ABSTRACT
This chapter studies empirically demonstrated that women do work for the money in the sense that, if married woman wage is higher, their labor force participation increases. The labor force activity of married women has continually been connected to their level of income adequacy. The chapter provides an accurate measure of just how many married women were engaged in wage work since 1890. It examines the correlation between husband’s income, female wages, and education levels in determining whether wives engage in wage work. The chapter focuses on white, urban married women in the following analysis, since contained within them are the upper class who represent the behavioural ideal that other whites may attempt to emulate. It refers to racial differences, their primary purpose to illustrate the extremes of social stratification. Beginning in 1940, census figures switched from gainful employment to labor force participant.
