A Brief History of the US Workforce and the Origins of Underrepresentation: Part I
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As I contemplated the history of labor and employment in the US, one crucial question that came to mind was: How has the workforce changed over time, and what does this tell us about how we reached a position of underrepresentation? I think this focus is particularly pertinent in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, celebrated yesterday.
We researched the topic in some depth as a team, because I firmly believe that understanding the past will equip us to become better DEI practitioners and diversity recruiters. It will help us to raise the bar for diversity and inclusion in our organizations.
Today’s newsletter will therefore have a slightly different feel. In this article, I will summarize the story of the workforce in the US, as it developed over key periods in our nation’s history, before unpacking it next week to give some important insights into how underrepresentation came about.
Colonial America and its Legacy of Slavery (1607–1783)
We start, of course, with the colonial era. Its legacy of slavery is now firmly rooted in the public consciousness, but I still consider it essential to reiterate just how central slavery was to the history of our country.
The transatlantic slave trade brought millions of enslaved Africans to the Americas during the colonial period. In the US, the proportion of Black Americans grew from zero, at the establishment of Jamestown in 1607, to around 20% of the population by the time of independence. The first US Census in 1790 counted nearly 700,000 Black enslaved individuals.
Before moving on, we should not forget “the other slavery” – the lesser-known history of native American enslavement, both before and during the colonial era. While the transatlantic slave trade eventually grew much larger, significant numbers of Native Americans were forced into slavery throughout this period.
The Antebellum Period and the Civil War (1812–1865)
The number of Black slaves continued to increase at an alarming rate, reaching about four million by the time slavery was abolished in 1865. Tens of thousands of Native Americans also remained in bondage until the time of abolition. Centuries of slavery and other forms of oppression have profoundly shaped the identity of these communities in American society, and this legacy is still felt today.
On a more positive note, growing numbers of Asian and Hispanic immigrants arrived in the US during the 19th century, although they still accounted for a very low proportion of the overall population. Meanwhile, as the Reconstruction Era unfolded following the Civil War, a new phase of rapid modernization began that was to transform work in the US within just a few short decades.
The Second Industrial Revolution (1870–1914)
The Second Industrial Revolution, or ‘gilded age’ of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, saw new technological advancements, increasing urbanization, and the growth of national (and international) corporations that all transformed the very nature of work.
More and more people moved from rural areas to take up new jobs in the cities, and white-collar and retail occupations became common for the first time. Various statistics can help us appreciate the extent of these changes. In 1850, agriculture employed 60% of the workforce. In 1900, this had dropped to 50%, and by 1920, it had halved to 25%. In contrast, manufacturing represented 10% of US employment in 1850 but had grown to around 25% by 1920.
Importantly, the new opportunities created by industrialization were not equally accessible to all. For instance, while more women were entering the workforce, the change was gradual. Women accounted for just 14% of the US labor force in 1870 and 20% in 1910. Social attitudes and expectations generally limited their choices to certain occupations (such as clerical work). Working women were mostly young and single, and they usually left work if they got married.
At the same time, prevailing attitudes toward African Americans strongly reflected the legacy of slavery. Social conventions were “intended to prepare Black people for subordinate positions at work and in society,” as explained in a detailed historical perspective authored by two academics.
This quote mainly refers to the exclusion of African Americans from the education system (along with women), as I explained in my 2023 Labor Day newsletter. But on top of that, discrimination was common even in labor unions, further preventing women, African Americans, and immigrants (who were beginning to arrive in larger numbers) from entering higher-paid jobs.
Two World Wars Reshape the Workforce (1914–1945)
World War I transformed the workforce. The war effort created an economic boom that led employers to rely on “non-traditional” sources of labor, including women and African Americans. At the time, the majority of African Americans still lived in the South and around 75% of them were sharecroppers (which has been called “slavery by another name”). Between 1916 and 1918, over 400,000 of them moved to the North to take up new opportunities in varied industries. However, many war-related jobs were short-lived and layoffs were common by 1919.
As an aside, I think it is also worth mentioning that many employee benefits we take for granted today, such as paid leave and a limit to working hours, were developed in the early 20th century. Retirement and unemployment payments also soon followed (through the Social Security Act of 1935).
Then, following the devastating and long-lived impact of the Great Depression in the 1930s, World War II “put Americans back to work,” to use the words of one author. It also broke the stereotype of “traditionally female” jobs, with five million women entering the workforce across many industries as the demand for labor surged. Again, large numbers of them lost their jobs after the war ended, but they were soon to return.
The Modern United States (1945–Present Day)
Fueled by a favorable economy and the growing women’s movement, the postwar period saw “the greatest proportional increase in female labor force participation in the 20th century.” Immigration also increased during this time (especially for Hispanics), followed by a rapid upturn in arrivals from Asia and third-world countries starting in the 1970s.
These demographic shifts reflected changing immigration policies during the postwar years, and we have already seen how this essentially catalyzed the formation of the modern DEI movement.
Afterword: The History of Women and Work in the US
If we dig deeper into the history of working women, we find some very revealing trends. Using US Census data back to 1880, an analysis by Dartmouth College showed that female labor force participation was historically much higher for non-White (i.e., Black and immigrant) women than for White women. For unmarried women, the participation rate for Whites remained below that of non-Whites until 1940. For married women, this was the case until 1990.
As a result, the study emphasized that many non-White women were present in the workforce long before the women’s movement (which mainly focused on White women), partly due to the lower wages paid to non-White men. Put simply, more non-White women had to work out of economic necessity, yet they were also concentrated in low-paying jobs.
There may be a second important reason that is easily overlooked. Historically, many African American women were enslaved, meaning that expectations about women’s work may have been passed down to later generations in what has been described as a “double legacy” of slavery.
These factors both highlight the importance of considering intersectionality in underrepresentation and diversity recruitment. They are not the only examples we have encountered, but they are very good ones.
Final Thoughts on Part I
There is so much more that could be written, but I hope this introduction will help us better understand some of the historical reasons for workplace underrepresentation as I unpack those themes further next time. I expect that many relevant factors will already be emerging, but we will connect those dots further in my next article, and ask what we can learn to help increase diversity and retention without harm.
JOIN US IN THE COMMENTS: Did this brief historical overview speak to your experience as a diversity recruiter? What information will change how you approach your work in the future? As always, we greatly value community feedback, so please share your thoughts with us below.
