Urban women, who have a higher rate of functional illiteracy than urban men, are less likely to attend school than their rural counterparts. Not coincidentally, perhaps, rural women have a lower functional illiteracy rate than rural men (see Table 2-4).

2.5. LABOUR MARKET CONTEXTS OF UNDER-EDUCATED WOMEN

The fact that only 2.4 percent of the 3,731,305 functionally illiterate adults in Canada attend education programs is problematic. It is through such programs that they could upgrade their level of education. This problem is emphasized among functionally illiterate women, of whom only 2.0 percent attend education programs, compared to 2.8 percent of functionally illiterate men.

The low school attendance of functionally illiterate women is a problem for a variety of reasons. This problem can be defined from political, economic, psychological and moral perspectives, among others. In this chapter, an economic perspective is utilized.

2.5.1. Labour Force Participation and Income of Under-educated Women

Over half a million women with less than grade 9 education are in the labour force. These women represent 26.9 percent of the female adult under-educated population, and 10.4 percent of the total female labour force. Over one million men with less than grade 9 education are in the labour force. This number represents 63.3 percent of the male under- educated population and 15.2 percent of the total male labour force (see Table 2.8).

Under-educated persons are faced with a labour market in which the jobs requiring low levels of educational attainment also pay very low wages. The average employment income of women with less than grade 9 education is $7,022. This is only 49.5 percent of the average employment income of males with the same level of education (see Table 2.9). The average employment income of all women who worked in 1980 was only $8,863 or 52.9 percent of the average employment income of all men who worked in 1980 (see Table 2-9). The difference between the income of under-educated women and men is dramatic. While under. educated women and men have attained similar levels of education, men earn twice as much as their female counterparts.

The narrowing of the male-female income gap for higher levels of educational attainment is minimal. Women with more than grade 9 education earned, on average, only 62.5 percent of the average earnings of men with less than grade 9 education (see Table 2-9). Clearly, the debate about sex-linked income differences cannot be linked to lack of educational attainment but must be linked to sexual discrimination and lack of equal opportunity for women in the labour force.

Women who work outside the home experience more than low wages. They are faced with an essentially segregated labour market in which the demand for the type of work traditionally done by women in the labour force - clerical, sales and service-oriented work - is declining. This change is accompanying the application of micro-technology to the work place. Moreover, the employment growth rate in the service sector - the main locus of the female labour force -- is expected to decline in the late 1980's and throughout the 1990's. These phenomena have been well documented elsewhere (Dodge, 1981; Menzies, 1981).