Women's Work Expectations and Labor-Market Experience in Early and Middle Family Life-Cycle Stages

Abstract

Two issues are addressed in this research: the effect of work expectations for age 35 on labor-market attachment during childrearing years, and the extent to which work expectations interacted with changes in women's sociodemographic characteristics to influence the extent of employment. The National Longitudinal Survey of the Labor Market Experiences of Young Women is used in estimating the work history of women in the sample. Findings indicate that employment expectations significantly increased the length of women's employment and that the effects of marital and fertility variables differed considerably for those who planned employment for midlife and those who did not. The implications of these and other findings are discussed in the context of major demographic and economic change that occurred over the 1970s.