Higher Povery Rates
Given the decline in earnings among men and the low wages of women, rural poverty rates are higher than in urban areas overall, particularly among mothers with young children.
This report documents the changing nature of women and work nationally, and in rural and urban areas, concentrating on five big changes: 1) the increase in women's employment; 2) the recent "opting out" phenomenon; 3) the rise in women's earnings and declines in the earnings gap; 4) the rise in the working poor; and 5) the decline in the traditional family structure of a husband-breadwinner with a stay-at-home wife.
Given the decline in earnings among men and the low wages of women, rural poverty rates are higher than in urban areas overall, particularly among mothers with young children.
84% of rural women in the workforce have a Bachelor's degree, versus 81% of urban women. However, rural female college graduates only 81 cents for every dollar urban college graduates earned.
Today, nearly 1 in 5 rural married women contributes the majority of the couple's earnings, a 56% increase since 1970. Urban wives as primary providers increased by 65% over the same period.
Since 2000, the share of college-educated, married mothers of young children in the country's cities and suburbs who are working has declined from 75% to 71%. In 2007, 85% of equivalent rural mothers were in the workforce.
Employment rates of women by education, 1970-2007
Percent of equal earner couples by education, 2007
Percent of couples with wives as primary and sole providers by race and ethnicity, 2007
In 2006, 70% of married women with children under age 6 in rural areas worked for pay compared with 64% in urban areas.
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