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Facts, Figures and the Future Women in the labour force More women in the labour force Women comprise 45% of the labour force in Canada. 1995 Women In The Labour Force Report, Statistics Canada In Canada, 68.3% of all women between the ages of 15 and 54 worked in the paid labour force in 1994. This percentage is up from 1976, when the average figure was 56%. The projection is that 85% of new entrants to the labour force in 1990's will be women. Between 1986 and 1991, the labour force participation rate for females between 40 - 44 years of age increased from 66.6% to 74.9%. The number of employed females in all industries grew by 27.5%. A total of 38% of all women in the labour force are single, divorced, widowed or separated. 59.9% of women who are single parents work in the paid labour force A Canadian women can now expect to spend an average of 30-50 years in the paid labour force and only an average of 7 years at home child-rearing. Between 1971 and 1986, the largest increase in female labour force participation took place among married women; in 1971 their participation rate was 37%, by 1986 it had risen to 57.4%. In 1995, the participation rate for married women was 61.3%. If you remove the over 54 category, where the participation rate is lower and brings the percentages down, the numbers would be much higher. Of the 1.7 million women not in the labour force with children at home, only 19% had never been employed and 56.6% of these were over 45 years of age. In 1993, in lone parent families headed by women: 25% of those with children under 3 worked in the paid labour force; 44% with children 3 - 5 years of age worked in the paid labour force; and 60 percent of single parent women with children 6 - 15 workedin the paid labour force. 65% of mothers in two parent families with children under 16 were employed - Women work for family support In 1994, 48% of all women who work are heads of households. This is up from 41% in 1986. Many of the other 52% are married and most of these women work to bring their family's income above the poverty line. 59.6% of all low income families are headed by women. In B.C. female lone parents formed 82.4% of all lone parents. In an urban area, the low income cutoff for a family of 3 is $25,623. This is based on having to spend more than 54.7% of income on the necessities of living: food, clothing and shelter. About 41.4% of all families headed by females live below the poverty line. The comparable figure for families headed by men is only 10.4%. One in 5 Canadian women lives below the poverty line. That's up from one in 6 in 1988. 69.3% of all part-time workers in 1993 were women. - Women are concentrated in a few occupations The concentration of women in clerical, sales and service occupations increased from 55.% in 1971 to 58.1% in 1992. Women and the Labour Force, Cat. 75-507 StatsCanada In 1993, women made up 80.2% of all workers in clerical occupations, 56.8% of workers in all service occupations, and 42.2% of workers in all managerial, professional and administrative occupations (of which the largest concentration are in teaching and nursing). This latter number is down from 45.4% in 1986. 45% of all women work in clerical and service occupations. From 1971 to today, the three occupations that employed most women were: secretaries, bookkeepers and salespersons. One of every five women in the labour force was in one of these relatively low-paying occupations. Women and the Labour Force, Cat. 98-125 Stats Canada Women's share of managerial employment increased from 15.5% to 1971 to 31.5% in 1986. In 1995, they made up 1.8% of construction workers, and 20% of processing, machining and fabrication workers. There has been a significant increase in the number of women running their own businesses. Between 1988 - 1993, the number of self-employed women in B.C. grew by over 40 %. As a result, women represented 34.1% of all self-employed workers in 1993. Facts and Figures More women in the labour force Working women have lower earnings than men Genders dominate selected professional fields The future Source Material Produced by Kootenay WITT 1995

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