The Career Patterns of Mature American Women

Abstract

Experience, this report identifies three major life-career patterns for mature American women: home, labor force, and mixed careers. The research then explores seven hypotheses which pertain to the influence of women's familial investments, familial resources, and human capital investments on their career patterns. The findings provide general support for the hypotheses. High commitment to traditional familial roles and values, high familial resources, and low human capital tend to be reflected in the disproportionate representation of women with home careers. Alternatively, low commitment to traditional familial roles and values, low familial resources, and high human capital investments are associated with careers in the labor force. However, the findings indicate that husbands' attitudes toward wives working outside the home, previous earning levels, and number of children are more strongly related to the observed career patterns of mature women than marital status, respondents' attitudes about women working, husbands' income, or respondents' education. The findings also suggest that mature American women are likely to have experienced substantial involvement in the labor force, i.e., mixed careers, regardless of their familial investments, familial resources, or human capital investments.

Mothers' Long-Term Employment Patterns

“…It is more difficult to make sense of the large and heterogeneous group of mothers who lie between these two extremes and are referred to as exhibiting "mixed," "adaptive," or "pulled back" employment patterns (Chenoweth and Maret 1980;Damaske 2011;Hakim 2002). We shed light on this large but challenging-todefine group in part by distinguishing part-time employment from full-time employment.…”

“…As early as 1980, Chenoweth and Maret (1980) argued that studying current labor force status "presents a severely limited picture of women's work" (p. 224). Mothers who are currently not employed are a mix of new mothers on a short break from full-time employment, women who are involuntarily unemployed, and mothers who have withdrawn long-term from the labor market to care for children.…”

Reducing information asymmetry before marriage: Evidence from South Korea

“…After marriage, women’s labor market participation has been found to be affected by their husband’s income. This finding from Mincer’s work (1962) has been reinforced by various studies (Chenoweth and Maret, 1980; Eckstein and Wolpin, 1989; Leibowitz and Klerman, 1995; Ndlovu et al., 2018; Paulson, 1982; Pradhan et al., 2015). By considering the family as a unit of analysis that pools income and resources, the unit has to manage a three-way choice: leisure, paid work and unpaid housework or family chores; the outcome of this three-way choice will be a family decision.…”

Women and Retirement: The Effect of Multiple Careers on Retirement Adjustment

“…Otte, 1976). The focus of personal adjustment on behalf of women tends to be the empty-nest syndrome, despite the repeated finding that the departure of the last child brings with it a marked increase in marital and life satisfaction as well as well-being among both women and men' (Barnett and Baruch, 1978-79;Burr, 1970;Campbell etal., 1976bCampbell etal., , 1976cChenoweth and Maret, 1980;Deutscher, 1968;George, 1980;Lowenthal and Chiriboga, 1972;Palmore et al, 1979;Rollins and Feldman, 1970). These propensities in research assumptions create a gap in both data and theory about retirement because women are so rarely included in sample populations.…”