Women in the Workforce: A Century of Change

How women's paid work has changed over the past century, the forces behind the change, and the U-shaped pattern Claudia Goldin documented.

A century ago, in most rich countries, relatively few married women worked for pay outside the home. Today women make up nearly half the workforce in many of those countries. This shift is one of the largest economic changes of the modern era.

The U-shaped curve

Claudia Goldin found that women’s participation in paid work tends to follow a U-shaped curve as countries develop. In very poor, farming economies, many women work on family farms or in family businesses. As industry grows, work moves to factories away from home, and married women’s participation often falls, partly due to social stigma against married women doing manual factory work. Later, as education rises and office and service jobs expand, women’s participation rises again.

The forces behind the rise

Several forces pushed women’s paid work upward in the twentieth century:

Education: women’s schooling rose, and in many countries women now earn more university degrees than men.
White-collar jobs: office and service work was seen as more respectable and suited to educated women.
Household technology: washing machines and other appliances cut the time needed for housework.
The pill: Goldin and Lawrence Katz argued that access to the contraceptive pill from the 1960s let women delay marriage and childbirth and invest in long careers like law and medicine.
Changing laws: many countries ended “marriage bars” that forced women to leave certain jobs when they married.

Goldin called the change in women’s expectations from the 1970s a quiet revolution: young women increasingly planned for lifelong careers rather than jobs to hold before marriage.

The marriage bar

In the United States and United Kingdom, many employers, including school systems and some government departments, once had marriage bars requiring women teachers or clerks to leave when they married. These rules were largely abandoned by the mid-twentieth century. Removing them let many women keep working and build experience.

Where things stand

Women’s participation has risen dramatically but has levelled off in many rich countries, and gaps remain in pay and senior positions. In some countries, including India, women’s labour force participation remains low by international standards, and researchers study social norms, safety and job availability as reasons.

Thinking the rise was steady and automatic

The increase in women's paid work was not a smooth, inevitable trend. It depended on changes in laws, technology, education and social norms, and it has stalled or reversed in some places. Participation can fall as well as rise.

Key takeaways

Women's paid work in rich countries rose dramatically over the twentieth century.
Claudia Goldin found a U-shaped pattern of women's participation as economies develop.
Education, office jobs, household technology, the pill and legal change all contributed.
Participation has levelled off in many rich countries and remains low in some others.