Fertility, life cycle stage and female labor Force participation in Rhode Island: A retrospective overview

Considerable historical evidence indicates a long term increase in female labor force participation in the United States during the twentieth century. However, there are only limited data available for analyzing this secular trend in any depth. Comprehensive retrospective data for a representative sample of 1,578 once-married Rhode Island women are utilized to examine the changing historical relationships between female work participation in selected life cycle intervals and educatonal attainment. The data indicate that there has been a recent convergence of labor force rates between better and less educated women, in some instances reversing the traditional pattern of higher labor force rates for less educated women. This convergence reflects primarily an extraordinary in-crease in labor force participation for women with at least twelve years of school at all stages of the childbearing period. Also highlighted is the close relationship between labor force participation in one life cycle interval and probability of participation in subsequent intervals. It is found that working or not working in one life cycle is a useful predictor of subsequent work participation. Also, a greater tendency for more recent cohorts of women to re-enter the labor force after childbearing is noted.