Changes in the Labor Force Participation and Income of the Aged in the United States, 1947-1976

1979 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred C. Pampel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Labor Force Participation ◽  
The United States

IT Workforce Composition and Characteristics

2011 ◽  
pp. 850-855 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua L. Rosenbloom ◽  
Ronald A. Ash ◽  
LeAnne Coder ◽  
Brandon Dupont
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Information Technology ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Labor Force Participation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Women's Representation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Women’S Representation ◽  
Women In It ◽  
It Workforce

Women are under represented in the information technology (IT) workforce. In the United States, although women make up about 45% of the overall labor force they make up only about 35% of the IT workforce. (Information Technology Association of America, 2003, p. 11). Within IT, women’s representation declines as one moves up to higher-level occupations. While women are relatively more numerous among data entry keyers and computer operators, they are relatively less likely to be found in high-level occupations like systems analysts and computer programmers. The relatively low representation of women in IT fields parallels a broader pattern of gender differentials in other scientific and technical fields. In all science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields combined, women held 25.9% of jobs in 2003. Women’s representation varies widely by sub-fields, however; 65.8% of psychologists and 54.6% of social scientists are women, but only 10.4% of engineers, and 37.4% of natural scientists (Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology, 2004, p. 2). Over the course of the past 100 years, there has been a dramatic change in women’s economic role. In 1900, only one in five adult women worked outside the home, and most of these were young and unmarried (Goldin, 1990). Since then, male and female labor force participation rates have tended to converge. Between 1900 and 1950 there was a gradual expansion of women’s labor force participation. After World War II the pace of change accelerated sharply as more married women entered the labor force. During the 1960s and early 1970s a series of legal changes significantly broadened protection of women’s rights ending essentially all forms of overt discrimination (Fuchs, 1988; Long, 2001, p. 9-10). The removal of these barriers in combination with the availability of cheap and reliable birth control technology greatly facilitated the entry of women into higher education, and technical and professional positions (Goldin & Katz, 2002). Nevertheless, as the figures cited at the outset reveal, women’s participation in IT and other technical fields has not increased as rapidly as it has in less technical fields. And in striking contrast to the general trend toward increasing female participation in most areas of the workforce, women’s share of the IT workforce in the United States has actually declined over the past two decades. Any effort to explain gender differences in IT must begin with an understanding of how the number, characteristics, and pay of women in IT have evolved over time, and across different sub-fields within IT. This chapter provides a foundation for this analysis by documenting recent changes in the number of women employed in IT, their demographic characteristics, and relative pay.

Child Poverty in Sweden and the United States: The Effect of Social Transfers and Parental Labor Force Participation

ILR Review ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Jäntti ◽  
Sheldon Danziger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Labor Force Participation ◽  
Child Poverty ◽  
Poverty Line ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lower Percentage ◽  
Homogeneous Population ◽  
Social Transfers ◽  
Using Data

The authors compare the incidence and some of the causes of child poverty in Sweden and the United States in selected years using data from the Luxembourg Income Study. The U.S. sample is restricted to white non-hispanic children to present the most favorable comparison with Sweden's more homogeneous population. When parents' labor force participation and demographic characteristics are taken into account, the proportion of children in families whose income prior to social transfers and taxes was below the poverty line (defined as 40% of median disposable income adjusted for family size) is very similar in the two countries. Because all poor children in Sweden received transfers and many in the United States did not, however, and because transfers were more generous in Sweden, a much lower percentage of children in Sweden than in the United States were poor after social transfers and taxes, regardless of parents' work effort or other characteristics.

scholarly journals Changes in Labor Force Participation in the United States

2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 27-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chinhui Juhn ◽  
Simon Potter
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Labor Force Participation ◽  
Participation Rate ◽  
The United States ◽  
Labor Force Participation Rate ◽  
Demographic Trends ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Downturns

The labor force participation rate in the United States increased almost continuously for two-and-a-half decades after the mid-1960s, pausing only briefly during economic downturns. The pace of growth slowed considerably during the 1990s, however, and after reaching a record high of 67.3 percent in the first quarter of 2000, participation had declined by 1.5 percentage points by 2005. This paper reviews the social and demographic trends that contributed to the movements in the labor force participation rate in the second half of the twentieth century. It also examines the manner in which developments in the 2000s reflect a break from past trends and considers implications for the future.

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