The Waning of Sexual Inequality

Abstract

Throughout the industrialised world women are entering the labour force in unprecedented numbers: a movement that began as a trickle in the last century has become a torrent. No longer content to stay at home, impatient with the ties that bind them to the kitchen and the nursery, women are exchanging the apron and baby carriage for the business suit and computer, and now seek new experiences and rewards in paid employment. But women have done more than merely join the labour force; they have changed it. To a degree unparalleled in history, women have achieved lucrative and important positions in government, in the skilled professions, and in science and business, irreversibly changing the sexual composition of the labour force. Today, women work in all sectors of the economy and compete with men, often successfully, for advancement in fields long dominated by males, a revolutionary break with the past that is changing women and society.