The past decades their has been a dramatic increase of women
participating in the labour force from countries all over the world including
Canada. In 1950, one Canadian worker in five was a woman. By 1980 this
percentage had doubled, and women are expected to make up more than 44 percent
of the labour force by the end of this century.
The increase in female participation started occurring during the 1970's.
This increase also caused the largest baby boom that the Canadian female labour
force had ever witnessed.
In North America it is common for women to have part-time or summer jobs,
and the participation rate of teenage girls is high. It is also mostly high
throughout the world in places as United Kingdom because of the fewer women
going to school. But in places like France, Italy, and Japan the female
participation rate is very low. In most of the countries the labour force is
most participated in the age groups between 20 and 24. The labour force of
mature women is very high in Sweden, because of the encouraged day care
facilities which also provides the females with legislation that provides them
with excellent benefits. In Japan there is a drop in female economic activity,
the reason why is it affects their marriage and the care of their only child.
An observation of labour force participation rates in Canada show that
female rates rose a lot between 1971 and 1981, while the male rate rose
unnoticeably. The increase in the female participation rate was found in all
age groups except in older women. For women aged 15 to 19 the rate was as
almost as high as the men. But the largest increase was in the age group of 25-
44 years old, where the rate rose almost 50 percent. This meant that the
participation rates of the females had become more alike with the men.
Family status also influenced the female participation rate but later on
during 1981 it had a more less affect than in 1971. According to statistics just
over one quarter of married women with young children were working, but this
later changed and grew by 76 percent over the a 10 year period of time. The
rate also showed an increase of 47 percent for widowed, divorced, and separated
women with children. However single women with young children showed a slight
decrease. However the female participation rate is not so much related to
family status as today as it was many years ago.
During the period of 1971 through 1981 the involvement of married women
went through a major change. Fewer women saw marriage as a reason to interrupt
their participation in the job force, and couple tended to postpone having
children or not having any at all. While women with young children tended to
participate less in the labour market and quit their jobs more frequently than
men. Females did the exact opposite of what men did when they had children
while working, and in some cases were actually more stable than men without
children. This showed that the couples attitude towards having children
influenced a decrease in the female labour force participation rate.
In 1981 most women spent ...