Essay/Term paper: Women in the labour force december 17, 1992

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Social Issues

Women In The Labour Force December 17, 1992


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 an average of 1,247 hours a year working,
compared with 1,431 hours in 1971 which had dropped about 15 percent. Even men
saw their average hours decrease by 13 percent. Not only more women were
working, more were working part-tim for only part of the year which meant more
women on the unemployment rolls. In the 1960's the unemployment rate for
females was 3 percent and ten years later increased to 7 percent. Since june
1982 the unemployment rate for men was 11-13 percent and the women's just above
that rate which could also exceed that of the men near the end of the century.
Only about 11 percent of women had part-time jobs because they couldn't find
full-time employment or because they wished to spend more time to their
education or their families, or for other reasons. Although 24 percent of the
women working part-time would have preferred a full-time job if it had been
available.
According to the Statistics Canada study, in 1970 women were extremely
poorly paid which showed a big earnings difference than the men. This started
changing in the 1970's which rose the females earning to 51.2 percent of that
of a man. Ten years later it had reached 54.4 percent. If it wasn't for the
decrease in annual hours for the females the earnings difference would have been
reduced even further. By 1980 the females earnings had risen to 72 percent of
that of a man.
The female labour force would be incomplete without equal pay for equal
or equivalent work. This issue was the most important issue to women in low-
paid jobs. If the principal of equal pay for equal work were fully applied men
and women would both receive the same hourly wage which would raise female
earnings dramatically. The issue of equal pay for equal work most often comes
up in discussion to improve the economic status of the women at the bottom of
the payroll, many of them who are not in unions.
When women first started entering the labour force they were hassled by
the males because they were supposed to traditional work in the house and take
care of the family. Which was the reason of their low wages to disapprove of
women working. This traditions reflected their wages and the positions people
were willing to offer to women. Working women experience problems such as
sexual harassment and being fired because of pregnancy.
Most of the people want to correct the unequal treatment of women in the
work force and make it equal for everyone. Some of the methods which can be
used to support equality is to introduce a federal legislation to guarantee
equal pay for equal work. To also set wages according to the value of the work
done by the employer. Which would be difficult to measure the value of one
person's work compared to another persons. We could also offer women better
benefits and a better pension when they retire their job.
Peoples attitudes towards women in the work force are slowly starting to
change and more opportunities for women are being available for them. The
unequal treatment of working women will take years to change and will always
stay an important issue.