This is what is driving the overall decline in labor force participation rate and the male rate has been declining since the 1950’s.
Is the male rate decline a mathematic artifact based on females becoming widely employed throughout the economy when formerly they had not been?
Women as a growing percentage of the workforce, 1948 - 1998
Year=Percentage (approximately)
1948=29%
1953=31%
1958=33%
1963=35%
1968=37%
1973=39%
1978=40%
1983=43%
1988=45%
1993=43%
1998=46%
Source: BLS Currently Population Survey