Looking ahead: Here’s to the next half-century. Women in China: The sky’s the limit. Top jobs: Too many suits. Work and family: Baby blues. A world of bluestockings. Female labour markets: The cashier and the carpenter. A woman’s place IN 1964 LADYBIRD BOOKS, a British publishing company, launched a series of small picture books to help young children learn to read. They featured Peter and Jane, their dog, their house, their toys and the rest of their little world. Their dad went out to work and their mum stayed at home and looked after Peter and Jane. By the late 1970s, after a couple of updates, their world had changed slightly: dad did more things around the house and Jane was wearing jeans rather than skirts. But she still spent a lot of her time at home playing with her doll or helping mum. Peter preferred to be out and about with dad. The books are still available, but their charm is now of the vintage variety. Men are still more likely than women to be in paid work. Even in rich countries the numbers are not all they seem because women generally put in far fewer hours than men.
The main reason why women do not put in long hours at their jobs is that they work long hours at home. Closing the gap.