ABSTRACT

There is, nevertheless, no necessary reason to expect that the earlier trends in women’s work should persist through the current economic crisis that began in the early 1970s. However, despite rising unemployment, the growth of women’s participation in the labour force has continued. Between 1975 and 1982, participation rates for adult women increased at a higher rate than that for the period 1968-75. In March 1982, 63.5% of women aged between 25 and 55 were economically active, compared with 53.1% in March 1975 and 44.6% in March 1968 (Marc and Marchand, 1984).