ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the creation of New Deal housing policies and examines how the policies promoted the growth of suburban living and the nuclear family. It describes women's evolution in the labor market, their move into heading households, and the transition of housing policy to market dependence. The chapter looks at the demographic changes of women and the alterations in their labor force participation rates and incomes. Women's move into the labor force was the precursor to a new wave of social movements and economic transformations that interacted with the process of globalization to restructure the social system in the United States. In addition to women's changing labor market participation, the US household has been altered by the different decisions adults are making about marriage. The intransigent income differential between men and women is very important because it indicates the persistence of labor market problems for women.
