ABSTRACT
The 20th century has witnessed dramatic changes in women’s workforce participation and also in the reasons for their participation. At the beginning of this century, women’s workforce participation was mainly a question of status and family income. Women from upper classes, as well as wives of wealthy men, were not obliged to earn money through employment. In contrast, they were expected to fulfill their roles as wives and mothers and to stay at home even if they would have liked to do something else (Frevert, 1986, 1995; Kieman, 1993). If women worked for money—and lots of them did so, of course—the predominant reason was economical necessity, or it was at least assumed that this was their only motive. These working women were usually poorly educated, had to work in low employment positions, and received a low income.
