This paper presents an asymptotically rigorous one-dimensional analytical formulation capable of accurately capturing the stress and strain distributions that develop within the evolving neck of bars and sheets of rate-dependent materials stretched in tension. The work is an extension of an earlier study by the authors on necking instabilities in rate-independent materials. The one-dimensional model accounts for the gradients of the stress and strain that develop as the necking instability grows. Material strain-rate dependence has a significant influence on the strain that can be imposed on a bar or sheet before necking becomes pronounced. The formulation in this paper enables a quantitative assessment of the interplay in necking retardation due to rate-dependence and that due to the development of hydrostatic tension in the neck. The connection with a much simpler long-wavelength approximation which does not account for curvature induced hydrostatic tension in the neck is also emphasized and extended.