The two largest metropolitan areas in the country were among the areas with the lowest proportions of women who worked for pay in 1997. In the New York metropolitan area, 46.7 percent of women had jobs, while in Los Angeles, the proportion was 50.9 percent.

In contrast, in Minneapolis-St. Paul, more than two-thirds (67.5 percent) of women were employed. Other metropolitan areas with relatively high levels of employment were San Francisco, where 65.0 percent of women worked for pay, and Seattle, where 64.4 percent of women were employed.