THE large increase in the labor force participation of women during recent times has been accompanied by a less-noted but also important change in their employment picture-the growth of part-week work.' While the participation rate of women was increasing from 37% in 1957 to 49% in 1977, the percentage of female employment in part-week jobs was rising from 20% to 27% (U.S. Office of the President, 1970, 1978).2 Economists have linked these changes to both the secular rise of the unemployment rate in the United States and the differential between female and male unemployment (Friedman, 1977; Niemi, 1974; Perry, 1970). For example, Friedman states