women, African American women actually have more continuous patterns of labor force

participation throughout the life course (Belgrave, 1988; Brown and Pienta, 2002).

Moreover, African American women have comparable rates of pension coverage and

pension wealth (Brown and Pienta, 2002). Among women workers, African Americans

are more likely than Whites to be blue collar workers (Belgrave, 1988), who are more

likely than white collar workers to retire (Brown and Pienta, 2002). Generally, African

American women's work histories and the expected push and pull effects associated with

such work circumstances indicate that African American women may be more likely than

White women to retire. Thus, work characteristics may suppress racial disparities in

retirement.

 Race, Education, and Retirement Behavior

 While the above text has focused on temporally proximate predictors of retirement

behavior, the present study's cumulative disadvantage, life course framework points

toward the utility of exploring the role of temporally distal life course conditions as

determinants of more proximate circumstances and retirement behavior. Consequently,

this study explored whether racial disparities in education may underlie racial disparities

in health, and subsequent labor force exit pathways.

 Research Hypotheses

 The life course perspective and the literature related to racial disparities in

retirement have been instrumental in developing several research hypotheses regarding

the labor force patterns of African American and White women in the labor force in

1992:

1. Poorer health may be associated with higher risks of exiting the labor force via
 work disability