> That 10% greater job market participation -- does
>it reflect the fact that so many households are now dependent on two
>incomes? That raises questions, I think, that I don't even know how to
>ask. In the '50s even in quite a few grad student families the spouse
>didn't work.
The short answer is women. The male employment/population ratio has fallen a bit over the decades, especially among older men (who can now retire instead of working themselves to death), but this has been massively offset by women's entry into paid labor (esp among white women).
Doug