Full Citation
Title: Digitalization, Automation, and Older Black Women: Ensuring Equity in the Future of Work
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2019
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Abstract: Older Black women have always worked outside the home despite limited occupational opportunities. In 1940 more than three-fourths of Black women worked as either private household workers or farm laborers. Since then, Black women have increased their educational attainment and moved in large numbers into clerical and professional occupations. Despite these advances, Black women aged 40 and older remain concentrated in a small number of occupations-almost half of older Black women work in just 20 occupations out of more than 400. Many of the occupations that older Black women work in are disproportionately low wage occupations. Automation and other technologies threaten many of the jobs older Black women work in including low wage jobs, middle-skill jobs that pay well but do not require a bachelor's degree and professional jobs that require a bachelor's degree or more. The risks of automation threatens to increase economic inequality-either through the growth of low-wage occupations where older Black women are disproportionately employed, or by increasing the risk of automation or digital skills substituting for workers in middle-skilled and professional occupations. Older Black workers are trying to keep up with the digital skills, technological, and educational requirements necessary for the future of work but these efforts are resulting in increased student loan debt-especially for older Black women-but not necessarily better jobs or earnings. 2 Acknowledgements:
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Authors: Childers, Chandra
Publisher: Institute for Women's Policy Research
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Gender, Other, Race and Ethnicity
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