For women, finding work a tough job
If Diane Whitcomb had a job interview, she'd be ready. She has had practice interviews and has prepared three questions to ask the potential employer.
She would pass any office skills test; she spent three months learning the most up-to-date computer programs. Her soft voice, conservative outfit, and the touch of blush on her cheeks might make the interviewer like her even more. The company might hire her.
That's if she had an interview. In eight months of job searching, Whitcomb didn't have a single call from a potential employer. "Not one," she said after attending a career fair in April. "I don't know what I'm going to do."
For all the employment-friendly qualities Whitcomb can control, there are some she can't. She's 62. She's a woman. She hasn't had a job in 12 years, and has never had what she would consider a career. And now that she's getting divorced, she needs to support herself.
"There are enormous barriers" to reentry into the workforce, said Randy Albelda, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. "One is deterioration of skills. I think employers are leery of people that leave the labor market. Then there's age discrimination, which I think exists."
Economically, divorced women fare the worst of any group as they age. More than 14 percent of households headed by divorced women are unable to pay bills, versus 10 percent headed by divorced men and 8 percent headed by married couples, according to a 2003 study by the Washington-based Institute for Women's Policy Research.
According to Albelda, women who leave the workforce and subsequently are divorced or separated suffer high economic penalties, including loss of pension income, savings or assets, and healthcare coverage. In January, The
"I'm in horrible debt," Whitcomb said. She is working in a subsidized position through Operation A.B.L.E. of Greater Boston, which helps people older than 45 find employment. The job pays minimum wage for 20 hours per week, a total weekly income of $150. Every month, she estimates, her debt increases by $1,000.
"I see a lot of women who have gone through their whole life being resourceful and taking care of business, and then they're in a situation where they're just not able to fix it," said Susan Jepson, a program manager at Operation A.B.L.E. "It's not their fault, but it is their responsibility."
When a woman who is not working loses her source of income, either through the death or divorce of a spouse, consequences can be dire, as Whitcomb knows. She left her husband five years ago, and her savings are gone. She lives in a trailer park in Peabody. The landlord recently threatened to make her move her mobile home off the grounds if she didn't pay her rent.
"What he didn't know is that there's no way I could have afforded to move it," said Whitcomb. She eventually asked her brother for help with her bills.
Whitcomb believes no one will hire her. She looks back on the decision she made at 19 to forgo a career for a family and again in 1995 to leave the workforce after a layoff, and wonders if there's something she could have done differently.
Like many women of her generation, Whitcomb didn't think twice about having her husband support her.
Jepson said older women looking for work typically face three major issues: lack of up-to-date computer skills; lack of understanding that the job search process has changed drastically over the past decade; and what she calls "a big, big self-confidence issue."
"While wages are important, these women are looking at employment with a different attitude," said Marilyn Foster, manager of the North Shore Career Center in Lynn. Most women are just trying to make enough for food, rent or mortgage, and health insurance, she said. They are also looking for stability. They are "painfully aware" that each time they job hunt in their 50s and 60s, the process is more difficult, Foster added.
When job searching on her own wasn't panning out last year, Whitcomb enrolled in Officeworks, a program offered by Catholic Charities in Lynn that assists low-income women with computer training and job-search skills. Most women leave within 90 days, and by then, 70 to 80 percent have jobs, according to Fran Troutman, the program's coordinator. The women are trained in such skills as
Completing the Officeworks program got Whitcomb over the first hump of job market reentry. But other factors that women like Whitcomb can't control can be devastating.
In a recent study reported in the AARP Bulletin, researchers sent resumes of job applicants with identical skills to 1,000 large US companies. The only differences between the applicants were their ages: half were 57 years old, the other half 32. According to the researchers, companies were largely uninterested in interviewing the older applicants.
When she left her husband, Whitcomb had misgivings about her job prospects, but was reassured by the money she had saved.
"I did struggle with, 'Should I stay here and just put up with him until I have a job?' " she said. "I finally decided to leave. I thought it would be a while" before she found a job, "but I didn't know it would be this hard."
Debt collectors call all the time, Whitcomb said, but she doesn't know where else she can cut back. She only buys what she needs at the grocery store, doesn't own a cellphone, and never shops for clothes.
She thought about cutting out her car, but wonders how she would get anywhere. She hasn't paid her heating bill in two months, "but luckily they aren't calling and being nasty," she said.
Her husband has been found in contempt of court for not paying alimony and providing her with health insurance, according to Whitcomb. He has disappeared.
So for now, Whitcomb spends her days earning minimum wage as a receptionist.
"This is kind of to get me back out there, into the working world," she says. "It's helping to build my confidence."
For those in similar situations, Jepson suggested looking at what she calls "survival jobs" -- three or four months at
Whitcomb's options are limited. Her savings are gone, and she could begin taking Social Security payments early, but she would lose a quarter of her benefits if she doesn't wait until she's 65.
While she has applied for public healthcare and fuel assistance, Whitcomb hasn't gone any further.
"I thought you only go on welfare if you have kids," she said. The three she raised are grown.
"I should apply for food stamps. Sometimes, I forget or I'm just so overloaded and stressed." 