Green Jobs = Good for the Environment, Bad for Women?

Green jobs are the 21st century version of the New Deal to many supportive of Obama's economic stimulus plan. But have you realized that most of the green jobs - building infrastructure in particular - will likely be given to men?

This is a concern that was just brought to my attention by an elected official from the state of Kansas. At first I thought he was just overlooking the other opportunities beyond construction work that can be filled by females in the green sector, until I read this December 2008 Op-Ed by Linda Hirshman:

Mr. Obama compared his infrastructure plan to the Eisenhower-era construction of the Interstate System of highways. It brings back the Eisenhower era in a less appealing way as well: there are almost no women on this road to recovery.

Back before the feminist revolution brought women into the workplace in unprecedented numbers, this would have been more understandable. But today, women constitute about 46 percent of the labor force. And as the current downturn has worsened, their traditionally lower unemployment rate has actually risen just as fast as men’s. A just economic stimulus plan must include jobs in fields like social work and teaching, where large numbers of women work.

The bulk of the stimulus program will provide jobs for men, because building projects generate jobs in construction, where women make up only 9 percent of the work force.

It turns out that green jobs are almost entirely male as well, especially in the alternative energy area. A broad study by the United States Conference of Mayors found that half the projected new jobs in any green area are in engineering, a field that is only 12 percent female, or in the heavily male professions of law and consulting; the rest are in such traditional male areas as manufacturing, agriculture and forestry. And like companies that build roads, alternative energy firms also employ construction workers and engineers.

While I think a green economy will reward Mother Nature, it is also clear that it rewards more men than women as well. With the fiscal crisis hitting women the hardest, how will women survive? Particularly, with a stimulus plan built to assist men in finding jobs, but leaving women in the dust.