The history of women in the American workplace is the account of a long struggle for respect, gender equality, and economic progress. In the early nineteenth century, women organized in New England mill towns to improve working conditions. In the first few decades after World War II, women fought hard for gender equality in the airlines and other expanding industries. Today, women and men both struggle to secure well paying and satisfying work in a competitive and increasingly global economy. The challenges ahead are formidable, but past advances have also come in the face of daunting odds.
