Working Hard for the Money: Trends in Women’s Employment, 1970 to 2007

This report was authored through the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. The researcher outlines the changing nature of women and work nationally over time, and in rural and urban areas. The focus of this research is five key changes: 1) the increase in women’s employment, 2) the recent “opting out” phenomenon, 3) the rise in women’s earnings and declines in the earnings gap, 4) the rise in the working poor, and 5) the decline in the traditional family structure of a husband as breadwinner with a stay-at-home wife. As an example, many rural families are relying more on the woman’s income to supplement the family’s earnings and are working in traditionally male dominated fields like farming and mining.