People,Place,and Power

For thousands of years, the average woman spent 100 percent of her adult life in childbearing and child-rearing and averaged five or fewer menstrual cycles in her lifetime. That changed radically in the last few generations. Today, the average American woman will spend just 15 to 20 percent of her adult life in childbearing and -rearing, if she elects to have a child at all, and she will experience up to 500 menstrual cycles. I illustrate these changes with examples from generations of my own family and speculate about how such structural changes in families and households can affect gender inequality.