Despite dramatic increases in female participation rates, a notable and persistent feature of the Canadian labour market is the highly unequal distribution of men and women across occupations. The focus of the current paper is how to explain the observed occupational distribution of women across occupations. In particular, we assess the evidence put forward in support of the standard view within the economics profession--the human-capital notion of 'occupational choice'--and compare its explanatory power with a non-competitive approach to women's labour market opportunities, based on the notion of a labour market characterised by job rationing. / While occupational decision-making remains ill-understood, there are several reasons for believing that the subject will become more noteworthy in coming decades, not least the rumblings of the 'comparable-worth' lobby. Our investigation points to a lack of economic research in this important area, both at the aggregate level and the level of individual occupations, and suggests that greater attention should be paid not simply to empirical validation of existing theories of occupational decision-making, but also that more detailed scrutiny might be given to the few results which are available. We argue that 'discrimination' is still a powerful force within the labour market, and that women's sudden access to non-traditional occupations owes far more to shortages of men in individual markets than is typically acknowledged.

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This study is intended as a different kind of response to the longstanding issue of the woman as an effective contributor to the employment marketplace. The tradition of women at work has been fraught with argument and political polarities. Mother, homemaker, worker, administrator, artist, president suggest a continuum on which women become integral to social meanings, not as new entrants to men's world, but as contributors to the same tasks as professional peers. The introduction of a distinction between the qualitative and theoretical variables to the evaluation of professional functions, redirects and even reconstructs the very meaning of effectiveness in jobs. The addition of this distinction to previous ways of judging employees and employers opens the door to an expanded awareness of employees/employers to considerations which must yield greater efficiency, productivity, and job satisfaction than was heretofore possible.

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published_or_final_version / Economics / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1951 D4 / Master of Science

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1965 D26 / Master of Science

No description available.

No description available.

Includes bibliographical references / 1 v. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Geography, 1995