This report provides a descriptive overview of women's schooling and educational attainment, employment activity, and fertility behavior in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Data were used from a series of five household surveys carried out between 1955 and 1990 to see how these variables have changed during this period. Data show the considerable growth of Kinshasa's population between 1955 and 1990, as well as the changing composition of the population by age, gender, nativity, and ethnicity. During this same period there have been substantial increases in school enrollment of youth and in the educational attainment of the adult population, particularly for females. Employment of women has increased steadily over time, in part associated with educational attainment and in part reflecting economic difficulties that began in the mid-1970s and continued throughout the period covered by the data. Subsequent to these economic difficulties, there have been distinct increases in the importance of the informal sector of the economy for women and for men. At the same time, primarily because of the increased educational attainment of women and more specifically with women's acquisition of secondary schooling, there has been a decline in fertility. (Contains extensive tables of data, several figures, and 45 references.) (BT)