Table 4.

Proportion of women in different occupational categories from six countries,
including Canada. Percentages represent women as a percent of all
workers in that occupational category.

Canada United Australia France Japan Sweden
  States
Occupational group (1972) (1970) (1971) (1968) (1972) (1973)
 
Managerial 14.2 16.6 12.0 12.8 5.2 10.0
 
Professional 41.2 39.9 42.3 20.1 41.8 45.9
 & technical
 
Clerical 72.0 73.6 63.8 60.8 46.8 78.8
 
Sales 38.8 38.6 48.3 57.8 31.7 47.5
 
Services 59.1 60.0 62.7 79.1 53.1 79.1
             
Primary occupations 14.1 9.5 15.5 37.8 20.0 22.2
agriculture            
             
Processing occupations
manual workers 8.8 8.4 13.1 20.4 31.9 15.2
             
Transport equipment 15.3 31.5 13.7 12.0 12.4 ---
operators            
             
Crafts persons, artisans 14.9 5.0 --- 14.0 --- ---
             
Women as % of all workers 33.6 38.0 31.6 34.9 32.4 40.9
in all occupations            


Source:

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) , The role of women in the economy. (Paris: OECD,1975).

Comment:

Table 5 indicates that Canada's record in the area of employment for women is neither the best nor the worst when compared to other countries. Women occur in large numbers in clerical and service occupations in all countries. Canada does not have as many women in clerical occupations as Sweden; nor as many women in service occupations as France or Sweden. However, our record for employing women in the primary and processing occupations is well behind that of France, Finland, and Japan; and in the transport equipment operations, we are well behind the United States.

It seems reasonable to assume that what we in Canada define as "traditional/ non-traditional" occupations for women are defined quite differently in other countries.


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