This report presents changes that have occurred in the United States since the 1950's in the way women provide for the care of their children while they are at work. The study contains data collected in the child care supplements to the Current Population Survey of June 1958, February 1965, and June 1977.

This analysis covers labor force trends in the United States; child care arrangements from 1958 to 1977; costs of child care; profiles of working mothers and working wives; child care arrangements and activities of nonworking mothers; and comparative data on working women in other industrialized countries, focusing on child care in Sweden and the Federal Republic of Germany.