Not your mother's world

"Eddie says after the baby comes, I can quit one of my night jobs."
-         National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)
 
Night job or day, more women are returning to work after having a baby than in the 1960s, and they're working up until practically the last minute. A sign of the times? A roundup of new Census Bureau data making headlines recently, offering a glimpse into the American family and work culture—with a focus on women.
 
Who knew? March is Women's History Month
In honor of a full month to celebrate women, the Census released a host of data about women:1) 6.5 million businesses are women-owned, about 28% of all non-farm businesses.
2) A higher percentage of women than men achieve bachelor's degrees or higher (33% v 26%), and more graduate from high school.

3) At $32,649, the median salary for women is $10,000 less than that of men.

4) Women living in the District of Columbia make 98 cents to every dollar made by men—the closest parity in the country.
Read the full release.

The pregnancy shift
Later, faster, longer… these are the key words to remember when it comes to women and pregnancy and work. Not only are more women (80% vs 14% in 1960) working into their last month of pregnancy, the number of women having their first baby after age 30 has spiked from 4% in 1970 to 24% today. Just over half of new moms returned to work six months after having the baby, up from 14% four decades ago. Ironically, the number of stay-at-home moms increased by one million between 1996 and 2006.
Read the full release.

Women are having fewer children
The average number of children born to women between the ages of 40 and 44 dropped from 3.1 in 1976 to 1.9 in 2004. And, fewer women in this group had children at all, 81% down from 90%.

The big picture
Of course there have been major shifts in the acceptance of women in the workplace since the 60s, and the shift to later pregnancies probably reflects this to a certain degree. Why they are returning to work faster is potentially a reality of the times—the average college education costs $20,000 a year. One income often won't cut it. What hasn't changed is women's percentage of earnings to men's—it's still 77 cents on the dollar. Depending on the outcome of the remaining primaries, it could be anyone's guess whether having a female president might have helped changed that.

Comments

[Sung Ah]

Do you have any stats on why fewer women in the age 40-44 range were having children? Is this solely based on married women or all women? Do you think there are more of us that are single (whether never married OR divorced before becoming pregnant)? Or are we less capable of becoming pregnant in this age range, in recent times?

[Kerrie Halmi]

Great information! I am an executive coach who increases women's success in the Corporate World. One point I want to emphasize about the wage disparity...I've often found in my work (and there is significant research backing this up) that one reason women don't make as much money is that they don't ask for it. Women--ask for what you deserve! www.HalmiPerformance.com