Women’s Configurations of Family, Work, and Education: Mapping Diverse Pathways Throughout Adulthood

We investigate how women’s family, work, and education statuses are configured over the life course, defining different pathways throughout adulthood. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent and Adult Health, we conduct a repeated measures latent class analysis to explore the various pathways of family, work, and education that women take between their late teens and early forties. Additionally, we investigate the extent to which these pathways vary by race and socioeconomic background. We find seven distinct pathways. In three of the pathways, women are likely to become mothers at an earlier age, but differ in terms of education and work patterns. Three other pathways include women who focus primarily on college in early adulthood, but differ in terms of their work and family patterns. An additional pathway comprises women who remain largely independent while working and continuing education into adulthood. Pathways vary significantly by race, parents’ education, and early family poverty. This study highlights the fluidity of women’s work and educational experiences across adulthood, and articulates significant nuances in the different combinations of women’s family, work, and education across demographic backgrounds.