You’ve heard of blue collar jobs and white collar jobs. A lesser-known concept in the world of labor economics is “pink collar jobs.” They’re the jobs that have traditionally and predominantly been held by women.
The term likely came about in the aftermath of World War II. As many as 5 million women entered the workforce between 1940 and 1945 to fill the roles left behind by men. When men came back from the war, women were largely relegated to teaching, service, and clerical roles. The term really took hold in the late 1970s when Louise Kapp Howe, an author who focused on social issues, published her book Pink Collar Workers, which explored the lives of nurses, secretaries, and teachers — industries dominated by women at the time.
There have been some momentous shifts — and other not-so-progressive shifts — in pink collar jobs since World War II. For example, based on U.S. Census data, the top six jobs with the highest percentages of women (90% or more) in 1940 included nurses, midwives, telephone operators, secretaries/stenographers, domestic service workers, and boarding housekeepers.
As you can imagine, the jobs in those top six spots today have changed dramatically. They’re much more focused on health and child care. Based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, they include pre-k and kindergarten teachers, dental hygienists, speech-language pathologists, dental assistants, childcare workers, and medical records technicians.
What’s particularly interesting is looking at which jobs have seen the biggest increases and decreases in the percentage of women between 1940 and 2019.
For example, jobs that have become “less” pink collar in the eight decades since World War II include tobacco manufacturers, textile manufacturers, janitors, musicians, and nurses. One of the most popular examples of fading pink collar norms lies in the nursing industry.
If you were to travel back in time to 1940, you would see that 98% of nurses were female (based on U.S. Census data). Today, that percentage has fallen to 89%. That 11-point drop might not seem like a big deal, but it is. Here’s why. Though women still dominate this traditionally pink collar field, more men continue to enter.
Experts attribute this trend to a number of factors. For one thing, there’s an incredible demand for health professionals, and there simply aren’t enough women to fill the demand. On the other hand, nursing schools have begun to rise above the gender stereotypes (that nursing has to be seen as a “woman’s job”), targeting men in their recruiting efforts and contributing to the de-stigmatization of the job.
Many jobs have also become “more” pink collar since 1940. One particularly strong example is the real estate industry. In 1940, 10% of women were real estate agents, according to the U.S. Census Data. Today, that percentage has ballooned to 59%.
There have also been significant increases in the percentage of women in highly technical fields, like law (3% in 1940 vs. 33% in 2019) and medicine (5% in 1940 vs. 41% in 2019), and service fields, like housekeeping (78% in 1940 vs. 89% in 2019) and restaurant hospitality (56% in 1940 vs. 71% in 2019).
Meanwhile, the data show that there have been only slight shifts between 1940 and 2019 in the percentage of women working as teachers and secretaries — and in private households.
It’s interesting to study these so-called pink collar jobs over time because the lines between pink collar and non-pink collar are rapidly blurring. Take a look at these Bureau of Labor Statistics projections for the fastest growing and declining industries in the U.S. through 2028.
The top four fastest growing industries (home healthcare services, outpatient care centers, individual and family services, and offices of health practitioners) are dominated by women. Meanwhile three of the four most rapidly declining industries (tobacco manufacturing, federal electric utilities, and communications equipment assembly) are dominated by men.
It only makes sense that, as so-called blue collar jobs decline due to factors like globalization, technology, and the shrinking of unions, more men will take on pink collar jobs, and more women will work in roles that society has traditionally seen as male.
As gender stereotypes and bias in the workplace dissipate, it’s important for companies to attract women by using gender-neutral language in their recruiting efforts. They should also promote pay transparency and offer work flexibility for both male and female workers.
Check out the full analysis of trends in pink collar jobs and accompanying data visualizations.
Author: Meredith Wood
Bio: Meredith Wood is a vice president at Fundera. She is frequently sought out for her expertise in small business lending and frequently contributes to SBA, SCORE, Yahoo, Amex OPEN Forum, Fox Business, American Banker, Small Business Trends, MyCorporation, Small Biz Daily, and StartupNation.