Incomes have risen Between 1975 and 2005, median household income rose nearly 23 percent to $46,326, according to Census data. The mean household income increased nearly 44 percent to $63,344.

Those increases are due in part to the growth of two-income households since the mid-1970s, which itself is due in part to increased career and education opportunities for women.

Women's opportunities have increased Compared to 30 years ago, women's professional choices have proliferated, which has been of particular benefit to self-supporting single or divorced women who have far more career choices than did their earlier counterparts and are subject to less social stigma for pursuing them.

From 1973 to 2005, the median wage for women with college degrees rose 26 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal nonprofit research group. Male college graduates saw their pay rise nearly 13 percent during the same period.

On average, college graduates now earn $23,000 a year more than those without a college degree, up from $15,400 in the mid-1970s, according to the Census Bureau.