ABSTRACT
Over the past thirty years Western societies have experienced the development of labour-intensive technologies, increasing competition from the expanding economies of the Third World, the decline of traditional heavy manufacturing industry and the growth of service sector activity. This massive restructuring of the economy has had as a major outcome the contraction and increasing casualisation of labour markets. At the same time, married women are increasingly economically active and the labour force has grown in size. These processes have produced a shift from full-time, secure and pensionable employment to part-time and casual employment, from male labour to female labour and from full or nearly full employment conditions to high levels of unemployment and sub-employment.
