FACTORS INFLUENCING THE RISING LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION RATES OF MARRIED WOMEN WITH PRESCHOOL CHILDREN.

This paper investigates factors contributing to the rapid rise in participation rates among mothers of pre-school children despite their considerable child-care responsibilities. The analysis, confined to trends in participation rates of white married women from 1960 to 1970, compares women with children under six years to all married women. Thus, the paper focuses on those changes with a particularly strong impact on mothers of pre-school children. Women selected for study comprise white married women, aged 14-64, living with their husbands. Data are drawn from the 1/1000 samples of the U.S. population in 1960 and 1970. For these women, the rate of increase in participation from 1960 to 1970 was 51.7 percent for women with children under six years, compared to 29.9 percent for all women. Women are finding it easier to combine child rearing and employment, either because of changes in the type of work available, such as more part-time jobs, or because women with young children find work in the home less time consuming, and the constraint of young children has not diminished, but has been offset by other factors.