Once these laws were in place, women entered pro-
fessional schools in vast numbers, and opportunities
began to open in typically male professions.
Between 1970 and 1985, the proportion of female
physicians almost doubled, and between 1983 and
1984 half of all applications to medical schools were
from women. Women earned one-third of all U.S.
law degrees being granted by the mid-1980’s, and
their status in the legal profession improved. For-
mer Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s
experience is typical of the obstacles professional
women faced. When she graduated from Stanford
Law School in the top 10 percent of her class in 1952,
she received only one job offer—for the position of
legal secretary for a San Francisco law firm. On July
7, 1981, Reagan, who had pledged in his presidential
campaign to appoint the first woman to the Su-
preme Court, appointed O’Connor associate justice
to that prestigious body. She served in the Supreme
Court from 1981 until her retirement in 2006.
The formerly male-dominated field in which
women found the greatest opportunities during the
1980’s was academia. Although women tended to
teach in less prestigious institutions than men, to
teach more courses, to have less access to research
resources, and to be concentrated in the lower-status
disciplines of the humanities, education, and social
work, they nevertheless grew to occupy a quarter of
the full-time college and university faculty member-
ship.
Until the 1980’s, few women were able to pursue
careers in science. If a woman did manage to acquire
the necessary education, subtle barriers excluded
her from scientific networks and encouraged her
to remain in a marginal position, with little or no
support from colleagues. Because women were dis-
couraged from studying mathematics and because
various specialties were still considered “male,”
women were underrepresented in engineering, phys-
ics, chemistry, mathematics, and the earth sciences.
In the traditionally female profession of nursing,
many nurses concerned themselves with providing
psychosocial services to patients, while others spe-
cialized in technical services, such as radiology. New
knowledge and technologies in the 1980’s demanded
that almost all nurses acquire sophisticated tech-
nological expertise for their practices. Nurses also
sought more responsibilities as nurse practitioners,
midwives, and anesthetists. Several problems were
common to nursing, in addition to restricted oppor-The Eighties in America Women in the workforce 1055
Women in the WorkforceDuring the 1980’s, the number of women workers increased, and each year women accounted for a
larger percentage of the total workforce, rising from 41.8 percent in 1980 to 44.9 percent in 1989, ac-
cording to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.YearCivilian Labor Force
(in thousands)Female Employees
(in thousands) % of TotalMale Employees
(in thousands) % of Total
1980 78,010 32,593 41.8 45,417 58.2
1981 80,273 33,910 42.2 46,363 57.7
1982 82,014 34,870 42.6 47,144 57.4
1983 83,615 35,712 42.7 47,903 57.2
1984 86,001 37,234 43.3 48,767 56.7
1985 88,426 38,779 43.9 49,647 56.1
1986 90,500 39,767 44.0 50,733 56.0
1987 92,965 41,105 44.2 51,860 55.8
1988 94,870 42,254 44.6 52,616 55.4
1989 97,318 43,650 44.9 53,668 55.1Source:Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.