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Title: The Evolving Structure of Female Work Activities: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women, 1967-1989
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Parsons, Donald O.
The Evolving Structure of Female Work Activities: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women, 1967-1989
NLS Discussion Paper No. 95-24, Washington DC: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, December 1994.
Also: http://stats.bls.gov/ore/abstract/nl/nl940060.htm
Cohort(s): Mature Women
Publisher: U.S. Department of Labor
Keyword(s): Labor Force Participation; Life Cycle Research; Part-Time Work; Training

The market work behavior of adult women in the United States has changed radically in the last several decades as a greater and greater share spend substantial time in the labor market. Despite this large time reallocation, comparatively little study has been devoted to the structure of the resulting work activities or to changes in that structure. In this study, data from the Mature Women's Cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey is used to characterize the life cycle evolution of work structure from an annual perspective. Work is partitioned into four categories based on two work dichotomies: full- or part-time weeks and full- or part-time hours per week. Three "part-time" work possibilities exist in this framework: i) part-time weeks and full-time hours per week, ii) full-time weeks and part-time hours per week, and iii) part-time weeks and hours per week. The analysis adopts a supply and demand framework. Employers have preferences for an employee's weeks per year and hours per week. Employer demands for weeks per year are likely to be influenced by seasonal and cyclical factors, while hours per week are likely to be affected by production and customer technologies. High training costs are likely to induce both greater weeks and greater hours per week. Similarly the worker is likely to have preferences over the total time she supplies to the firm and how these are divided into weeks and hours per week. For women with small children, the structure of the school year and of the school day are both likely to be important.
Bibliography Citation
Parsons, Donald O. "The Evolving Structure of Female Work Activities: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women, 1967-1989." NLS Discussion Paper No. 95-24, Washington DC: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, December 1994.