This paper is an analysis of the demographic and labor force behavior
of women college graduates in the first four decades of the twentieth century.
These women's behavior differed from that of nineteenth-century alumnae in
several notable ways. First, the later graduates married earlier and morefrequent
ly. Second, they were markedly more likely to be married and childless. Third,
significant proportions of these classes worked after marriage-both before and
after childbearing. An economic model that extends the ideas of Richard A.
Easterlin is used to understand better these twentieth-century graduates' behavior
and why it differed from that of both earlier college women and other women in
their own birth cohorts.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Anon.1917 "Celibacy of Teachers ." Journal of Heredity8:259-260.
2.
Anderson, W.A.1950Marriage and Families of University Graduates. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press .
3.
Bird, Caroline1968 "Fifty Years of Vassar Girls." Vassar Alumnae Magazine54:4-10.
4.
Brubacher, John S.1927 "The Judicial Status of Marriage and Maternity as an Obstacle to the Education of Women for Professional Careers in Public School Teaching ." School and Society26:428-435.
5.
Chudacoff, Howard P. and Tamara K. Hareven1979 "From the Empty Nest to Family Dissolution: Life Course Transitions into Old Age." Journal of Family History4:69-83.
6.
Cookingham, Mary E.1980 "The Demographic and Labor Force Behavior of Women College Graduates, 1865 to 1965." Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.
7.
1984a "Bluestockings, Spinsters and Pedagogues: Women College Graduates, 1865 to 1910." Population Studies, forthcoming.
8.
1984b "Working After Childbearing in Modern America." Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 14:773-792.
9.
Correll, Helen Butts1939 "The Birth Rate for Wellesley College Graduates ." Journal of Heredity30: 137-138.
10.
Dillingham, William Pyrle1952Federal Aid to Veterans, 1917-1941. Gainesville, Fl.: University of Florida Press.
11.
Douglas, Paul H.1930Real Wages in the United States, 1890-1926. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
12.
Easterlin, Richard A.1966 "On the Relation of Economic Factors to Recent and Projected Fertility Changes." Demography3:131-153.
13.
1980Birth and Fortune. New York: Basic Books.
14.
Elsbree, Willard S.1939The American Teacher. New York : American Book Company.
15.
Emerick, C.F.1909 "College Women and Race Suicide." Political Science Quarterly24:269-283.
16.
Frankfort, Roberta1977Collegiate Women. New York: New York University Press.
17.
Haber, Samuel1964Efficiency and Uplift: Scientific Management in the Progressive Era, 1890-1920. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
18.
Hall, G. Stanley and Theodate L. Smith1903 "Marriage and Fecundity of College Men and Women." ThePedagogical Seminary10:275-319.
19.
Hartson, Louis D.1940 "Marriage Record of Alumnae for the First Century of a Coeducational College." Journal of Heredity31:403-406.
20.
Hewes, Amy1911 "Marital and Occupational Statistics of Graduates of Mount Holyoke College." Journal of the American Statistical Association96:771-796.
21.
Himes, Norman E.1936Medical History of Contraception. Baltimore : Williams and Wilkins Co.
22.
Lewis, E.E.1925Personnel Problems of the Teaching Staff. New York: Century Company.
23.
McGinnis, W.C.1931 "The Married Woman Teacher." School Executives Magazine50:451-453.
24.
May, Henry1959The End of American Innocence. New York : Knopf.
25.
Mayer, Mary Levy1962 "To See Ourselves: Preliminary Report on the Mount Holyoke Alumnae Association Questionnaires." Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly:81-88.
26.
Meranski, Sophia1924 "A Census of Mount Holyoke Alumnae." Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly: 149-159.
27.
Olmsted, Ruth, et al. 1935 "Marriage and the Business Cycle." Department of Economics and Sociology, Mount Holyoke College Archives .
28.
Oppenheimer, Valerie K.1970The Female Labor Force in the United States. Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, University of California.
29.
1976 "The Easterlin Hypothesis: Another Aspect of the Echo to Consider." Population and Development Review2:433-457.
30.
Robinson, J. Gregory1980 "Labor Force Participation Rates of Cohorts of Women in the United States: 1890 to 1979." Presented at Population Association of America meetings, Colorado .
31.
Rogers, Agnes1940Vassar Women: An Informal Study. Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: Vassar College.
32.
Ryder, Norman1969 "The Emergence of a Modern Fertility Pattern." In S. J. Behrman et al., eds., Fertility and Family Planning: A World View, 99-121. Ann Arbor, Mi. : University of Michigan Press.
