白领美丽英文诵典365 -060 Married Women, Work, and Val（在线收听）

An examination of the relevant data shows a continuing secular increase in the labor force participation of married women--a phenomenon Ralph Smith called a "subtle revolution" two decades ago. However, this growth has slowed down in recent years and has at times been interrupted by factors such as increased educational investment among married women, the recession of the early 1990s, a rising birthrate, and a slowdown in women's return to work after giving birth. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that by the year 2008, women will form 48 percent of the labor force, compared with 46 percent in 1998. Women in their forties who are not in the labor force mostly are taking care of their family (58 percent) or are retired (29 percent).

Cross-sectional studies usually have supported the idea that the higher the husband's income, the lower is the labor force participation rate of his wife. This relationship is just what the theory of the backward-bending supply curve would predict--a strong inverse relationship, other things being equal, between husbands' income and women's participation rate. A wife's freedom from the labor market is looked at as a normal good. So, accordingly, only "poor" women work out of economic necessity. Husbands with higher incomes would tend to have a smaller proportion of wives in the labor force, because they could afford the luxury of stay-at-home wives and the wives could be relieved of the stress of contributing to the family income. However, considering the rise in real income that, in general, has taken place over time, the increase in labor force participation of wives in recent years generates some doubt about the presumptive relationship. The need for money to help make ends meet seems to be one of the most popular explanations of wives working, but that can hardly be the reason for the rapid rise in married women's participation rate, because wives stayed home in earlier decades, when their husbands were earning less. Needing money seems to be a universal and constant factor and thus cannot explain the increasing labor force participation of women.

一项调查的相关数据表明，在过去的两个十年间，已婚妇女转变成社会劳动力的数量在持续的增长，一个杰出的人士Ralph Smith称作微妙的变革。

然而，近些年这一增长慢了下来，有时甚至被一些因素完全阻断，比如已婚妇女教育投入的增加，20世纪90年代前期的经济衰退，出生率的上升，以及妇女生育后返回到工作中的数量下降等等。

横向的研究通常支持收入高的丈夫们的观点，即降低妻子的劳动力参与率。这种关系正表明倒退的理论支持预示着与反向发展的关系，其他一切事情要达到平等就必须在丈夫的收入与妇女的参与率之间寻求平衡。

根据劳动局于2008年公布的统计数量，在所有劳动力中，妇女占百分之四十八，而1998年则为百分之四十六。妇女通常到四十岁就离开了劳动领域，料理家庭的占百分之五十八，退休的占百分之二十九。

妇女的自由来自于劳动力市场把妇女作为正常的好品质的货物来接受。因此，与之相应的，只有出于贫困地位的妇女因为经济的原因出外工作。高收入的丈夫们倾向于妇女在劳动力市场占的比例小一些。因为他们能够负担得起呆在家里的妇女的奢华享受，同时对家庭收入起到了缓解压力的作用。

然而，鉴于实际收入的增长，从总体上看，会随着时间的推移而发生，妇女在劳动力参与比例上在的增长导致了以往对假定关系的怀疑。家庭需要提高收入来维持收支平衡似乎成为一个最流行的妇女参与工作的解释性说法。但是这也很难成为已婚妇女在劳动力比例上的迅速升高，因为在更早的一个十年期里，当男人们收入微薄的时候，妇女们却坦然的呆在家里。对钱的需要是一个世界性的持续的因素，因此不能解释妇女在劳动力参与比例的增长。