Career woman

In the United States

Pre-World War II, most American women worked in the home and those who worked outside the home were mainly young and unmarried, or widowed. The Census Bureau calculated that only 20 percent of women were earning a wage in the early 1900s and only 5 percent of those women were married. These numbers ignored the fact that many women's work in the home also included working in family businesses and producing goods for sale. They also ignore the differences in experience by women of different racial backgrounds. For example, "African American women were about twice as likely to participate in the labor force as were white women at the time."

By the 1930, women's participation in the labor market had increased to around 50 percent for single women and 12 percent for married women. These numbers reflect the slowly changing societal expectations and opportunities for women's work. This was partly the result of the first-wave feminism, where women came together to push for more rights for women, including the right to vote.

In the 1950s, "women with genuine career interest were described as both rare and maladjusted." While access to the option of being a 'career woman' continued to increase, the stigma remained. In the 50s and 60s though, an exception emerged. It was increasingly seen as appropriate for a married women to work if necessary to economically support the family or as long as her family and children came first. This 'new view' of career women was more acceptable because the traditional role of wife-mother remained the priority. If women demonstrated that their career came second, then it was tolerated if their career was also "a primary avenue of self-expression in the world world". Even as these changes slowly opened opportunities for women in the workplace, "the very term 'career woman' suggested pretentiousness or hard-boiled insensitivity and rejection of femininity."

Despite these various stigmas, women's participation in the workforce has continued to increase in terms of total numbers, while the nature of jobs available to women has also widened. By the early 1990s, around 74 percent of 'working-age' women (25–54 years old) were part of the labor force. Women's work in various fields had also diversified, going beyond "the traditional fields of teaching, nursing, social work, and clerical work" and into fields formally only occupied by men, such as doctors and lawyers.

Wage gap

There has been a long history of a gender pay gap, a phenomenon which continues to this day, where women with the same job titles and responsibilities as men receive less pay. The gap has narrowed over time, but in 2020 women still earned on average around 17 percent less than men and 10 percent less when comparing for nearly identical background and experience.