The New Life Cycle of Women's Employment: Disappearing Humps, Sagging Middles, Expanding Tops

摘要

A new life cycle of women's labor force participation emerged with cohorts born in the 1950s. It is flatter and higher with no hump but with a dip in the middle and a phasing out that is later than for previous cohorts. High levels of female employment early in life are predictive of working longer at older ages, although no cohorts with the new life-cycle characteristics are yet old enough to observe in their 60s and 70s. What brought about the new life cycle of women's work? The most important part of the story is the increase in participation by a succession of cohorts. That tale begins in the early twentieth century and is mainly about the impact of the growth in real wages combined with an increased importance of the substitution effect and a declining importance of the income effect (Blau and Kahn 2007). Later, young women in the late 1960s and 1970s began to have more realistic expectations of their future employment and started to make educational investments that could lead to longer and fulfilling careers (Goldin 2006). The "quiet revolution" that resulted further expanded women's employment. Together with the improved ability of young women to control the timing of childbirth (with the contraceptive "pill"), the marriage age rose and births were delayed. Motherhood came later in life and its impact on employment and careers was lessened.