Portland Observar Thursday. Juna 7,1979 Page 6
Poll finds secretaries bored, dissatisfied
T he N a tio n a l C om m ission on
W orking Women (N C W W ) recently
released results from the responses of
secretaries to the National Survey o f
W orking Women conducted during
F a ll 1978 in num erous n a tio n a l
women's magazines and labor union
publications.
Findings from 19,000 secretaries
indicate:
• Sixty per cent didike their lack
o f advancement on the jo b — a
feeling described as working in a
dead-end job by many secretaries;
• Fifty-five per cent said their job
doesn’ t pay enough, 7 7 % o f
separated and divorced secretaries
with dependent children and 65% o f
never married secretaries especially
agree;
• Fifty per cent have no time for
leisure. This is especially true for
59% o f m arried secretaries w ith
dependent children;
• Forty-eight per cent need more
help at home. Including 6 8 % o f
m a rrie d and 6 0 % o f divo rced
secretaries responding the same.
Other problems that 40% or more
o f the secretaries reported indicate:
• they have a burden o f jo b and
family;
• they can not afford to quit their
jobs, even though they might like to
quit;
• their job is boring;
• they have no chance to trrin for
a better job; and,
• they have no time to continue
their education;
• their jo b does not really use
their skills.
One-fourth o f all secretaries report
ed that sex discrim ination was a
p ro blem and th at th e ir health
benefits were not satisfactory.
W o rkin g conditions, the w o rk-
itself, treatment by boss, layoffs and
unemployment, the difficulty o f the
jo b , husbands opposed to working
and transportation were reported by
20% or less o f secretaries as problem
areas.
When commenting on the results
o f the survey, N C W W C h a ir,
E lizabeth Duncan K oontz stated:
“ These findings focus on the fact
that most women have two jobs, the
unpaid work goes on before, during
and after the paid work. Sometimes
these double responsibilities keep
wom en isolated and lackin g in
energy to solve their work related
problems.
“ W om en who are the p rim a ry
family earners simply can’t make ends
meet (on an office workers salary)
. . . 77% say so. U ntil some equity is
established w ith in jo b evaluation
systems and wages are adjusted ac
c o rd in g ly , to o m any A m e ric an
families are in economic jeopardy,”
Koontz continued.
Respondents were also asked
ab ou t th e ir jo b satisfactio n and
overall life satisfaction, as far as
money and what they are able to
have are concerned. In this survey, as
in all others which have been conduct
ed in the past, the m a jo r ity o f
women expressed satisfaction with
their jobs. Thirty-eight per cent o f
secretaries said they like their jobs
very much and 40% said they like
their jobs fairly well. Sixteen per cent
disliked their jobs somewhat and 5%
reported great dislike for their jobs.
Among secretaries there appears
to be a sharp v a ria tio n in jo b
satisfaction related to educational at
tainment. Most dissatisfied o f all are
secretaries
who
are
college
graduates. Presumably, these women
are over qualified for their positions
and feel underutilized in their jobs.
A bout one-third o f all secretaries
who are college graduates or above
dislike their jobs as compared with
about one-fifth o f the women who
had completed high school or one to
three years o f college.
Thirteen per cent o f the secretaries
said they were very satisfied with
their way o f life, 51 % said they were
s a tis fie d , 3 1% said they were
somewhat dissatisfied and 5% said
they were very dissatisfied. There is a
s trik in g association between jo b
satisfaction and satisfaction with
way o f life. Among those secretaries
who said they like their jo b le ry
much, only 24% reported either mild
or serious dissatisfaction with their
life; this proportion rose to 37% for
those who like their jo b somewhat,
53% for those who dislike their jo b
somewhat, and 63% for those who
dislike their iob verv much.
The survey was designed to iden
tify the problems, needs and concerns
o f American women. It was conduct
ed through G o o d H ousekeeping,
W o rk in g W om an, M S m agazine,
W o m a n 's D a y ,
Essence,
The
Women's Agenda, Personal Romance
and L a d y 's C irc le as w ell as
numerous national and local union
p u b lic a tio n s . N C W W
received
150,000 completed questionnaires.
O f these, 110,000 were coded and
tabulated including nearly 83,000
questionnaires from women who
were doing paid work at the time for
the survey and 28,000 women who
were working in their homes, doing
unpaid volunteer work or unem
ployed.
In addition to receiving the results
o f the survey, N C W W received
thousands o f unsolicited letters from
women about their jo b and jo b -
related problems. A woman from
New Jersey wrote: “ I have been
thinking about it (women’s work) for
a long time, but I honestly feel it’s
about time something is done and
done quickly. I for one have been put
down in more ways than I ’d like to
remember . . . I answered an ad
asking for a Gal Friday. What they
really wanted was a Gal Monday,
Tuesd ay, W ednesday, T h u rs d a y ,
ft
Friday, Saturday and Sunday, all for
$3.00 an hour.”
A C a lifo rn ia reader responded:
“ The American way o f living simply
does not provide any realistic way
for an unmarried woman to earn a
liveable wage and maintain a viable
family unit. The child care expense
along ptohibits women from fu r
thering educational/training goals. I
gave up my 10 and 11 year old
children to their father in order to go
back to school. There was no other
way. The U .S . policy on families and
children leaves much to be desired.”
The report o f the full Survey will
be released sometime soon and will
include inform ation on responses by
each occupation, union status, racial
b reakd o w n s, ed u c a tio n , m a rita l
status, fam ily income and individual
earnings.
more per week; 5% worked at full
time jobs but were employed for less
than 35 hours per week and 12%
worked part-time. Virtually all o f the
respondents had at least a high
school education. About one-third
had fo u r years o f a high school
education, about one-half had com
pleted one to three years o f college
and 15% were college graduates.
About 40% o f the secretaries were
m arried and liv in g w ith th e ir
husbands and one or more depen
dent children. A n additional 30%
were living with their husbands but
did not have any children in the
household. The remaining 30% were
about equally divided between those
who had never been married and
those who were widowed, divorced
Over 80% o f the secretaries who
responded to the q u estio n n aire
worked fu ll time for 35 hours or
The average earnings fo r the
secretaries surveyed were ab ou t
$8,500.
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PRESENTING
TOMORROW’S ELECTRIC
SUPPLY:
BRIDO**
Red tape is g
strangling your fu-
ture power supply.
J
Because it
™
takes from 6 to 10 years to
build anew power plant, the
region’s electric suppliers
were planning for today and
tom orrow ’s needs in the
late 1960’s and early 1970’s.
Thirteen units were
scheduled to meet dem and.
Today, only two units are
on schedule. Eleven units
have been delayed up to
nearly 6 years.
When you realize
during last w inter's peak
dem and we almost ran
short of electricity, these
We Need
Your Help
delays are frightening. The
question is: With tens of
thousands of new homes
each year, where will your
electricity come from to
morrow? Where will we
get enough electricity for
all the new homes and
businesses?
Another Day, Another
Million Dollars.
The cost of these
endless delays is staggering
Already, billions of dollars
have been added to con
st ruction costs.
Who will have to
pay these staggering
We’re search
ing now for new solutions
to guarantee you’ll have
Why Can’t We Get The
Power Somewhere Else? enough electricity in the fu
ture. But we need your help.
Im porting power
In addition to consci
is no solution. The cost of
entious attention to conser
buying electricity from
vât ion, let officia Is know your
California and Canada is
electric energy concerns.
several tim es the cost of
Participate in en
generating our own. Plus,
ergy decisions. Learn more
that supply is unreliable —
about electricity supply
extra power may not be
and dem and. After all, en
available when we need it.
ergy costs are m ounting
Conservation —
with every delay .. . and
though a vital part of keep you’re the one footing the
ing electricity dem and
down — sim ply ca n ’t make
up all the electricity w e’re
going to need.
increases? You will
The People at Pacific Power