Has Working More Caused Married Women to Volunteer Less? Evidence from Time Diary Data, 1965 to 1993

Abstract

Now that married women are working more for pay than they were three decades ago, are they less likely to volunteer? I use national time diary surveys conducted in 1965, 1975, 1985, and 1993 to document a decrease in the weekly volunteer participation rate of working-age married women, from 16.4% in 1965 to 9.3% in 1993. Changes in observable characteristics explain about 65% of the decrease in married women’s volunteer participation from 1965 to 1985. The increased employment rates of married women as well as the changes in their parental status are substantial contributors to the decline in their volunteer participation. Married women’s gain in educational attainment is the most important factor to offset the decline in their volunteer participation. However, married women’s changing labor force and parental status do not explain why married women’s volunteer participation continued to decline from 1985 to 1993.