INTRODUCTION - DEMOGRAPHIC PROJECTIONS

Demographic projections suggest that, by the year 2000, a majority of new entrants into the work force will be women of all ethnic origins. Thus, women not only maintain their traditional roles in the home and in child rearing, they also contribute significantly to the economic productivity and security of our nation. Policymakers and health care providers alike recognize that in order to keep our economy robust, we must keep women healthy.

Yet, over the course of their lives, women suffer from a higher incidence of disease and debility than do men. Even when reproductive problems are eliminated from the calculations, women's activities are limited by health problems approximately 25 percent more days each year than are men's activities, and women are bedridden 35 percent more days than men.

Since the turn of the century, the average life expectancy for American women has increased by almost 30 years, and women constitute the majority of our nation's elderly.

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