Position on Vocational Education
The new global economy increasingly demands more high-skilled and better educated workers than ever before. While more women are working than ever before, many do not have the skills necessary to obtain the high-wage jobs needed to adequately support themselves and their families. The American Association of University Women (AAUW) believes that career and technical education (CTE) is increasingly important for women and girls seeking to earn their way in a competitive marketplace. AAUW's 2011-2013 Public Policy Program states, "to achieve economic self-sufficiency for all women, AAUW advocates programs that provide women with education, training, and support for success in the work force, including nontraditional occupations." It further states that AAUW will actively work to strengthen educational programs, including "vocational education, to improve postsecondary education access, career development and earning potential."10
AAUW strongly believes that access to high-wage, high-skill jobs should be a right for women and girls from diverse racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, age, and disability backgrounds, including training for nontraditional jobs. It is in the fields traditionally dominated by men that women workers can begin to close the persistent wage gap between women and men. Women who are trained in nontraditional jobs are able to earn more than those employed in traditional occupations. For example, a woman working as a computer scientist or systems analyst — a nontraditional field for women — can earn a mean annual wage of $60,684, while a woman working as an administrative assistant — a traditional field for women — will only earn a mean annual wage of $32,188.11 Further, women who do not earn a bachelor's degree — and therefore constitute an important population group for career and technical education programming — earn only 66 percent of male workers' median income.12 To shrink the wage gap for skilled workers, participation and achievement in career and technical education should not be bound by sex segregation, gender stereotypes, harassment, or barriers that prevent girls and women — including single mothers, pregnant and parenting teens, displaced homemakers, and welfare recipients — from becoming economically self-sufficient.
10 American Association of University Women. (June 2011). 2011-13 AAUW Public Policy Program. Retrieved August 11, 2011, from http://www.aauw.org/act/issue_advocacy/principles_priorities.cfm.
11 U.S. Department of Labor. (2009). National Wage Data, Household Data Annual Averages, Table 39. Retrieved January 18, 2011, from www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat39.pdf.
12 U.S. Census Bureau. (2007). Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement, Table 7. Retrieved January 18, 2011 from www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/acs-09.pdf.