From the Valley to the Summit - the Womens Revolution - Essay Example

Rather than holding jobs, Goldin argues that more and more women can now enjoy satisfying careers of their own thanks to a rising number of college women in the late 1960s and early 1970s taking courses in previously male-dominated fields such as a business that anticipated a future position within the labor market by the time they were 35.  Not only did more women graduate 4-year college programs, but more also sought higher professional degrees just as more of them actually entered the labor force as they expected, which caused many to make other shifts in their lifestyles, such as getting married at a later stage. 

There were several factors that contributed to this change in expectations.  Goldin discusses each one in turn but includes government mandates that prohibited discrimination in hiring policies and higher education acceptance, social change in the Civil Rights movement that gave impetus to a resurgence of feminism, the availability of contraception that gave women the power to choose when or if they want a baby, the baby boom and a declining national economy.