significantly mask unrecognized health problems, and thus understate the full effect of

doctor-diagnosed conditions in the race-work disability relationship.

 Educational attainment was expected to play a key role in the race-work disability

and race-retirement relationship. However, important historical structural arrangements

may be muting the effect of education, most notably, racially segregated schools and

institutional racism. Women in this sample were born between 1931 and 1941, and thus

received 'separate and unequal' education prior to the implementation civil rights

legislation. Consequently, even among White and African American women with the

same number of years of education, African American women likely received sub-par

education. Furthermore, institutional racism resulted in fewer opportunities for these

African American women, relative to White women, at a given level of education or skill.

Clearly, racial differences in labor force exit patterns reflect socioeconomic and health

disparities.

 Given the importance of understanding labor force exit behavior within the context

of decisions and circumstances throughout the life course (Hayward et al., 1996; O'Rand

et al., 1992; Szinovacz, DeViney, and Davey, 2001), the present study investigated racial

differences across an array of factors. In addition to racial disparities in retirement

behavior, education, and health, dramatic racial differences in work and family

circumstances, and economic well being were observed for this cohort of women. African

American women were disadvantaged, relative to White women, in many respects. For

example, compared to White women, African American women have substantially higher

rates of nonmarital first births and post marital spells of single parenthood, are more

likely to be a blue collar workers, less likely to be self-employed or working in a white