; I appreciate it deeply and thank all those
involved.
In carrying out its tasks, the panel commissioned a review of recent research
findings, an inventory of data sources, an analysis of trends in clerical employ-
ment, and 14 scholarly papers. The panel also held a workshop at which re-
searchers presented their findings in areas identified as central to the problem.
These materials, as well as the valuable and informed intellectual exchange on
fundamental issues between authors and panel members, were significant con-
tr~but~ons to our Inquiry.
In addition to the panel members and authors of commissioned papers, I
would like to express my appreciation to the panel's staff. The study director,
Heidi I. Hartmann, took major responsibility for overall rewriting and editing
of the varied prose styles and sometimes intellectually untidy contributions of
the panel. This she accomplished in addition to coordinating the process, re-
xv
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XVI
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
cruising expert papers, herself serving as an expert, finding data and analyzing
them when needed, and administering the ongoing work of the Committee on
Women's Employment and Related Social Issues. She has been a strong and
incomparably valuable resource for the panel; we sincerely thank her for her
important contribution to our efforts. We also thank Lucite DiGirolamo, staff
associate, for her organizational expertise and unflappable calm. In addition to
organizing the panel's meetings, recording minutes, and planning the dissemi-
nation conference for our report, she kept track of the numerous source materi-
als used in our work. William A. Vaughan, Jr., served as staff assistant during
the second year of the project, as did Katherine Autin and Rita Conroy during
the first year. They aided our work in innumerable ways, not the least of which
was the word processing of our report. Commission staff Diane Goldman,
Christine McShane, Beverly Blakey, and Suzanne Donovan also contributed to
the report. Micaela di Leonardo, now at Yale University, served as a consultant
to the panel early in its work; she contacted many researchers working in the
field and solicited their cooperation in our efforts. Jackie George of Wheaton
College and Victoria Threllfall of Bennington College served as interns at early
and late stages of the project, respectively, and provided research assistance. To
all of them we owe our thanks.
Several members of the Committee on Women's Employment and Related
Social Issues—Cynthia Epstein, Lawrence Kahn, and Isabel Sawhill- re-
viewed a draft version of this report; we thank them for their prompt and useful
response. We also thank Alice S. Ilchman, chair of the committee, for the many
ways in which she facilitated the panel's work. Members of the Commission on
Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education and the monitor appointed by the
Report Review Committee of the National Academy of Sciences thoroughly
reviewed a draft ofthe report and made several helpful suggestions. In addition,
the report was helpfully reviewed by several experts outside the Academy
structure: Vary Coates of the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S.
Congress; Carol Romero, Sara Toye, and Stephen Baldwin of the National
Commission for employment Policy; and Allan Hunt and Timothy Hunt of the
Upjohn Institute. Eugenia Grohman, associate director for reports for the com-
mission, contributed substantially to the report's clarity through her insightful
editing. David A. Goslin, executive director of the commission, has our appre-
ciation for his continued support of the work of the committee and its panels.
Several organizations made this report possible through their financial sup-
port. We thank both the organizations and their representatives who provided
liaison with the panel. At the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of
Labor, we thank Collis Phillips, Mary Murphree, and Roberta McKay. In addi-
tion, we would like to recognize the interest and strong support of the project
shown by Lenora Cole-Alexander, former director of the Women's Bureau.
Carol Romero and her staff at the National Commission for Employment Policy
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
· ~
XVII
provided much helpful information as well as sustained interest. Beverly Milk-
man and Richard Walton, at the Economic Development Administration, U.S.
Department of Commerce, aided us with a grant to allow us to complete the
project in a timely matter. Crucial early funding was provided by the National
Research Council Fund.
LOUISE A. TILLY
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Computer Chips
and Paper Cllos
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