Janet Yellen: Increasing Women's Participation In Workplace Would Improve Country's Economy

PROVIDENCE, RI — Janet Yellen, the chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, said in a speech Friday that women still face obstacles in the workforce and that improvements to policies that benefit not only women, but all workers, would contribute to the nation's prosperity.

Yellen made the remarks at her alma mater, Brown University, during the "125 Years of Women at Brown Conference."

In her speech, Yellen spoke at length about the progress women have made in the workforce over the past century or so, and how this progress was aided by policies being implemented in society at the time and changes in attitudes towards working women.

"Workplace protections were enhanced through the passage of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act in 1978 and the recognition of sexual harassment in the workplace," Yellen said. "Access to birth control increased, which allowed married couples greater control over the size of their families and young women the ability to delay marriage and to plan children around their educational and work choices. And in 1974, women gained, for the first time, the right to apply for credit in their own name without a male co-signer."

By the early 1990s, the labor participation rate of prime working-age women reached just over 74 percent, compared to 93 percent for prime working-age men, she said. The share of women going into clerical fields also declined and more women were doctors, lawyers and managers, also closing the earnings gap between men and women.

"Looking back, the story of the past 125 years is one of slow but steady progress toward women's full participation in the economy and the fulfillment of their career goals," Yellen said. "Unfortunately, the success of women has often been seen as coming at the expense of men."

Yellen pointed to anecdotes and policies implemented in the late 19th and 20th centuries to protect men from women in the workforce and attitudes, not only among men but women, who felt that a woman's place was in the home and men should be paid a family wage to support an entire household.

"Despite the fears of some that women entering into the workforce would crowd out men, the evidence shows that the rise in women's participation has contributed to widespread improvements in the safety and productivity of our workplaces, to the health of families, and to the macroeconomic success that our country has enjoyed over the past 125 years," Yellen said.

Yellen's speech was called, "So We All Can Succeed: 125 Years of Women's Participation in the Economy." The title for the speech, "So We Can All Succeed," was inspired by the Nobel Peace Prize winner and women's rights activist Malala Yousafzai, Yellen said.

Speaking about present times, Yellen said that the labor participation rate for prime working-age women currently stands at 75 percent compared to the participation rate of men, which stands at over 88 percent. Yellen compared this rate to other advanced economies, pointing to an analysis that showed that as of 2010, the United States fell to 17th place out of 22 advanced economies with respect to female labor force participation.

Citing the same analysis, Yellen noted how policies explained the patterns across countries.

"A number of studies have examined the role of various public policies in explaining patterns in female labor force participation across countries. These studies find that policy differences--in particular, the expansion of paid leave following childbirth, steps to improve the availability and affordability of childcare, and increased availability of part-time work--go a long way toward explaining the divergence between advanced economies," she said. "Evidence suggests that if the United States had policies in place such as those employed in many European countries, female labor force participation could be as high as 82 percent."

While the gap in earnings between men and women has narrowed, Yellen cited a 2013 study that said working full time women still earned 17 percent less than men. She said gender-related impediments, including outright discrimination, attitudes that reduce women's success in the workplace, and an absence of mentors could not be ruled out as holding women back.

Yellen pointed to a 2012 study that showed increasing female participation in the workforce would increase the GDP by five percent and said that as she described throughout her speech, this participation would not only contribute to the well-being of women but to the welfare and prosperity of the country.

Yellen made the speech personal, speaking not only of her own experiences but that of a relative of hers, Betty Stafford, who earned bachelor's and master's degrees at Brown, who went on to teach at two universities in Texas in the 1920s before getting her Ph.D. and then teaching at the University of Wisconsin. She married a fellow student and while he progressed from instructor to professor, she remained an ad-hoc instructor and she only gained the position of assistant professor after the two had divorced. She gave up that position in 1954 after marrying another fellow professor.

"Although Betty's accomplishments were considerable, against the backdrop of increasing opportunity for women over her lifetime I believe that Betty Stafford Hirschfelder was denied opportunities and greater success simply because she was a woman," Yellen said.

• Click here to read the full text of Yellen's speech.

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