Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-27-1905
Abstract
Nonprofit organizations have a history in the United States of fostering pluralism, diversity and freedom. They play vital roles as advocates and in identifying and addressing unmet human needs in their communities. Most of the recent major social and political movements such as AIDS, civil rights, environmental protection, etc., that have animated American life have all operated through private, nonprofit organizations. Across the United States there are approximately 11 million nonprofit employees, 70 percent of whom are female, who act as the guardians of social justice and community values, and as champions of high quality, equitable, diverse and affordable service delivery. The workers in nonprofit organizations unfailingly bring creativity, passion, and hard work to communities all across the nation every day. Executive leadership in the nonprofit sector is professional, ambitious, entrepreneurial and in the most influential organizations, disproportionately male. At its face this gender segmentation is no different from the profit and government sectors, where discrimination has always stood as a challenge to women. Every prestigious or high paying profession in the United States is dominated by men, numerically and in terms of who yields power (Valian, 1999). However, rather than being defined by power, profit or statute, the nonprofit sector is defined in large part by its provision of service to the most vulnerable in our society. Nonprofit organizations have emerged throughout history as the anti-corporation, the sector motivated by mission not greed. It is startling that discrimination based on sex exists in a sector that places the value of humans over profit, but clearly gender inequity and discrimination in the workplace is not bound by sector. The nonprofit sector is described as gendered female and the symbols, images, values and typical activities of the sector are “‘female and ‘soft’—providing service, being concerned with morality and ethics, producing beauty, and helping people” (Odednedal & O’Neill, 1994, p. 14). Even in the caring sector, and one that is gendered female, it appears that gender continues to be an asset for men but remains a liability for women. Nonprofit organizations in the United States number approximately 1.2 million, according to the latest numbers compiled by The Independent Sector, a nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition of national organizations, and in 1997 they generated $664.8 billion dollars in revenue (Independent Sector, 2001). Nonprofit organizations represent much that is fine and good about our communities. Half of all hospitals; half of all colleges and universities; almost all symphony orchestras & museums; eighty percent of all social service organizations; most civic organizations and most religious organizations are nonprofit corporations. These organizations employed almost 11 million paid workers in 1998, or over 7 percent of the workforce in the United States. The nonprofit sector is a major economic, social and political force in this country and one that employees approximately 7.7 million women, roughly twelve percent of all working women in this country. Paid employment in the nonprofit sector is three times that of agriculture, twice that in wholesale trade and nearly 50 percent greater than that in construction and finance, insurance, and real estate (Salamon, 2003). This essay examines why women, in such large numbers choose careers in the nonprofit sector. It is evident from the statistics that women face career and salary discrimination no matter where they work, so why flock to this sector—one that has been traditionally underpaid and undervalued by a profit driven society? Women are limited in their career choices, by employers and society, to a narrower range of options than men (Reskin & Padavic, 1994), but does that alone explain the gendered nature of the nonprofit sector?
Keywords
nonprofit organizations--research
Rights
© The Author(s). Kelvin Smith Library provides access for non-commercial, personal, or research use only. All other use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly reproductions, redistribution, publication or transmission, whether by electronic means or otherwise, without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.
Department/Center
Design & Innovation
Recommended Citation
Buren, Jane Van, "The Nonprofit Sector: Where Women Go To Work" (1905). Student Scholarship. 468.
https://commons.case.edu/studentworks/468