During the twentieth century there has been a great change in the lives of women. A woman marrying
at the end of the nineteenth century would probably have seven or eight children, of whom four or five
lived till they were five years old and up. By the time the youngest was fifteen, the mother would have
been in her early fifties and would expect to live a further twenty years, during which chance and health
made it unusual for her to get paid work. Today women marry younger and have fewer children. Usually
a woman's youngest child will be fifteen when she is forty-five and can be expected to live another
thirty-five years and is likely to take paid work until sixty.
This important change in women's life has only recently begun to have its full effect on women's
economic (经济的) position. Even a few years ago most girls left school and took a full-time job.
However, when they married their school-leaving age is sixteen. Many girls stay at school after that
age, and though women marry younger, more married women stay at work at least until shortly before
their first child is born. Many more afterwards return to fuller part-time work. Such changes have led
to a new relationship in marriage (婚姻), with the husband accepting a greater share of the duties and
satisfactions of family life.