u> . - WCthe omencon women U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMEk Social ond Economic Statistics Administtotion BUIXEAU OF THE CENSUS §§F£ | J|ijl||i ^^^S|^^^^ >iJi^^S^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ;.. . ;>'. tj:::!:|:iii:i:j:|:i$ iv^\ 4HPR |F^y AYV^JSlkx ^d^^fl |h^^5~^l \ <£ <# <£ ^2 /■:::■ .. V # .>;.•..•, J w|lil!i$ : : S$:::v : :iSSi' : -Si:-S WCfhe amencon women tj -a The 1 970 United States census counted a female population of 1 04,299,734. This is about equal to the total population of Japan. Of all the notions in the world, only three others hove larger female populations: China, India, and the Soviet Union. No. 4 in a series of reports from the 1 970 Census. A Profile Of Us On April 1, 1970, there were 104,299,734 of us. From day-old infants to centenarians, we made up 51.3 percent of the United States population. By 1975 there may be about 111 million of us. By 2000 there may be about 150 million of us. i^T The American Female Population < Category Number of Percentage females female in category White 91,027,988 51.2 Black 11,821,631 52.4 Other races 1,439,773 49.9 Spanish heritage 4,695,744 50.5 Under 18 34,161,180 49.0 Over 65 11,649,794 58.0 Voting age 70,138,554 52.5 In college 3,013,000 40.6 In other schools 25,931 ,000 49.0 In labor force 30,820,770 37.2 Family heads 5,504,104 10.8 Married 45,963,972 50.0 Widowed 9,624,679 82.1 Divorced 3,068,994 61.1 Living alone 7,234,000 67.7 Below low-income level 14,841,000 58.1 Women Outnumber Men — But Doys Outnumber Girls In America, from earliest times until the mid-20th century, we females were outnumbered by males. The shift in the ratio of the sexes occurred during the 1940's. The 1950 census was the first to show more females than males, about one-and-a-half million, or about 99 males per 100 females. By 1970, the difference was about 5.5 million, or about 95 males per 100 females. More boys than girls are born every year (currently about 105 boys per 100 girls), and boys continue to outnumber girls through childhood and adolescence, according to census data. In the late teens the ratio is reversed, and among 19-year-olds there are 98 men per 100 women. As people grow older, the increase in the number of women over men accelerates so that among people 65 and older the ratio is 72 men per 100 women. The Hardier Of The Species We women outnumber men simply because, from infancy through old age, females have a lower mortality rate. Although the average life span of males has been increasing for generations, the span of females has been increasing at a faster rate. This has resulted in a widening gap between the longevity of males and females. For example, the average life expectation for boys born in 1900 was about 46 years; for girls born that year, about 48 years. Average life expectation for boys born today is about 67 years; for girls, about 74 years — the gap in longevity having increased from 2 to 7 years. With both men and women living longer, we are increasingly getting to be a nation of older people. In 1820, the median age was about 17 years for both males and females; that is, half the people were younger and half older than that age. At the end of the 19th century, the median age had increased to 22.4 years for females and 23.3 years for males. Today, because there are more older women than older men, the median age for females is 29.3 years and for males, 26.8 years. Number Of Males Per 100 Females Age All ages Under 5 years 5 to 14 years 15 to 24 years 25 to 34 years 35 to 44 years 45 to 54 years 55 to 64 years 65 years and over Women... A Potent Politicol Force Over 70 million American women are of voting age (18 and over) — that's nearly 7 million more than the number of men of voting age in the United States. In the half century since we women gained the right to vote, our voting age population has increased by 35 million, while the male population of voting age has increased by 27 million. The recent lowering of the voting age nation- wide from 21 to 18 added nearly 11 million potential voters to the electorate, with women only slightly outnumbering men among these 18- to 20-year-olds. As would be expected, since women, on the average, outlive men, there are upwards of 3 million more women than men among the 65-and-older population. In contrast, there are only 1 million more women than men among the population under age 35. The Educated Woman Young women today are far more likely to be college students than were their mothers. In 1950, only 7 percent of women 18 to 24 were in college. By 1970, 20 percent of women in this age group were enrolled in college. About 5 million American women are college graduates, 2.3 million fewer than the number of American men with a college education. In postgraduate study, women also lag behind — 1.6 million women are enrolled in graduate school, compared with 3.5 million men. About 30 million girls and women 3 to 34 are in school: 14 percent of girls 3 to 6 are in nursery school or kindergarten, and virtually all girls 7 to 15 are in grammar or high school. Most girls 16 and 17 years old (95 percent) are in high school, and a few (4 percent) are in college. The proportions of boys in school are about the same for each group through age 17, but, after that, young men are more likely than young women to continue their education. For example, among young people 18 to 24, one out of three men but only one out of five women are in college. The table at the bottom shows that 30 years ago the median school years completed for both men and women 25 and older was little more than grammar school. Today it is 12.1 years for both, which means that more than one-half of all adult Americans have a high school education. Median School Years Completed Dy Race And Sex: 1940-1970 Persons 25 And Older Census year Total White Black Spanish heritage 1970 1960 1950 1940 M F 12.1 12.1 10.3 10.9 9.0 9.6 8.6 8.7 M F 12.1 12.1 10.7 11.2 9.3 10.0 8.7 8.8 M F 9.4 10.0 7.7 8.4 6.4 7.1 5.4 6.1 M 9.9 F 9.4 Data for Spanish Heritage not available before 1969. The Working Woman In 1900, when we made up only 20 percent of the-Nation's work force, 36 percent of us were private household workers; 28 percent manual workers of one kind or another; and 19 percent farm workers. Only 8 percent were professional, technical, or similar workers; 4 percent clerical workers; and 4 percent sales workers. By 1970, when we made up 40 percent of the work force, the proportion of women working on farms had dropped to less than 1 percent and the proportion in private households to 4 percent. Great increases occurred in clerical occupa- tions, in service occupations outside the household, and in professional, technical, and related work. Today, about one-third of all employed women are working as bookkeepers, secretaries, typists, file clerks, and the like. About 17 percent are service workers: beauticians, waitresses, attendants, and so forth. Another 16 percent are professional, technical, and kindred workers, such as teachers, nurses, technicians, physicians, and lawyers. Two-fifths of the women in this last category are elementary or secondary school teachers. The following table shows the distribution in 1970 of employed women 16 and older among selected major occupation categories. Jobs Women Hold Occupation Total White Spanish heritage Total employed 28,929,845 25,252,734 3,309,080 989,810 Professional and technical workers 4,549,927 4,110,060 373,713 94,589 15.7% 16.3% 11.3% 9.6% Sales workers 2,140,994 2,037,977 84,103 58,990 7.4% 8.1 % 2.5% 6.0% Clerical and kindred workers 10,104,508 9,308,904 684,310 297,055 34.9% 36.7% 20.7% 30.0% "Operatives, except transport 4,014,214 3,421,862 533,160 234,399 equipment 13.9% 13.5% 16.1% 23.7% Service workers, except household 4,789,362 3,877,059 843,018 183,030 16.6% 15.3% 25.5% 13.5% Private household workers 1,113,909 506,896 592,226 40,080 3.8% 2.0% 17.9% 4.0% • Workers who operate machines and do similar 1 linds of work. Percent Of Married Women, Husband Present, In The Labor Force By Age And Race: 1970-1940 1970 1940 Black and Black and Age Total White other races Total White other races Total, 16 years and over 39.2 38.2 49.8 13.8 12.5 27.3 16 and 17 years 20.8 20.6 21.9 6.1 4.2 13.4 18 and 19 years 39.4 39.6 37.4 10.3 8.7 18.6 20 to 24 years 46.3 45.7 51.9 17.3 16.2 25.7 25 to 29 years 37.6 35.9 53.9 18.5 17.1 31.1 30 to 34 years 38.4 36.5 55.3 17.6 16.3 31.8 35 to 44 years 45.6 44.4 56.7 15.3 13.8 30.5 45 to 54 years 47.3 46.7 54.3 11.1 10.1 25.5 55 to 59 years 39.9 39.5 45.8 8.0 7.3 20.7 60 to 64 years 27.6 27.1 34.1 5.8 •5.2 17.1 65 years and over 8.0 7.6 12.9 2.8 2.4 9.9 The Working Mother Great numbers of today's young women are successfully combining careers outside the home with the time-honored roles of wife, mother, and homemaker. It was customary for women of earlier genera- tions to work only until they married or had children, and then to permanently drop out of the labor force. Now they are seeking work again when their children enter school and are con- tinuing to work until retirement age. The table at the bottom of page 6 shows that, although differences exist between married white women and those of Negro and other races in the extent to which they work, the striking fact is that the proportion of married women in the labor force at all ages is rising in both groups. (The term, "Husband Present," means that these women are living with their husbands, and are not separated, divorced, or widowed.) Percentage Of The Work Force 1900-1970 1900 Pocketbook Data Some Of Us Are Poor For women who work full-time, the average annual income is $5,700, or 59 percent of the $9,630 average for men who work full-time. These are median incomes for 1971, when the median family income was $10,285, highest in U.S. history. However, for families with female heads, median family income was $5,100, or 47 percent of the $10,930 median for families with male heads. Family incomes are on the rise chiefly because the number of earners, especially women, in families has been increasing. When the wife worked, median income of husband-wife families in 1971 was $12,850, compared with $9,740 when she did not. A major reason for more women being in the labor force is their rising educational level, which prepares them for better jobs. The table below illustrates the monetary advantages of education. For women who were year-round full-time workers in 1971, the $9,162 median income of college graduates was more than double the $4,400 median of women who had completed only 8 years of school. On the other hand, for men who were year-round full-time workers, the $14,350 median income of college graduates was 83 percent greater than the $7,840 for men who had completed only elementary school. About 14.8 million American females — from infants to the elderly — were below the officially established low-income or poverty level in 1971. They made up 58 percent of the Nation's 25.6 million poor. Five million of these females were in families headed by women. Another 3.6 million were living alone or with nonrelatives, 2.1 million of them 65 or older. (The poverty threshold — the annual income level that separates "poor" from "nonpoor" — was set at $4,137 in 1971 for a nonfarm family of four; for a nonfarm person living alone or with non- relatives, at $2,040.) Between 1970 and 1971 there was an increase from 37 to 40 percent in the proportion of poor families with a woman as head, with a correspond- ing decrease in percentages of poor families with a man as head. Families headed by women account for a growing proportion of poor families because women are far less likely to work than men who head poor families. Of the 1.9 million women heads of poor families, only 41 percent worked at least part of the time in 1971, in contrast to 77 percent of the 2.4 million men heads of poor families. Most women heads of poor families are not working because they are not able to leave their children and other household responsibilities to go to work. In fact, three-fourths of the women heads of poor families who were not working in 1971 gave "keeping house" as the main reason they were not working. A Home Of Our Own More and more women — the young single woman, the widow, the divorcee, the older woman who no longer has a family to care for — are living alone or sharing living quarters with nonrelatives. These women numbered 7.7 million in 1970, and half were 65 or older. In 1960, they numbered 5.1 million, and 45 percent were 65 or older. The largest percentage increase was among women 20 to 34 years of age. Although they made up only a small proportion of all women living alone or with nonrelatives, their numbers more than doubled during the decade. Increase In Women Living Alone Or With Nonrelatives: 1960-1970 1960 5,106,000 377,000 2,425,000 2,304,000 Percent Increase increase 2,616,000 51.2 410,000 108.8 525,000 21.6 1,681,000 73.0 /^a, When We Marry During the 1950's young women were marrying, on the average, shortly after their twentieth birthday, but in the early 1960's they began to show an inclination to remain single a little longer. Women (and men, too) are now about a half-year older when they first marry than were their counterparts a decade earlier. The average age at first marriage for women was 20.8 years in 1970; for men, 23.2 years. In 1960 it was 20.3 years for women and 22.8 years for men. And the proportion of women remaining single into their early twenties has risen by nearly one-third since 1960. Even though there are fewer men than women of marriageable ages, women today are far less likely to remain spinsters than were their grandmothers. In 1920, 11 percent of women age 44 had never married. However, in 1970, only about 5 percent of women that age were still spinsters. During the 1960's, when the children born in the post-World War II baby boom years were starting to marry, marriages increased about one-third annually, and since 1968 the number has exceeded 2 million each year. However, the number of marriages in one year is no longer a realiable basis for projecting the number of births in succeeding years because of the widespread use of family planning. Along with changes in life style there have been changes in attitudes towards family size. Census Bureau surveys taken in 1967 and 1972 demonstrate this change. The earlier survey found that the average number of births expected by wives 18 to 39 years old was 3.1. Five years later, wives in the same age group expected to have, on the average, only 2.7 children. During the same period, the average number of births expected by wives 18 to 24 years dropped from 2.9 to 2.4. The proportion expecting two or fewer births rose from 44 to 70 percent. The ability of women to control the size of their families is having a profound effect on the birth rate (births per 1,000 population), which in 1971 dropped to 17.2, lowest ever recorded in U.S. history. 10 The Divorcee One of the forces behind the recent rise in the number of marriages was the upturn in divorce and subsequent remarriage during the 1960's and early 1970's. During this period, the annual number of divorces rose 80 percent and the annual number of remarriages nearly 60 percent. Since the mid-1950's, the proportion of women whose first marriages ended in divorce has increased sharply. Of women married or formerly married, about 11 percent who were 30 to 34 years old in 1955 had ended their first marriage in divorce by that year, while 16 percent who were 30 to 34 in 1970 had ended first marriages in divorce by 1970. Moreover, there is some evidence that a woman divorced today who remarries is likely to do so sooner after divorce than one divorced a decade ago. According to a 1967 Census Bureau survey, during the period 1960-1966, one-half of the divorced women who remarried had done so by the end of the third year of divorce. In contrast, during the period 1950-1959, it was the end of the fifth year of divorce before one-half of the divorcees who remarried had done so. 11 Our Growth Rate Follows Our Birth Rote Summing Up 35 Birth Rate And Net Growth Rate Per 1,000 Population: 1900-1971 The 20th century emergence of the American woman from the status she historically held is a phenomenon dramatically illustrated in Census Bureau data. She is becoming better educated, enabling her to move up the job ladder and increase her earning power. With her new independence, she lives alone in her own household if she chooses. The married woman is having fewer children, and the divorcee is remarrying sooner. And she is living longer to enjoy her new opportunities and freedoms. Clearly, the American woman will exert an ever more powerful influence on the destiny of the United States as a result of: • Her increasing participation in the labor force, • Her growing educational background, • Her majority in the electorate, • Her wishes as to family size, which will determine the nation's future population growth. The U.S. birth rate, which rose during the period between the late 1930's and late 1950's, has since then reverted to its historical downward trend. If young wives expect to have fewer children, as they have recently indicated, it follows that the birth rate will continue to decline, resulting in a diminishing population growth and possibly a cessation of growth. However, if families in the future choose to have more children, the rising birth rate would bring a rising growth rate. PENN STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES U. S DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE Frederick B. Dent Secretary A 07 2 is b o b ? Social and Economic Statistics Administration BUREAU OF THE CENSUS Robert L. Hagan, Acting Director PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE John J. Casserly, Chief This report was prepared in the Public Information Office, Bureau of the Census, as an aid to education. March 1973 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 Price 40 cents domestic postpaid or 30 cents G.P.O. Bookstore