ABSTRACT
The ancient Israelis were discussing the relative values of men and women as slaves, but modern American women will recognize the depressingly familiar ratio. The most consistent generalization about women in the labor force is that women earn, on the average, about sixty cents to every dollar earned by men and have done so since 1920. The wage gap democratically includes women who work to live and women who live to work, women who scrub floors and women in executive management. The ratio fluctuates over time and varies somewhat among occupations and between black and white women, but it has shown little sign of budging under the onslaught of egalitarian strategies. During early seventies there were several congressional attempts to extricate day care from poverty and to provide a general solution for all working mothers. The Comprehensive Child Development Act of 1971 broke the tie between poverty and child care and provided a sliding scale for all, including middle-class parents.
