Women at Work
Christina Hamlett
October 08, 2006
It was only supposed to be a temporary solution to keep the national economy humming. With the men folk off at war, a woman’s work on the home front was not only never done but also required her to pull a second shift in factories, stores and on farms and ranches across the country. These were the same jobs they were supposed to cheerfully relinquish when Johnny came marching home. Half of them did. The other half rather liked the challenge – and the paycheck – that a working life entailed.
Such tenacity didn’t just fan the flames of controversy regarding equality into a spark that would ignite the women’s movement but forever redefined what constitutes the “right” person for the “right” job.
How far have we come? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, females accounted for 43 percent of the American workforce in 1970; 1 in 10 held college degrees. By the 21st century, the rate had risen to 60 percent, 3 in 10 were college graduates, and women accounted for more than half of all workers in the fields of financial management, education, health services, and leisure/hospitality industries.
In concert with these advances of the past three decades, however, the prospects for long-term employment have been impacted by technology, corporate downsizing and outsourcing to foreign countries. In addition, the American divorce rate has quadrupled since 1970, a scenario that has called for women to seek higher paying – or multiple - jobs in order to accommodate new roles as breadwinners or to re-enter a labor market in which their current skills are obsolete.
Fortunately, it’s not a journey they have to take alone.
In 1979, Women at Work (WAW) opened its doors in Pasadena, California as a non-profit resource, referral and counseling center for unemployed and underemployed individuals. Today, it serves approximately 3500 people annually and, according to Virginia Manley, Director of Counseling, its success stories keep coming.
We always have a challenge communicating to the public what a wide range of educational backgrounds and employment levels we target,” Manley explains. She offers the following trio of examples attesting to the agency’s track record.
A 48 year old woman who worked as a hairdresser/beautician all her life could no longer work on her feet and wanted a career with steady income and benefits. She took all WAW’s computer classes and landed a job with a large civil engineering form doing technical computer work in support of a reconstruction project in Iraq. She has gotten steady raises and valuable experience working in a high tech environment.”
A woman in her 50’s with a Master’s degree and many years experience in non-profit fundraising came to WAW for help when she realized she had come second or third for 10 jobs during an 8-month search. Her funds were running very low so she qualified for one of our grant-funded programs. Her counselor went over typical interview questions and helped her develop an approach that included more listening and responsive problem solving. With 6 weeks she obtained the job of her dreams earning $80,000 per year.”
A young single mother had never worked when she enrolled in WAW’s Career Planning Class. Identifying strong interest in working in a creative environment and developing PR skills, she made plans with her counselor to get a temp job as a receptionist in an environment (a Hollywood photo print lab) where she could meet prospective employers in the entertainment industry. The strategy worked! Within 3 months she obtained a job in the music industry and has worked her way up to become an advertising and marketing coordinator.”
Of the clients who utilize WAW’s drop-in services, Manley cites that 69 percent find jobs and 12 percent enroll in school. “For our clients receiving intensive services in grant funded programs, 85 percent find jobs, 10 percent go to school and many both work and study.” She goes on to explain that the agency’s free services include thousands of job listings at all levels and throughout Los Angeles, job search support groups, and a career planning library. No appointment is needed and services are available in both English and Spanish.
Meetings with career counselors are available by advance appointment and may cover career choice, career change, resume/interview preparation, and salary negotiation depending on client needs. Occupational testing is available, too.” She states that fees are charged except for individuals accepted into grant funded programs designed for low-income single parents, displaced homemakers and mature workers aged 40+.
Program fees, however, account for only 7 percent of WAW’s operating budget. Corporate underwriting delivers 49 percent; the remainder comes from fundraising events, government funds, individual giving, and gains on investments.
Ageism, of course, is a prevalent issue in today’s hiring market. “’Overqualified’,” Manley points out, “is a term that can be used to gloss over an employer’s real reason for not hiring an applicant of any age. Sometimes, however, over-qualification is a legitimate concern if applicants apply for jobs far below their skill level because they lack confidence or think they can be hired faster in simpler jobs. Actually, though, when applicants apply at a level that really matches their skill level they get hired faster. We counsel workers over 50 to focus on small to medium companies where their breadth of experience can be utilized and where the entrepreneurial business owner is likely to be in their age group. Some industries see maturity as an asset. These include medical service delivery, social services and companies whose product or service is targeted to a mature age group.”
Keeping pace with employer needs also demands staying in the fast lane when it comes to technology.
Certainly no one appreciates that dichotomy more than WAW’s Executive Director Nena Davis. Davis, who was born and raised in Spain and educated in England, brings a diverse palette of talent to the table. “I originally started with my own design and manufacturing company on a Navajo reservation. We made protective clothing such as the NASA astronauts’ in-flight suits as well as anti-nuclear contamination suits for Three Mile Island. It started small but got huge because computers came along in the middle of all of this and that totally transformed our industry.”
From there, Davis joined a technology research group at the University of New Mexico which was developing computer chips for companies like Motorola and Intel. “Albuquerque,” she says, “is somewhat of a mini Silicon Valley”. Just prior to her appointment to WAW, she worked as a foundation relations manager and government funds developer for the Puente Learning Center, an educational institution for adults and children and run by Sister Jenny Lechtenberg. “I always credit Sister Jenny for teaching me what I know regarding non-profits. I decided I wanted to make a difference by helping women entrepreneurs do start-ups, teach them how to present themselves to banks and develop strategic business plans.” WAW represented the perfect match for facilitating the dreams of LA County job-seekers.
We’re in the middle of a huge technology upgrade,” Davis shares, “and just received a major grant from the Pasadena Foundation to revamp all of our public computers. Women at Work does such a tremendous service, is well respected and has such wonderful outcomes that updating our organizational systems will allow us to do even more. Technology is a supporting platform for everything that we do. It doesn’t overtake you and make you into a machine; it enhances what you know and your capabilities to do a job even better.”
Davis is especially proud of WAW’s mature workers program, funded in part by the S. Mark Taper Foundation. “Once we’ve walked them through financial literacy classes, sharpened their computer skills, and helped them get their lives in order, they become as much or more attractive than younger workers because they’re more stable, dedicated, focused and committed and provide a helpful and mature presence in the workplace. We also do a lot insofar as interpreting skills that mature workers might not even recognize they have such as being able to negotiate among many people’s demands, manage their time effectively, engage in multi-tasking, and exercise diplomacy skills for a fair outcome. Husbands, children and even parents have contributed more to this education than they realize!”
Women aren’t the only ones to benefit from WAW’s extensive network. “Up to 9 percent of our clients are men,” says Davis, “which translates to about 3 per day.” It’s a number that is also increasing. “I think it’s the fact we’ve been around a long time and have such a broad variety of career opportunities. We serve highly educated PhD clients as well as undereducated low-income women. We’ve found this wide spectrum helps us because those who are more highly educated keep us abreast of job seeking and job attainment possibilities we might not be as immersed in if we were only concentrating on those who hadn’t finished school at all. In addition, we’ve discovered in sessions such as financial literacy that mixing the two groups allows them to help and support each other.”
WAW further distinguishes itself by having a large pool of volunteers. “We have about 30-40 volunteers rotating weekly but always welcome more,” Davis says. “I think it’s because we’re warm and friendly that people want to jump in and be part of the solution.”
Resource Room Director LaTrice Dixon states that WAW is currently in need of receptionists, greeters, tour guides, researchers/archivists and computer savvy individuals. “We can also use bilingual volunteers who speak Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, or Armenian.
We ask for a 4-hour commitment a week only and encourage retirees, new job-seekers or those who are considering workforce re-entry to sign up.” Volunteer orientations are held on a regular basis. Applicants can contact for Dixon at (626) 796-6870, Ex. 17. WAW is open Monday through Thursday10 am to 4 pm, no Fridays or weekends. Evening hours are available Wednesdays until 7:30 p.m. Its website, of course, is open 24/7 and can be accessed at www.womenatwork1.org.
Davis closes our chat with her own favorite success story. “’Leslie’ is a 63-year-old professional African-American woman with a law degree who had chosen not to practice law. When she came to us, Leslie had been unemployed for over a year and was feeling depressed and demoralized. She had no income. Her high-level human resources position in a California state agency had been eliminated. She had enjoyed her work and wanted a similar job elsewhere.
Leslie’s career counselor helped her create a new resume and suggested opportunities for networking and professional development. She participated in the weekly job-seekers support group and used the Resource Room job listings and computers to conduct career research on the Internet for the “right” job. She took several temporary clerical and retail positions and did some community volunteer work. Her confidence in her professional and presentation skills was increasing and was beginning to pay off with some excellent interviews. One year after her first visit to us, Leslie was hired as the regional human resources manager for a large restaurant chain with 5,000 employees! She reported that this is the job of her dreams - one in which she could use her legal training and extensive experience in recruitment, management, and employee relations.”
Celebrating Leslie’s success,” Davis says, “makes the journey worthwhile for all of us.”
Such tenacity didn’t just fan the flames of controversy regarding equality into a spark that would ignite the women’s movement but forever redefined what constitutes the “right” person for the “right” job.
How far have we come? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, females accounted for 43 percent of the American workforce in 1970; 1 in 10 held college degrees. By the 21st century, the rate had risen to 60 percent, 3 in 10 were college graduates, and women accounted for more than half of all workers in the fields of financial management, education, health services, and leisure/hospitality industries.
In concert with these advances of the past three decades, however, the prospects for long-term employment have been impacted by technology, corporate downsizing and outsourcing to foreign countries. In addition, the American divorce rate has quadrupled since 1970, a scenario that has called for women to seek higher paying – or multiple - jobs in order to accommodate new roles as breadwinners or to re-enter a labor market in which their current skills are obsolete.
Fortunately, it’s not a journey they have to take alone.
In 1979, Women at Work (WAW) opened its doors in Pasadena, California as a non-profit resource, referral and counseling center for unemployed and underemployed individuals. Today, it serves approximately 3500 people annually and, according to Virginia Manley, Director of Counseling, its success stories keep coming.
We always have a challenge communicating to the public what a wide range of educational backgrounds and employment levels we target,” Manley explains. She offers the following trio of examples attesting to the agency’s track record.
A 48 year old woman who worked as a hairdresser/beautician all her life could no longer work on her feet and wanted a career with steady income and benefits. She took all WAW’s computer classes and landed a job with a large civil engineering form doing technical computer work in support of a reconstruction project in Iraq. She has gotten steady raises and valuable experience working in a high tech environment.”
A woman in her 50’s with a Master’s degree and many years experience in non-profit fundraising came to WAW for help when she realized she had come second or third for 10 jobs during an 8-month search. Her funds were running very low so she qualified for one of our grant-funded programs. Her counselor went over typical interview questions and helped her develop an approach that included more listening and responsive problem solving. With 6 weeks she obtained the job of her dreams earning $80,000 per year.”
A young single mother had never worked when she enrolled in WAW’s Career Planning Class. Identifying strong interest in working in a creative environment and developing PR skills, she made plans with her counselor to get a temp job as a receptionist in an environment (a Hollywood photo print lab) where she could meet prospective employers in the entertainment industry. The strategy worked! Within 3 months she obtained a job in the music industry and has worked her way up to become an advertising and marketing coordinator.”
Of the clients who utilize WAW’s drop-in services, Manley cites that 69 percent find jobs and 12 percent enroll in school. “For our clients receiving intensive services in grant funded programs, 85 percent find jobs, 10 percent go to school and many both work and study.” She goes on to explain that the agency’s free services include thousands of job listings at all levels and throughout Los Angeles, job search support groups, and a career planning library. No appointment is needed and services are available in both English and Spanish.
Meetings with career counselors are available by advance appointment and may cover career choice, career change, resume/interview preparation, and salary negotiation depending on client needs. Occupational testing is available, too.” She states that fees are charged except for individuals accepted into grant funded programs designed for low-income single parents, displaced homemakers and mature workers aged 40+.
Program fees, however, account for only 7 percent of WAW’s operating budget. Corporate underwriting delivers 49 percent; the remainder comes from fundraising events, government funds, individual giving, and gains on investments.
Ageism, of course, is a prevalent issue in today’s hiring market. “’Overqualified’,” Manley points out, “is a term that can be used to gloss over an employer’s real reason for not hiring an applicant of any age. Sometimes, however, over-qualification is a legitimate concern if applicants apply for jobs far below their skill level because they lack confidence or think they can be hired faster in simpler jobs. Actually, though, when applicants apply at a level that really matches their skill level they get hired faster. We counsel workers over 50 to focus on small to medium companies where their breadth of experience can be utilized and where the entrepreneurial business owner is likely to be in their age group. Some industries see maturity as an asset. These include medical service delivery, social services and companies whose product or service is targeted to a mature age group.”
Keeping pace with employer needs also demands staying in the fast lane when it comes to technology.
Certainly no one appreciates that dichotomy more than WAW’s Executive Director Nena Davis. Davis, who was born and raised in Spain and educated in England, brings a diverse palette of talent to the table. “I originally started with my own design and manufacturing company on a Navajo reservation. We made protective clothing such as the NASA astronauts’ in-flight suits as well as anti-nuclear contamination suits for Three Mile Island. It started small but got huge because computers came along in the middle of all of this and that totally transformed our industry.”
From there, Davis joined a technology research group at the University of New Mexico which was developing computer chips for companies like Motorola and Intel. “Albuquerque,” she says, “is somewhat of a mini Silicon Valley”. Just prior to her appointment to WAW, she worked as a foundation relations manager and government funds developer for the Puente Learning Center, an educational institution for adults and children and run by Sister Jenny Lechtenberg. “I always credit Sister Jenny for teaching me what I know regarding non-profits. I decided I wanted to make a difference by helping women entrepreneurs do start-ups, teach them how to present themselves to banks and develop strategic business plans.” WAW represented the perfect match for facilitating the dreams of LA County job-seekers.
We’re in the middle of a huge technology upgrade,” Davis shares, “and just received a major grant from the Pasadena Foundation to revamp all of our public computers. Women at Work does such a tremendous service, is well respected and has such wonderful outcomes that updating our organizational systems will allow us to do even more. Technology is a supporting platform for everything that we do. It doesn’t overtake you and make you into a machine; it enhances what you know and your capabilities to do a job even better.”
Davis is especially proud of WAW’s mature workers program, funded in part by the S. Mark Taper Foundation. “Once we’ve walked them through financial literacy classes, sharpened their computer skills, and helped them get their lives in order, they become as much or more attractive than younger workers because they’re more stable, dedicated, focused and committed and provide a helpful and mature presence in the workplace. We also do a lot insofar as interpreting skills that mature workers might not even recognize they have such as being able to negotiate among many people’s demands, manage their time effectively, engage in multi-tasking, and exercise diplomacy skills for a fair outcome. Husbands, children and even parents have contributed more to this education than they realize!”
Women aren’t the only ones to benefit from WAW’s extensive network. “Up to 9 percent of our clients are men,” says Davis, “which translates to about 3 per day.” It’s a number that is also increasing. “I think it’s the fact we’ve been around a long time and have such a broad variety of career opportunities. We serve highly educated PhD clients as well as undereducated low-income women. We’ve found this wide spectrum helps us because those who are more highly educated keep us abreast of job seeking and job attainment possibilities we might not be as immersed in if we were only concentrating on those who hadn’t finished school at all. In addition, we’ve discovered in sessions such as financial literacy that mixing the two groups allows them to help and support each other.”
WAW further distinguishes itself by having a large pool of volunteers. “We have about 30-40 volunteers rotating weekly but always welcome more,” Davis says. “I think it’s because we’re warm and friendly that people want to jump in and be part of the solution.”
Resource Room Director LaTrice Dixon states that WAW is currently in need of receptionists, greeters, tour guides, researchers/archivists and computer savvy individuals. “We can also use bilingual volunteers who speak Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, or Armenian.
We ask for a 4-hour commitment a week only and encourage retirees, new job-seekers or those who are considering workforce re-entry to sign up.” Volunteer orientations are held on a regular basis. Applicants can contact for Dixon at (626) 796-6870, Ex. 17. WAW is open Monday through Thursday10 am to 4 pm, no Fridays or weekends. Evening hours are available Wednesdays until 7:30 p.m. Its website, of course, is open 24/7 and can be accessed at www.womenatwork1.org.
Davis closes our chat with her own favorite success story. “’Leslie’ is a 63-year-old professional African-American woman with a law degree who had chosen not to practice law. When she came to us, Leslie had been unemployed for over a year and was feeling depressed and demoralized. She had no income. Her high-level human resources position in a California state agency had been eliminated. She had enjoyed her work and wanted a similar job elsewhere.
Leslie’s career counselor helped her create a new resume and suggested opportunities for networking and professional development. She participated in the weekly job-seekers support group and used the Resource Room job listings and computers to conduct career research on the Internet for the “right” job. She took several temporary clerical and retail positions and did some community volunteer work. Her confidence in her professional and presentation skills was increasing and was beginning to pay off with some excellent interviews. One year after her first visit to us, Leslie was hired as the regional human resources manager for a large restaurant chain with 5,000 employees! She reported that this is the job of her dreams - one in which she could use her legal training and extensive experience in recruitment, management, and employee relations.”
Celebrating Leslie’s success,” Davis says, “makes the journey worthwhile for all of us.”
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