The Power of the Pill: Oral Contraceptives and Women's Career and Marriage Decisions
by Claudia Goldin & Lawrence F Katz*
---- Abstract -----
The fraction of U.S. college graduate women entering professional programs increased substantially around 1970 and the age at first marriage among all U.S. college graduate women soared just after 1972. We explore the relationship between these two changes and how each was shaped by the diffusion of the birth control pill among young, single college educated women. Although the pill' was approved in 1960 by the FDA and diffused rapidly among married women, it did not diffuse among young single women until the late 1960s when a series of state law changes reduced the age of majority and extended mature minor decisions. We model the impact of the pill on women's careers as consisting of two effects. The pill had a direct positive effect on women's career investment by almost eliminating the chance of becoming pregnant and thus the cost of having sex. The pill also created a social multiplier effect by encouraging the delay of marriage generally and thus increasing a career woman's likelihood of finding an appropriate mate after professional school. We present a collage of evidence pointing to the power of the pill in lowering the costs of long-duration professional education for women. The evidence consists of the striking coincidences in the timing of changes in career investment, marriage age, state laws, and pill use among young single women. The connection between changes in the age at first marriage and the pill is further explored using state variation in laws affecting young single women's pill access. We also evaluate alternative explanations for the changes in career and marriage.
*Published: Goldin, Claudia and Lawrence F. Katz. "The Power Of The Pill: Contraceptives And Women's Career And Marriage Decisions," Journal of Political Economy, 2002, v110(4,Aug), 730-770.
Source: National Bureau of Economic Research $5
Showing posts with label medicine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medicine. Show all posts
Monday, February 9, 2009
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Monday, September 22, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Sunday, November 25, 2007
bigger world
Riders or repairs weighing down Small World boats?
The Disneyland ride will undergo a refurbishment because boats are sinking.
By SARAH TULLY, The Orange Register
ANAHEIM – One thing is clear: It's A Small World ride in Disneyland will undergo renovations partly because boats are bottoming out.
But the reason for the sinking boats is up for debate.
Disney officials claim that after years of piling on fiberglass repairs, the water pathway is shallower than when the ride was created in 1964.
A Disney watchdog blog, however, says that guests' ever-expanding girths are causing the boats to float deeper and get stuck, causing embarrassing evacuations that were happening almost daily.
Rob Doughty, a Disneyland spokesman, said the miceage.comblog is "just flat out wrong."
"Anything else is totally speculation, conjecture on somebody's' part," Doughty said.
Al Lutz, miceage.com editor, disagreed, saying internal memos suggest that Disney officials long have worried about the weight of guests pushing down ride cars and boats. Specifically, Small World was designed for the New York World's Fair, assuming adult men averaged 175 pounds and adult women averaged 135 pounds, the blog states.
The average weight for Americans has climbed to more than 190 pounds for men and more than 160 for women, accord to the medical Web site WebMD
"The problem is the boats are riding lower in the water," Lutz said.
Doughty said all rides have capacity rules. In water rides, including the Jungle Cruise, the ride operators must focus on the "distribution of guests." When visitors shift, the rides can stop. But he denied that this was because of the weight gain of guests overall.
Since word got out about the stoppages at Small World, Lutz said ride operators have been instructed to load the boats lighter so they won't jam up.
Regardless of the specific reasons, Disney will embark on a 10-month refurbishment of the ride of 300 animatronic, singing dolls with costumes from around the world, replacing the original water flume and the boats, Doughty said.
A few new undisclosed scenes will be added and others will be enhanced during the spruce up. Small World will remain open through the holidays when it is redecorated with a Christmas theme and carols.
Jan. 7 will be the first day the ride will be closed.
The Disneyland ride will undergo a refurbishment because boats are sinking.
By SARAH TULLY, The Orange Register
ANAHEIM – One thing is clear: It's A Small World ride in Disneyland will undergo renovations partly because boats are bottoming out.
But the reason for the sinking boats is up for debate.
Disney officials claim that after years of piling on fiberglass repairs, the water pathway is shallower than when the ride was created in 1964.
A Disney watchdog blog, however, says that guests' ever-expanding girths are causing the boats to float deeper and get stuck, causing embarrassing evacuations that were happening almost daily.
Rob Doughty, a Disneyland spokesman, said the miceage.comblog is "just flat out wrong."
"Anything else is totally speculation, conjecture on somebody's' part," Doughty said.
Al Lutz, miceage.com editor, disagreed, saying internal memos suggest that Disney officials long have worried about the weight of guests pushing down ride cars and boats. Specifically, Small World was designed for the New York World's Fair, assuming adult men averaged 175 pounds and adult women averaged 135 pounds, the blog states.
The average weight for Americans has climbed to more than 190 pounds for men and more than 160 for women, accord to the medical Web site WebMD
"The problem is the boats are riding lower in the water," Lutz said.
Doughty said all rides have capacity rules. In water rides, including the Jungle Cruise, the ride operators must focus on the "distribution of guests." When visitors shift, the rides can stop. But he denied that this was because of the weight gain of guests overall.
Since word got out about the stoppages at Small World, Lutz said ride operators have been instructed to load the boats lighter so they won't jam up.
Regardless of the specific reasons, Disney will embark on a 10-month refurbishment of the ride of 300 animatronic, singing dolls with costumes from around the world, replacing the original water flume and the boats, Doughty said.
A few new undisclosed scenes will be added and others will be enhanced during the spruce up. Small World will remain open through the holidays when it is redecorated with a Christmas theme and carols.
Jan. 7 will be the first day the ride will be closed.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Smokers More Likely to Develop Dementia
Smokers More Likely to Develop Dementia
Tuesday, September 4, 2007; 12:00 AM
TUESDAY, Sept. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Current smokers are 50 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease or dementia than people who don't smoke or who gave up smoking, a Dutch report says.
Researchers announced these results after analyzing seven years of data from almost 7,000 people over age 55.
Over the course of the study, 706 people developed dementia. People who were smokers during the study were 50 percent more likely to develop dementia than people who had never smoked or were former smokers, according to the researchers, who published their findings in the Sept. 4 issue ofNeurology.
"Smoking increases the risk of cerebrovascular disease, which is also tied to dementia," study author Dr. Monique Breteler, of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, said in a prepared statement. "Another mechanism could be through oxidative stress, which can damage cells in the blood vessels and lead to hardening of the arteries. Smokers experience greater oxidative stress than nonsmokers, and increased oxidative stress is also seen in Alzheimer's disease."
Oxidative stress occurs when there are too many waste products from chemical reactions in the body. Dietary antioxidants can fight those waste products, known as free radicals, but Breteler said that smokers are also known to have fewer antioxidants in their diets than nonsmokers.
The researchers also studied the way that smoking affects the risk of Alzheimer's disease for people who carry the related gene. They found that smoking did not increase the risk for those with the gene for Alzheimer's disease, but it did increase the risk for people without the gene. Current smokers without the gene were 70 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than nonsmokers or former smokers without the gene.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/04/AR2007090400554.html
Tuesday, September 4, 2007; 12:00 AM
TUESDAY, Sept. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Current smokers are 50 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease or dementia than people who don't smoke or who gave up smoking, a Dutch report says.
Researchers announced these results after analyzing seven years of data from almost 7,000 people over age 55.
Over the course of the study, 706 people developed dementia. People who were smokers during the study were 50 percent more likely to develop dementia than people who had never smoked or were former smokers, according to the researchers, who published their findings in the Sept. 4 issue ofNeurology.
"Smoking increases the risk of cerebrovascular disease, which is also tied to dementia," study author Dr. Monique Breteler, of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, said in a prepared statement. "Another mechanism could be through oxidative stress, which can damage cells in the blood vessels and lead to hardening of the arteries. Smokers experience greater oxidative stress than nonsmokers, and increased oxidative stress is also seen in Alzheimer's disease."
Oxidative stress occurs when there are too many waste products from chemical reactions in the body. Dietary antioxidants can fight those waste products, known as free radicals, but Breteler said that smokers are also known to have fewer antioxidants in their diets than nonsmokers.
The researchers also studied the way that smoking affects the risk of Alzheimer's disease for people who carry the related gene. They found that smoking did not increase the risk for those with the gene for Alzheimer's disease, but it did increase the risk for people without the gene. Current smokers without the gene were 70 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than nonsmokers or former smokers without the gene.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/04/AR2007090400554.html
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