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c h a p t e r 4 Labor Force Participation and Occupational Achievement According to the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey, not only are American Jewish women highly educated, they are (not surprisingly) active in the labor force and have high occupational achievement. These educational and economic characteristics grew out of a history of Jewish women being active in the labor force, reinforced by the tradition of supporting their families while their husbands engaged in religious study; by the immigrant experience, which pushed women to contribute to the household economy; and by active involvement in the contemporary women’s movement, which emphasized women’s equal participation in public roles. Such economic roles are facilitated by a relatively low rate of fertility, which reduces the familial obligations that constrain the pursuit of higher education and participation in the labor force. Despite their high level of education, labor force participation, and occupational status relative to other U.S. women, the 1990 NJPS data revealed a persistent gender gap in occupational achievement between Jewish women and Jewish men (Hartman and Hartman, 1996a). One issue particularly of interest in the case of American Jews is how much gender equality they have achieved, a decade later, in labor force participation and occupational roles and rewards, given the high level of human resources both women and men have in terms of educational background . Do American Jewish women reach a plateau of labor force participation and a glass ceiling in terms of occupational achievement, despite their high educational level, or has economic parity been reached? Has the gender gap in occupational achievement narrowed since 1990? And what do we learn from the personal income data, which were not available in earlier studies of American Jews? A second issue is how family roles affect the labor force participation of American Jewish women and men. Especially among Jewish women, family 44 labor force participation 45 responsibilities have exerted a pull out of the labor force, at least temporarily or partially (to part-time employment), despite their high educational level and resultant opportunity costs for reducing their labor force involvement. Recent qualitative research suggests that this dynamic continues among American Jewish women, more so than among American Jewish men (who respond to familial responsibilities by a push to provide more adequately for the family) (Prell, 2007a). Of particular interest is whether American Jewish women continue to be more responsive to familial responsibilities than their counterparts in the broader population, as they have in the past (Chiswick , 1986) or whether increasingly delayed marriage and smaller family size translate into a greater compatibility between women’s family roles and labor force involvement than was seen in the past, and hence less differentiation between American Jewish women and their highly educated counterparts in the broader population. As we have already seen, American women in general have increased their participation in higher education, especially in completing undergraduate and graduate degrees (Chao and Utgoff, 2005). However, the rate of women’s participation in the labor force has been relatively stable for about a decade, after having increased dramatically in the preceding few decades (Chao and Utgoff, 2005, p. 1). In fact, women’s employment declined in the early 2000s as a result of general labor conditions (Boushey, 2005). In this chapter, we first describe American Jewish women’s contemporary economic roles and consider the differences between their labor force participation and that of American Jewish men. Second, we consider whether American Jews are maintaining their distinction from the rest of the U.S. population in terms of their economic roles and the gender differences within them. Third, we consider whether American Jews’ economic roles have changed since 1990 and whether the differences between Jewish men and women in these respects have narrowed. Finally, we look at comparative rewards for labor force participation (annual earnings and occupational prestige) between Jewish men and women. labor force participation According to the 2000–01 NJPS, 66.0% of American Jewish men and 54.1% of American Jewish women work in the paid labor force. Of those employed, most work full time (35 or more hours per week): 87.1% of men and 68.9% of women. As we show later, this is quite comparable to the percentages found in the broader U.S. population. Labor force participation rates vary with age, as expected. Because most Jewish men and women go on to higher education, their entrance into the paid labor force is often delayed until their education is...

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