Unemployment and Relief in Canada

Occupational Gender Segregation and Women's Wages in Canada: An Historical Perspective

“…Over time, as women left manufacturing, they lost the skills associated with these jobs, making it harder for them to get back into the sector when jobs had opened up again in the late 1930s. Women in clerical work fared much better than those in manufacturing during the depression years (Green and MacKinnon 1995 years, whereas that for male blue-collar workers was 8 years (Meltz 1965). At least until 1961, the ratio of average annual earnings of female clerical workers to male manufacturing workers was relatively higher than the overall ratio, although it declined from 88 per cent in 1931 to 65…”