Women in the Workforce
As wage growth slowed and jobs disappeared from 1970 onward the percentage of women in the workforce grew dramatically. Working families were needing two incomes to maintain their standard of living.
Changes in labor force participation varied by age group. The biggest increase in labor force participation was among those age 25 to 34—their rate more than doubled, from a level of 34.0 percent in 1950 to 76.3 percent in 1998. Also, in 1950 women age 16 to 24 had the highest labor force participation rate (43.9 percent); in 1998 women age 35 to 44 had the highest rate (77.1 percent), followed closely by those age 25 to 34 (76.3 percent) and those age 45 to 54 (76.2 percent).
Reader Comments
John, while I believe the narrative that women moved into the workforce to compensate for declines in real income, do you know of any data that supports this cause-effect relationship, as opposed to other relationships (e.g. the reverse, that real income declined because there were more workers available or that declines in real income and increases in women in the workplace are correlated but independent)?
And now about 60% of college graduates are women.
In 2005-2006, women earned 62% of Associate’s degrees, 58% of Bachelor’s degrees, 60.0% of Master’s degrees, and 48.9% of Doctorates. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d07/tables/dt07_178.asp
In 2016-2017, women are projected to earn 64.2% of Associate’s degrees, 59.9% of Bachelor’s degrees, 62.9% of Master’s degrees, and 55.5% of Doctorates. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d07/tables/dt07_258.asp
My idea is a hypothesis. There is data to support it, but certainly alternative explanations are possible. What convinces me is that the interjection of women to the workforce took place in the context of an ongoing decline in America’s competitiveness. I see it as a progression in which the over-reliance on credit was another step.
This is true. Part of this is economic necessity, but also a lot of the increase of women in professions and in universities is also due to the women’s movement. The high divorce rate also plays into this as women are aware that if they end up as single parents, they better improve their earning power.
Very interesting plot! It seems that as of 1998 the SAHM is now a minority, below 25% of the female population.
Also, I was not aware at the relatively large group of working women in 1950- especially those above 35 years old.
John, just to clarify. Is there a typo on that graph? For the first two bars, should it read “16 and younger”, since the next bars are labeled “16 – 24″.
In fact, the left-most column should read “15 and Younger” because the categories have to be mutually exclusive.
Thanks for noticing.