ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews some of the main uses of official statistics for understanding gender and employment, with reference both to published primary sources and secondary analyses. Data on women and work has increased exponentially since the 1970s, partly because of the introduction of equality legislation and the need to monitor its effects, partly because of major secular changes in the gender composition of the labour force. The feminisation of employment has undoubtedly been one of the most profound developments of the twentieth century, throughout Europe, North America and Australasia as well as within developing economies. But the extent of change and the forms it has taken have varied enormously even within advanced capitalism (Rubery 1988, Jensen 1988). Patterns in Britain are in many ways quite specific-for example in respect of the growth of part-time work-yet they illustrate rather well some of the intrinsic difficulties that surround interpretation of change.
