Automotive technology⁶ is doing more than decreasing the demand for human labour in production and for traditionally female jobs. It is simultaneously "de-skilling" many jobs (i.e., simplifying jobs so that they require fewer skills on the part of the workers) and creating new types of jobs which require high levels of skills and knowledge, and concomitantly, higher levels of educational attainment. Workers in the de-skilled jobs are predominantly female and often experience a decline in their wages through reclassification, shorter work hours, and part-time work status. Current evidence suggests that under-educated women are most likely to be among those relegated to the de-skilled and low-paying jobs. The upgrading and retraining of women for entry into those occupations for which there will be a growing demand has become a critical concern. All of this is occurring at a time when "sixty percent of women work because they have to. They are either living alone, single parents, or married to someone who earns less than $10,000 a year."⁷

Despite dramatically lower wages, the female labour force is increasing rapidly. The Dodge Report (1981) predicts that the overall growth in the labour force will slow down in the next decade due to a decline in skilled immigrants, the aging of Canada's skilled labour force and lower birth rates (see Table 2-10). Two-thirds of the people who will be added to the labour force will be women. Dodge also predicts that by 1990 over 75 percent of women between the age of 25 and 54 years will be in the labour force. Another source (Menzies, 1981) forecasts that the female labour force is likely to increase by at least 40 percent by 1990 -- an additional 1.8 million women. By the year 2000, the labour force participation rate of women is expected to approach that of men (Dodge, 1981; Economic Council of Canada, 1982).

The Economic Council of Canada (1982) has pointed out that while the proportion of women between 15 and 24 years in clerical occupations has declined continuously from 1975 onwards, the growth rate of this age group is also decreasing. The members of the 1950's and 1960's baby boom population have now entered or are entering the labour market and the number of women between 25 and 44 years of age is increasing within the labour force. Furthermore, "the occupational distribution of women aged 25-44 reveals a virtually constant proportion in clerical occupations."⁸

This has led the Economic Council of Canada to conclude that rapid increases in the labour force of women 25-44 years of age, in conjunction with declines among women 15-24 years of age, will lead to:

...an even greater concentration of women in clerical occupations over the projection period, reaching 80.5 percent in 1985. In other words, because of demographic factors, occupational segregation by sex is likely to get worse before it gets better.⁹

It is therefore imperative for women in the labour force to move away from traditional female, occupations and into those for which there is a growing demand. This imperative applies especially to women between 25 and 44 years. To make this shift, women must be retrained for entry into male-dominated occupations.

⁶Automotive technology. is defined as self-activating. technology such as electronic computers, robots, automated offices, etc.

⁷ Joan Brown Hicks. "Brief to the Communion of Inquiry into Part-time Work". paper prepared for the Nova Scotia Committee of CCLOW. Halifax, September 1982.

⁸ Heather Menzies. Women and the Chip. Montreal, The institute for Research on Public Policy. 1981. p.76.

⁹Economic Council of Canada. In Short Supply: Jobs and Skills in the 1980's. Ottawa, Supply and Services Canada, 1982. P.35

¹⁰Ibid., p.40

¹¹Ibid.

¹²Ibid.