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American women are working more, through their sixties and even into their seventies. Their increased participation at older ages started in the late 1980s before the turnaround in older men’s labor force participation and the economic downturns of the 2000s. The higher labor force participation of older women consists disproportionately of those working at full-time jobs. Increased labor force participation of women in their older ages is part of the general increase in cohort labor force participation. Cohort effects, in turn, are mainly a function of educational advances and greater prior work experience. But labor force participation rates of the most recent cohorts in their forties are less than those for previous cohorts. These factors may suggest that employment at older ages will stagnate or even decrease. But several other factors will be operating in an opposing direction and leads us to conclude that women are likely to continue to work even longer.

Black women were more likely than white women to participate in the labor force from 1870 until at least 1980 and to hold jobs in agriculture or manufacturing. Differences in observables cannot account for most of this racial gap in labor force participation for the 100 years after Emancipation. The unexplained racial gap may be due to racial differences in stigma associated with women’s work, which Goldin (1977) suggested could be traced to cultural norms rooted in slavery. In both nineteenth and twentieth century data, we find evidence of inter-generation transmission of labor force participation from mother to daughter, which is consistent with the role of cultural norms.

This chapter aims at analyzing the characteristics of female employment and unemployment in Tunisia and at identifying the main incentives and constraints to female labor participation and choice of employment status. After the 2000s, female participation stagnated at around 25 percent in Tunisia—higher than the average in the MENA countries but half the world rate. Several socio-cultural factors with economic implications shape the participation of women in the labor market. Marital status is considered a constraint for labor force participation for woman. Women’s educational attainment also influences both their participation decision and the type of employment they choose. The services sectors provide the majority of female jobs, especially in the public sector, which is considered “family friendly.” Women are poorly represented in positions of responsibility and leadership, and the rate of self-employment among Tunisian women is low. The female unemployment rate is above that of men.

This chapter examines the clerical sector in the United States and Japan. It first outlines the historically transformative role of the clerical sector in increasing American female labor force participation, especially for the married population. It shows that the early cultural labeling of clerical work as “female” and women's subsequent near-monopolization of most of the numerically largest clerical occupations opened up a culturally sanctioned space for women in the American labor force that was preserved even when demands were high for full employment for men, as in the early post-WWII era. Next, the chapter outlines recent historical trends in women's clerical sector participation in Japan. It shows that although large numbers of women do hold clerical jobs, their presence in these positions does not increase their lifetime labor force attachment. The final section discusses in more general terms what the contrast between the United States and Japan tells us about the conditions necessary for clerical sector expansion to have a transformative effect on married women's labor force participation and rewards.

This chapter further investigates the low and stagnant female participation rates. Not only is the female labour force participation rate in Jordan very low, but it also appears to have been relatively stagnant over the past decade. This is a paradoxical finding given the rapid rise in female educational attainment in Jordan. The only way to resolve such a paradox is to have falling participation rates among educated women over time, counteracted by an improving educational composition to produce flat participation rates. The chapter argues that this is in fact what is happening in Jordan and that the decline in participation among educated women is due to a deteriorating opportunity structure in the Jordanian labour market. With the curtailment of public sector hiring in Jordan since the mid-1980s, opportunities for educated women have become much scarcer

Having presented theoretical arguments concerning the interactive relationships among cohort size, collectivism, and fertility, this chapter tests these arguments using the total fertility rate. It first describes cross-national and temporal patterns of the total fertility rate and then examines the determinants of those patterns. It shows that the small average relationship between relative cohort size and fertility varies substantially across nations, years, and levels of female labor force participation, which lends support to the basic thesis that institutional environments for social protection shape the meaning and consequences of relative cohort size for fertility. To make sense of the sometimes complex models, the chapter summarizes the implications of the statistical interactions by comparing coefficients across nations, time periods, and levels of female labor force participation. It reviews both the findings and the support they give to the theoretical claims of heterogeneity in relationships across sociopolitical contexts.

This chapter examines gender equality and relative levels of violent mortality. It focuses on how differences in female labor force participation affect sex differences in suicide and homicide mortality across ages, nations, and time periods. It also considers the consequences of family changes involving marriage, divorce, and childbearing that relate closely to women's work. It gives the theoretical arguments concerning gender equality and sex differentials in suicide and homicide mortality.

There are significant differences in labor market outcomes by gender in Tunisia. These gender differences differ substantially in the richer coastal and eastern regions and the poorer southern and western regions. This chapter uses the 2014 Tunisia Labor Market Panel Survey (TLMPS) to examine the characteristics of male and female labor market participants in the lagging southern, western, and central regions, and in the leading regions. The chapter also discusses results from an econometric analysis of the factors that influence monthly wages and the probability of employment for men and women respectively. Our results show that gender plays a huge role in labor market outcomes: women are less likely to participate in the labor force, are more likely to be unemployed, and receive lower wages. In addition, youth and educated women in lagging regions are particularly disadvantaged because they are less likely to find a job and may not have the option of moving to places where employment prospects are better. Moreover, our results suggest that wage discrimination against women is prevalent outside the leading region in Tunisia.

Over the long haul, declining mortality and fertility and earlier retirements have raised pension costs to unsustainable levels in many countries. Women have increased their labor market activities and acquired additional rights and voting powers. The need to reform pension systems is presented in light of these trends.

This chapter studies how women's power is one of the fundamental determinants of not only economic growth but also education levels, ecological sustainability, and social peace. Why does women's power produce social and economic benefit? A key consideration is that women who are highly educated or have access to their own sources of income have lower fertility. Women with money and career opportunities are less dependent on their husbands for economic survival and can afford to stand up to argue for their own interests. However, fertility reduction tells part of the story about why empowering women produces social development; there are other considerations at work as well. If women are educated, they become more productive, and the labor force becomes more productive. Women's labor force participation is linked to the presence of industries that employ a lot of women. Women's power also increases the human capital of future generations. Meanwhile, the statistical correlation between female social power and reduced warfare is explained in part by the historical record of women participating in peacekeeping activities.

This chapter investigates the lives and livelihoods of rural women in Egypt. Rural women have lower economic participation, by standard measures, than urban women or men. This chapter introduced additional measures of economic participation and found that standard measures vastly underestimated the economic engagement of rural women. These additional measures also allowed us to better delineate the nature of women’s contributions to the economy and society. Rural women were frequently engaged in tending livestock, in household non-farm enterprises, and domestic work. Rural women had distinct patterns of family formation, with higher rates of early marriage than urban women and higher fertility rates. Although gender role attitudes were equitable in some respects, such as gender equality in education, other aspects, such as attitudes towards work and domestic violence, showed rural women were particularly vulnerable.

This chapter summarizes the principal arguments made in the preceding parts of the book. It discusses the policy implications, particularly as they relate to Japan, of a commitment to freeing women of the constraints that make it difficult for them to combine family responsibilities with career success. To change women's reluctance to try to mix motherhood with employment, how might the government use policy measures to ease the constraints? Even if we agree that this is a worthy question—and some dismiss the use of government policy out of hand—the hard work of sorting out the implications of different policy choices has only begun.

American women are participating in the labor force more than ever into their sixties and even seventies. Their participation rates when 55 to 64 years old now differ from men’s by less than 10 percentage points whereas around 1970 they differed by about 40 percentage points. The nine essays in this volume consider potential reasons why older women are participating more than ever and assess whether the trend will continue.