Changing parental work patterns are transforming family life.
Among the many transformations that have occurred in the American
family over the past 30 years, few are as dramatic as the in- Ccreased rates of paid employment among mothers with children. From
1970 to 2000, the overall maternal labor force participation rate rose from
38 to 68 percent; for mothers with the youngest children, birth to age 3, this
rate rose from 24 to 57 percent. This trend has held for mothers in a wide
variety of circumstances—first-time mothers and never-married mothers,
for example—and for all groups, regardless of family income, education,
race and ethnicity, or place of residence.