The employment status of women in Canada: A general overview and description of theoretical approaches used to study this phenomemon

The employment status of women in Canada is examined. Available Canadian statistics are used to explore the explanatory value of 4 perspectives on the determinants of the employment status of women. Socialization theories provide only a partial explanation of the status of women in the Canadian workforce and perhaps say more about the attitudes, beliefs, and values of male decision makers than they do about the preferences and abilities of female job applicants. Human capital approaches provide a supply-side explanation for gender representation, occupational stratification, and wage discrimination. Underrepresentation and occpuational stratification can result from several discriminatory processes, which can be categorized as active or passive, or as direct or indirect. Complexity, formalization, and centralization also have important implications for the level and nature of participation of women in the labor force.