Women have been backsliding in gains
CHICAGO — When Courtney Winfrey graduated in 2009, she knew she might not get a dream job right away.
Still, she hoped for more than what became her best offer after applying and interviewing during a recession: an unrelated sales job without benefits. But she accepted and was determined to work her way up. The same for the next job, and the next.
Winfrey, who has since found a fulfilling job as a university recruiter, is one of many millennial women working their way through jobs after college graduation. A new report by the Population Reference Bureau found that many millennial women’s careers are stalled.
Unlike generations before them, millennial women are not experiencing an improvement in well-being, according to the report. They face persistent poverty, and although they are more likely to have college degrees, that isn’t translating to highpaying jobs. The report noted that the poverty rate rose 37 percent between Generation X and millennials, a statistic that surprised even researchers.
“When we started, frankly, we expected to see progress,” said Beth Jarosz, senior research associate with the bureau and co-author of the report. But entering adulthood during a serious and prolonged recession, she said, “clearly has had an effect on earnings and on poverty for a whole generation.” Although the report referenced national data, stats she pulled for the Tribune reflected similar trends in Chicago.
“We really are a microcosm of the world,” said Dorri McWhorter, YWCA Metropolitan Chicago’s chief executive officer. She said young women’s opportunities are not always translating to advancement.
Millennial women face unique challenges. Many graduated in a recessionweary job market. Often, Chicago women said, they accepted jobs with lower salaries than expected or were unable to find a job at all. Some moved back in with their parents or juggled multiple minimum-wage jobs. At the same time, they face high student debt.
Men, too, have dealt with effects of the recession and student debt after graduation. The reference bureau’s report does not compare women’s well-being to men’s, instead comparing millennial women only to women from earlier generations. But experts all noted that when millennial women enter the workforce, they encounter a stubborn wage gap and sexism.
“Women are so highly educated to do all these wonderful things, but nobody tells them what the tricks are in order to succeed at work,” said Andie Kramer, an attorney who mentors young women and co-author of “Breaking Through Bias: Communication Techniques for Women to Succeed at Work.”
When she graduated from law school five years ago, Bethany Whittles Harris, 32, like many of her peers, accepted a salary lower than what she might have received in a different economy.
“A lot of people felt like they didn’t have a great bargaining position,” she said.
Her experiences highlight the array of obstacles facing millennial women. Told as a girl she could do anything a boy could, she and friends were surprised to find persistent sexism at various workplaces. Harris and her colleagues have experienced everything from being pursued by bosses to being congratulated for their looks instead of their work.
“There’s still people behaving in these ways, there’s still this wage gap, and realizing that was a rude awakening,” said Harris, who now works at a firm where she hasn’t encountered any of these issues. “There’s still so much to navigate through as a woman professional that men just don’t have to.”
Sexism, too, affects her earning potential, she said. “If you really valued me as a lawyer, as an equal, as an intellectual, as an advocate of our clients, then you wouldn’t be subjecting me to this behavior.”