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Introduction

The past several decades have been marked by notable 

changes in women’s labor force activities. Women’s labor 

force participation is significantly higher today than it was in 

the 1970s, particularly among women with children under 18 

years of age. A larger share of women work full time and year 

round than in the past. In addition, women have increasingly 

attained higher levels of education: Among women aged 25 

to 64 who are in the labor force, the proportion with a college 

degree roughly tripled from 1970 to 2010. Women’s earnings 

as a proportion of men’s earnings also have grown over time. 

In 1979, women working full time earned 62 percent of what 

men did; in 2010, women’s earnings were 81 percent of 

men’s.

This report presents historical and current labor force 

and earnings data for women and men from the Current 

Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is a national monthly 

survey of approximately 60,000 households conducted by the 

U.S. Census Bureau for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Unless otherwise noted, data are annual averages from the 

CPS. For a detailed description of the source of the data 

and an explanation of concepts and definitions used, see the 

technical note at the end of this report.

Highlights

•	 In 2010, 58.6 percent of women were in the 

labor force, down from 2009. Women’s labor 

force participation rate peaked at 60.0 percent in 

1999, following several decades in which women 

increasingly entered the labor market. (See tables 1 

and 2.)

•	 The overall unemployment rate for women in 2010 

was 8.6 percent, compared with 10.5 percent for 

men. Women’s jobless rates varied by race and 

Hispanic ethnicity. Asian women had the lowest 

unemployment rate (7.1 percent), followed by 

White (7.7 percent), Hispanic (12.3 percent), and 

Black (13.8 percent) women. (See tables 1, 2, and 

3.)

•	 The labor force participation rate of mothers with 

children under 18 years of age was 71.3 percent in 

March 2010. This rate has held at or near this level 

for the past several years. (See tables 6 and 7.) 

(Data were collected in the 2010 Annual Social and 

Economic Supplement to the CPS.) 

•	 In general, mothers with children 6 to 17 years of age 

are more likely to participate in the labor force (77.2 

percent in March 2010) than mothers with children 

under 6 years of age (64.2 percent). Also, unmarried 

mothers (never married, divorced, separated, or 

widowed) tend to have higher participation rates 

than married mothers. In March 2010, 74.9 percent 

of unmarried mothers were in the labor force, 

compared with 69.7 percent of married mothers. 

(See tables 6 and 7.)

•	 The educational attainment of women aged 25 to 

64 in the labor force has risen substantially over the 

past 40 years. In 2010, 36 percent of these women 

held college degrees, compared with 11 percent in 

1970. Only 7 percent of women were high school 

dropouts in 2010, down from 34 percent in 1970. 

(See table 9.)

•	 In 2010, women accounted for 52 percent of all 

persons employed in management, professional, and 

related occupations, somewhat more than their share 

of total employment (47 percent). The share of women 

in specific occupations within this broad category 

varied. For example, 13 percent of architects and 

engineers and 32 percent of physicians and surgeons 

were women, whereas 60 percent of accountants and 

auditors and 82 percent of elementary and middle 

school teachers were women. (See table 11.)

•	 Employed Asian women were more likely to work 

in the higher paying management, professional, and 

related occupations in 2010 (46 percent of employed 

Asian women worked in this field) than were 

employed White (42 percent), Black (34 percent), or 

Hispanic (24 percent) women. Meanwhile, Hispanic 

and Black women were more likely than White and 

Asian women to work in service occupations. (See 

table 12.)

•	 In 2010, women accounted for the majority of all 

workers in the financial activities industry and in 

education and health services. However, women 

were substantially underrepresented (relative to their 

share of total employment) in agriculture, mining, 

construction, manufacturing, and transportation and 

utilities. (See table 14.)

Women in the Labor Force:

A Databook
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•	 Women who worked full time in wage and salary 

jobs had median usual weekly earnings of $669 in 

2010. This represented 81 percent of men’s median 

weekly earnings ($824). Earnings of Asian ($773) 

and White ($684) women were substantially higher 

than the earnings of their Black ($592) and Hispanic 

($508) counterparts. Women’s-to-men’s earnings 

ratios were higher among Blacks (94 percent) and 

Hispanics (91 percent) than among Asians (83 

percent) and Whites (81 percent). Users should note 

that the comparisons of earnings in this report are 

on a broad level and do not control for many factors 

that may be significant in explaining earnings 

differences. (See table 16.)

•	 In 2010, female full-time wage and salary workers 

aged 25 and older with only a high school diploma 

had median usual weekly earnings of $543. This 

represented 80 percent of the earnings for women 

with an associate’s degree ($677), and 55 percent of 

those for women with a bachelor’s degree or higher 

($986). (See table 17.)

•	 In 2010, 27 percent of employed women usually 

worked part time—fewer than 35 hours per week. 

In comparison, 13 percent of employed men usually 

worked part time. (See table 20.)

•	 Women in nonagricultural industries worked fewer 

hours per week than men in 2010. On average, 

women worked 35.6 hours per week, compared with 

40.4 hours for men. (See table 21.)

•	 Of all women who worked at some point during 

calendar year 2009, 59 percent worked full time 

and year round, compared with 41 percent in 1970. 

During the same period, the proportion of men 

who worked full time and year round rose slightly, 

from 66 to 68 percent. (See table 22.) (Data were 

collected in the 1971 and 2010 Annual Social and 

Economic Supplements to the CPS and refer to 

work experience during the prior calendar year.)

•	 Both the husband and wife were earners in 55 percent 

of married-couple families in 2009, up from 44 

percent in 1967. Couples in which only the husband 

worked represented 18 percent of married-couple 

families in 2009, compared with 36 percent in 1967. 

(See table 23.) (Data were collected in the 1968 and 

2010 Annual Social and Economic Supplements to 

the CPS and reflect earnings and work experience of 

the prior calendar year.)

•	 In 2009, working wives contributed 37 percent 

of their families’ incomes, up by 10 percentage 

points from 1970, when wives’ earnings accounted 

for 27 percent of their families’ total income. 

The proportion of wives earning more than their 

husbands also has grown. In 1987, 18 percent of 

working wives whose husbands also worked earned 

more than their spouses; in 2009, the proportion 

was 29 percent. (See tables 24 and 25.) (Data were 

collected in the 1971, 1988, and 2010 Annual Social 

and Economic Supplements to the CPS and reflect 

earnings and work experience of the prior calendar 

year.)

•	 In 2010, approximately 2.7 million women paid at an 

hourly rate had earnings at or below the prevailing 

federal minimum wage. This represented 7 percent 

of all women paid at an hourly rate. Among women 

25 years and older who were paid hourly rates, 5 

percent had earnings at or below the minimum 

wage, compared with 18 percent of women aged 16 

to 24. (See table 26.)

•	 Among workers who were in the labor force for at 

least 27 weeks in 2009, nearly the same number 

of women and men lived in poverty (5.2 million 

each). The working-poor rate, however, continued 

to be higher for women than for men—7.5 percent, 

compared with 6.6 percent. Black and Hispanic 

women were significantly more likely than their 

White or Asian counterparts to be among the working 

poor. Poverty rates for Black and Hispanic working 

women were 14.2 and 13.6 percent, respectively, 

compared with 6.4 and 5.5 percent, respectively, 

for White and Asian women. (See table 27.) (Data 

are from the 2010 Annual Social and Economic 

Supplement to the CPS and reflect earnings and 

work experience of the prior calendar year.)

•	 From January 2007 through December 2009, 6.9 

million workers age 20 and over were displaced 

from jobs they had held for at least 3 years; women 

accounted for about two-fifths of those displaced. 

Women were equally likely as men to have found a 

new job at the time of the survey in January 2010; 

the reemployment rate for both men and women 

was 49 percent. Women who had been displaced 

were less likely to be unemployed than men, at 31 

and 39 percent, respectively. Women were almost 

twice as likely as men to have left the labor force, 

20 versus 12 percent. (See table 28.) (Data are from 

the January 2010 Displaced Worker Supplement to 

the CPS.)

•	 In January 2010, the median number of years that 

female wage and salary workers had been with their 

employer was 4.2, compared with 4.6 years for their 

male counterparts. Among both women and men, 

tenure at a job was greater for workers age 45 and 

older. (See table 29.) (Data are from the January 

2010 Displaced Worker Supplement to the CPS.)
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•	 Among 2010 high school graduates, young women 

were more likely than young men to be enrolled in 

college in October 2010 (74 percent and 63 percent, 

respectively). (See table 30.) (Data are from the 

October 2010 School Enrollment Supplement to the 

CPS.)

•	 In October 2010, 41.4 percent of women age 16 to 

24 who were enrolled in either high school or college 

were in the labor force. Young men of the same age 

group who were enrolled in school had a lower labor 

force participation rate (35.5 percent). Among those 

not enrolled in school, women were less likely to be 

in the labor force than men (74.8 percent, compared 

with 83.7 percent). (See table 31.) (Data are from 

the October 2010 School Enrollment Supplement to 

the CPS.)

•	 Young women 16 to 24 years old who were not 

enrolled in school and who did not have a high school 

diploma were significantly less likely to participate 

in the labor force (54.8 percent) than those who had 

a high school diploma but no additional education 

(69.6 percent). Among those in the labor force, high 

school dropouts were more likely to be unemployed 

(31.4 percent) than were high school graduates (23.3 

percent). (See table 31.) (Data are from the October 

2010 School Enrollment Supplement to the CPS.)

•	 In 2010, 5.4 percent of employed women held more 

than one job, slightly less than in the previous year. 

Multiple jobholding rates for women have been 

relatively stable in recent years and remain below 

the rates recorded in the mid-1990s. The rate for 

men declined in 2010 to 4.5 percent. (See table 32.)

•	 The percentage of working women who were 

self-employed in nonagricultural industries was 

5.2 percent in 2010, compared with 7.6 percent 

for men. In 2010, 38 percent of all self-employed 

persons were women, compared with 27 percent in 

1976. (See table 33.) (Data refer to workers whose 

businesses are unincorporated.)

•	 In 2010, foreign-born women were somewhat less 

likely than were native-born women to be in the labor 

force (55.7 percent, compared with 59.1 percent). 

Of those in the labor force, native-born women were 

less likely to be unemployed than were their foreignborn counterparts (8.5 versus 9.6 percent). Among 

men, the opposite was true. Foreign-born men were 

more likely to be in the labor force (80.1 percent) 

than were native-born men (69.5 percent) and were 

somewhat less likely to be unemployed (9.9 percent, 

compared with 10.6 percent). (See table 34.)

•	 Twelve percent of female wage and salary workers 

were represented by unions in 2010, less than men 

(14 percent). Union representation for both sexes 

had been on a long-term downward trend through 

2006, but unionization rates then increased for 2 

years. Since 2008, the union representation rate has 

declined. (See table 35.)

•	 In 2010, there were 11.8 million veterans of the U.S. 

Armed Forces in the labor force. Nine percent of 

these veterans were women.Among female veterans 

in the labor force, more than half (55 percent) served 

in the Gulf War-era I and II service periods (August 

1990 to present). (See table 36.)

•	 Of the 14.4 million women in the civilian 

nonistitutional population with disabilities in 2010, 

2.7 million, or 18.4 percent, were in the labor force. 

Almost half of women with disabilities were age 

65 and older; the labor force participation rate for 

this age group was 4.8 percent, compared with 31.2 

percent for those ages 16 to 64. (See table 37.)