Understanding why Black Women are not Working Longer

Joanna Lahey

Working Papers from eSocialSciences

Abstract: Black women in current cohorts ages 50 to 72 years have lower employment than similar white women, despite having had higher employment when they were middle-aged and younger. Earlier cohorts of older black women also worked more than their white counterparts. Although it is not surprising that white women’s employment should catch up to that of black women given trends in increasing female labor force participation, it is surprising that it should surpass that of black women. This paper discusses factors that contribute to this differential change over time. Changes in education, marital status, home-ownership, welfare, wealth, and cognition cannot explain this trend, whereas changes in occupation, industry, health, and gross motor functioning may explain some of the trend. [Working Paper 22680]

Keywords: Black women; lower employment; white women; labor force participation; education; marital status; home-ownership; welfare; wealth; and cognition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-09
Note: Institutional Papers
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Chapter: Understanding Why Black Women Are Not Working Longer (2017)
Working Paper: Understanding why black women are not working longer (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:11370

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