Chapter 5: Paid and unpaid work

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More women employed

The increased participation of women in the paid work force has been one of the most significant social trends in Canada in the past quarter century.¹ In fact, there were 7.5 million Canadian women with jobs in 2004, twice the figure in the mid-1970s. Overall, 58% of all women aged 15 and over currently are part of the paid work force, up from 42% in 1976. In contrast, the proportion of men who were employed fell during this period from 73% to 68%. As a result, women accounted for 47% of the employed workforce in 2004, up from 37% in 1976. (Table 5.1)

Table 5.1 Employment trends of women and men aged 15 and over, 1976 to 2004

There was a particularly sharp rise in the employment of women during the 1970s and 1980s. The share of women with jobs rose from 42% in 1976 to 54% in 1990. In contrast, there was little change in the female employment rate during the first half of the 1990s as a result of the recession in this period. Indeed, the proportion of women who were employed in 1996 (52%) was actually a couple of percentage points below the 1990 figure. The employment level of women, though, began to rebound in the mid- 1990s and has increased every year since.

The employment level of men has also increased in recent years, reversing the long downward trend in the share of men with jobs. By the early 1990s, just 65% of men aged 15 and over were participating in the paid work force, down from 73% in the late 1970s. Since 1995, however, there has been slow, but steady growth in the proportion of the adult male population with jobs. The current percentage of men with jobs (68%), though, is still well below the figure in the late 1970s.

Provincial variations in employment

Women in Alberta are more likely than those in other provinces to be employed. In 2004, 64% of women aged 15 and over in Alberta had jobs, while the figure was 60% in Manitoba, 59% in both Ontario and Saskatchewan, 57% in Prince Edward Island, 56% in both Quebec and British Columbia, 55% in New Brunswick, and 54% in Nova Scotia. At the same time, Newfoundland and Labrador, where just 47% of women were employed that year, was the only province in which fewer than half of women were part of the paid work force. (Table 5.2)

Table 5.2 Percentage of women and men aged 15 and over employed, by province, 1976 to 2004

While the employment levels of women in the western provinces and Ontario tend to be somewhat higher than those in Quebec and the Atlantic region, the gap has closed in the past decade. Between 1995 and 2004, for example, the share of women aged 15 and over with jobs rose almost 9 percentage points in Nova Scotia, while the figure was up 8 percentage points in both Quebec and New Brunswick and 7 in both Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. In contrast, employment levels of women are currently around 5 percentage points higher than they were a decade ago in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, while there was a 4 percentage increase in Alberta. The smallest growth in employment among women occurred in British Columbia, where 56% of women were employed in 2004, up only two percentage points from 54% in 1995.

In all provinces, though, women are less likely than men to be employed. In Alberta, for example, 64% of women aged 15 and over were part of the paid work force in 2004, compared with 76% of men, a difference of 12 percentage points. There was also an 11 percentage point gap in the employment rates of women and men in both Manitoba and Saskatchewan, while the difference in the remaining provinces ranged from 10 percentage points in both Ontario and Quebec to just 6 in each of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

The gaps in employment levels of women and men across the country, though, are much smaller than they have been in the past. As recently as a decade ago, the share of women aged 15 and over who were employed was well over 10 percentage points below that for their male counterparts in just about every province, while in 1976 the gap was around 30 percentage points right across the country.

Educational attainment and employment

Not surprisingly, the likelihood of women being employed increases dramatically the higher their level of educational attainment. In 2004, 75% of women with a university degree, and 69% of those with a certificate or diploma from a community college, were part of the paid workforce, compared with 60% of high school graduates, 37% of women who had attended, but had not completed high school, and just 16% of those who had not gone beyond Grade 8. (Table 5.3)

Table 5.3 Percentage of women and men employed, by age and educational attainment, 2004

Regardless of their level of educational attainment, however, women are still somewhat less likely than their male counterparts to be employed. Among people with a university degree, for example, 75% of women, versus 79% of men, had jobs in 2004. Similarly, among those with a non-university certificate or diploma, 69% of women, compared with 77% of men, were employed that year.

Age and employment

Currently those between the ages of 25 and 54 have the highest employment levels among women. In 2004, 77% of women aged 25 to 44 and 76% of those aged 45 to 54 were part of the paid workforce, compared with 58% of younger women aged 15 to 24 and 46% of those aged 54 to 65. (Table 5.4)

Table 5.4 Percentage of women and men employed, by age, 1976 to 2004

The current situation contrasts sharply with that in the mid-1970s, when women aged 15 to 24 were slightly more likely than their older counterparts to be employed. In the intervening years, though, there have been dramatic increases in the labour force participation rates of women over the age of 25, while the employment rate of women aged 15 to 24 has changed little. In 2004, 76% of women aged 45 to 54 were employed, up from just 46% in 1976. There was a similar rise in the employment levels of women aged 25 to 44, while the share of women aged 55 to 64 participating in the paid workforce rose from 30% to 46% in the same period. On the other hand, the share of women aged 15 to 24 who were employed rose only from 51% to 58% in the past three decades.

Despite these trends, women between the ages of 25 and 54 are still considerably less likely than their male counterparts to be employed. In 2004, 77% of 25- to 44-year-old women had jobs, compared with 86% of men in this age group. Similarly, 76% of women aged 45 to 54 were employed that year, compared with 85% of their male counterparts. These gaps, however, have closed significantly since the mid-1970s, when women in these age ranges were only about half as likely as their male counterparts to be employed.

Women aged 55 to 64 are also substantially less likely to be employed than men in this age range, although this gap has narrowed over the past two decades. On the one hand, there has been a substantial increase in employment rates among women aged 55 to 64. In 2004, 46% of these women were part of the paid workforce, up from 30% in 1976. In contrast, the proportion of men aged 55 to 64 who are currently part of the paid work force is over 10 percentage points less than it was in the mid-1970s. Indeed, in 2004, 62% of men in this age range were employed, versus 73% in 1976. However, after almost two full decades of decline, the share of men aged 55 to 64 who are employed has risen since the mid-1990s, when just 53% of these men were employed. As a result of these trends, women aged 55 to 64 were still considerably less likely than men in this age range to be employed in 2004: 46% versus 62%. This is less than half the gap, though, that existed in 1976.

In contrast to older age groups, employment rates are similar for women and men aged 15 to 24. In fact, in 2004, 58% of both females and males in this age range were employed. This also represents a change from 1976, when young women were somewhat less likely than their male counterparts to be employed: 51% versus 60%.

Employment and presence of children

There has been particularly sharp growth in the employment rate of women with children in the past two decades. In 2004, 73% of all women with children under age 16 living at home were part of the employed workforce, up from 39% in 1976. Women with children, though, are still less likely to be employed than women without children. In 2004, 79% of women under age 55 without children living at home had jobs. (Table 5.5)

Table 5.5 Percentage of women with children employed, by age of youngest child, 1976 to 2004

There have been particularly dramatic increases in the employment levels of women with very young children. Indeed, by 2004, 65% of all women with children under age 3 were employed, more than double the figure in 1976 when just 28% were employed. Similarly, 70% of women whose youngest child was aged 3 to 5 worked for pay or profit in 2004, up from 37% in 1976.

Women with pre-school-aged children, though, are still less likely than those with school-aged children to be employed. Overall, in 2004, 67% of women with children under age 6 were employed, compared with 77% of those whose youngest child was aged 6 to 15.

The vast majority of employed women with children hold full-time jobs. Indeed, in 2004, almost three out of four employed women with at least one child under age 16 at home were employed full time, that is, they worked 30 or more hours per week at their jobs. That year, 74% of all employed women with at least one child under the age of 16 at home were part of the paid workforce. (Chart 5.1)

Chart 5.1 Percentage of employed mothers working full-time, by age of youngest child, 2004

In addition, the age of the children appears to have very little impact on the likelihood of mothers being employed full-time. Indeed, 74% of employed women whose youngest child was under 3 years of age had full-time jobs in 2004, while the figures were 71% for those whose youngest child was aged 3 to 5 and 75% for those whose youngest child was between the ages of 6 and 15.

Employment of female lone parents

Female lone parents are somewhat less likely than mothers in two-parent families to be employed. In 2004, 68% of female lone parents with children less than age 16 living at home were employed, compared with 73% of their counterparts in two-parent families. (Chart 5.2)

Chart 5.2 Employment of women with children, by family status, 1976 to 2004

As with their married counterparts, the share of female lone parents with jobs has risen dramatically over the last three decades. In 2004, 68% of female lone parents were employed, whereas the figure was under 50% in 1976. There has, in fact, been particularly sharp growth in the employment levels of female lone parents since the early 1990s when fewer than half were employed. This reflects, in part, the fact that there were was a substantial drop in employment among lone mothers during the recession in the early 1990s, a trend contrary to that observed among mothers in two-parent families.

The employment of female lone parents is also very much influenced by the presence of young children. In 2004, less than half (46%) of lone mothers with children under age 3 were employed, compared with 63% of those whose youngest child was aged 3 to 5 and 75% of those whose youngest child was between the ages of 6 and 15. (Chart 5.3)

Chart 5.3 Employment of mothers, by age of youngest child and family status, 2004

Female lone parents with very young children are also considerably less likely to be employed than their counterparts in two-parent families. Among women with a child under the age of 3, 46% of female lone parents, compared with 67% of those with a spouse, were employed in 2004. There was a smaller gap, 63% versus 71%, among those whose youngest child was aged 3 to 5, while there was almost no difference in employment rates of female lone parents (75%) and women with a spouse (78%) whose youngest child was between the ages of 6 and 15.

Child care

There has been a substantial increase in the number of licensed child care spaces available to families in the past several decades. By 2003, there were almost 750,000 licensed child care spaces in Canada, 59% more than in 1998. The current figure is also twice that in the early 1990s and close to seven times greater than that in 1980. (Table 5.6)

Table 5.6 Licensed day care spaces, by type, 1971 to 2003

Recent increases in the number of child care spaces, in fact, are more than double those that occurred throughout most of the 1990s. In the two year period between 2001 and 2003, the number of spaces increased by around 13% per year, compared with increases of 6% per year between 1990 and 1998. The current growth rate in the number of child care spaces, though, is still smaller than that in the period from 1982 to 1987 when the number of available spaces grew by close to 20% per year.

The majority of licensed day-care spaces in Canada are in regular daycare centres. In 2003, 82% of all licensed day-care spots were in regular daycare centres, while 18% were licensed spots in a family home. Increases in the number of spaces in family day-care settings, though, accounted for a disproportionate share of the overall increase in the number of available daycare spaces in recent years. Between 2001 and 2003, the number of family day-care spaces increased by 54%, while the number of regular day-care spaces rose by only 21%. Indeed, in this period, growth in the number of family day-care spaces accounted for 31% of the overall increase in the number of day-care spaces available to Canadian families.

Most regular day-care centre spaces are in non-profit centres. In 2003, 79% of all day-care centre spaces were in non-profit centres, while 21% were in commercial centres. As well, these non-profit centres have accounted for most of the growth in the overall number of day-care centre spaces in recent years. In fact, 87% of the increase in the number of day-care centre spaces between 1996 and 2003 occurred in non-profit centres. (Chart 5.4)

Chart 5.4 Sponsorship of day care centres, 2003

Absences from work due to other responsibilities

Employed women are far more likely than their male counterparts to lose time from their jobs because of personal or family responsibilities, including maternity leave. During an average week in 2004, for example, 5% of all full-time female paid employees lost some time from work for these reasons, compared with just 2% of male employees. Overall that year, female employees missed an average of 10 days due to these commitments, up from around four days per year in the mid-1980s and just two days in the late 1970s. Employed men, on the other hand, missed only about a day and a half of work, on average, because of personal or family responsibilities in 2004, a figure that has risen only marginally since the late 1970s. (Table 5.7)

Table 5.7 Absences of paid employees from work due to personal or family reasons, 1976 to 2004

Part-time employment

Women are much more likely than their male counterparts to work part-time, that is, work less than 30 hours per week. In 2004, over 2 million employed Canadian women, 27% of the total female workforce, were part-time employees, compared with just 11% of employed men. The overall share of employed women working part-time, though, is currently somewhat lower than it was throughout the 1990s when around 29% of employed females worked part-time. Still women currently account for about seven in 10 of all part-time employees, a figure which has not changed appreciably since the mid- 1970s. (Table 5.8)

Table 5.8 Part-time employment of women and men, 1976 to 2004

Young women are the most likely to work part-time. Indeed, in 2004, over half (52%) of employed women aged 15 to 24 worked part-time, compared with 21% of those between the ages of 25 and 54 and 30% of those aged 55-64. (Table 5.9)

Table 5.9 Percentage of employed women and men working part-time, by age, 1976 to 2004

Women in all age groups, though, are far more likely than their male counterparts to work part-time. This is especially true of women between the ages of 25 and 54. In 2004, over 20% of women in both the 25 to 44 and 45 to 54 age ranges worked parttime, compared with less than 5% of men in each of these groups. At the same time, women aged 55 to 64 were about three times as likely as men in this age range to work part-time: 30% versus 11%. Meanwhile, employed women under age 25 are also more likely than their male counterparts to work part-time. However, because large numbers of young men also are employed part-time, the gap is not as dramatic as that in older age groups. That year, 52% of employed women aged 15 to 24 worked part-time, while the figure was 37% among young male employees.

Most women work part-time either because they do not want full-time employment or because part-time work is more appropriate for their personal situation. In 2004, 27% of women employed part-time reported they did not want full-time work, while 25% indicated they were going to school, 14% said they did so because they were either caring for children, and 4% did so because of other personal or family responsibilities. (Table 5.10)

Table 5.10 Reasons for part-time work, by age, 2004

Women, in fact, are far more likely than men to work part-time because of child care or other personal or family responsibilities. In 2004, a total of 18% of employed women said they worked part-time either because of child care or other personal or family responsibilities, compared with only 2% of males employed part-time. Women were also somewhat more likely than men to have worked part-time that year because of personal preference: 27% versus 23%. In contrast, men were far more likely than women to work part-time because they were going to school; that year, 42% of male part-time workers did so because of their educational status, compared with 25% of female part-timers.

At the same time, a substantial number of women work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment. In 2004, 26% of all female part-time employees indicated that they wanted full-time employment, but could only find part-time work. Women, though, were about as likely as men to work part-time involuntarily, as 28% of male part-time employees also wanted full-time work that year.

The reasons women work part-time vary considerably by age. Women aged 25 to 44, for example, were more likely than other women to work part-time in 2004 because of personal or family responsibilities. Indeed, that year, 34% of women in this age range worked part-time because of child care responsibilities, compared with just 5% of those aged 45 and over and only 2% of those in the 15 to 24 age bracket. At the same time, women aged 25 to 44 were also more likely than other women to work part-time because they couldn’t find full-time employment. In contrast, women aged 15 to 24 were the most likely to work part-time because they were going to school, while those aged 45 and over were the most likely not to want full-time employment.

Self-employment

Currently, over one in 10 employed women in Canada is self-employed. In 2004, almost 840,000 women, 11% of all employed women, were self-employed, up from 9% in 1976. The share of employed women who work for themselves, though, peaked in the latter part of the 1990s, when over 13% of women with jobs were self-employed, and has edged downwards since. (Table 5.11)

Table 5.11 Self-employment trends among women and men, 1976 to 2004

There has been a similar trend among employed men, although men are still more likely than women to be self-employed. In 2004, 11% of self-employed women worked for themselves, compared with 19% of employed men. Overall, women accounted for 34% of all self-employed workers in 2004, up from 31% in 1990 and 26% in 1976, but down slightly from a peak of 36% in 1998.

Self-employed women are also less likely than their male counterparts to run an incorporated business. In 2004, just 29% of self-employed women ran an incorporated business, compared with 43% of their male counterparts. In contrast, 68% of self-employed women, versus 56% of their male counterparts, ran unincorporated businesses. (Chart 5.5)

Chart 5.5 Percentage of self-employed women and men in incorporated and unincorporated businesses, 2004

Temporary work

Women are slightly more likely than men to have temporary employment, that is, they are working at a job with a predetermined end date. In 2004, 14% of female employees, compared with 12% of male employees, had a temporary work arrangement. (Chart 5.6)

Chart 5.6 Percentage of employed women and men with temporary work, by age, 2004

Women aged 15 to 24 are much more likely than older workers to have temporary jobs. In 2004, 30% of these young female employees had temporary work, compared with just 11% of employed women aged 25 to 44 and 9% of those aged 45 and over. At all ages, though, employed women were slightly more likely than their male counterparts to be in a temporary work arrangement.

More multiple jobholders

A small, but growing share of employed women in Canada hold more than one job. In 2004, 6% of employed women were multiple jobholders, up from 4% in 1987. As well, women were slightly more likely to be multiple jobholders than men in 2004: 6% versus 4%. That year, women accounted for 55% of all multiple jobholders, up from 42% in 1987. (Table 5.12)

Table 5.12 Multiple job holders as a percentage of total employed women and men, by age, 1987 to 2004

Young women are especially likely to hold more than one job. In 2004, 8% of employed women aged 15 to 24 were multiple jobholders, compared with 6% of those aged 25 to 44 and 5% of those aged 45 and over. Again, though, employed women in all age ranges were more likely than their male counterparts to have more than one job.

Women in unions

There has been a dramatic increase in the share of women who are unionized over the past three decades. In 2004, 32% of female employees belonged to a union, double the figure in 1966 when just 16% of female workers were unionized. This contrasts sharply with the experience of male employees, whose union membership declined in the same period, dropping from over just 40% in the late 1960s to 32% in 2004. In fact, unionization rates among women and men are currently almost exactly the same. (Chart 5.7)

Chart 5.7 Percentage of female and male workers unionized, 1966 to 2004

Among female workers, those over the age of 25 are more likely to be unionized than their younger counterparts. In 2004, 37% of female employees aged 55 and over were unionized, while the figure was 35% for those aged 25 to 54. In contrast, just 14% of young female workers aged 15 to 24 were union members. (Chart 5.8)

Chart 5.8 Percentage of female and male workers unionized, by age, 2004

Occupational distribution

The majority of employed women continue to work in occupations in which women have traditionally been concentrated. In 2004, 67% of all employed women were working in teaching, nursing and related health occupations, clerical or other administrative positions, and sales and service occupations. This compared with just 30% of employed men. (Table 5.13)

Table 5.13 Distribution of employment of women and men, by occupation, 1987, 1996 and 2004

There has also been virtually no change in the proportion of women employed in these traditionally female-dominated occupations over the past decade. In fact, the share of female workers employed in these areas in 2004 was almost exactly the same as that in 1996. In contrast, the percentage of women working in these traditional female-dominated occupational groupings had declined in the previous decade from 72% in 1987 to 67% in 1996.

Women also continue to account for large shares of total employment in each of these occupational groups. In 2004, women made up 87% of all nurses and health-related therapists, 75% of clerks and other administrators, 65% of teachers, and 57% of those working in sales and service.

At the same time, though, women have increased their representation in several professional fields in recent years. Indeed, women currently make up well over half those employed in diagnostic and treating positions in medicine and related health professions. In 2004, 55% of all doctors and dentists in Canada were female, up from 43% in 1987. Women also currently make up over half of those employed as business and financial professionals. In 2004, women made up 51% of those employed in these occupations, up from 38% in 1987. Women also continue to make up a growing share of professionals employed in social science or religious occupations. In 2004, women represented 72% of all those employed in these areas, compared with 62% in 1987.

There has also been a long-term increase in the share of women employed in managerial positions. In 2004, 37% of all those employed in managerial positions were women, up from 30% in 1987. All of this growth, though, occurred in the early part of this period. Indeed, the share of management positions accounted for by women actually dipped slightly in the period from 1996 to 2004.

As well, among managers, women tend to be better represented in lower-level positions as opposed to those at more senior levels. In 2004, women made up only 22% of senior managers, compared with 38% of managers at other levels. Even more significantly perhaps, female representation at senior management levels has actually declined in the past decade. In 2004, women made up 22% of senior managers in Canada, whereas in 1996, the figure had been 27%.

Women also continue to remain very much a minority among professionals employed in the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics. In 2004, just 21% of professionals in these occupations were women, a figure which has changed little since 1987 when women accounted for just under 20% of professionals in these highly technical fields. In addition, it is unlikely that female representation in these occupations will increase in the near future, because, as reported in Chapter 4, women continue to account for relatively small shares of total university enrolments in these fields.

There are also relatively few women employed in most goods-producing occupations in which few women have traditionally worked. In 2004, 31% of workers in manufacturing were women, as were 19% of those in primary industries and just 7% of those in transportation, trades, and construction work. The representation of women has grown somewhat in the latter category since the late 1980s, while there has been almost no change in the representation of women in either manufacturing or primary occupations in the past two decades.

Women in agriculture

Women currently make up about one in four farm operators in Canada. In 2001, there were just over 90,000 female farm operators who represented 26% of all farm operators in the country. In contrast, women made up 34% of all those classified as self-employed and 47% of all labour force participants. (Table 5.14)

Table 5.14 Distribution of farm operators, self-employed workers, and total labour force participants, by age, 2001

Female farm operators are also considerably older, on average, than other female labour force participants in Canada. In 2004, 30% of all female farmers were aged 55 and older, compared with 19% of all self-employed women and just 10% of all female labour force participants. In contrast, only 12% of female farmers were under age 35, versus 20% of the self-employed female workforce and 39% of all female labour force participants.

The large majority of female farm operators share the responsibilities of management with at least one partner. In 2001, 78% of female operators were partners on two-operator farms and 9% managed farms with three or more operators, while only 13% managed farms on their own. In contrast, 55% of male farm operators managed farms on their own, while 36% were partners on a two-operator farm and 9% were involved in multi-owner farms. (Chart 5.9)

Chart 5.9 Farm operators, by number of operators, 2001

Unemployment rates lower

Female labour force participants are generally less likely to be unemployed than their male counterparts.² In 2004, 549,000 women, 6.8% of all female labour force participants, were unemployed, compared with 7.5% of their male counterparts. In fact, the unemployment rate has been lower among women than men since the late 1980s, whereas the reverse was the case for much of the period from 1976 to 1989. (Table 5.15)

Table 5.15 Unemployment trends of women and men, 1976 to 2004

As with the male workforce, young women are considerably more likely than those in older age ranges to be unemployed. In 2004, 11.8% of female labour force participants aged 15 to 24 were unemployed, compared with just 6.4% of those aged 25 to 44 and 5.2% of those aged 45 to 64. (Table 5.16)

Table 5.16 Unemployment rates of women and men, by age, 1976 to 2004

Young women, though, are still considerably less likely than young men to be unemployed. In 2004, 11.8% of female labour force participants aged 15 to 24 were unemployed, whereas the figure was 14.9% among males in this age group. In contrast, women in both the 25 to 44 and 45 to 64 age ranges were about as likely to be unemployed as men in these age ranges.

Women in the Atlantic provinces and Quebec generally have higher unemployment rates than their counterparts in Ontario and the Western provinces. In 2004, 14.2% of female labour force participants in Newfoundland and Labrador were unemployed, while the figure was 10.6% in Prince Edward Island, and around 8% in each of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Quebec. In contrast, the female unemployment in the rest of the country ranged from 7.1% in British Columbia to just 4.7% in both Alberta and British Columbia. (Table 5.17)

Table 5.17 Unemployment rates of women and men, by age and province, 2004

Unemployment rates among women in the Atlantic provinces and Quebec, however, are considerably below than those of their male counterparts. In Newfoundland and Labrador, for example, 14.2% of female labour force participants were unemployed in 2004, compared with 17.0% of men. At the same time, the gap in the unemployment rate of women and men in the other provinces in the Atlantic region and Quebec ranged from 3.0 percentage points in New Brunswick to 1.3 percentage points in Quebec. In contrast, with the exception of Saskatchewan where the female unemployment rate was 1.2 percentage points lower than that of men, the unemployment rate of women was within a percentage point of that of men in each of Ontario and the western provinces. In fact, in both Alberta and British Columbia, the unemployment rate of women was essentially the same as that for men.

The largest number of unemployed women either lost, or were laid off from, their last job. In 2004, 40% of all unemployed women fell into this category. Another 26% of unemployed women were labour force re-entrants who had not worked for pay or profit in the last year, while 10% were new job-market entrants who had not previously been employed. At the same time, 6% of unemployed women had left their last job because they were going to school, 3% had left because of personal or family responsibilities, and another 3% had left because of personal illness. (Table 5.18)

Table 5.18 Unemployed women and men, by reason for leaving last job, 2004

Unemployed women, though, are generally less likely their male counterparts to have lost, or been laid off from, their last job. In 2004, 40% of unemployed women, versus 50% of unemployed men, had lost their job or been laid off. On the other hand, unemployed women were more likely than men to have been either new job-market entrants who had never worked for pay or profit or labour force re-entrants who had not been employed in the previous year. Unemployed women, though, were also more likely than their male counterparts to have left their last job because of personal or family responsibilities: 3% versus 1%.

Employment Insurance recipients

While the unemployment rate of women has declined in recent years, the number of women receiving Employment Insurance (EI) benefits has actually increased through the early part of the 2000s. In 2004, an average of 440,000 women received such benefits each month, up from 314,000 in 2000. The current number of women receiving EI benefits, though, remains well below the peak figure of 616,400 recorded in 1992 at the height of the recession in the early 1990s. (Table 5.19)

Table 5.19 Employment Insurance beneficiaries, 1981 to 2004

The trend in the number of women receiving EI benefits contrasts sharply with that of men. Indeed, while the number of female EI beneficiaries has increased in the 2000s, the figure for men has generally been rather stable. As a result, women made up over half (53%) of all EI beneficiaries in 2004, up from around 47% in the late 1990s and less than 40% in the early 1980s.

Increases in the number of women receiving Employment Insurance benefits have been accounted for largely by those receiving maternity or parental benefits. As a result, by 2004, 40% of all female EI beneficiaries were receiving either maternity or parental benefits. In fact, women are far more likely than men to receive family-related EI benefits. In 2004, 40% of all women receiving EI got maternity or parental benefits, compared with just 2% of male beneficiaries. Still, almost exactly half of all women receiving EI got regular benefits, while 8% got sickness benefits, and 2% received training benefits. At the same time, very small percentages received work-sharing, job-creation, fishing, or self-employment assistance benefits. (Table 5.20)

Table 5.20 Employment Insurance beneficiaries, by type of benefit, 2004

Volunteer work

While a growing number of women are part of the paid workforce in Canada, many women also participate in their communities through formal volunteer activities. In 2003, over 4.5 million Canadian women aged 15 and over, 35% of the total female population, did unpaid work for a volunteer organization. (Chart 5.10)

Chart 5.10 Percentage of women and men doing unpaid volunteer work for an organization, by age, 2003

In fact, women make up the largest part of the volunteer workforce in Canada. In 2003, 35% of women aged 15 and over participated in a volunteer organization, compared with 31% of men. That year, women made up 54% of all those doing unpaid volunteer work through a formal organization.

Among women, those between the ages of 35 and 44, as well as 15 to 24-year-olds, are the most likely to participate in formal volunteer activities. In 2003, 39% of women in both age ranges did unpaid work for a volunteer organization, while the figures were 38% for those aged 45 to 54, 37% for those aged 55 to 64, 33% for seniors aged 65 to 74 and 32% for women aged 25 to 34. With the exception of senior women, many of whom are precluded from participating in volunteer activities because of poor health, women in all age ranges were more likely than their male counterparts to participate in formal volunteer activities.

As well, most women who do volunteer spend considerable amounts of time on these activities. In 2003, of women who did unpaid volunteer work for an organization, 21% did more than 15 hours of work per month, while 38% put in between five and 15 hours. There was, however, little difference in the time female and male volunteers devote to these types of activities. (Chart 5.11)

Chart 5.11 Time distribution of women and men doing unpaid volunteer work for an organization, 2003

Among women that volunteer, those in older age ranges tend to devote the most time to these types of activities. In 2003, 29% of female volunteers aged 65 and over averaged over 15 hours a month on unpaid volunteer work activities, while this was the case for 26% of female volunteers aged 55 to 64. In contrast, only around 20% or less of female volunteers in younger age ranges spent more than 15 hours per week on these types of activities. (Chart 5.12)

Chart 5.12 Percentage of women and men doing unpaid volunteer work for an organization spending more than 15 hours per month on these activities, 2003

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Notes

1. The total entity of work covers a range of activities including participation in the paid workforce, as well as generally unpaid activities such domestic work and volunteering. For the most part, this chapter focuses on paid work activities, although there is short section on volunteer work. The topic of household work was covered extensively in the 2000 edition of Women in Canada.
   However, there are currently no new national data on unpaid household work activities. New data on this topic, though, should be available in 2006 from the General Social Survey. The issue of unpaid household work, of course, is crucial to understanding the work experience of women. Indeed, while the majority of women, even those with young children, are now part of the paid work force, women are still largely responsible for the care of their children and families.
2. People are considered unemployed if they are not working for pay or profit, but are available for work during the reference week and who either: 1) have actively looked for work in the previous month; 2) are on temporary lay-off with an expectation of recall; or 3) have not actively looked for work, but have a new job to start within the next four weeks. The unemployment rate represents the number of unemployed persons as a percentage of the labour force.