Students will need two color pencils for this line graph.  Red and green are good choices.  Use red for the category "Single Women," placing small dots for the data in that category.  Connect the dots to make the graph line.  Be sure to add the color to the key at the top.  Then use green to place dots for the data in the category of married women with children.  Connect the dots with the green pencil, and complete the key.

What the Chart Shows

   This chart shows that married and unmarried women were increasingly taking paying jobs during the period from 1950 to 2000.  A short downturn for single women early in the period quickly reversed itself.
   The most remarkable trend is seen in the category of married women with young children.  In the 1950s, the vast majority of women in that category were full-time homemakers.  But the number with paid jobs was growing steadily.  By 1970 the figure hit 30 percent, and it reached 50 percent by the mid-1980s.
    Keep in mind that the chart shows women in the paid work force.  For example, in the 1950s, when relatively few married women with children held paying jobs, a substantial number were working in volunteer positions such as PTAs and other community groups. 

   What are some of the benefits...
 

   The movement of women into the paid labor force during this period brought both benefits and challenges to American families.
   For women, just as for men, careers can bring a great deal of personal satisfaction.  Especially for women entering professions, paid jobs open interesting and challenging avenues for their talents and energy.
   A second income often brings many material advantages to families - a larger house, a second car, or savings for a child's college education. 
   The income earned by working women also contributed to a stronger sense of independence for American women generally.  Indeed, by the mid-1960s, a new feminist movement was rolling through the American culture and redefining relations between men and women in many ways.

   But the changing pattern of women in the workplace created some difficult questions for families.  Child care became a serious national issue.  Aside from the expense, there is a very real question about the quality of care when a parent is not the care giver. 
   Many families also found that while having two incomes has many advantages, it often creates a shortage of time for family members to be with each other.