UNFINISHED BUSINESS: WOMEN AT WORK IN 21st CENTURY AMERICA

Believe it or not, gender still plays a significant role in the American workplace, although developments in the law and society have changed its impact drastically over the past four decades.  The objective of this course is to consider where these changes have brought us at the end of the first decade of the 21^st century and to identify and discuss the issues facing women at work in the US in the coming years, from the point of view of speakers who know first-hand what they are talking about.

The first class, conducted by the instructor and Prof. Barbara Lee of RutgersUniversity, will provide a brief review of the cultural and legal background, including the impact on women of the equal employment opportunity laws of the latter part of the 20th  century.  The course will continue with a series of classes featuring guest speakers representing a wide range of work experiences – from education, health care, law and business to the arts and trades – who will discuss issues such as the wage gap between men and women, work-life balance for both women and men, occupational sex segregation, e.g., the preponderance of women in lower paid jobs such as office workers and elementary school teaching; the difficulties of women breaking into traditionally male fields such as engineering; gender and age discrimination and harassment in the workplace; and the impact of developments such as the Great Recession and the increasing numbers of women earning college and post-graduate degrees.

Guest speakers include Ferris Olin, a well-known advocate for women in the arts; Lisa Presser, Esq., of the law firm of Drinker, Biddle & Reath;  Dr. Ruth Goldston, a clinical psychologist in private practice; Ellen Ferreira, head of a manufacturing business, The Costume Gallery; Kristen Ward of the accounting firm of Amper, Politziner; and Prof. Patricia Roos of Rutgers whose recent work has been on women in science, engineering and math. 

No text will be required for the course, but handouts and on-line sources will be provided.  Recommended  reading for background and discussion include Gail Collins’ America’s Women, 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines; Eleanor Flexner’s Century of Struggle (enlarged edition, 1996), Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, and Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickled and Dimed.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR, M. ELAINE JACOBY, ESQ.:

M. Elaine Jacoby is now Of Counsel to the national law firm of Duane Morris LLP.  Before leaving the full-time practice of law, she concentrated her practice in the areas of employment law and civil litigation.  She has been a member of the adjunct faculty at Rutgers-Newark School of Law and teaches workshops on Preventing Harassment in the Workplace at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations.  Her book on EEO compliance was published in 1993 and is updated annually. She is a 1975 graduate of Rutgers-Newark School of Law, holds a master's degree from The Ohio State University and is a magna cum laude graduate of MountHolyokeCollege, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.