Native Women and Labor

Instead of doing a standard search for this assignment, I decided to focus on the Alaska Native population to get it a little more focused.

The first thing I noticed while searching is the noticeable absence of information about Native women. When looking at the Alaska Native labor force statistics, men are the ones pointed out as switching between subsistence and other labor during the year in rural Alaska. Not a word is mentioned on how women “made it by” leaving us to make assumptions.

Overall, during this time period there were significant differences in the labor statistics of the white population and the Alaska Native population.

From Alaskool.org,

Employment increased by over 77,000 jobs in Alaska during the 1970s. About 52,000 of these jobs were in urban Alaska. Employment in rural Alaska (including the regional centers) grew by about 24,000 jobs (U.S. Department of Commerce, 1970, 1980).

The share of rural jobs held by Natives between 1970 and 1980 slipped slightly from 26 percent to 22 percent. At the same time, their share of urban jobs rose from 2 to 4 percent. Overall, Natives held only about 9 percent of the jobs in the state through the decade of the 1970s, while making up about 16 percent of Alaska's total population.

Women are mentioned when they do something better or when there are more of them than men.

Native women appear to get their education earlier than Native men. Over twice as many Native women as Native men attended college in the age groups of 20-29 years. However, for older age groups, the proportions are roughly the same for Native men and women. Since educational levels are correlated with labor force participation rates, we should expect that labor force participation rates of Native men would increase at older age cohorts but that this would not be true for Native women. We would also expect higher participation rates for Native women than men under the age of 30. In fact, these relationships were found in the 1980 Census data.

The labor force participation rate for Native women rose from approximately 32 percent for women 16-19 years of age to a peak of about 60 percent for women 25-29 years and then very slowly declined. For Native men, the labor force participation rate rose from 29 percent for those 16-19 years to a peak of 75 percent for the age group 35-39.

The labor force participation rate of Native women was 9 percent higher than that of Native men between 16 and 19 years of age. In the twenties age group, the participation rate of Native women fell 15 percent below that of Native men, and in the thirties it fell 35 percent below that of Native men. This pattern corresponded with increased education of older Native men.

It is possible to do a search for “Alaska Native Women Labor” and find relevant sources that have been well documented and are obviously used for professional reasons. But the fact that you have to be looking for that specifically is something to keep in mind.

The journal “The Status of Women in Alaska” by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research is a 92 page long document dedicated to the status of women in general. It can be found here. Differences between rural and urban areas of Alaska are noted, but as far as I have read so far there has not been a distinction made between Alaska Native women and non-Native women. That is an interesting thing, because in both instances specific parts of a population have been picked out, the Alaska Native population in relation to non-Alaska Native, or women in Alaska compared to men of Alaska. In both instances, the Native woman was invisible.

Something to think about.