Labor Market Participation of Young Married Women: Causes and Effects

The increasing labor-force participation of married women cannot be adequately explained without taking into account the change in attitudes toward women working outside the home. Attitudes continue to be an important determinant of a woman's work status but are in turn influenced by her work status. Specifically, the findings are consistent with the interpretation that husbands' attitudes tend to become unfavorable toward women in the labor market when they become used to a wife who is a fulltime homemaker. Overall, the evidence points toward continuation of recent trends in female labor-force participation, unless there is prolonged severe unemployment.