From she to she: changing patterns of women in the Canadian labour force

Abstract

From the end of the Second World War until recently, a surge of women entering the labour force helped boost Canada's overall labour force participation rate in every non-recessionary year. In the initial decades of this period, women in Ontario and the west had spearheaded this movement. Over the last decade, however, women in eastern Canada have taken the lead, driven by Quebec, while women in the western provinces have participated less in the labour force. The long-term increase in women's participation rate was temporarily interrupted in 2005, due to this retreat in western Canada because of declines in participation among younger women, despite the regional boom. As a result, the participation rates of women in the east and west are converging; with the spread between the highest and lowest half what it was in 1976. This article looks at the factors historically associated with the trends east and west of the Ottawa River. Women to the east have posted the largest gains in labour force participation since 1989, the year when the trends in eastern and western Canada began to converge. The convergence in trends between Quebec and Alberta is particularly striking. The rising participation rate of women in eastern Canada appears associated with greater use of day care and higher education levels in Quebec, lower birth rates in the Atlantic provinces, and a lower proportion of immigrants than in the west (Canadian-born women have much higher participation rates than immigrants). Another factor was the concentration of job growth in areas less suited to women, who prefer white collar jobs and those with fewer hours. At the same time, women in western Canada also are moving in growing numbers into older age groups, which reduces participation rates.