husbands to their own lower earning wives. In addition, spouse and survivor benefits accrue disproportionately to women from … in two earner households, and the growth in women's labor market activity and earnings, the Social Security system now …, women enjoyed a more rapid growth of labor force participation, hours of work and covered earnings than men. This increased …

women. Historically, women with more education have been the least likely to marry and have children, but this marriage gap … has eroded as the returns to marriage have changed. Marriage and remarriage rates have risen for women with a college … degree relative to women with fewer years of education. However, the patterns of, and reasons for, marriage have changed …

are related to labor market success, including race, gender, parental background, education, test scores, and variables … more skilled than the previous one. Blacks and Hispanics have gained relative to whites and women have gained relative to …

found smaller or even negligible effects from childbearing for high-skill women, but we find the opposite. Wage trajectories … diverge sharply for high scoring women after, but not before, they have children, while there is little change for low …-skill women. It appears that the lifetime costs of childbearing, especially early childbearing, are particularly high for skilled …