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Women in the labor force: a databook

In 2021, 56.1 percent of all women participated in the labor force. This changed little from 2020 (56.2 percent) and is 1.3 percentage points lower than the rate in 2019, prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, the labor force participation rate for men at 67.6 percent in 2021 changed little from the previous year (67.7 percent) and is 1.6 percentage points lower than the rate in 2019. Data for both groups continue to reflect the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labor market in 2021.

The rapid rise in women’s labor force participation was a major development in the labor market during the second half of the 20th century. Overall, women’s labor force participation increased dramatically from the 1960s through the 1980s and slowed in the 1990s before peaking in 1999. Labor force participation among women then began to decline, which accelerated in the wake of the December 2007–June 2009 recession. Consequently, the 2021 participation rate for women is the lowest rate since 1987 and nearly 4 percentage points below its 1999 peak of 60.0 percent. The 2021 participation rate for men is the lowest in the history of the series and 19 percentage points below its 1948 peak of 86.6 percent. (Both series began in 1948.)

Women’s involvement in the labor market has changed in notable ways over the past several decades. For example, women became much more likely to pursue higher levels of education: from 1970 to 2021, the proportion of women in the labor force ages 25 to 64 who held a college degree more than quadrupled. Over that time, the proportion of men in the labor force with a college degree more than doubled. Women have become more likely to work full time and year-round, and women’s earnings as a proportion of men’s earnings have grown over time. Women working full time earned 62.3 percent of what men earned in 1979, which rose to 83.1 percent by 2021.

This report presents historical and recent labor force and earnings data for women and men from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a national monthly survey of approximately 60,000 households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unless otherwise noted, data are annual averages from the CPS. (For a detailed description of the source of the data and an explanation of concepts and definitions used, see the technical notes.)

Selected demographic characteristics

Women’s labor force participation rate was 56.1 percent in 2021, little different from the rate in 2020 (56.2 percent). Men’s labor force participation rate, which has always been much higher than that for women, was 67.6 percent in 2021, also little different than the previous year (67.7 percent). Rates for both men and women remain below their 2019 levels, prior to the pandemic. (See table 2.)

The unemployment rate for women decreased by 3.1 percentage points from the prior year to 5.2 percent in 2021. The rate for men was 5.5 percent in 2021, down by 2.3 percentage points over the year. In 2021, the unemployment rates for women and men were 1.6 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points higher than their respective rates in 2019.

Unemployment rates vary considerably by race and ethnicity. Black women and Hispanic women had higher jobless rates (8.0 percent and 7.2 percent, respectively) than Asian women and White women (5.1 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively). Men’s unemployment rates exhibited a similar pattern. The rate for Black men (9.2 percent) was higher than those for Hispanic men (6.5 percent), Asian men (4.9 percent), and White men (4.8 percent). (See tables 3.)

Labor force participation varies by marital status and differs between women and men. Never-married women had the highest participation rate of all women, at 64.3 percent in 2021. Separated and divorced women were more likely to participate in the labor force (62.4 percent and 59.0 percent, respectively) than married women (56.9 percent). Across all marital statuses, men are more likely to participate in the labor force than their female counterparts. Married men (70.9 percent) and separated men (71.3 percent) were more likely to participate in the labor force in 2021 than never-married men (67.6 percent) and divorced men (61.6 percent). Labor force participation rates are lowest for widowed women and men—who tend to be older—at 17.4 percent and 22.6 percent, respectively. (See table 4.)

The labor force participation rate for women with children under 18 years old was 71.7 percent in March 2021, much lower than the rate of 92.5 percent for men with children under 18 years. Among mothers, the labor force participation rate for those with children 6 to 17 years old, at 75.6 percent, was considerably higher than for those with younger children. The rate for women with children under 6 years old was 66.5 percent, and the rate for women with children under 3 years old was 64.2 percent. By contrast, the labor force participation rates for fathers were more similar; the participation rate for fathers of children under 6 years old (93.7 percent), and fathers of children under 3 years old (93.3 percent), were higher than that for fathers with children 6 to 17 years old (91.6 percent). (See tables 5 and 7; data were collected in the 2021 Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the CPS.)

Unmarried mothers are much more likely to participate in the labor force than married mothers. In March 2021, 76.5 percent of unmarried mothers were in the labor force, compared with 69.8 percent of married mothers. (See table 6; data were collected in the 2021 Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the CPS.)

Educational attainment

The educational attainment of women ages 25 to 64 in the labor force has risen substantially over the past half century. In 2021, 47.6 percent of women ages 25 to 64 held a bachelor’s degree and higher, compared with 11.2 percent in 1970. In 2021, 4.8 percent of women in the labor force had less than a high school diploma—that is, they did not graduate from high school or earn a GED—down from 33.5 percent in 1970. (See tables 9A and 9B.)

Occupation and industry

Women accounted for 52.0 percent of all workers employed in management, professional, and related occupations in 2021, somewhat more than their share of total employment (47.0 percent). The share of women in specific occupations within this large category varied. For example, 19.7 percent of software developers, 29.1 percent of chief executives, and 36.4 percent of general and operations managers were women. In contrast, women accounted for 86.7 percent of registered nurses, 81.0 percent of teaching assistants, and 79.2 percent of elementary and middle school teachers. (See table 11.)

In 2021, Asian and White women were more likely to work in higher paying management, professional, and related occupations (56.7 percent and 47.7 percent, respectively) than were Black and Hispanic women (39.6 percent and 29.9 percent, respectively). Hispanic and Black women (29.7 percent and 25.0 percent, respectively) were more likely to work in lower paying service occupations than White and Asian women (18.6 percent and 18.5 percent, respectively). (See table 12.)

By industry, women accounted for more than half of all workers within several sectors in 2021: education and health services (74.3 percent), financial activities (52.1 percent), other services (51.9 percent), and leisure and hospitality (50.9 percent). (Other services include repair and maintenance services, personal and laundry services, membership associations and organizations, and private households.) Comparably, women were substantially underrepresented (relative to their share of total employment) in manufacturing (29.2 percent), agriculture (28.0 percent), transportation and utilities (24.8 percent), mining (15.4 percent), and construction (11.0 percent). (See table 14.)

Earnings

In 2021, women who worked full time in wage and salary jobs had median usual weekly earnings of $912, which represented 83.1 percent of men’s median weekly earnings ($1,097). Among women, earnings were higher for Asians ($1,141) than for Whites ($925), Blacks ($776), and Hispanics ($718). Women-to-men’s earnings ratios were higher for Blacks (94.1 percent) than for Hispanics (87.6 percent), Whites (82.2 percent), and Asians (78.5 percent). (See table 16; note that the comparisons of earnings in this report are on a broad level and do not control for many factors, like occupation, that may be important in explaining earnings differences.)

Women’s median usual weekly earnings vary by educational attainment. In 2021, among female full-time wage and salary workers age 25 and older, those with less than a high school diploma had median weekly earnings of $550. Women whose highest degree was a high school diploma had earnings of $698, those with an associate’s degree had earnings of $836, and those with a bachelor’s degree and higher had earnings of $1,272. (See table 17.)

By occupation, median usual weekly earnings of female full-time wage and salary workers in 2021 were the highest for other physicians ($2,283), pharmacists ($2,087), lawyers ($1,912), computer and information systems managers ($1,908), chief executives ($1,904), and nurse practitioners ($1,903). Earnings for men were highest for chief executives ($2,721), other physicians ($2,647), and lawyers ($2,495). (See table 18.)

In 2021, 1.8 percent of women who were paid hourly rates had earnings at or below the prevailing federal minimum wage ($7.25 per hour). Among women ages 16 to 24 who were paid an hourly rate, 4.3 percent had earnings at or below the minimum wage, compared with 1.2 percent of women age 25 and over. (See table 20.)

Hours of work

Historically, women are more likely than men to work part time—that is, less than 35 hours per week. In 2021, 22.4 percent of employed women usually worked part time. By comparison, 11.5 percent of employed men usually worked part time.  (See table 21.)

Of all women who worked at some point during the calendar year of 2020, 57.8 percent worked full time and year round (50 to 52 weeks), compared with 40.7 percent in 1970. The proportion of men who worked full time and year round was also larger in 2020 (67.9 percent) than in 1970 (66.1 percent). (See table 23; data were collected in the 1971 through 2021 Annual Social and Economic Supplements to the CPS and reflect earnings and work experience in the previous calendar year.)

Married-couple families

Among opposite-sex married-couple families, 52.5 percent had earnings from both the wife and the husband in 2020. This percentage, which has changed little over the past 10 years, is below the peak of 60.4 percent in 1996 but above the 43.6 percent seen in 1967 when the series began. Couples in which only the husband worked for pay represented 17.0 percent of married-couple families in 2020 versus 35.6 percent in 1967. (See table 24B; data were collected in the 1968 through 2021 Annual Social and Economic Supplements to the CPS and reflect earnings and work experience in the previous calendar year.)

The working poor

Among people who were in the labor force for at least 27 weeks in 2020, more women (3.4 million) than men (3.0 million) lived below the official poverty level. The working-poor rate (the ratio of the working poor to all individuals who were in the labor force for at least 27 weeks) was 4.6 percent for women and 3.6 percent for men. Black and Hispanic women (8.1 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively) were much more likely to be among the working poor than White women (4.0 percent) or Asian women (2.8 percent). (See table 26; data are from the 2021 Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the CPS and reflect earnings and work experience in the previous calendar year.)

Worker displacement

From January 2019 through December 2021, 3.6 million workers age 20 and older were displaced from jobs they had held for at least 3 years; women accounted for 47 percent of those displaced. Among long-tenured displaced workers, men had a slightly higher reemployment rate than women in January 2022 (68.0 percent and 62.2 percent, respectively). The proportions of long-tenured displaced men and women who were unemployed were little different (13.6 percent and 11.2 percent, respectively). In January 2022, 26.7 percent of displaced women and 18.4 percent of displaced men had left the labor force. (See table 27; data are from the January 2022 Displaced Worker, Employee Tenure, and Occupational Mobility Supplement to the CPS.)

Employee tenure

In January 2022, the median number of years that employed women had been with their employers was 3.8 years, little different from the median of 3.9 years in January 2020. Median employee tenure (the point at which half of all workers had more tenure and half had less tenure) for men continued to stay at 4.3 years. (See table 28; data are from the January 2022 Displaced Worker, Employee Tenure, and Occupational Mobility Supplement to the CPS.)

School enrollment

Of the 2.7 million young people ages 16 to 24 who graduated from high school between January and October 2021, 61.8 percent (1.7 million) were enrolled in college in October of that year. For the 2021 high school graduates, the college enrollment rate continued to be higher for young women (69.5 percent) than for young men (54.9 percent). (See table 29; data are from the October 2021 School Enrollment Supplement to the CPS.)

Among those enrolled in high school, young women were more likely to be in the labor force (25.0 percent) in October 2021 than were young men (21.5 percent). Among college students, women were also more likely to participate in the labor force than men, at 50.2 percent and 44.5 percent, respectively. Among young people ages 16 to 24 who were not enrolled in school in October 2021, the unemployment rate for those without a high school diploma was 19.1 percent for women and 14.0 percent for men. In contrast, the unemployment rates for young women and men with at least a bachelor’s degree were 3.7 percent and 9.4 percent, respectively. (See table 30; data are from the October 2021 School Enrollment Supplement to the CPS.)

Multiple jobholders and the self-employed

In 2021, 7.0 million workers had more than one job. Just over half (3.6 million) of these workers were women. The multiple jobholding rate for women at 5.0 percent in 2021 was higher than that for men, at 4.3 percent. (See table 31.)

In 2021, 5.4 percent of working women in nonagricultural industries were self-employed, compared with 6.8 percent of men. In 2021, 41.4 percent of the self-employed were women, compared with 26.8 percent in 1976. (See table 32.)

Foreign born

Foreign-born women were less likely than native-born women to be in the labor force in 2021 (53.4 percent compared with 56.6 percent). By contrast, foreign-born men were more likely to be in the labor force (76.8 percent) than were native-born men (65.8 percent). The unemployment rate for foreign-born women, at 6.1 percent, was higher than for native-born women, at 5.0 percent. At 5.1 percent, the unemployment rate for foreign-born men was lower than that for native-born men (5.5 percent). Differences in labor force indicators reflect a variety of factors, including variations in the distributions of foreign-born and native-born workers by age, educational attainment, occupation, industry, and geographic region. (See table 33.)

Union membership

In 2021, 9.9 percent of female wage and salary workers were members of unions, compared with 10.6 percent of their male counterparts. For both women and men, the union membership rate was much lower in 2021 than in 1983 (the first year that union membership data were regularly collected in the CPS). In 1983, union membership rates were 14.6 percent for women and 24.7 percent for men. (See table 34.)

Veterans

There were 1.1 million female veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces in the labor force in 2021, accounting for 13.0 percent of the 8.8 million veterans in the labor force. Nearly half of all female veterans in the labor force in 2021 served during the Gulf War-era II period (September 2001 to present). The labor force participation rate among female Gulf War-era II veterans was 69.0 percent, significantly lower than the participation rate of 80.7 percent for their male counterparts. Among Gulf War-era II veterans, the unemployment rate for women was 4.9 percent in 2021, little different from the rate of 4.6 percent for men. (See table 35.)

People with disabilities

Of the 16.6 million women with disabilities in 2021, 3.1 million, or 18.9 percent, participated in the labor force. A little over half of women with disabilities (8.7 million) were age 65 and older. Labor force participation among women in this age group was 5.3 percent, compared with 33.9 percent for those with a disability ages 16 to 64. Among the 14.5 million men with disabilities, 24.0 percent participated in the labor force in 2021. Forty-seven percent of men with disabilities were age 65 and older (6.8 million). Among men in this age group, 10.0 percent were labor force participants, compared with 36.4 percent of men with a disability ages 16 to 64. Among people with a disability, the unemployment rate for women, at 10.1 percent, was equal to that for men. These rates were considerably higher than the rates of women and men without a disability (5.0 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively). (See table 36.)