ABSTRACT
The beginning of the 1980s is an appropriate time at which to examine the career structure of women in the professions and semi-professions. In the United States there is a movement towards a position similar to that prevailing in the UK though the total proportion of women working there is lower. In both these countries an analogous bimodal or M-shaped pattern exists; a period of reduced participation in economic activity over the childbearing period is interposed between periods of higher employment activity. The level of women’s economic activity in the UK and USA is still well below that of countries in Eastern Europe. For married women the situation was different because until the Second World War women in the UK in most occupations above the manual level such as teaching, nursing, banking, the civil service and local government were obliged to resign on marriage.
