Thus, we propose a life course approach that draws on existing theories explaining women’s workforce participation and applies these theories to a nationally representative sample of Baby Boomer women as they age. Yet, these same studies are limited by the scope of the data that were available-either shorter time durations or more regionally specific populations than our current study. 1992 Pavalko and Smith 1999 Williams and Han 2003). Prior research suggests that women’s workforce participation varies significantly over time and that many of the same variables that predict women’s employment status-a measure of current employment-also explain their workforce participation over time (Hibbard and Pope 1993 Hynes and Clarkberg 2005 Moen et al. Our goal is to construct a more comprehensive empirical and theoretical understanding of how women’s personal characteristics and structural positions place them on long-term pathways of workforce participation. We seek to uncover the different ways that women participate in the workforce and the variables that best predict why some women participate steadily in full-time work while other women do not. In light of these changes, this article looks at inequality among women by comparing the diversity of their labor force experiences. Approximately one-third of all employed women are employed part-time and are disproportionately working-class, working-poor, and women of color (England et al. Moreover, these patterns are stratified such that the least advantaged women are also the least likely to work full-time. While women’s workforce participation grew rapidly through the late 1990s, this progress appears to have arrested or even decreased slightly since the early 2000s (Boushey 2008).
Yet recent research suggests women’s employment continues to be “uneven and stalled” (England 2010:149). Bureau of Labor Statistics 2009), spending an increasing amount of their adult lives employed (Bianchi et al. Workforce participation, Gender, Life course, Socioeconomic status, Work–family IntroductionĪ majority of women in the United States now participate in the paid labor market (U.S. Significantly, we point to social stratification, gender ideologies, and work–family constraints, all working in concert, as key explanations for how women are “tracked” onto work pathways from an early age. We conclude that women’s employment pathways are a product of both their resources and changing social environment as well as individual agency. Work–family opportunities and constraints also were related to women’s work hours, as were a woman’s gendered beliefs and expectations. Indeed, race, poverty, educational attainment, and early family characteristics significantly shaped women’s work careers. Our findings provide evidence of the lasting influence of work–family conflict and early socioeconomic advantages and disadvantages on women’s work pathways. A majority of women follow one of the two full-time work pathways, while fewer than 10 % follow a pathway of unpaid labor. We find two pathways of stable full-time work for women, three pathways of part-time employment, and a pathway of unpaid labor. Drawing from data on women’s weekly work hours in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), we identify significant inequality in women’s labor force experiences across adulthood. Despite numerous changes in women’s employment in the latter half of the twentieth century, women’s employment continues to be uneven and stalled.
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