Women's work.

Militant women this week laid down their tools on "Alice Doesn't! Day" as a means of dramatizing women's increasingly crucial role in the nation's economy. But a better demonstration of the femi­ nine role has been provided by third-quarter employment figures, which showed a new record high of 30.6 million adult women employed—slightly above the pre-recession peak. In contrast, 47.6 million adult men were employed in the same period—1.0 million less than at the pre-recession peak. While joblessness re­ mained higher for women than for men—7.7 percent vs. 6.9 percent in the summer period—the differ­ ential between the two rates has narrowed substantially over the past year.