Dual-Earner Family

One of the most significant social changes that have occurred in many industrialized, Western countries over the past half century is the dramatic increase of women in the paid labor force. For example, in the United States in the early 1960s, approximately 35% of women were employed, a percentage that jumped dramatically to 56.7% in 2015. One reason this trend has drawn so much public attention and scrutiny is that a large percentage of the women moving into the workforce are married (or coupled) women with children. In the United States in 1976, 35% of women with children under age 3 were employed; in 2015, approximately 60% of mothers with young children were employed. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017, many of those ...