This movements marks the beginning of the fall of the Breadwinner System. With an increasing number of families containing working husbands and wives, the sexual division of labor that is the hallmark of the Breadwinner System began to disappear. By the 1980s a majority of mothers of young children had jobs. The 1940 pattern was that found earlier in the century. Women entered the labor force when young, and then exited for good when marriage and children came.
Women begin working and stay working until they gradually start exiting for retirement.
The levels of female employment are also approaching that of males. Female Employment and Family Life Divorce Rates Evidence suggests a relationship between increased female labor force participation and a rising divorce rate. Working gives to women greater economic freedom to end unhappy marriages. In some cases there might be added competition between husband and wives. Ohio State's National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women found that the higher a women's income is in relationship to her husband's, the more likely she was to seek a divorce.