Work and Family in America

Current Statistics

All statistics cited are from the Census Bureau. In particular, see the recent publication from the Population Reference Bureau by Suzanne Bianchi and Daphne Spain (1996) entitled, Women, Work and Family in America. The information is organized as follows:

1. CHILDREN
2. MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE
3. EDUCATION
4. EMPLOYMENT
5. EARNINGS
6. HOUSEWORK AND CHILD CARE

• The total fertility rate is the number of children a woman can expect to have given current fertility rates. The TFR has ranged between 1.8 and 2.0 for the last 20 years after reaching a high of 3.6 near the end of the baby boom years (1956-1961).
  
  
• Unmarried women produced 1 in 3 U.S. births in 1995, compared with 1 in 5 in 1980 and 1 in 10 in 1970. Rates for black women are especially high with 71% of all births to unmarried women (compared with 21% for whites and 43% for Hispanics). Many analysts attribute the rise in out-of-wedlock births among black women, however, to black women's retreat from marriage. Black women eschew marriage to the fathers of their children due to high unemployment rates among black men (see William Julius Wilson, The Truly Disadvantaged, 1987).
  
  
• Women are increasingly delaying childbirth from their 20s to their 30s. Consequently, the percentage of women in their 40s who are childless rose from 10% in the 1970s to 18% in 1994.

• Women are also marrying later. The median age at first marriage (among women who marry, half were below this age and half above) rose from 20.8 in 1970 to 24.5 in 1994.
  
  
• Cohabitation rose from 1 to 4 percent of all households between 1970 and 1994. Some experts think that half of all couples married after 1985 began their relationship as cohabitors (e.g., see Larry Bumpass, "What's happening to the family," in Demography, Nov. 1990).
  
  
• Divorce remains at historic highs compared with the 1950s. Analyses of baby-boomer couples suggest that one-half of their first marriages will end in divorce or separation. Many analysts attribute the rise in divorce to the economic independence engendered by women's increased presence in the labor force.
  
  
• The economic consequences of divorce are straightforward: within two years of divorce, women's family income declines by 24%.
  
  
• About 2/3 of divorced women and 3/4 of divorced men eventually remarry, although divorce rates in remarriage are higher than those in first marriages (see Andrew Cherlin, Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage, 1992).
  
  
• Since women live longer than men, there is a gender imbalance in widowhood. In 1996, 33% of women (compared with 10% of men) were widowed at age 70. The majority of elderly widows live alone.
  
  
• An increase in out-of-wedlock births and rising divorce results in more female-headed households. In 1996, women headed 27% of families with children, up from 12% in 1970.

• Women have narrowed the educational gap with men. For both sexes, 1 in 4 are college educated. About half of master's degrees go to women, but only 38% of doctoral degrees were awarded to women in 1993.
  
  
• Fields of study are still highly sex-typed, however. For example, in 1993 women earned 78% of education degrees but only 16% of engineering degrees. Even so, some degrees traditionally awarded to men are are opening up to women, such as architecture (35%) and business (50%).

• Women's employment has steadily increased since World War II: 25% of all women worked in 1940 compared with 59% in 1995. The rate of increase was greatest for married women. In 1996, 3/4 of married women with children worked, and 38% worked full-time.
  
  
• Like fields of study, occupations are sex-typed. Women make up 46% of the labor force in 1995, but they comprise 79% of all clerical workers, 65% of commercial service workers, and 95% of domestic laborers.
  
  
• Women have entered some traditionally male jobs (e.g., pharmacist, insurance adjustor, real estate agent). Sociologists Barbara Reskin and Patricia Roos (in Job Queues, Gender Queues, 1990) point out, however, that in some instances women's entrance into male-dominated jobs is associated with decreases in wages and working conditions. Thus, the recent decline in occupational segregation is in part due to men fleeing deteriorating jobs, leaving room for women. On the other hand, women have increased their respresentation in some high status jobs (such as medicine and law) without a decline in the status of these professions.

• Despite progress, women earn less than men. Among full-time, full-year workers in 1995, women earned 72 cents for every dollar a man earned, up from 60 cents in 1980.
  
  
• Economists emphasize women's career choices as the primary factor which explains the gender disparity in pay. That is, women view time for child rearing as more important than men and interrupt their careers accordingly. Economists June O'Neill and Solomon Polacheck (in the Journal of Labor Economics, 1992) contend that younger women's stronger attachment to the labor force is responsible for the reduction in the pay gap cited above.
  
  
• Sociologists emphasize constraints on women's career choices as the primary factor which explains the gender disparity in pay. These constraints include: 1) employers assigning women to jobs with lower pay and promotion opportunites; and, 2) men who object to female co-workers, resulting in women leaving these jobs. A landmark study of constraints on women's careers is found in Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Men and Women of the Corporation, 1977.
  
  
• Women's lower pay and greater responsibility for children results in the feminization of poverty. In 1959 only 18% of the poverty population lived in female-headed households; in 1995 female-headed households contained 39% of the poor.

• Women do more housework than men. On average, women ages 18-65 spend about 30 hours per week in paid employment and 22 hours doing housework (see also Arlie Hochschild's, The Second Shift, 1989). Men average about ten hours per week doing housework, a figure which changes little when their wives work and they have young children in the household.
  
  
• Household tasks differ by gender. Men contribute most to yard work and home maintenace, while women carry 75% of the burden for grocery shopping, cooking, laundry, and dishwashing. The difference is that men's tasks can be delayed, while women's tasks are constant.
  
  
• Results from the 1990 National Child Care Survey suggest that when there are pre-school age children in the household, men provide child care in about 1 in 5 cases. Women are more likely to turn to neighbors and other relatives for care. The child-care provider affects women's work attachment. When women rely on their husbands for child care, they are more likely to quit work (see David Maume and Karen Mullin, 1993, Social Problems).
  
  
• Not all families pay for child care. Data from the 1990 National Child Care Survey show that half of poor and near-poor women pay for care for pre-schoolers compared with 80% of non-poor families. Yet, the cost of care is related to its quality and reliability. Poor and working-class women find that poorly trained and unreliable child care providers (which includes neighbors and relatives) are a barrier to attaining economic independence.
  
  
• Child care is an important factor in the welfare reform debate. Analyses from the 1990 National Child Care Survey suggest that poor women would increase their labor force participation rates from 29 to 44% with a full child-care subsidy (see the report of the General Accounting Office to the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues, December 1994).