Summary
In this survey, female respondents were asked about issues and problems of particular concern to women. Respondents selected the biggest problems facing women from a list covering the areas of health, children, employment, abortion, crime, and marriage. Comments were solicited on whether this country had made most of the changes needed to give women equal rights with men, and whether respondents had a favorable view of the National Organization for Women (NOW). Respondents were asked to look back on their lives and to indicate whether they wished they had placed more or less emphasis on things such as education, preparation for a career or work outside the home, children, husbands or close romantic relationships, and time for themselves. Those surveyed indicated the extent to which they worried about adequate family medical care, obtaining a legal abortion, sexual harassment, breast cancer, and managing both a job and home life. Additional questions asked if the trend toward both parents working outside the home had a positive or negative effect on families, and if respondents agreed with a series of statements ranging from "Many men today are not as committed to marriage as they used to be," to "I sometimes wish that we could go back to the days when most women didn't work outside the home." Background information on respondents includes political alignment, education, age, marital status, employment status, race, household income, parental status, and employment outside the home.
Citation
Export Citation:
Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage
Sample
Households were selected by random digit dialing. Within households, the respondent selected was the female adult living in the household who last had a birthday and who was at home at the time of the interview.
Universe
Female adults aged 18 and over living in households with telephones in the 48 contiguous United States.
Data Source
telephone interviews
survey data
Notes
Data in this collection are available only to users at ICPSR member institutions.
- The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented.

This study is provided by ICPSR. ICPSR provides leadership and training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis for a diverse and expanding social science research community.