Pink-collar

Origin

By analogy with various constructions in -collar, especially blue-collar, and from the traditional conception of pink as a feminine color (with blue its masculine counterpart), a conception perhaps magnified in this case by the sometime popularity of pink blouses among women in the service industry.

Full definition of pink-collar

Adjective

1. Of or pertaining to employees in predominately female service industries.
• 1977, Louise Kapp Howe, Pink Collar Workers: Inside the World of Women's Work, Putnam.
• 1977, Glenn Siebert, Employment Service Potential: Indicators of Labor Market Activity, California Employment Development Department, Employment Research Section, page 115,Black men have tended to congregate in laborers' jobs and certain service occupations, young workers in trade and such service enterprises as gas stations (to a lesser extent also in laborers' jobs), and women in the so-called "pink collar" occupations in trade, the services, and clerical work in all industrial sectors.
• 1986, Emrika Padus, The Complete Guide to Your Emotions and Your Health: New Dimensions in Mind/Body Healing, Rodale Press, page 210,Good examples of employees under hidden stress are the nation's pink-collar workers. This group includes secretaries, clerks, data processors, telephone operators, and others.
• 2003, Peggy Fielding, Confessing for Money, AWOC.COM (publisher), page 7,These days, girls and women of all ages are still reading them, particularly the blue collar or pink collar workers or wives of blue collar workers.