It Pays to Be Ready for Work

Published July 24, 1980. 

QUESTION: I just graduated from high school and am wondering what is the big deal about career education? Why not just get married and let the husband provide for you? A woman’s place is in the home anyway, so why prepare for a job or career?

ANSWER: It would be nice if all women who wanted a husband had one to provide all the economic necessities of life for them. Unfortunately, they do not. A vast number of women must be totally self-sufficient, and almost all will be required to be so during some part of their lives.

A pamphlet developed by the Utah Technical College in Provo is addressed to young women and is titled “Support Yourself.” If work and working are defined as paid employment, it notes that nine out of 10 young women will work at some time in their lives. And a majority of them will do so because of economic necessity.

The pamphlet points out that it is unrealistic for all young women to assume that a man will support them throughout their adult life. If we define adult as 18 years of age and over, approximately one in 10 adult women in the U.S. are not married, and 3-4 percent never will marry. In 1975 about 13 percent of women were widows and another 9 percent were divorced or separated from their husbands. All totaled, nearly one in three adult women in the United States have no husband to support them.

The bulletin also notes that a husband’s salary or wage is often not sufficient to meet all the economic demands a married couple will face. About 37 percent of the women who work have husbands who earn less than $15,000 a year, which is below the average income in America. Apparently economic need is a major incentive for many women to work, whether married or single. Others work for a variety of reasons.

The report observes that the personal experiences of many women, for both national and Utah statistics, suggest that every high school girl should prepare herself for the economic realities she may face. This preparation should include an awareness of financially rewarding jobs now available to women and training or education for a good job of her choice.

It concludes, “Women should be able to support themselves and their families with financially rewarding work. Some may never need to work or want to, but economic necessity will dictate employment for many, whether they have planned for it or not.”

A problem is faced by many young women nationwide as evidenced in marriage classes I have taught. The question constantly arises whether a young woman should plan for marriage, train for a job, or both. All too frequently it appears that marriage and careers for women are seen as competing events, and she must choose between the two. As married women are finding however, they may have to rely on their own capabilities to financially provide for themselves and possibly a family, whether married or single. Training for a well-paying, rewarding job can be a good investment, regardless of whether she will be required to use the skills acquired.

The Utah Technical College and other groups training young people for careers are to be commended for their efforts both in defining the problems and providing the education young men and women need to be successfully employed.

It was Ogden Nash who quipped, “If you don’t want to work, you have to work to earn enough money so that you won’t have to work.”