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Employment and Income
- Women's participation in the labor force (either employed or
unemployed but seeking work) continued to accelerate during the Decade.
However, since this has been a trend since the 1950's, it is doubtful that the
growth which took place between 1976-1985 can be attributed to special efforts
made as a result of Decade goals.
- A new and critically important development during the Decade
was the increased likelihood of women remaining in the workforce during their
child-bearing years:
- The proportion of women in the workforce who have children
between 0-3 years old increased by 81%, from 31% to 56%, during the Decade.
This finding is a clear indication of women's commitment to labor force
participation.
As a result, women's need for child-care increased over
the Decade, but its Availability remained far below the level of need.
- While labor force participation of women showed a steady
increase, the area of largest growth was in part-time work. Higher school
enrollment, at least over the 1971-1981 time period, accounted for only a small
proportion of the increase in part-time employment.
Nor was this
increase in part-time work due to the fact that a larger proportion of working
women had family responsibilities.
A key reason for women's greater
reliance on part-time work is that women who want to work full-time are finding
it increasingly difficult to gain full-time employment.
- As with access to education, certain sub-groups of women do
not appear to have derived much benefit from Decade activities in gaining
employment.
The rate of employment remained low and the unemployment
rate remained high among women with the lowest educational attainment (e.g.,
young women, older re-entry women, Native women, and Francophone women).
- There has been some increase over the Decade in women's
representation in a broader range of occupations:
- A large increase in women's representation occurred in
management and administrative occupations, a designation which refers to middle
and senior management positions, but not to supervisory ones.
The
growth seen in women's representation among managers parallels their increased
numbers in post-secondary education, a further indication that the largest
improvement in women's status occurred among the most well-educated women.
- Little growth occurred in women's representation in blue
collar/skilled trade jobs, at least partly because job growth in this sector of
the economy remained slow. However, this finding further confirms the lack of
progress made by less well-educated women in bettering their status.
- Continuing occupational segregation appears to have had the
greatest negative impact in Service occupations (e.g., food preparation,
child-care, personal care, cleaning, laundering, etc.). As women, especially
those with little education, continue to choose from a narrow range of jobs,
this sector has been overwhelmed with workers.
Even though substantial
growth has occurred in the Service area over the Decade, the rate of
unemployment has risen (from 9% in 1975 to 14% in 1985) as has the proportion
of part-time workers among the employed in this area (from 27% in 1975 to 44%
in 1985). Here again, the impact is on less-educated women.
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