U.S. Women at Work.

Women comprised 43% of the United States labor force in 1980, up from 29% in 1950. The surge in women's employment is linked to more delayed marriage, divorce, separation, women's increased education, lower fertility, rapid growth in clerical and service jobs, inflation, and changed attitudes toward "women's place." Employment has risen fastest among married women, especially married mothers of children under six. Some 44% of employed women work full-time, year-round, but average $6 for every $10 earned by men working that same amount. This is partly because most women remain segregated in low-paying "women's jobs." Working wives were spending six times more time on housework than married men in 1975, and working mothers of preschool children are hampered by a lack of day-care facilities. Equal employment opportunity and affirmative action have improved the climate for working women but not as much as for minorities. Federal income tax and social security systems still discriminate against two-earner families. Women's position in the labor force should improve with the inroads women are making in some male-dominated occupations and gains in job experience and seniority among younger women who now tend to stay in the labor force through the years of childbearing and early child-rearing. (Author/YLB)