In the cities men now retire at 60, white-collar women retire at 55, and blue-collar women retire as early as 50.

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Within that constituency, interviewers were then told to find people with a given set of characteristics--ie, a certain proportion of men and women, of blue-collar and white-collar workers.

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The demolition of the Third Avenue Elevated subway line set off a building boom and a white-collar influx, most notably of young educated women who suddenly found themselves free of family, opprobrium, and, thanks to birth control, the problem of sexual consequence.

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That may help to explain why women, although they now enter white-collar jobs in much the same numbers as men in many countries, still find it so hard to get anywhere near the executive suite.

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People who worked for the state, in state-owned companies or in state-approved collectives, enjoyed cradle-to-grave benefits ranging from housing, education and health care to a generous pension scheme, with an official retirement age of 55 for men and 50 for women for manual workers (but five years more for white-collar workers) and a replacement rate of about 80% of final salary.

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It notes that although women in Britain account for 57% of new recruits to white-collar jobs, they make up just 17% of executive directors and a mere 4% of chief executives of the FTSE's 100 biggest companies.

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That applies especially to women, who despite high education levels are in much less rewarding white-collar jobs than their western counterparts.

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