scholarly journals The Rise and Fall of Female Labor Force Participation During World War II in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 673-711 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan K. Rose
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Labor Force Participation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Female Labor Force Participation ◽  
Female Employment ◽  
Local Labor Markets ◽  
World War ◽  
Female Labor

I use new data on employment and job placements during WWII to characterize the wartime surge in female work and its subsequent impact on female employment in the United States. The geography of female wartime work was primarily driven by industrial mobilization, not drafted men’s withdrawal from local labor markets. After the war, returning veterans and sharp cutbacks in war-related industries displaced many new female entrants, despite interest in continued work. As a result, areas most exposed to wartime work show limited overall effects on female labor force participation in 1950 and only marginal increases in durables manufacturing employment.

World War II and Female Labor Force Participation Rates

1980 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary M. Schweitzer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
The United States ◽  
Production Theory ◽  
Participation Rates ◽  
World War ◽  
Female Labor ◽  
Household Production Theory

Between the years 1940 and 1947 the demand for female labor in the United States shifted rapidly. Wages for women rose swiftly during the war, then fell suddenly when industries converted to peacetime production. This paper makes use of household production theory to explore the behavior of different segments of the female labor force as they responded to the radical changes in demand brought by World War II. The analysis suggests that a crucial turning point in the efforts to hire women was reached in the second half of 1943.

Spending on Children across Four Countries: Variation in the Role of Income and Women’s Labor Force Participation

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 562-587
Author(s):  
Sabino Kornrich ◽  
Leah Ruppanner ◽  
Trude Lappegård
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Labor Force Participation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Female Labor Force Participation ◽  
Women's Labor ◽  
Public Provision ◽  
Female Labor ◽  
Expenditure Data ◽  
Women's Labor Force Participation

Abstract Scholars have recently documented inequalities in parents’ spending on children in the United States. This article situates these trends cross-nationally by using expenditure data from the United States, Australia, Spain, and Norway. The article investigates differences across countries in the links between household income, female labor force participation, and spending on children. The links between income, female labor force participation, and spending are largest in the United States and smallest in Norway, while Spain and Australia are intermediate cases, suggesting that public provision lessens inequalities in parental spending on children.

scholarly journals Culture: An Empirical Investigation of Beliefs, Work, and Fertility

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raquel Fernández ◽  
Alessandra Fogli
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Labor Force Participation ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fertility Rates ◽  
Female Labor ◽  
Institutional Conditions

We study culture by examining the work and fertility behavior of second-generation American women. Culture is proxied with past female labor force participation and total fertility rates from the woman's country of ancestry. The values of these variables capture not only economic and institutional conditions but also the country's preferences and beliefs regarding women's roles. Since the women live in the United States, only the belief and preference components are potentially relevant. We show that the cultural proxies have positive significant explanatory power even after controlling for education and spousal characteristics, and we demonstrate that the results are unlikely to be explained by unobserved human capital. JEL: J13, J16, J22, J24, Z13

scholarly journals What Explains Uneven Female Labor Force Participation Levels and Trends in Developing Countries?

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Klasen
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Labor Force Participation ◽  
Economic Structure ◽  
Female Labor Force Participation ◽  
Female Employment ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Women's Labor ◽  
Female Labor ◽  
Women's Labor Force Participation

Abstract Rapid fertility decline, a strong expansion of female education, and favorable economic conditions should have promoted female labor force participation in developing countries. Yet trends in female labor force participation rates (FLFP) have been quite heterogeneous, rising strongly in Latin America and stagnating in many other regions, while improvements were modest in the Middle East and female participation even fell in South Asia. These trends are inconsistent with secular theories such as the feminization U hypothesis but point to an interplay of initial conditions, economic structure, structural change, and persistent gender norms and values. We find that differences in levels are heavily affected by historical differences in economic structure that circumscribe women's economic opportunities still today. Shocks can bring about drastic changes, with the experience of socialism being the most important shock to women's labor force participation. Trends are heavily affected by how much women's labor force participation depends on their household's economic conditions, how jobs deemed appropriate for more educated women are growing relative to the supply of more educated women, whether growth strategies are promoting female employment, and to what extent women are able to break down occupational barriers within the sectors where women predominantly work.

The Trend in the Rate of Labor Force Participation of Older Men, 1870–1930: A Reply to Moen

1989 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 170-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger L. Ransom ◽  
Richard Sutch
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Older Men ◽  
The United States ◽  
World War ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Gainful Employment ◽  
Labor Force Status ◽  
Older Men And Women

In the 1986 volume of this JOURNAL we discussed the frequency of retirement and downward occupational mobility (on-the-job retirement) of older men in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century.1 As we noted, study of retirement in the years before World War II is hampered by the lack of data on the labor force status of individuals. Indeed, until the concept of “gainful employment” was replaced by that of the “labor force” in 1940, the official census figures on occupations contained a large proportion of older men and women who by today's standard would be regarded as retired2.

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