Discuss the Implications of Women's Labour Force Patterns, Particularly the Effects

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The Answer is • As a result of the gender wage gap and women's greater likelihood of working part-time (as well as the mating gradient), women's income contributes relatively little to total family income. Women's share of the income in dual-income families (both married and common-law) is less than one-third. It is also notable that this share has not increased appreciably since the mid-1960s.
• Women remain the "junior partners" in their marriages and lack power as a result. However, women's incomes are important to families; it has been estimated that approximately 40 percent of Canadian families would be poor if both parents did not work outside the home.
• The overall situation of women's employment and work-family conflict does not bode well for the future of Canadian women as they age. On the one hand, due to low fertility, older women will have few children to assist them should they become frail in later life. And, given the instabilities in marriages and common-law unions-and lower rates of remarriage than in the case of men-it is possible that more women in old age will be partnerless. Research projects that as many as one-half of women entering old age in 2025 will not be in any marriage. Being unattached is a major predictor of women's poverty in later life.
• It is sometimes assumed that older women in the future will be in much better financial shape than their mothers and grandmothers because of their participation in the paid labour force. However, the characteristics of female employment, as outlined above, suggest caution in making that assumption.

Discuss the Implications of Women's Labour Force Patterns, Particularly the Effects

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