Although women in North Carolina increasingly enter the work force to stay and their "protected" status in marriage is no longer secure, North Carolina's women do not have economic equality under law with men. Husbands have full rights to the rents, profit, and control of entirety property and real estate during marriage; and no women serve as judges on the North Carolina Superior Court, the Court of Appeals, or the Supreme Court where major policy is formulated. While women can now sign binding contracts, sue in their own names, and own their earned wages, they are penalized for performing as caretakers of the home and children. A plan of action is needed which incorporates women's roles as wife, mother, volunteer, and worker and which assures women financial security. Certainly, dramatic changes in the law affecting women's roles in North Carolina have been made, such as the Equitable Distribution of Property Act. But numerous issues remain to be resolved including inequalities between male and female single parents, disproportionate responsibilities for caring for children, absence of job rights related to pregnancy, lack of protection for workers in small businesses with less than 25 employees, sex discrimination in insurance coverage, the hazards to reproduction of work-related substances, child care for working parents, and child support enforcement. (RH)