This report is an attempt to draw together the few existing studies and surveys of working class women, as well as the firsthand experiences of community leaders, organizers, and observers around the country, to provide an impressionistic overview of the ways in which working class women's lives are beginning to depart from many long-standing traditions. There are many broad-sweeping changes taking place in American society which will affect the lives of all women to varying degrees: women are having fewer children and will be homebound for fewer years; more educational and employment opportunities are available; growing numbers of divorced and single women must fend for themselves; and the women's movement has created a new sense of possibility. The utilization of women's skills and potential is becoming increasingly necessary. Those women with the least education, occupational skills, experience, and resources to cope with a rapidly changing society will be at the greatest disadvantage. There is a broad range of concerns, still largely unexplored, which are unique to working class women. They stem from a combination of limited education and limited experience outside the home, neighborhood, and perhaps the workplace; and from a clash between traditional role expectations for women and conflicting pressures to play a role more equal to men. (Author/JM)