Entrepreneurship: Upward Mobility, Equity, and the High Value of Original Labor

Pam Sornson, JD on July 1, 2023

Some might consider that America’s unique beginning was also the launch of its ongoing entrepreneurial spirit. After all, rather than recreate their political structure to mirror that of their forbearers, the Founding Fathers apparently decided that they should just build a new one from scratch. That entrepreneurial spirit continues to thrive in the 21st Century, as is highlighted by the country’s growing population of self-employed business owners. As one of four alternative paths to ‘Upward Mobility,’ the opportunity presents its own unique method for enterprising workers to overcome inequitable situations and find the future of their choice.

 

Valuing Original Labor – The Entrepreneur

With its mild climate and forward-thinking attitude, California is attracting significant entrepreneurial investments, ranking 12th in the nation for its welcoming ‘business-building’ infrastructure. The State’s community colleges are part of that foundation. As the Covid-19 pandemic recedes, investments in programs aimed at building and supporting the entrepreneurial community are proving to be more valuable than ever. Not only do they help each emerging little company grow and prosper, but they also address the social and equity gaps that have held back so many ‘business-owner-wanna-be’s’ for so long.

Ultimately, the value of the new-business launcher is measured by how well their product or service responds to a current need. During the recent health crisis, for example, highly skilled technology workers experienced unprecedented popularity (and pay raises) as their abilities, in some cases, saved the business that had hired them. Not surprisingly, after the urgency waned, many elected to go into business for themselves and bypass the ’employee’ role altogether. In fact, more than half of respondents to a recent survey (58%) indicated that they were happier in their new station as CEO and were enjoying the increased job security that came with being their own boss. (Interestingly, almost all of the entrepreneurial respondents (93%) also reported being current competitors with their former employers.)

The reasons these new business leaders gave for launching a new company (rather than looking for another job) are numerous:

They wanted better pay. Essentially, these trained and (now) invaluable workers realized their effort and know-how provided the company with more value than their compensation indicated. The survey revealed that the average ‘new boss’ took home approximately $13,000 more each year after leaping into entrepreneurship.

They wanted more control. In their new role, the business moguls now run the show on their own terms and answer to no one but themselves (or their investors. Or their customers). They can manage the direction of the enterprise while also exploring their personal sense of leadership.

They could see the value to their community of something new; they had a different perspective or approach to a concern that their former employer didn’t like or couldn’t see.

Fundamentally, all the survey respondents had enough confidence in their skills and themselves to step away from their employer’s corporate vision and into their own.

 

Skills of the Entrepreneur

Other researchers have evaluated the skill sets and practices of successful business owners and have determined that they – as a group – share a number of similar attributes:

They have a passion for their focus, whether it’s the result of their education or simply their love of a life-long hobby. What they are putting their minds to is all-consuming for them.

They also have a vision for what they want to create. Often, not only are they invested in the creation of their ‘thing,’ but they are also invested in the public having access to it, whether it’s a product, a service, or even a piece of original art made simply to be enjoyed. When they connect this vision to a future expression of corporate growth, then they have the bones of a solid business plan.

They can plan. Ideas are good but need execution to become great. These technology entrepreneurs learned how the plan for the software/hardware/networks they work with creates the underpinning architecture of those final iterations. That linear thinking process helps them both envision and execute their personal company trajectory

They can also make decisions. What sets a great leader apart from other leaders is their capacity to analyze a situation and then execute a response as needed, whether that’s immediately or sometime later.

Perhaps the most notable assets shared by most (or all) business visionaries: their sense of self-belief and their capacity to persevere through obstacles to the goal they’ve set on the other side. It takes courage to forego the security of a regular paycheck and steady benefits and, instead, take charge of steering one’s own boat. Not all the businesses launched by entrepreneurs are successful, but certainly, the people who step out into that uncertain future to find their own way forward can’t be considered less than successful even if their enterprise doesn’t fully materialize.

 

The Entrepreneurial Future is Bright

If data is any indication, the road to entrepreneurialism is busy and getting busier. In 2022, more than five million new business applications were filed across the country, the most since 2005. And, of course, not all were for tech companies. In California, small and medium-sized companies make up a significant portion of the business community – there are over four million of them – and, in 2019, they accounted for 99.8% of all organizations in the state. Together, these smallish, locally owned businesses are responsible for employing over seven million workers.

The current uptick in entrepreneurialism is also addressing the equity concerns that have been so prevalent in the news in recent years. The pandemic adversely impacted businesses owned by women and People of Color (POC) significantly more than those held by white men. In 2020:

more than 40% of all California businesses owned by African Americans closed;

Over 30% of Latinx-affiliated companies also disappeared, as did

25% of those owned by Asians, and 36% of those held by immigrants.

Tax incentives have lured many of those back to the marketplace, while the Governor reestablished the 2022  Entrepreneurship & Economic Mobility Task Force for the specific purpose of connecting state-based assets to the underserved potential entrepreneurs that need them.

 

Each of the four alternate pathways to Upward Mobility provides its own challenges and benefits. Of them, only entrepreneurship puts control over both in the hands of the ambitious new business owner.

Entrepreneurs in California – Establishing Their Own Value

Pam Sornson, JD on July 1, 2023

‘Getting ahead’ in life typically means ‘to be successful’ or ‘to excel.’ For many people, however, that aspiration is often hampered by a variety of barriers and obstacles, both personal and public. Unfortunately, much of today’s outdated social and political infrastructure contributes to the problem by retaining policies and practices that were designed to prevent some California residents from ‘getting ahead’ in their own lives. California’s government is working at changing that reality. One avenue it is specifically pursuing is improving the opportunity for residents to build their own roads to getting ahead by investing in support and services for current or wanna-be entrepreneurs.

 

California’s 2023-2024 Budget

Perhaps most notably, Governor Newsom’s proposed 2023-2024 budget optimistically recognizes that the State’s economy has entered the post-pandemic recovery period. The May ’23 revision of the proposed budget notes many significant factors impacting California’s current and future economic outlook:

The State’s prevailing inflation rate, while relatively high at 5/1%, is much lower than the initially projected 7.1% (down from 8.3% in June of last year). Elements contributing to the reduction include the easing of costs for trucking and port congestion, reduced fuel prices, and an increase in the availability of microchips.

The labor market continues, also, to add jobs, although not at the rate seen in early 2022. California’s monthly jobs gain was ~68,000 in that year’s first quarter. In the first quarter of 2023, that number fell to an average of ~32,700.

In its forecast for the future, California believes it will track the country’s economic growth pattern, which is now averaging about .5% for each quarter through Q3 2023. However, confident financial advisors expect the Federal Reserve to ease its inflation-curbing policies by Q4, which would also jump-start a subsequent growth range of 1.5% to 2.0% for California in that quarter and those that follow.

Not insignificantly, the State has recovered all of the jobs lost in early 2020 because of the pandemic. As of March 2023, nearly 2.8 million jobs returned to the economy, five full months before originally projected by previous analysts. That number includes occupations in low-wage ranges, which are now showing ‘robust’ growth. However, the State’s current labor force remains less than it was before COVID hit, with only ~77% of those who left the market in 2020 returning in 2023. The Governor’s office predicts that California’s GDP will regain forward momentum and stabilize at 1.5% to 2.0% through 2026.

 

The EEMTF and the CalOSBA

Two notable entities are tasked with helping the State and its residents achieve that growth. The California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) and the Entrepreneurship and Economic Mobility Task Force (EEMTF). Together and in conjunction with numerous other state and regional economic entities, these business, industry, and economic experts provide guidance and information for small businesses of all kinds, including entrepreneurs.

The CalOSBA focuses its attention on helping smaller organizations manage the myriad of financial resources, regulations, and programs available through state and federal agencies.

The experts appointed to the EEMTF in 2022 are directed to focus their attention on assisting entrepreneurial enterprises in attaining their full potential by identifying and clearing away obsolete programs and policies that presently bar their way. As an adjunct of the CalOSBA, the EEMTF will attend to three distinct goals, each of which is driven by the State’s mandate to improve the depth and breadth of its economic diversity:

Democratize access to capital – ensure that all those businesses that seek financial assistance can find it, regardless of the ethnic or other background of their ownership.

Diversify the innovation economy – This goal specifically looks to assist visionaries with diverse backgrounds and perspectives in bringing their unique ideas to life.

Drive economic mobility through entrepreneurship – As a pathway to upward mobility (both social and economic), entrepreneurialism offers individuals the opportunity to build the entity of their dreams while improving their station in life.

The EEMTF consists of 34 members from diverse backgrounds and with various histories and educational capacities. Together, they will help California identify and eliminate its internally embedded biases to build a stronger and more inclusive workforce and economy.

 

California’s Community Colleges

As one of three pillars of California’s higher education system (the other two being the California State Universities and the Universities of California), the California Community College system (CCC) is equally invested in entrepreneurialism as a foundation of its academic pursuits. It has designed its ‘Small Business’ career pathway to support students with great ideas but need more business know-how by providing them with resources and mentors to guide their way. Further, the CCC system has tailored those resources to comport with the eleven economic sectors identified by the CCC Strong Workforce Program:

Advanced Manufacturing

Advanced Transportation & Renewables

Agriculture, Water, & Environmental Technologies

Energy, Construction, & Utilities

Global Trade & Logistics

Health

Information & Communication Technologies and Digital MediaLife Sciences & Biotechnology

Public Safety & Service

Retail, Hospitality, & Tourism, and

Business & Entrepreneurship.

Each sector is led by a Sector Navigator with long-term experience in that particular economic component.

The Business & Entrepreneur sector, which straddles all the others, is significant to the State’s economy and future:

California is 5th highest in the country for entrepreneurial growth.

It’s second overall in entrepreneurial activity.

Small businesses, almost all of which are owned by individuals, comprise 98% of the State’s business community. They:

Provide four of five (82%) private sector jobs

and 75% of its GDP.

As those businesses look for ways to improve their fortunes in the post-pandemic era, many are turning to the CCCs to provide training facilities, educational support, and – most importantly – a well-trained workforce to move them forward. As well, in response to the burgeoning of the ‘self-employed’ career industry, 24 of the State’s 116 CCCs now offer a program focused on ‘Self-Employment Pathways in the Gig Economy.’

 

All these developments indicate that the whole of California’s economic community – from its governor’s office through its state agencies to its educational and industrial organizations – looks at entrepreneurialism as a fundamental aspect of its current and future economy. With this vast quantity of quality inputs and resources, there’s no reason why the State shouldn’t rise to become top in the nation as the epicenter of industrial and cultural innovation.

 

Part Two: Institutional Strategies to Improve Student Success …

Pam Sornson, JD on June 20, 2023

… While also Improving the Institution!

Pam Sornson, JD

June 20, 2023

Assuring ‘student success’ is not rooted solely in supporting the learner’s effort, as was discussed in Part One of this series. In this second part, we offer insights and suggestions on how improving institutional practices can also increase the likelihood that the success of the students will follow.

 

Identifying a Baseline

To be truly ready to educate tomorrow’s college students and workforce participants, today’s higher education leaders must prepare their organization to accept the adaptations that are coming. Multiple influences are currently washing over schools and communities that promise to be significant change agents at both the instructional and career implementation levels. Two advancing realities, however, are driving the most innovation: the impact of the pandemic, and technology, specifically artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).

 

Covid’s Lingering Impact

Consider it ‘long COVID at the community level.’ While the virus’s lethality appears to be contained, its repercussions continue to affect millions. From an educational perspective, that lingering is revealing itself in three dimensions:

   Delayed K-12 Achievements

Not surprisingly, recently obtained K-12 assessments are revealing significant learning losses and delays in the lower grades. Those deficiencies will need amelioration before the students can continue on an upward educational track. Experts suggest enhancing academic support services throughout all educational systems for at least another five years to ensure adequate resources are available.

    Equity Revelations

The equity gap widened during the pandemic interim, too. Communities that were lagging in technological and social advancements before it hit are full-on lacking them now as public resources dwindled or were diverted. Enhanced social services support will be necessary at every college to help make up for those lapses in capacities. On the plus side, an elevated focus on righting inequities may result in the (final) elimination of entrenched, bias-based practices.

    Mental Health Erosion

While mental health services were inadequate before COVID hit, they are completely overwhelmed in many communities now, and students of every age are suffering as a result. Stresses brought on by enforced isolation, reduced financial resources, and the loss of community engagement caused millions of learners to reconsider their educational trajectory. In Fall 2021, 65% of community college and 75% of four-year school attendees responded to a Gallup survey that they were seriously considering withdrawing altogether due to pandemic-driven emotional stress. In 2023, those numbers are a little lower but still alarming: 41% of four-year schools and 44% of community college learners continue to contemplate the value of more education.

At the very least, today’s higher education leaders should assess how well their organizations are currently prepared to manage this influx of support service demand; the data indicate that they’ll need to be doing more to be fully able to assist their student body in the coming years.

 

Emerging Technology

The overnight switch to online learning underscores the critical necessity of today’s technology. Without it, the world would have come to a screeching, disastrous halt in early 2020. Since then, the emergence of AI, in particular, has triggered considerable speculation about its capacity to launch an even larger global disruption.

The lure of AI is apparent: programmed to achieve a very specific purpose, the application appears to automate the thinking process, finding possible solutions to complex questions virtually instantaneously. In a higher ed setting, the ease of accessing an AI opportunity suggests that students may use it to ‘create’ their academic outputs, foregoing the necessary research and study in favor of a speedy – and well-received – document. In fact, 43% of current college students admit that they’ve already used the popular AI app, ChatGPT, to produce some of their work.

Despite this concern, schools are also finding ways to use AI to enhance their connections with their students, existing and potential. Chatbots – those boxes lingering in the bottom right corners of almost every webpage – are actually well-programmed robots that fine-tune their responses as users type in their inquiries. They’ve been deployed in several situations to assist with both school and learner success:

Personalized responses that become ever more granular as the questioning continues help potential students find the precisely right school and program. The ‘bot can scan millions of academic alternatives in nanoseconds, ensuring the delivery of a comprehensive suite of options.

AI also assists with academic advising by offering in-depth information about financing, course work, etc., while also tracking student progress and alerting administrators when concerns arise.

Even mental health concerns can now be assuaged by an automated program, Woebot, which uses “intelligent mood tracking” to help students navigate their inner selves.

Of course, the real challenge of AI (and any other emerging technology) is understanding its benefits to achieve its best possible service while mitigating any known or as-yet-undiscovered issues it might also bring. Every school should consider the opportunities presented by technology and prepare to adapt their practices accordingly.

 

Remarkably, research into this topic – ‘how well do school practices support student success?’ – reveals very little study has been done on how school choices can inadvertently impede student success, regardless of added social supports. Those resources that do look at the concern couch it from a different perspective, often, as was noted earlier, in an ancillary way. Existing questions found in a highly regarded publication have been modified to include our questions in italics to illustrate the change in thinking necessary to understand our theory. We’ve struck through but left in the original language to clarify the distinctions:

How do our student support services academic and administrative processes influence students’ learning outcomes?

Are we recruiting students from all backgrounds who are the most likely to succeed at our institution?

How do our administrative and academic personnel costs choices and hires align with our mission?

At the very least, the future of a generation of learners is at stake as America’s higher education systems address challenges posed by COVID. At the same time, however, the future of virtually every community is at stake if its current and future workforce doesn’t get the training necessary to build its future economy.  Every college must adapt its processes to address these realities if it intends to maintain or enhance its student success metrics.

Part One: Institutional Strategies to Improve Student Success …

Pam Sornson, JD on June 20, 2023

… What are We Doing that Isn’t Working?

Pam Sornson, JD

June 20, 2023

The meaning of the phrase “student success” changes as educational systems and cultural expectations evolve.  These days, the definition is evolving even further to reflect societal responses to the pandemic, climate change, economic and social upheaval, and other global concerns. Additionally, recent research indicates that it’s not just a student’s activities that drive their academic success (or failure); in many cases, choices and practices by the school can also negatively impact the learner’s opportunity to achieve educational goals. When the school fails to meet its ultimate mandate – providing appropriate resources to ensure learners leave as well-trained and productive members of society – then whatever the learner does or tries to do doesn’t ultimately matter.

 

Short-Term Action (Should) = Long-Term Gain

For many people, the concept of “student success” focuses on the individual student and the services and support they receive while in their academic process. Consequently, many schools track a familiar network of metrics to identify and support the personal attributes every learner needs to successfully attain their scholastic targets:

Self-efficacy – the learner’s ability to manage themself, their time, and their activities.

Retention – the capacity to return each term to further their educational agenda.

Persistence – the ability to maintain focus over time to achieve their personal end goals, whether those are educational, career-oriented, or both.

Completion – the capacity to complete their desired courses and programs.

Academic achievement – the capacity to meet their course and program goals.

In today’s fraught and diverse society, many schools struggle to define precisely which types of support are needed for every student to successfully execute these traits. In the short term, each student’s success will determine the institution’s ultimate success in achieving its goals and mandates.

 

Clarifying ‘Student Success’ from the Institutional Perspective

Making that effort more challenging, however, is the emerging notion that ‘student’ success may (or should) also be tied to long-term cultural change. One expert asserts that an academic infrastructure that aligns its student success metrics to those of a change initiative has a better capacity to transform not just the life of the learner and the capacity of the school but also the community it feeds.

Adrianna Kezar, the Dean’s Professor for Higher Education Leadership at the University of Southern California, suggests that it is insufficient to consider the development and delivery of student success supports as ancillary to academic instruction. Instead, she recommends that both schools and their regional administrations recreate their existing organizational infrastructure to embed student success-oriented supports within the day-to-day activities of every office and department. Sharing the responsibility of enhanced learner and institutional success across all elements of the school facilitates the organization’s capacity to fully implement the needed interventions that will eventually accomplish a culture change. Doing so also ensures that those revamped visions of ‘success’ move with graduates into the community to facilitate its embrace of newly recognized social values.

Identify Where Change Needs to Happen

Of course, any form of institutional change should address existing issues as well as build a foundation for future goals. In the higher ed sector, too often, schools focus on the student as an individual person when contemplating improvements in student success metrics. However, recent research indicates that entrenched educational processes often cause insurmountable barriers for learners, and these school-controlled educational processes often require a more substantial overhaul.

In a 2023 survey, approximately 50% of the 3000+ two- and four-year student respondents asserted that challenges presented by the school and its practices were preventing them from achieving their educational goals:

More than half (55%) revealed that the teaching style of their professors made it difficult for them to learn the subject matter.

Almost half (49%) stated that their exams or the material on which they were based were too difficult for them to master at that stage of their education.

Another 40% indicated that unclear expectations from the professors regarding what they were supposed to achieve made it difficult for them to be successful in those courses.

Given that the survey incorporated student perspectives from 128 different schools, these concerns should flag every higher ed institution to investigate whether its constituents experience the same problems. If they do, then that college can affirmatively work to identify and remedy them as quickly as possible. An in-depth analysis of the courses receiving the complaints, their materials, their placement within the academic arc, and, notably, the teaching style of the professors who teach them would suggest where remedies would be most beneficial. If logic follows, such an endeavor would improve both the students’ and the college’s ‘success’ metrics.

The survey also revealed other aspects of decisions made by the school or their teachers that negatively impact the student experience and, consequently, student success:

While more than half (55%) enjoyed a mix of online and physical course materials, one in three (30%) wanted professors to be more cost-aware of them when making those selections.

Two in three believed they were graded fairly, but only one in four of those respondents understood how that grading was structured.

45% reported that they had received little or no guidance on course sequencing for graduation planning (although eight of ten of the 55% who had received that support rated it highly).

30% reported that a course they needed to graduate wasn’t offered during the term they intended to take it.

Overall, the survey indicates that today’s college systemic orchestration poses challenges to higher ed students over which they have no control. If schools embrace this data as a clarion call, and make changes to address these concerns, then the success metrics of both parties to the ‘student success’ strategy – the students and the school – can improve.

 

AI & Automation: The Augmentation of Labor

Pam Sornson, JD on June 3, 2023

Not only did advanced technology preserve millions of jobs during the recent pandemic, but it also transformed millions more. The almost instantaneous leap to a remote and distributed workforce drove an expansion of technological innovation that continues to burgeon today.

The software engineering sector has been steadily introducing new ways to ‘work’ that augment both traditional and emerging labor forms. Two digital tools currently on the rise across the global industrial zone are automation and artificial intelligence (AI), and experts are now re-examining how each will change the nature – and value – of labor.

 

Digital Drives Change

While it is difficult to achieve a consensus among technology professionals about interim and final outcomes emerging from technological growth, they will almost all agree that everything in the work world will change to some degree. As a result, workers will need new and different training and skills to do their jobs, and many of the jobs themselves will require retooling to accommodate digital progressions.

Automation

The adoption of automated systems to perform previously human labor functions has been flourishing in recent years for many reasons:

Typically, automated ‘robotic’ machines take over mundane and routine tasks, including data entry and processing so that human input can address more sophisticated issues. The work is completed faster and more efficiently than a human can perform it, and in many cases, the machine is also more consistently accurate in performing the function than humans can be when doing the same job.

Additionally, sensors embedded in those machines scan for system elements or aspects that may require maintenance or replacement. These devices are infinitely more sensitive to errant circuitry and processes than humans are capable of achieving, so their function surpasses any labor a person might provide for the same task.

Not insignificantly, machines are also impervious to many situational concerns that inhibit or preclude human activity. Automated devices aren’t affected by the adverse conditions that preclude human engagement, such as excessively hot or cold situations, locations with ultra-high or low-pressure (such as the ocean floor or outer space), and other physically challenging environments.

For these reasons and more, the automation of labor will continue to grow as the cultural norm for the evolution of industry for decades to come.

Consequently, the inputs and activities of the human labor force engaging with those machines will also change:

Workflows will change as workers adapt their new technology ‘colleagues’ to achieve greater productivity. In some cases, systems will speed up as the digitized processing transforms details into insights.

In other cases, the human effort may become obsolete altogether for some elements of a particular task, leaving the workers to assume more managerial/oversight-type functions.

In still other cases, whole systems may be ditched in favor of those that optimize both human and machine labor, augmenting the intrinsic value of each as elements of the success of the whole.

Automation is already deeply embedded into today’s society, being found in almost every vehicle, home, and business. It will continue to permeate virtually all industries as its values and capacities broaden.

 

AI

AI offers different values and opportunities than automation, but its promise as an economic growth driver is comparable. Some experts define AI as a ‘subset’ of automation that uses automated processes to achieve unique ‘cognitive’ results that are intended – and often presented – as a replacement for human thought. In many cases, the final computation does, indeed, resemble a conclusion that can be or is drawn by a thinking person.

However, at least for now, the operative word in the title of the emerging tool is ‘artificial.’ These machines don’t actually ‘think’ as a human thinks. Instead, they perform a series of ‘machine learning’ programs that run a variety of algorithms to predict a specific outcome. The number and complexity of possible outcomes are dependent on the variables included in the programming, and the machine can only work with the information presented to it. Consequently, the ultimate conclusion drawn by the AI device is only as reliable – and intelligent – as the human that designed and programmed its database.

In a workforce context, AI is bearing a significant influence on the labor ecosystem across four categories of work-related elements:

The design of ‘work’ – The aforementioned ‘predictive’ capacity facilitates the testing of many processes to determine which will be optimal for a particular purpose.

The conduct of work – Built-in analytics enable a review of the efficiencies and deficiencies embedded in workflows, which can drive alterations to how people ‘conduct’ their work.

The measurement of work – Those same analytics provide the opportunity for a deeper comprehension of ever more granular corporate details, which can reveal where and how company assets are maximized – or minimized.

The supply of workers capable of maximizing the value of the technology – Finding workers capable of managing AI technology in any industrial sector is exceedingly difficult these days. There are currently very few technicians within today’s workforce with the skills to master both the complexity of the AI computing process and the swift pace of its innovations. The imbalance between the number of AI technologies and the shortage of skilled AI workers is driving up the value of these workers for every enterprise.

AI is already a significant factor in much of today’s industrial activities, and those existing evolutions multiply the opportunities to adopt yet more AI assets as corporate growth goals.

 

Both automation and AI are becoming fixtures throughout all facets of society. America’s higher education system has taken note of these emerging opportunities, especially within the community college layer. These leaders are now investing in ways their schools cancan develop more comprehensive technology courses that align with emerging industrial technology demands. As a process, the advancing digital infrastructure is informing all aspects of the workforce development sector, virtually guaranteeing America’s capacity to meet the rising demand and be prepared for the evolutions that will surely follow.

Rise of Unions: Revaluing Labor

Pam Sornson, JD on June 3, 2023

There was a time in America – some 50 years ago – when union membership was the central foundation of the ‘American Dream.’ Unions provided millions of workers with occupational and career stability, safe working conditions, and the economic freedom to live the lives they chose to live. While their predominance has faded considerably, unions still offer members more benefits and perks than most non-union positions. They can also be the foothold needed by marginalized populations to achieve both social and upward mobility.

 

Early Benefits of Unionization

Employees who are also union members receive different, and often more beneficial, treatment from their employers than those without union representation on their job.

For Individuals

As individuals, workers gain benefits demanded by their collective ‘voice’ for work-related elements that keep them safer and better paid.

Many of today’s workplace health and safety standards, and the consequences for failing to maintain them, are in place because union members refused to work in unsafe conditions.

Workers also have better access to healthcare services in regions with strong union representation due to the lobbying for the passage of paid sick and family leave laws by union representatives.

Pay rates have also been significantly influenced by union agitation over the years. For example, because of unionization, many employees working in hazardous positions were able to demand higher pay to compensate for the higher risk. (This phenomenon was revealed with particular clarity throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, when ‘essential workers’ were required to stay on the job – risking their lives – even though they were often the lowest-paid workers in the business.)

For Communities

States with high union participation also enjoy economic and social benefits not seen in states without a strong union presence:

Their workforce earns more money, averaging a $6,000 increase in median annual income over the national average.

Their minimum wages are higher (19% over the national average and 40% over non-union states), resulting in higher tax revenues for the government.

Their unemployed workers are more likely to actually receive unemployment insurance (funded by employers), giving them needed financial resources to remain economically stable and off public welfare rolls while seeking new work.

These data affirm that a strong union presence significantly and positively influences both individuals and communities.

 

Decline of Unions

Despite that reality, however, union development and participation have declined since their high popularity in the mid-20th Century. The number and size of unions multiplied after World War II as returning soldiers and state-side-based workers sought better pay and working conditions in the burgeoning post-war economy. By the 1970s, though, a series of global evolutions was eroding the economic and social foundations that unions needed to exist, including pervasive deregulation, industrial restructuring, and the emergence of the international marketplace. As a result, by the late 1980s, only 17% of the American workforce was ‘organized,’ compared to more than double that just 30 years before.

 

Union Interest Emerges Again

In many cases, the legislation used to derail the union movement in the ’70s remains in place as a barrier to today’s workers who might consider unionizing to improve their work situation. However, the economic chaos caused by the pandemic is again focusing attention on the benefits of unionization for both workers and their employers, and the effort is revealing some surprising developments.

More People of Color Pursuing Union Membership

Throughout 2022, the number of unionized Americans grew by 200,000 to a total of over 16 million. During the same annual period, the percentage of the American workforce that was unionized fell from 11.6% to 11.3%. So how did the country gain more individual union members while the overall percentage of unionized workers/non-unionized workers fell? Two reasons:

    1. More non-union jobs were coming available than union-affiliated positions, and
    2. Virtually the entire 200,000 newly unionized workers were people of color. A total of 231,000 people of African, Latinx, Asian, and Pacific Islander (AAPI) descent were joining unions, while 31,000 white people were leaving them. The trend tracks research that demonstrates that union membership or representation reduces inequality by leveling the factory floor for all workers, regardless of race, gender, or ability.

Additionally, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) reported a 53% increase in the filing of ‘union election petitions’ in 2022, the first step in the unionization process. Their data also suggests that in that year, more than 60 million workers would have joined a union but, for various reasons, could not do so. Further, public support for unionization was recorded at a 50-year high as workers took advantage of high job opening numbers to leverage their personal fortunes.

 

Employers See Benefits, Too

While, typically, businesses have fought the ‘organization’ of their labor force, today’s economy is providing a foundation that supports and encourages union participation. Many C-Suite leaders now recognize that the benefits of an organized workforce include reduced production costs and an escalated bottom line.

The pandemic exposed the reality that some jobs are literally ‘life or death,’ so enterprises in those industries are scrambling to regain workers to ensure their survival post-COVID.

Today’s tight job market, in general, is also pressuring companies to prioritize worker needs and enhance work conditions as lures to fill job openings. Being open to union activities can be a draw to potential employees who may have their choice of future employer.

Improved productivity for the corporation is also a known benefit that flows from an organized workforce. Statistics show that unionized companies reduce costs by decreasing turnover and churn rates. They can also enhance their product quality and community ‘goodwill’ factor by maintaining an engaged and proud labor force.

Data indicates that companies with a unionized workforce enjoy better performance and higher returns than those that don’t, and that the communities in which these businesses do business are healthier and more economically stable than those that eschew worker organization.

 

Polls indicate that more than two-thirds of Americans are in favor of a unionized workforce, and data suggests that having one is good business for the company. Unions are also now seen as a fourth stepping stone to upward mobility for marginalized groups and provide millions of workers the opportunity to find, secure and live the life they choose.

Social Strategies for Socioeconomic Mobility

Pam Sornson, JD on May 15, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

May 16, 2023

If an entire community benefits when most of its constituents are ‘upwardly mobile,’ why aren’t communities building into their infrastructures pathways to achieve that upward trend? Why do some residents have opportunities for growth when their neighbors do not? In many cases, the absence of social and economic resources that support upward mobility is intentional. In other cases, the question of how to ensure equitable access to a brighter future has simply never been asked.

 

Four Policies = One Upwardly Mobile Society

So how does a society create pathways to mobility that are accessible to all its inhabitants? As asserted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), providing equal access to growth opportunities for citizens, regardless of their original economic or social situation, is an easier target than trying to assure comparable growth outcomes for all individuals. Further, the OECD asserts that communities can open the doors to upward mobility opportunities for all their residents by following four primary recommendations:

Increase public investments in education and health care for lower economic population tiers,

Revise labor and economic policies to champion work/family balance

Focus efforts on attaining equitable wealth accumulation opportunities throughout their social strata, and

Reduce the regional divides and spatial segregation of their districts so that all residents can live, work, and thrive in the neighborhoods of their choice.

Adherence to these standards will facilitate upward mobility for anyone who takes advantage of their resources. Additionally, it will provide the cushioning needed to buffer the adverse shocks and undesired impacts of low-income volatility, which can erode the individual’s capacity to succeed while also placing an extra burden on the social safety net.

 

Increase Education and Health Care Support

Research indicates that children raised in adverse economic situations typically do worse than their more financially stable neighbors, both educationally and healthwise.

A constellation of factors negatively impacts children living below the poverty line, eroding their access and ability to embrace educational resources. In many cases, their schools lack adequate materials and supplies, while their parents are too overwhelmed by work and other concerns to support the learning their children need. When parents themselves are less educated, the cycle of poverty, both economically and educationally, repeats through the generations, impeding any progress toward upward m

An impoverished childhood also often means ongoing or life-long health challenges for the adults they become, including behavioral disorders, chronic disease, and even premature death. Children raised in impoverished conditions frequently develop conduct disorders such as ADHD or cognitive dysfunctions such as short-term memory loss, which can continue to plague them throughout their lives, even if they achieve any additional level of financial stability.

Providing all families with the food, housing, and healthcare support they need to survive and move forward reduces their drain on public resources while adding future economic assets to the community.

 

Assure a Work/Life Balance for Lower Income Families

Analysts recommend that policymakers acknowledge the additional burdens placed on their economically strained populations. Working multiple jobs or many hours a day keep parents away from their children for too long, especially during their most vulnerable early years. Social policies that facilitate suitable transportation or provide financial supplements to replace hours not worked can give parents ad children the time together needed to ensure an adequate learning environment in the home. Further, community-based child care, low-cost or free preschool, and other publicly funded resources can stabilize a family and build a foundation upon which they can grow beyond their current economic class.

 

Level the ‘Wealth Acquisition’ Playing Field

Data reveals that wealthier families tend to stay wealthy, and poorer families tend to stay poor, not because they are destined for those outcomes but because the systems are designed to maintain that status quo. Notable tax advantages, savings and investing resources, and multiple wealth-preserving economic exemptions all favor wealthier citizens while being unavailable to their less affluent neighbors. In many jurisdictions, the financial system is intentionally steered to reduce the tax rates for wealthy community members through a series of deductions and exemptions, so they pay a smaller percentage in taxes than their less-wealthy neighbors. In other areas, policies prohibited upward financial mobility by allowing banks to limit loan access to borrowers who would use them to buy houses or start businesses. The practice intentionally suppressed the economic growth capacity of millions of Americans.

 

Release Untapped Resources by Eliminating Segregation

The segregation of whole populations because of color, religion, or some other determiner has been a common practice in America since its inception. The effort has cost the country untold trillions as a result. Worse, the concept of ‘income segregation,’ the separation of communities based on their relative income levels, has been growing, even while poverty and unemployment levels are dropping.

Research reveals that people earning higher salaries tend to gather and live in close-knit neighborhoods, which are unaffordable to those who make less money. They intentionally or inadvertently ‘segregate’ themselves into these high-wealth factions, which are inaccessible to those not equally qualified. The practice reduces the opportunity for less-wealthy people to achieve the mobility necessary to join them:

Those high-earners frequently gained that capacity through access to advanced educational resources, assets that are only available to people with more financial resources.

Further, those wealthy community members then invested in the educational resources needed by their children to grow and thrive, and those children, in turn, moved to neighborhoods with escalated property values that froze out less financially secure families while spreading the income gap even wider.

These trends have been steady since the 1980s. Many of today’s wealthiest communities are the beneficiaries of the policies and practices that have effectively ‘walled in’ their economic advantages at the expense of their neighbors in general and their society at large. The community as a whole suffers because it can’t access or release the untapped resources trapped in the lower economic classes, who, in turn, can’t access the educational resources they need to raise their financial profile.

Four Open Doors to Upward Mobility

Pam Sornson, JD on May 15, 2023

Even without intentional barriers impeding their progress, many people find it challenging to identify the career or occupation they want and then also find a way to achieve it. Often, the family history doesn’t support the aspiration, or family resources aren’t available to meet the financial requirements. Fortunately, society maintains several ways for learners to engage in their chosen work, regardless of their economic background or lack of educational achievement.

Beyond college or university, four alternative avenues to jobs and careers are available to anyone who seeks them: apprenticeships, internships, entrepreneurialism, and union membership. Each entry-level option provides theoretical education and hands-on training for a specific occupation. Once begun, learners can quickly qualify for junior-level positions within the industry of their choice. They can then build on their foundational training over time to master escalating skill and competency levels. In many cases, these non-traditional students can earn more over their lifetime than their four-year university graduate cohorts.

 

 

Apprenticeships

In the ‘olden days,’ an apprenticeship was the only way to learn a new trade or occupation. There were no schools to teach hands-on skills, and those schools that existed were focused on more esoteric subjects, such as philosophy or debate. Master artisans took on an apprentice and taught them the skills necessary to provide that service to the community. The expectation was that the apprentice would eventually also become a master and remain in that occupation for life.

The popularity of the apprenticeship as a credentialed training alternative remains high in industries around the world. They are often favored because the qualifications to attain one are usually lower than those needed to qualify for entry into an academic school. A high school diploma, GED, or experience in a related field or occupation is often all it takes to be hired as an apprentice. Further, apprenticeships are usually paid positions, so people aren’t forced to choose between gaining training or earning money. And people who have completed an apprenticeship are also on track to make a solid living over their lifetime. Research indicates that 92% of apprentices who finish their programs and retain their jobs earn an average annual salary of $72,000, giving them the social and economic mobility to rise above their original economic class.

 

 

Internships

Like an apprenticeship, an internship offers the opportunity to acquire skills for a specific occupation or trade directly from the tradesperson or business. However, unlike an apprenticeship, which typically lasts one to three years and is usually paid, internships are typically unpaid, last a much shorter period (sometimes just one to three months), and may not lead directly to a full-time job.

Internships still provide educational and occupational value, however. Interns can quickly learn to handle mundane business duties, which relieves the staff from those obligations while helping the intern learn new occupational skills. They may also be tasked with seasonal jobs, short-term contract work, or other short-term functions that respond to company needs while also imparting a valuable educational element to the worker. In many cases, the intern learns more minor aspects of a larger occupational structure that they can build on through future on-the-job training opportunities.

A recent study drew data from 43 million LinkedIn profiles and determined that approximately 13% of all college graduates list at least one internship on their educational transcript.

 

 

Entrepreneurialism

Some people find it easier to create their own work than to find it through someone else. The ‘entrepreneur’ is that unique individual who sees a need to be filled and then develops a business to fill it. In some cases, these ‘occupational gaps’ arise when emergencies occur, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 era shut down many occupations but opened the door to develop many more. The ensuing “remote” economy, populated by entrepreneurs who aggregated skill sets and business assets in direct response to COVID-related demand, has exploded over the past three years, and continues to grow. Many of these new business owners never envisioned themselves as ‘entrepreneurs’ but took advantage of the COVID-driven opportunities to put their skills to better use for their own benefit.

One occupation that became especially valuable through the pandemic – and subsequently generated a whole new community of entrepreneurs – was that of the digital technician. In many cases, the worker recognized that their skill set was more valuable to their companies than those entities knew.  As organizations struggled to achieve the ‘remote work’ demands of the day with their (often outdated) digital tools, their sophisticated tech staff resolved those challenges while also building a new business opportunity for themselves. At the same time, the use of ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI) was also on the rise. While many organizations are aware of the value that AI can add to their enterprise, they do not have on staff the digital talent needed to integrate it into their current situation.

As companies adopt more technology, including AI, the remote workforce, and a distributed business model, as examples, the demand for highly skilled digital technicians and software engineers will also rise. As a result, digitally skilled workers may find their brightest future as technology entrepreneurs, filling occupational gaps across virtually all industries.

 

 

Union membership

One other route to social mobility is that of union membership. Unions, a group of workers united around ensuring workplace standards are safe and fair, have been around for centuries. Their advocacy for their membership gives them a voice in many corners of the community and allows them to directly influence workplace conditions. Over time, the work of unions has established pay rates, work hours, benefits schedules, and other elements ancillary to the labor performed that would not have been made available without that collective pressure.

Unions have also played an important role in diminishing barriers and providing upward mobility for workers. One older study revealed that unionization resulted in wage raises of over 11% for typical female workers, who also gained access to health insurance and pensions in the process. Further, states with a high union participation rate enjoy a higher overall average wage than those with fewer union members.

 

Gaining upward mobility – socially, economically, or both – gives workers more opportunities to improve their lives and futures. These four options – apprenticeships, internships, entrepreneurialism, and union memberships – offer all workers, regardless of their original economic class, the opportunity to attain that mobility and move up in their little part of the world.

Pursuing Socioeconomic Mobility

Pam Sornson, JD on May 2, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

May 2, 2023

Traditionally, the compensation for ‘labor’ – the performance of activities to achieve a particular economic end – has been valued according to the ‘class’ of the person performing it. In American society, being a member of one of five social ‘classes’ often determines how well that person succeeds economically throughout their life. Those born to the ‘upper’ classes earn more money for their labor and experience opportunities and benefits not available to those of the ‘lower’ classes. They typically do better financially over the course of their lives than their less well-off colleagues.

Further, people born into a ‘class’ usually remain in that class throughout their lives and don’t or can’t actively try to do otherwise. Those who do make the effort can achieve ‘upward social mobility’ – and a consequent economic mobility  – if they can overcome the obstacles impeding that progress. For individuals, breaking through those barriers – both visible and invisible – presents a formidable challenge. For communities, removing those barriers to social, economic, and upward mobility may be the key to securing future financial and social success for all their constituents.

 

What is Mobility?

The word ‘mobility’ means both:

the quality or state of being mobile, and

the ability or capacity to move.

Those elements are not the same, as is demonstrated by the challenges presented to people hoping to be ‘mobile;’ they may enjoy the ‘state’ of mobility, but societal barriers prevent them from actually moving.

In a societal context, the concept of mobility encompasses ‘social’ and ‘economic’ movement, and it can refer to downward, lateral, and upward activity in both instances.

‘Downward’ mobility, obviously, connotes a decline in capacity.

‘Lateral’ mobility reflects maintaining the status quo.

‘Upward’ mobility suggests an improvement in capacity.

Achieving both social and economic ‘upward mobility’ – socioeconomic mobility (SM) – is a goal many people pursue.

Social and economic goals are not the same, however, although achieving one often means achieving the other, too. ‘Socioeconomic’ movement happens when a person moves beyond their familial and economic class levels in either a decline or an advance. When upward movement happens, that person will gain a myriad of benefits that were not available in their previous life.

 

Measuring Socioeconomic Mobility

There are two measurements of ‘socioeconomic mobility,’ each determined by the particular person’s status in society:

‘Intergenerational mobility’ refers to changes in one’s socioeconomic position as compared to their parents (familial).

‘Intragenerational mobility’ refers to changes in economic status over the course of one’s lifetime (social ‘class’).

Having the capacity to achieve socioeconomic mobility of either type is linked to having opportunities to pursue it.

However, there are several barriers to achieving SM, primarily because the opportunities for advancement are not typically available to all. Unequal or inequitable regulatory hurdles frequently limit or bar access to resources that facilitate upward mobility as a form of economic growth. In too many cases, people are denied a comparable range of options for reasons unrelated to their capacity to work. Gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and even birthplace location are factors used to limit an individual’s opportunity to seek and achieve a higher financial status.

In other cases, those barriers are entrenched in a fundamental aspect of the societal infrastructure, creating a ‘closed’ mobility system. ‘Closed’ mobility systems intentionally deny equal rights of access to all their participants. ‘Open’ mobility systems, on the other hand, allow everyone access to resources that can enhance their SM status (although they, too, may incorporate a series of variables that can discourage success).

 

Closed Mobility Systems

In a ‘closed’ mobility system, specific segments of the population are intentionally excluded by definition from opportunities that would allow a change in their social status. The ‘caste’ system still exists in many countries today and is a closed mobility system. India’s caste system, for example, segments its Hindu population into five groups: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras, and Dalits (also known as ‘the untouchables’). The segments establish a hierarchy that puts Brahmins on top, and the actions and activities of the others are always made in deference to this group. Members of each caste are born into it, so they have no choice about their personal economic circumstances, nor are there ways for them to alter their reality.

Open Mobility Systems

In other communities, open mobility systems allow transitions between class segments. Optimally, all resources that drive upward mobility are available to all members of these communities. When that is the case, individuals can achieve ever-escalating levels of financial and social success depending on the effort they put into that process. Societies that encourage and embrace upward mobility as a community asset typically are healthier and more stable than those that don’t.

‘Hybrid’ Mobility Systems – an Ugly Truth

Other populations may appear – or even declare themselves – to be ‘open’ class societies while also integrating into their infrastructure both evident and hidden barriers to prevent people from moving upward economically; their rule base is essentially a closed system masked as an open one.

In this ‘hybrid’ construction, restrictions to movement are based on gender, race, etc. American society currently has several culturally embedded barriers that prevent people from moving out of their class toward a higher, more financially beneficial one. These barriers were built into the social network to dissuade lower classes from attaining upward mobility by making that objective almost impossible to achieve. This structural racism is used to retain existing – and foster further – discrimination against specific populations by manipulating public resources such as housing, employment, earning capacity, and access to health care, to name just a few.

Rules are set to make access to resources more difficult for some communities while easing it for others.

Using rent manipulations to contain certain population groups within specific neighborhoods, for example, can limit access to public transportation and education resources, healthy food sources, and other assets critical to well-being.

Maintaining these inequitable structures perpetuates the control of the upper classes over those in the lower classes and curtails the opportunity for the less well-off to pursue upward socioeconomic mobility.

 

Why Upward Mobility is Critical to Social – and Societal – Success

Suppressing economic growth in any segment of society also suppresses economic growth for the entire community. On the other hand, emerging research demonstrates that increased socioeconomic mobility within suppressed social sectors offers unmatched growth opportunities for the whole populace.

In a recent UK study, for example, data showed that even a modest increase in SM for a percentage of its citizens would significantly increase the country’s overall GDP. The finding underscores the premise that enhanced SM for some equals improved outcomes for all.

Further, pursuing that goal – upward SM for all – is essential for more than social justice reasons. Fundamentally, providing access to upward SM that facilitates class-crossing interactions and sharing builds relationships and stimulates economic growth.

 

For too long, talented, worthy, and exceptional people from the less-advantaged classes have been marginalized for reasons that have nothing to do with their value. When society removes the barriers they face and receives the values they offer, everyone – regardless of class – will benefit.

Dismantling Barriers to Socioeconomic Mobility

Pam Sornson, JD on May 2, 2023

Research suggests that stagnant socioeconomic mobility (SM) levels negatively impact an entire society, not just its marginalized population(s). Communities with infrastructures that support equity and equality across all population segments – and therefore have higher SM capacities – do better economically than those that do not. Regions with disparate and unfair socioeconomic outcomes within social classes, and low correlating SM rates as a result, can learn from their more prosperous neighbors how to reverse that course while improving the overarching economic situation for everyone.

 

Begin with Policy …

All too often, reduced SM levels result from biased and discriminatory legislation and rule-making. All communities exist through a system of legislated policies and procedures that address (or should address) the needs of everyone. In too many instances, however, those policies were crafted and implemented to further the goals of smaller subgroups within the community, thereby leaving the other subgroups unsupported. This group of unfair policies creates and perpetuates the cultural groundwork that impedes social and economic growth and limits the opportunities to achieve SM.

To repair the injustices caused by those obsolete policy patterns, today’s forward-looking leaders can identify how their constituents are affected by the existing regulatory infrastructure. In many cases, they’ll find that their current standards fail to address the fundamental elements of ‘social welfare’ for all their citizenry: security, equity, inclusion, and a fair distribution of resources. Instead, they may discover that current policy often intentionally limits opportunities for those in some classes to attain the resources available to other community members.

Access to adequate and equitable public transportation is one way previous governments have limited their citizen’s options. In one community, a plush and comfortable bus gets prioritized routing to speed wealthy patrons to their destination. Those who can’t afford the cost, however, must endure exposed bus stops, plastic seats, and the interminable dreariness of public traffic patterns.

Finding adequate housing is also a challenge for people with fewer resources. Discriminatory behaviors within the housing industry often leave people of color, the differently abled, or ethnically diverse without appropriate or desirable options. In many communities, the biases aren’t so much written as they are demonstrated in behaviors that direct non-white ethnicities to non-white neighborhoods, as an example.

Obtaining a high-quality education is also more challenging for some members of a community than it is for other members. Despite years of social debate and advocacy, the American educational system is one of the most inequitable systems in the industrialized world, where social status – not intelligence, talent, or skill – determines the quality and availability of education.

Remaking policies and their associated practices to reflect the community’s commitment to fairness will move toward righting the existing injustices while also boosting the economic capacity of all – not just some – of its residents.

 

 … Focused on Target Populations

To be most effective, any policy changes must be directed at the populations they are intended to benefit, using strategies to achieve the best outcomes for those public investments. These changes may (and will probably) require shifting public funding away from some programs (such as the plush bus system noted above, which was publicly funded) and toward others that provide service and support to marginalized community members.

Research from the Brookings Institute offers suggestions for policymakers to help guide them to a fairer community and a brighter economic future, with a focus on two pivotal public resources: housing and education.

Housing

A safe and sound home is the best foundation for the growth of any person, but America’s housing laws do not ensure that all citizens have access to this critical resource. Home rental rates and purchase prices are often out of reach for a sizeable percentage of the community, leaving them with no option but to seek more ‘affordable’ housing. However, in far too many communities today, ‘affordable housing’ is only available in inhospitable areas that lack adequate transportation, food, and safety services.

Consequently, Brookings suggests civic leaders reinvigorate their housing laws by incorporating these factors:

Use housing vouchers to target both populations and housing options. Use policy and practice to create ‘mixed-income’ communities with families from a range of economic classes.

Develop affordable housing options across the region, not just in small sections of the city.

Review and reform housing laws that prevent those who need housing from attaining it. Zoning restrictions, in particular, have played a significant role in keeping minority populations out of specified communities.

Enforce housing rules to ensure that they actually and effectively protect their intended beneficiaries. The number of laws passed that require the application of ‘fair and equal’ housing policies is irrelevant if they are not enforced or enforceable.

Education

The depth and breadth of educational disparities across the United States are alarming, as study after study reveals that students of color – in almost all regions – receive significantly fewer educational resources at all levels than their white counterparts. Long-established school systems continue to execute policies that provide different educational assets to whites than to non-whites, and those decisions effectively limit the economic capacities of the community as a whole.

Thirty years of research demonstrates that four factors directly influence student achievement and that white learners are much more likely to receive these factors than their non-white classmates:

smaller schools (300-500 students is optimal),

smaller class sizes,

a challenging curriculum,

and highly qualified teachers.

Despite the evidence connecting these influences to higher educational achievements, school systems that are predominantly for learners of color:

are much larger, on average, with some hosting as many as 3,000 students,

have class sizes that are 15 times larger than those found in white schools, and

accept significantly lower quality standards for both curricula and teachers.

Even integrated schools have a history of bias by directing non-white learners to lower-track classes with higher student/teacher ratios and less qualified educators.

 

The politically manufactured barriers in most of America’s communities continue to perpetuate the bias and prejudice that inhibits SM for marginalized people. As the country recovers from the recent global health crisis, it has an opportunity to reevaluate the negative impacts of its foundational civic platforms. Revising those to build in diversity and open opportunities for all residents can raise the economic value of the whole community, meet the needs of today, and lay the foundation for a more profitable – for all – tomorrow.

Women Delivering: Equity Achievements

Pam Sornson, JD on April 16, 2023

Since 1848, women have been fighting for full equality with their male counterparts, and the barriers they’ve overcome have been momentous. In the United States, women have achieved significant status as leaders, role models, and visionaries, and, in many instances, their voices and opinions carry the gravitas they deserve. The successes achieved to date, while not completing the entire mandate of full equality, now ensure that all females enjoy a plethora of protections, supports, and opportunities not imaginable by their distant ancestors.

 

An Obvious Place to Start: Becoming A ‘Person’

Fundamentally, the battle to become a fully emancipated and individualized person comes down to the identification of legal status as conferred and enforced by law. The law grants people the capacity to hold title to property, make decisions and contracts, and live independently of others’ influences. Men, apparently, are inherently ‘persons’ and ‘people;’ there has been no effort to deny them as a class from the benefits those statuses convey.

Women, however, have been fighting to attain protections and rights similar to men’s since before the American Revolution. For colonial women in the 1700s, recognized legal status was conferred based on marital status, and married female colonists were definitely at a deficit. The early settlers followed British common law, which, in 1769, defined wives as aspects of their husband’s person: “By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in the law. The very being and legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated into that of her husband under whose wing and protection she performs everything.” Women’s identification as ‘persons,’ as ‘members’ in a group of ‘people,’ and as ‘electors’ changed slightly in 1789, when the new Constitution interpreted those words to include them; the new recognition did nothing to alter their subjugated reality, however.

Note, too, that not all ‘women’ were classified as ‘persons.’

Black women remained the ‘property’ of their owners, which negated their opportunity to defend themselves against their master’s brutalities. (That ‘ownership’ role was abolished in 1865 with the passage of the 13th Amendment, but subsequently, there was little actual change in how Black women were treated.)

Asian women were almost non-existent in the country through to the 1930s, with two federal laws (1924’s Immigration Act of 1924 and 1882’s Chinese Exclusion Act) explicitly barring both Asian men and women from entering the country.

The exclusion from the rights and protections conferred by law on men was also applied to Indigenous women and females from other cultures.

Curiously, single colonial women fared better. While they couldn’t obtain a license or college degree, they could form contracts, buy and sell real estate, and accumulate and own ‘personalty,’ which is any ‘thing’ that is movable. These opportunities arose by tradition in the colonies, where single women contributed significantly to the building and development of those early communities, but they weren’t actually ‘rights,’ as those are only invested through the passage of law.

The ‘person’ label did not provide women with autonomy or equality, either. Over time, each individual state developed its own standard for the rights offered to the women within its jurisdiction.

By 1777, even before the country was established, all existing states (colonies) had passed laws prohibiting women from voting.

In 1839, Mississippi allowed its married female residents to hold title to real property in their own name, but only if they had their husband’s permission.

In 1873, an Illinois rule excluding women from practicing law was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1875, the federal high court also supported Missouri’s position that women didn’t have the right to vote because they (as a group) constituted a ‘special class of non-voting citizens.’

Consequently, by the late 19th Century, with no unifying national standard in place, women in the ‘United States’ were subjected to a multitude of differing rules and regulations based on where they lived, not on their fundamental status as human females. Not surprisingly, the confusion and inherent unfairness of the situation ignited the (still ongoing) drive to validate women as equal to men in general and equally valuable contributors to society. Only when this respect is universally accepted will women obtain and retain control over all aspects of their lives.

 

Validation and Control

Through the decades, campaign successes that established limited forms of validation for women as valued members of the community brought with them significant benefits. In addition to the right to own property (real and personal), women (married and single) also won the rights to form contracts, open businesses, participate in government, and speak out about things that mattered to them. Near ceaseless advocacy and political agitation beginning in the mid-1800s and continuing through to today have garnered many – but not all – successes, facilitating the American woman’s ability to do all those things and more.

Notably, one of the most significant gains for women was winning the right to work and earn as much as a man for doing the same labor, although those advances were hard fought and took years to accomplish. There was some forward movement in the late 19th Century (in 1879, the U.S. Congress overruled the Supreme Court and empowered a woman to practice in front of that body) and the early 20th Century (in 1938, minimum wages were made equal between women and men). However, real headway wasn’t made until the 1960s:

In 1963, the Equal Pay Act ordered that all workers be paid ‘equitably’ regardless of sex, race, color, religion, or other qualifiers. (Full enforcement of that Act remains elusive.)

In 1964, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibited employers from discriminating against people who weren’t Christian white men.

In 1965, restrictive laws curtailing women’s work hours were repealed, allowing women to take jobs previously held only by men.

In 1969, a federal court agreed that women with the physical capacity to do the same work as men should be hired to do that.

After that, Congress passed a plethora of laws that granted to women many (but not all) of the employment and work-related rights that men had.

 

For 175 years, America’s women have struggled to gain full equality within their society, and society has suffered for lack of those resources. The successes they’ve achieved and the processes they followed to attain them are indicators that, as a group, women will only rest in this endeavor once they’ve reached full and complete equality with men as valued and contributing members of society.

Delivering Women: Establishing Full Equality

Pam Sornson, JD on April 16, 2023

The battle to achieve fundamental human respect and equality isn’t limited to women. People of color, religious communities, those who are differently-abled, and many other marginalized populations continue to suffer from the injustices and inequities embedded in global social and political systems. Yet, despite the apparent challenges within their society, many communities fail to address these problems, believing them to be insurmountable or, worse, unimportant. The reality is that any level of inequity or inequality in an organized association erodes that whole community’s capacity to achieve its highest potential.

 

Exclusion is Expensive

When a percentage of the population is unable to offer its value but instead is compelled to draw resources from the greater community for survival, then even its wealthiest members suffer unnecessary social and economic losses. That’s the conclusion drawn by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in its recent report, The Economic Gains from Equity. The authors evaluated data from the Current Population Survey that estimated America could add over $25 trillion in gross domestic product gain over the next 30 years by eliminating disparities that impede personal progress and community economic growth. The report’s findings mirror those offered by other notable global entities that have drawn similar conclusions regarding the connection between achieving equity and maximizing economic development.

The conclusion is not new, either. In 2016, the Altarum Institute and Kellogg Foundation released their joint dissertation making the Business Case for Racial Equity, which describes several economic and fiscal benefits that flow from closing the wealth and earnings gap between whites and ethnic minorities. In addition to generating higher total earnings for all workers – male and female – a more diverse workforce receiving equitable resources would also:

boost long-term economic growth,

increase tax revenues for both state and federal coffers, and

reduce the number of people requiring social safety services.

 

Inclusion Increases Incomes

The challenge now is to determine a strategy to achieve this level of equity and then execute it to pursue these economic goals. Analysts at PolicyLink suggest that communities adopt an intention of achieving “economic inclusion” by connecting vulnerable populations to new jobs while ensuring that those occupations provide the wages and benefits to support both a family unit and community-wide economic growth.

They identify four’ inclusion tools’ capable of moving the initiative forward:

Adjusting local and regional hiring policies and practices to engage women and minority workers and rewarding those entities that implement them.

Use government resources to develop and support minority and woman-owned enterprises, then contract with those companies to embed them into the community’s economic foundation.

Set living-standard wage and benefits rules to ensure all workers earn the value they represent, not just get paid what the market has established for their role or occupation. This strategy directly responds to the inequities revealed by the pandemic, when those workers deemed ‘essential’ to the economy were also typically the lowest-paid employees of the community.

Pour all necessary resources into the development of a well-trained and skilled workforce. The COVID-19 crisis eliminated thousands of jobs while creating a demand for thousands more new occupations. The emerging labor force does not yet have the tools or skills to perform these new roles. Societies looking to build a better future can invest in the resources needed to provide the training and education to ensure they have the employees needed to perform these new occupations.

 

Other entities, too, have weighed in on how to raise and empower marginalized workers. For example, UNWomen is an organization within the United Nations that champions gender equality for all women and girls, which, by definition, includes females of all colors, religions, and abilities. Notably, countries that follow the organization’s recommendations for empowering women see benefits across their whole population.

This group looks specifically at the barriers and obstacles women face in their everyday lives that impede their capacity to work, earn, and care for themselves. If successfully executed, its recommendations to remove these challenges would also unleash the economic value millions of women could contribute to their communities:

Invest in care services. Women perform the vast majority of global caregiving and caretaking services, and a large percentage of those efforts go uncompensated. One entity estimates that the annual value of these resources tops $1.5 trillion. The statistic demonstrates a double hardship for women: not only do they not get paid for their time or labor, but the men who are not doing this work are then free to manage their time and earn more money because they have no comparable obligation.  

Ensure funding for women’s organizations. In many regions of the world, the ‘women’s society’ provides a safety net for females that governments have not yet established. Too few resources, however, erode their capacity to provide the quality services women and girls deserve.

Protect women’s health. Poor healthcare systems for women cause multiple economic woes for both them and their communities, yet many societies continue to erode the few that are (or were) already in existence. The World Economic Forum estimates that a $300 million investment in woman-focused research could yield a $13 billion return by enhancing the gender’s productivity and longevity.

Support women’s leadership at all levels of government and throughout society. Women appear to be more attuned and sensitive to environmental issues, and countries with more women holding elected office have adopted stricter climate policies than those with predominantly male governing bodies.

Imagine the social and economic gains that could be achieved if these recommendations were applied to all groups of people.

 

The conclusion to be drawn from these circumstances, theories, and realities is that empowering everyone to contribute to their community to the best of their ability also empowers that community to achieve its highest potential. At this critical, pivotal moment in history, it may (finally) be possible to strategize a plan to achieve that goal.

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