How Care for Elders, Not Children, Denies Women a Paycheck
- 6 years ago
How Care for Elders, Not Children, Denies Women a Paycheck
That is about two percentage points higher than at its previous peak in 1995, just a few years before
the labor supply of women in the prime working years — 25 to 54 years old — reached a plateau.
After years of sometimes scorching debates, over whether highly educated women were “opting out”; whether the stop was merely temporary;
and whether it responded to gender roles at home or labor-market conditions, the analysis seems to have converged on a sort of rough consensus: caring for children — overwhelmingly a woman’s task — ultimately took its toll.
After rising for half a century, the labor force participation rate among prime-age women began to decline
in the early 2000s — around the time the elderly share of the population began to rise sharply.
U. S. LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION RATE
AMONG WOMEN AGES 25 TO 54
SHARE OF U. S. POPULATION AGE 65 OR OLDER
The stress is getting no lighter.
About a quarter of women 45 to 64 years old and one in seven of those 35 to 44
are caring for an older relative, according to the American Time Use Survey.
Almost 12 years ago, I gave the topic a shot in the pages of The Times: why, after a five-decade rise, did
the labor-force participation of women in the prime working years stall around the turn of the century?
That is about two percentage points higher than at its previous peak in 1995, just a few years before
the labor supply of women in the prime working years — 25 to 54 years old — reached a plateau.
After years of sometimes scorching debates, over whether highly educated women were “opting out”; whether the stop was merely temporary;
and whether it responded to gender roles at home or labor-market conditions, the analysis seems to have converged on a sort of rough consensus: caring for children — overwhelmingly a woman’s task — ultimately took its toll.
After rising for half a century, the labor force participation rate among prime-age women began to decline
in the early 2000s — around the time the elderly share of the population began to rise sharply.
U. S. LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION RATE
AMONG WOMEN AGES 25 TO 54
SHARE OF U. S. POPULATION AGE 65 OR OLDER
The stress is getting no lighter.
About a quarter of women 45 to 64 years old and one in seven of those 35 to 44
are caring for an older relative, according to the American Time Use Survey.
Almost 12 years ago, I gave the topic a shot in the pages of The Times: why, after a five-decade rise, did
the labor-force participation of women in the prime working years stall around the turn of the century?