A panel study of married women's work patterns

In the attempt to overcome shortcomings of previous research on women's employment patterns, married women's employment behavior was examined successively over a five year period (1976–1981). Logistic regression and discriminant function analyses were performed on a sample of 366 wives in dual earner families from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Attitudes as well as work and family factors differentiated women who worked continuously full-time from women who worked either part-time or intermittently during the five year period. The findings are discussed in the context of social change and the impact of changing norms on married women's work patterns.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, New York, NY, August 1987. Comments and suggestions of Barbara A. Gutek are greatly appreciated.