The war on the public sector is very personal. As a public sector worker — I teach at a state university — I am a state employee and a member of a teachers union. Even a little bit of the dismissive, contemptuous and ignorant rhetoric that I hear about public sector workers goes a long way with me. I mean, I love my job; I work hard and it feels good. But a co-worker and I laugh that if our private sector professional friends knew how little we make they would be sooo uncomfortable. But the point is I am grateful to have job security, good health insurance, employee rights like due process and collective bargaining, and I feel good working in an institution where all the other people I work with have the same thing.
What does this have to do with women? The Institute for Women’s Policy Research just published a fact sheet on men and women in the public sector. Women make up 43 percent of federal workers; 52 percent of state workers; and 61 percent of local workers. The war against the public sector is a war against women workers. But it is also a war against workers of color, specifically African American workers. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research (unpublished analysis of Current Population Survey 2010), while 10.7 percent of all workers are African American, 14.3 percent of public sector workers are.
In the next week or so, I’l post a few questions and answers about the public sector puzzles, like why is it a “war”?… what about “Waiting for Superman”?… what is collective bargaining anyway?… why don’t you care about the deficit?…and we’ll see what else comes up. Another question I will write about is why should women in particular or workers in general care about the assault on public sector workers’ rights if they are in the private sector?
Comments
Heather Hewett — March 1, 2011
Virginia, I'm so glad you are raising these issues. They are crucial. I'm also a state university professor -- and a mother of a child in public school -- feeling a bit like the institutions we've spent so many years building are crumbling around us. And the impact of all this on women professors and teachers, both full and part-time, cannot be overstated.
wim — March 1, 2011
wimminz be stoopud.
Shelley — March 6, 2011
I hope you'll encourage people to read Diane Ravitch.
It would be so easy if all education problems could be solved by "getting rid of bad teachers." Unfortunately the solution is so much harder that no one wants to look at it: "getting rid of poverty for children."
NICE WORK: Waiting for Superwoman | Girl with Pen — March 28, 2011
[...] are disproportionately women. As part of the ongoing “war on the public sector” that I wrote about last month, the anti-union rhetoric in general seems all mixed up with anti-woman sentiments. Women make up a [...]