Women at Work

 

Opinions and Evidence - The trend toward increasing labor force participation by American women, an especially significant phenomenon in the decades since W.W.II, is best explained as the result of rising real wage rates for women.

Outline

1. Women have always worked
   1. In the past, most women's work has been unpaid work in the home or a family business

   2. The 20th century has seen a dramatic reallocation of women's work efforts toward paid work in the market

   3. Historical overview of the women's labor force participation
      1. 1800 - 1870

      2. 1870 - 1930

      3. 1930 - present

2. The impact of rising market wages provides the key to explaining the dramatic increase in labor force participation
   1. Market wages are the price of time, the opportunity cost of non-market work

   2. Causes and characteristics of women's increased labor force participation

3. The "gender gap" measures the differences in earnings of men and women
   1. From 1890 to 1930 increases in women's level of education and greater labor force experience diminished the gender gap significantly

   2. After many years of no change, the 1980s and the early 1990s have seen a narrowing in the earnings gap between men and women

   3. Increasing labor force participation and occupational segregation help to explain the persistence of the gender gap

   4. Stable labor force participation rates and a more open job market in the future should cause further decreases in the gender gap

4. Despite impressive economic gains for some women, some negative trends are also apparent
   1. Changes in social structure are accompanied by rising poverty among women

   2. Women employed outside the home retain almost complete responsibility for work in the home as well

Connections to Economics

Rules of the Game - Why, throughout most of American history, have women traditionally not worked outside their homes? What impact have wage rates, education levels, the demands of child-rearing, and occupational segregation had on women's labor force participation rates?

Trade-offs - What costs have women borne as a result of their increased labor-force participation? Why has a gender gap in the wages persisted into the 90s? Why does an increase in poverty among women accompany an otherwise positive picture of increasing wages and career opportunity?

Incentives - How have rising real wage rates changed women's perceptions of the costs and benefits of working outside the home?

The Economic Way of Thinking - Rising real wage rates has provided the incentive for increasing numbers of women to enter the paid labor market. Ironically, the increased labor force participation delays the closing of the gender gap in men's and women's earnings.

Economic Concepts that support the historical analysis:

• opportunity cost
• productivity
• derived demand
• equilibrium price (wages)
• labor markets