Examines three decades of data on the relationship between women¿s labor market activity and the income mobility of families that lose a spouse through death, divorce, or separation. Wives¿ labor market activity acts as partial insurance for women and their families against the negative economic consequences of marital dissolution. However, while women who lose their husbands increase their earnings significantly, the number of upwardly mobile families is quite small, and a majority of families actually move down. In addition, they do less well in successive decades. These findings imply that U.S. social and economic policies currently leave considerable gaps in ¿insurance¿ for families in the event of marital dissolution. Tables and graphs.