These guides can be used to support a program series or for self-study on an individual basis. The Challenges and Choices guides were designed to be used with employed women, ages 30-50. However, they can be used with younger or older audiences and with individuals who are not employed outside of the home. The male lead continued until about age 30, when the situation reversed. The female edge then kept getting larger with age.
Women are racially and ethnically diverse.
In 1994, the median age at which women married for the first time was 24.5. Just a generation ago, in 1970, they were only 20.8 years of age when they first married. Between 1970 and 1994, the proportion of persons aged 30 to 34 who had never married tripled from 6 to 20 percent for women and from 9 to 30 percent for men. For those aged 35 to 39, the corresponding increases were 5 to 13 percent and 7 to 19 percent. And, for almost every age group, the percentage remained statistically unchanged.