The skinny pink paycheck syndrome

Consider New York City's fire service. The 40 women who joined the department after a successful 1982 lawsuit are starting to retire, which means that within a few years, women will make up less than 0.02% of the 11,500-member firefighting force, according to Maureen McFadden, a trustee of the nonprofit organization Women in the Fire Service. "Lawsuits are picking up coast to coast," she said. "Things are going wildly backward in most parts of the country."

It's possible to transform an all-male work culture, but it takes time, determination and resources. Far too often, employers are unwilling to put in the effort until they are sued and stuck with court oversight.

In spring 2003, the National Center for Women and Policing reported that consent decrees requiring court scrutiny increase the number of women employed in sworn law enforcement jobs. But the minute the decrees expire, too often so do the departments' commitment to hiring, training, promoting and retaining women.

Women's numbers drop, sometimes precipitously. According to the Times article, San Diego's firefighting department underwent 10 years of court oversight before women made up 8% of the department, making it one of the most female-heavy firefighting forces in the country.

Do women really want to be firefighters and cops? Yes. Social scientists have repeatedly shown that women will jump into a better-paying field, no matter how dirty or onerous the work, if they think they'll be let in. Just try supporting a child or two or three, and maybe a disabled husband, on a waitress' or a bank clerk's wages: It can't be done.

"Men's work" still pays significantly more than comparable "women's work." Consider the difference between the median weekly earnings of a secretary ($552) and a firefighter ($933), a social worker ($698) and a police officer ($844). That's the difference between scraping by and supporting a family.

Policing and firefighting are, unfortunately, not anomalies. In 2000, two-thirds of U.S. working women were still crowded into 21 of the Bureau of Labor Statistics 500 occupational categories. The top 10 included receptionist, secretary, cashier, sales worker, registered nurse, elementary schoolteacher and nursing aide. Women still make up only 2% to 20% of all engineers, police officers, firefighters, mechanics and construction equipment operators, chefs and head cooks, and more.

Translation: Women remain ghettoized in jobs with skinny pink paychecks. Employers get away with flagrant violations of the law because there's no public outcry -- indeed, almost no public scrutiny at all.

How can we turn this around? Mayors should be held accountable for the overwhelmingly male police and fire departments, governors for their state troopers, chief executives for bond traders, and so on. Instead of forcing women into costly and degrading litigation against their employers, let's shame their bosses into complying with the law. One tough investigative article exposing a boss who presides over an overwhelmingly male workforce can do far more good than can a private lawsuit.

So, hurray for San Diego's Company 22. But let's light a fire for every other woman who wants a decent job -- so that, 40 years from now, women in firefighting are no longer front-page news.