This week Time Magazine’s cover story is called “What Women Want Now”. They profile both statistical differences and changes in women’s attitudes since they last did a study in the early 1970’s. The statistical changes over the last 30 years are quite interesting:

• In 1972 36.2% of the workforce was comprised of women. Today it is 49.8%
• In 1972 women made 58 cents for every dollar a man made. Today they make 77 cents.
• In 1972 the median age a woman married was 21. Today it is 26.
• In 1972 12% of births were to unmarried mothers. Today it is 39%. (Must have been that Murphy Brown episode!)
• In 1972 43% of college students were women, as opposed to 57% today.
• In 1972 there were 900,000 couples in the US in which the woman was the sole earner. Today there are 3.3 million.
• In 1970 3% of lawyers were women, as compared to 32% today.
• In 1970 8% of doctors were women, as compared to 28% today.
• In 1971 there were no women FBI agents. Today there are 2396.
• There were also no women governors. Today there are 6.
• There were no women cabinet members. Today there are 7.
• A fact that surprised me. Since 1972 the rate of divorce has declined from 4.1 per 1000 population, to 3.5.
• A woman’s average lifespan has increased more than five years in the last 29 years.
• 70% of women say they are less financially dependent on their spouse than their mother was.

I was equally surprised to see how much men and women agree on many major issues. An identical percentage, 66%, describe their marriage as “very happy”, and at the opposite end of the spectrum 1% both describe their marriages as “not happy at all”.