Historical Employment and Education of Women

Historical Employment and College Enrollment of Women

Keith Greiner, Ed.D.

October 22, 2016

In 1974, researchers at the Arbitron broadcast ratings company, observed that women were entering the workforce in greater numbers, and as a result, ratings for daytime television were declining. In an effort to measure the changes, the company added a “working woman” question to their national television and radio surveys. Their reasoning was that it was important to confirm the hypothesized trend among American women. That was important to advertisers who were concerned that they were no longer able to reach the previous number of viewers. That time period was also the beginning of the end of the genre of television programs known as “soap operas”: low budget studio dramas that entertained stay-at-home housewives.

Now that we can see that time period as historical, it is possible to get a better view of changes taking place at the time. Below, I have selected two indicators.

Graph 1 shows the number of men and women in the workforce. What we see in 1974 is a continuation of a trend that was well in progress when the series begins in 1948. The slope of the red line suggests a slight acceleration during the 70’s that resulted in a narrowed gap between men and women, and now by 2015, the end of the trend line, the growth of women in the workforce seems to have become parallel to the number of men.

Graph 2 shows the trends as a share of the total. That is, each line shows the percentage of the total. As the percentage of women in the workforce increases, the percentage of men is reduced. Here again, we see the greatest change in the period from 1948 and into the 1990’s.

The most dramatic change occurred on U. S. college campuses. There, we see that the percentage women enrolled in degree-granting colleges and universities increased during the entire 68-year period of time. As the percentage of women increased, the percentage of men decreased, and the two lines crossed in 1978-1979.

One important tool that working adult students use to manage the time and money of college is to take advantage of part-time programs. In a part-time program, students can attend evenings while working full-time jobs during normal business hours. Forward-thinking employers will assist the students by paying for college and university classes. I find that working students in part-time programs experience amazing growth as they bring their personal experience and expertise to the classroom and share with others who are equally prepared. As the number and percentage of women in the workforce and higher education increases, we would expect the relationship between full-time and part-time enrollment to change. The following graphs show what actually occurred. My interpretation is that the national full-time to part-time relationship has been relatively stable since 1980: at least as compared to the graphs shown above. Graph 4 shows a sharp decline in part-time enrollment of women in 2000 but that has recovered, and is shown as a steady increase in the first years of the 21st century. Graph 5 shows a steady decline in the same years, with a sharper increase in male part-time enrollment in 2008. Graph 6 shows a bubble in the 1959 through 1977 period, but that has diminished since 1977.

First, the graph for women.

Next, the graph for men.

Finally, the graph for all students. The data in this graph is available back to 1959.