Working class women internalize their own oppression. These women learn the stereotypes that define their lives at an early age. Working class women strive to maintain the traditional feminine ideal while simultaneously struggling with the limitations of class.
To a significant extent, the problems of working class women persist because they have not participated in the financial gains of the women's movement. Middle class women reaped the greatest benefits. They dramatically increased their presence in professional fields such as medicine, law, and banking: "in little more than a decade women increased their representation among the most prestigious and lucrative professions by 300 to 400 percent" (Ehrenreich, 1990, p. 217). Granted, middle class women still encounter the "glass ceiling" in their efforts to make it to the highest ranks of corporate life. Nevertheless, the women's movement secured a definite change in fortune for women from backgrounds with high social status. These women can now afford to be independent of men. Their financial future is no longer based on marrying into wealth. If a professional woman marries, and later divorces, the specter of impoverished single motherhood is rarely a threat. In contrast, working class women are still largely dependent on the incomes of their husbands.
The occupational gains of the women's movement have not been as evident in the blue-collar fields. Part of the reason is some blue collar occupations are in decline. Another reason is male opposition to the presence of women in these occupations. Males in blue-collar fields have been more successful at closing their ranks than males in the professions: "While the percentage of women in professional training was rising from less than 10 percent up to 40 percent, the proportion of women construction workers and skilled craftspersons did not reach 10 percent" (Ehrenreich, 1990, p. 217). Most working class women ar...