Women in the Workforce.

Women’s lives have changed substantially since the mid-twentieth century. While women have long worked as teachers, administrative assistants, nurses, childcare providers, hairdressers, retail workers, and domestic workers, in recent decades more have joined professions that were previously dominated by men: medicine, law, engineering, finance, factory work, and so forth. By 2023, about 75 percent of US women aged 25 to 54 were employed, whether or not they had children. Some of this change was due to initiatives by governments and nongovernmental organizations to improve access to education for women, while some of the change was due to changing social norms in which women are now both expected and desire to be self-sufficient. While these initiatives have helped propel women into rewarding careers in all professions, improving their quality of life by advancing their economic power, debate over traditional gender roles and pay equality remain critical issues in the United States and in many countries around the world.