PIP: The growing numerical significance of women in the US nonmetropolitan labor force has not been matched by parallel efforts to document the changing quality of their employment. In this paper. Lichter uses the labor utilization framework of Clogg and Sullivan to examine the prevalence and spatial convergence of various forms of female underemployment during 1970-1985. Data from the March annual demographic files of the Current Population Survey reveal that underemployment has been a significant aspect of the employment experiences of nonmetropolitan women during this period. There has been little evidence of spatial or sex convergence in labor market outcomes. Roughly 1 of every 3 rural female workers today is a discouraged worker, jobless, employed part-time involuntarily, or working for poverty-level wages. Moreover, rural women continue to suffer substantially higher levels of economic underemployment than urban women and rural men. This study reinforces the view that rural women remain a seriously underutilized labor resource in the US.