Women's Status & Roles Many social authors have agreed that the entire

Many social authors have agreed that the entire industrialized world is undergoing a major revolution. This new revolution is not as obvious as a political coup d'etat, nor is it as visible in terms of tangibles as the industrial age. Instead, this revolution is the changing way that women's roles are accepted and promulgated in contemporary society. Indeed, evidence indicated that there will be even more drastic and substantial change as the century draws to a close.

This alteration in women's status and roles has arise since the beginning of the twentieth century. However, the major changes have taken place since 1960. For instance,

. . . between 1960 and 1982 the number of women in the work force increase by more than 106 percent. In 1960 women comprise 33.4 percent of the work force. By 1982, 43 percent of the total work force was female. In 1960 about 38 percent of all women were employed. By 1982 almost 53 percent were employed, bringing the female work force up to 48 million.1

One would initially think that this increase in visibility and mobility would have engendered a great deal of economic opportunity for women, and for some, it indeed has. The cold reality of the situation, however, is that although women's roles have dramatically changed in the past three ____________________

1 Harrell R. Rodgers, Jr., Poor Women, Poor Families, (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1986), 4.

decades, public policies, wages, and other brands of social welfare have not kep

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the Census, Current Population Reports, 1986, 38. age fifteen, because so many are members of poverty stricken families. The poverty rate then rises for women ages eighteen to twentyone, declines during the working years, and lasts until about age fiftyfive. By age sixtyfive, the rate is back to that for women in their midtwenties.19 This is a result of several things, among which: . . . women are more susceptible than men to unemployment in the manufacturing industries where their wages typically have been fairly high. They are also more apt to leave jobs because of homemaking responsibilities, including childbearing and childrearing and caring for infirm elders, and to exist and reenter the labor force periodically. They are particularly likely to have to settle for parttime and/or lowwage jobs which men would not take.20 Thus, these statistics, however alarming, point to a graver social problem. That problem, 'the feminization of poverty,' continues to focus on the growing percentage of all poor Americans who are women and their dependents. In fact, recent dramatic increases in the proportion of all poor living in households headed by women purported the 1981 President's National Advisory Council on Economic O

Category: Psychology - W