
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 13, 1991                   TAG: 9103150044
SECTION: AMERICAN WOMEN'S SHOW                    PAGE: AW12   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TODAY'S 'AVERAGE' WOMAN A MOTHER AND AN EMPLOYEE

You see her every day on the bus, in the office and in the grocery line. She's a thirtysomething woman rushing to her full-time job after dropping off the kids at the child care center.

She's probably working in an administrative job, where 80 percent of positions are filled by women; or in retail and personal services sales, where 68 percent of positions are filled by women. She works more for financial reasons than for self-fulfillment or other reasons. Her average salary is $18,545 and she contributes significantly to her family's income.

This is a statistical composite of your working Everywoman. Though women's lives are more varied and complex than this, she sums up the profile in many ways.

According to the U.S. Labor Department's Women's Bureau, 56 million women age 16 and older were working or looking for work in 1989. A decade ago, only 44 million women were. Half of all black workers were women, 45 percent of white workers were women and 40 percent of Hispanic workers were women.

The more educated a woman is, the more likely she will seek employment. In 1988, 81 percent of women ages 25-54 with four or more years' college were in the labor force. Only 51 percent of those with less than four years of high school were working. Most working women - almost 60 percent of them - were either single, divorced, widowed, separated, or had husbands earning less than $15,000.

While the average white woman working full-time year-round earned $18,823; her black counterpart made $16,867. Hispanic women were paid $15,201. Men of all groups earned more, an average of $27,342.

Many modern American mothers toil. Like most women, they work because they need the money, according to the Women's Bureau. In fact, 65 percent of moms with kids under age 18 work. About 56 percent of moms with kids under age 6 work.

Despite the fact that many of them earn a paycheck women tend to run the poor households.

Women are still concentrated in the low-paying jobs. The Women's Bureau reports that the average woman earned 70 cents for every dollar a man made in 1989.

There's no doubt about it. The chances are today's women are working both at home and on the job.

by CNB