Blog Post: More and More Women At Work

Did you know that more than half of all U.S. workers are female? A recently released report from the Center for American Progress and California First Lady Maria Shriver shows this, along with the fact that mothers are the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in two-thirds of U.S. families. In 1967, women made up only one-third of all workers. Today, that statistic has flipped, where less than 21 percent of families with children living at home have a husband who holds a job while the wife does not.

The current recession has both amplified and accelerated this trend. This same report notes that men have lost three out of every four jobs since December 2007. It also predicts that occupations in women-dominated service industries will experience the most growth through 2016.

What does this mean for employers? Well, the report's authors argue that families need more flexible work schedules, comprehensive child care policies, redesigned family and medical leave, and equal pay to adapt to the increasing role of women in the workplace. The United States is the only industrialized country without any requirement that employers provide paid family leave. It will be interesting to see what kind of changes there may be in U.S. law to address this issue.