Chapter 9
(Caplow,Hicks,&Wattenberg,2000).One
legacyofWWIIwasthenew-found
independenceandself-worthwhich
marriedwomendiscoveredthrough
working.Nearlyhalf thewomendrawn
intotheworkforcebythewarhadleftby
1950;however,asignificantnumber
remained(Acemoglu,Autor,&Lyle,2002).
About17%of thoseremainingwere
workingmothers(Cohany&Sok,2007).
Manywhite,middle-classwomenwith
somecollegeeducationwerefillingjobs,
partlybecausetherewerenotenoughmen
tofillthem,partlybecausetheyneeded
moreincomeandpartlybecausetheywere
tiredof domesticityandwantedjobs
(Epstein,2002).Womenworkedin
primarilytraditionaljobssuchasclerical,
sales,teachingandnursing,butsome
womenfoundmorediversified
employmentintraditionallymale
occupationssuchasscience,medicineand
agriculture(Caplow,Hicks,&Wattenberg,
2000).Thetrendof womeninthe
workforcehascontinuedtoincreasesince
thattime.
Revolution: First-Generation Women Who
Work Outside the Home
The 1960s ushered in dramatic changes
in families,marriages and work.Social
attitudes toward women and their role in
society changed after the war ended.From
the mid-1960s on,married,middle-class
women with children found greater
acceptance in choosing to work outside
the home.The dynamics of marriage
subtly changed as a result,so that women
were not wholly dependent on their
husbands to support them (Engerman &
Owyang,2006).The common structure of
marriage in this period changed from the
traditionalpatriarchalmarriage to a more
egalitarian,companionate form of
marriage (Amato,Booth,Johnson,&
Rogers,2007).This enabled women to
have greater bargaining power in family
decisions which is associated with higher
marital quality for wives (Amato et al.,
2007) (see chapter 6).
Women were still primarily responsible
for the majority of housework and care of
the children.Most husbands helped with
household chores,but usually those chores
which qualified as“man’s work”
(household repairs,yard work,trash).
Advanced technology,such as washing
machines,vacuums,and dishwashers,is
responsible for the reduction in
housework time and freed women to
pursue outside employment (Greenwood,
Seshadri,&Yorukoglu,2005).
The Women’s Revolution.The Equal Pay
Act of 1963 bolstered the value of women’s
employment by making it illegal for
employers to pay different rates for
women and men who performed equal
work (Brinkley,2003).InThe Feminine
Mystique(1963),author Betty Friedan
identified the enduring“problem that has