ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 3, 1997 TAG: 9701030075
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
A JUST-RELEASED STUDY claims women are getting more education, working more and doing less housework.
Women are making slow headway toward parity with men in the workplace, say the authors of a study on women's changing lives in America.
``The picture of women in the workplace is one of clear, albeit slow, progress toward equality with men,'' Suzanne M. Bianchi and Daphne Spain report in the study: ``Women, Work and Family in America.''
Between 1970 and 1995 the share of women 25 to 54 who work outside the home climbed from 50 percent to 76 percent, with the biggest gains shown by married women with children, the study, published Thursday by the independent, nonprofit Population Reference Bureau, said.
This increase follows steady improvement in women's educational levels, as illustrated by statistics from 1993 compared with 1977. Among whites, women earned 54 percent of bachelor's degrees in 1993, up from 46 percent in 1977. For blacks with bachelor's degrees, the percentage of women increased to 63 percent from 57 percent.
Women's shares of doctoral degrees jumped from 25 percent to 44 percent among whites and from 39 percent to 55 percent among blacks.
``Whereas poor, minority and working-class women have long contributed economically to their families in whatever way they could, now most women, not just those with the greatest economic need, expect to work for pay outside the home,'' Bianchi and Spain wrote.
Women have also narrowed their earnings gap, bringing home 72 percent of men's wages in 1994 compared with 59 percent in 1970.
This may not be entirely good news, however, since the study found that in some cases women's situations improved compared with men's not only because they worked more hours, but because men's wages were relatively stagnant.
On the negative side, the study also noted that, despite their increased time and effort in the workplace, women remain responsible for most housework and child care.
While married mothers scaled down housework from about 30 hours a week in 1965 to 20 hours in 1985, fathers have picked up only part of the slack, increasing from 5 hours to 10 hours weekly.
Bianchi is a professor the University of Maryland. Spain teaches at the University of Virginia.
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