A review of literature examining how children are affected by women's employment was conducted. The review focused on the changes during the past two decades in the general approach of the researchers, with a specific focus on researcher bias and use of theory. First, literature reviews from the past three decades were conducted. Second, the work and family and child care research areas were sampled and evaluated quantitatively on several different variables to determine, statistically, what differences have taken place across the decades. These variables included the use of explicit theory-based hypotheses, the issue of ethnic bias in research design, the use of subjects from a variety of socioeconomic status (SES) levels, and the focus on father-child interactions in the research. Results showed that researchers in these areas, overall, have not made significant gains in addressing the issue of bias or increasing the use of theory; in fact, during the 1980s, the largest increase was in the percentage of studies where SES was not specified, and over one-half of the studies during this period did not specify ethnic group. Results did, however, show an increased focus on father-child interactions within the work and family research, although less than one-third of the studies examined father-child interactions in the 1980s. Based on these findings, recommendations are made for improving further research on the effects of parental employment on children. (TE)