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March 2002, Vol. 125, No. 3

The labor force experience of women from ‘Generation X’

Marisa DiNatale and Stephanie Boraas

During the 1960s and 1970s, legislation and changing social mores dramatically altered the choices young women had about their futures. Girls growing up during this period were influenced both by the conventions of their parents’ generation and by the new opportunities that were becoming available to them. In contrast, girls born in later years grew up in an era in which women often were expected to combine market work¹  with family responsibilities. Consequently, women who were aged 25 to 34 years in 2000 had a markedly different relationship to the labor market than did their counterparts in 1975.

The first part of this article focuses on the major demographic and labor market indicators that are used to describe young women. These indicators will be used to see how the group and its relationship to the labor market has changed over the past quarter century. The second part focuses on issues facing young women in the labor market today. ² 

This excerpt is from an article published in the March 2002 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. The full text of the article is available in Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format (PDF). See How to view a PDF file for more information.

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Footnotes

1 In this article, the term "market work" refers to jobs outside the home, whether paid or unpaid.

2 Most of the data in this chapter were derived from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of households conducted by the Bureau of the Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For more information regarding the Current Population Survey, see Current Population Survey: Design and Methodology, Bureau of Labor Statistics Technical Paper 63, March 2000. Where the CPS did not provide complete information, other sources were used.

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Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey

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Labor force participation: 75 years of change, 1950-98 and 1998-2025.—Dec. 1999.
Marriage, children, and women's employment: what do we know?—Dec. 1999.
Developments in women's labor force participation.—Sept. 1997. 
Women and the labor market: the link grows stronger.—March 1988.