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

Description:

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.