An important feature of the labor market in recent years has been the increasing participation of women, particularly married women. Many analysts suggest, however, that women comprise a secondary labor market where rates of pay and promotion prospects are inferior to those available to men. The principal reason is that women have, or are assumed to have, domestic responsibilities that compete with paid employment. Such domestic responsibilities are strongly influenced by social values, which require women to give priority to home and family over paid employment.

The difficulties that women face in the labor market and in their ability to reach senior positions in organizations are accentuated with the arrival of children. In order to become full-time employees, women with children must overcome the problems of finding good, affordable child care and the psychological barriers of workplace marginality. Some women balance domestic and workplace commitments by working part-time. However, part-time work is a precarious form of employment. Women parttimers are often the first laid off in a difficult economy. These workers are often referred to as the “reserve army” of female labor.

One researcher has found that approximately 80 percent of women in their twenties who have children remain at home. Such women who later return to work represent another sector of the workforce facing difficulties. When the typical houseworker returns to the labor market, she is unsure of herself in her new environment. This doubt is accentuated by her recent immersion in housework, a very private form of work. Without recent employment experience, these women confront a restricted range of opportunities and will almost certainly be offered low-status jobs with poor prospects.

Even women professionals who interrupt their careers to have children experience difficulties. Their technical skills may become rusty or obsolete, important networks of business contacts are broken, and their delayed return to work may mean that they are likely to come up for promotion well after the age that would be otherwise normal. Consequently, women, even those of high ability, may find themselves blocked in the lower echelons of an organization, overlooked, or even “invisible” to senior management.

1. The author of the passage is primarily concerned with

A. advocating changes in employers’ practices towards women with children.
B. examining some of the reasons women rarely reach the higher echelons of paid labor.
C. describing the psychological consequences for women of working outside the home.
D. taking issue with those who believe women should not work outside the home.
E. analyzing the contribution of women to industry and business.


2. The passage provides information to support which of the following statements about women workers?

A. It is the responsibility of employers to provide child care accommodations for women workers with children.
B. Women in high-status positions are easily able to integrate career and children.
C. Conditions for working mothers are much better today than they were 20 years ago.
D. The decision to work outside the home is often the source of considerable anxiety for women with children.
E. With the expense of child care, it is often not profitable for women with children to work.


3. According to the passage, men generally receive higher salaries and have a better chance of being promoted because women

A. tend to work in industries that rely almost exclusively on part-time labor.
B. lack the technical and managerial experience of their male counterparts.
C. have responsibilities outside of the workplace that demand considerable attention.
D. are the first to be laid off when the economy grows at a very slow pace.
E. suffer discrimination in the male-dominated corporate environment.


4. The author’s discussion of women professionals in the last paragraph serves to

A. show that the difficulties of integrating careers and motherhood can be overcome.
B. indicate that even women of higher status are not exempt from the difficulties of integrating careers and children.
C. defend changes in the policies of employers towards working mothers.
D. modify a hypothesis regarding the increased labor force participation of women.
E. point out the lack of opportunities for women in business.


5. According to the passage, the senior management of many business organizations often fails to promote highly competent women who have rejoined the labor force after raising children for which of the following reasons?

A. Senior management believes that these women cannot be relied upon to remain with the organization since they left the labor market in the past.
B. These women are thought to be too old for promotion into the higher echelons of the organization.
C. These women do not possess the social skills necessary to develop strong relationships with important decision makers in the organization.
D. Senior management views these women as a secondary source of labor that does not possess the managerial skills necessary for entry into the organization's upper ranks.
E. These women spend too much time with their families and too little time at the office.