In 1984, the United States had one of the highest prime-age (25-54) female labor-market participation rates of any developed country. But a new report has found that America is no longer a leader.
Although the many causes of prime-age female labor force participation are not well understood, some are likely to reflect broader labor market opportunities impacting both men and women, the report said.
The Recent decline in women’s labor force participation report was published late in 2017 by The Hamilton Project. The authors, whose research focus on a range of issues including gender and discrimination, labor market outcomes, and childhood poverty, are Sandra E. Black, nonresident Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, The Brookings Institution; Audrey Breitwieser, research assistant, The Hamilton Project, and Nonresident Senior Fellow Diane Whitmore.
According to the report, since 2000, women’s labor force participation has fallen by 3.5 percentage points. This pattern persists across women of varying races and ethnicities, educational backgrounds, ages, and marital statuses, and for women with and without children alike.
If prime-age women (25-54 years of age) are choosing to stay home to care for their children more frequently than before, the implications of these decisions would be different from the implications if these women were choosing not to participate in the labor market as a result of poor labor-market opportunities, as appears to be the case for prime-age men, the study says.Some of the workforce challenges listed in the report are:
In order to facilitate economic growth in the United States, the study recommends policies that enable and encourage women to participate in the labor force.
Read more here
