Labor Force Participation Rates, 1948 to 2018

The lives of men and women were vastly different in 1948. Only 1 in 3 women was in the labor force in those post-war years compared with nearly 9 of of 10 men. Today, the lives of men and women are much more similar. The gap in the labor force participation rate between women and men has fallen from nearly 54 to just 12 percentage points over the past seven decades.

Women's labor force participation rate peaked in 1999 at 60.0 percent. It has fallen slightly in recent years because the large baby-boom generation is retiring. Some of the recent decline in men's labor force participation rate is for the same reason.

Labor force participation rate by sex, 1948 to 2018

	women	men
2018	57.1%	69.1%
2008	59.5	73.0
1998	59.8	74.9
1988	56.6	76.2
1978	50.0	77.9
1968	41.6	80.1
1958	37.1	84.2
1948	32.7	86.6

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Women in the Labor Force: a Databook