Abstract

Sociological literature embodies a great deal of research on labour market. The Gender division of labour force, as a sociological aspect of labour market, has been the subject of extensive research in the past few decades. In this thesis we have formulated three questions which have been essentially derived from the literature on this subject. The questions pose possible gender based differences during the economic hardship of the 1980s among three groups of labour force participants, namely, unemployed participants, those who held involuntary part-time work, and those who had to leave their jobs due to family responsibilities. The labour force data for 1980s have been used to examine the questions. Our observations indicate that during the recession of 1983, on the average, men seem to have a higher rate of unemployment than women in the goods-producing sector. While the rate of involuntary part-time work is almost equal for both genders, regardless of sector, during the recession of 1983, the average rate of job leaving is, however, higher for women compared to men. These observations have been discussed from the perspective of Human Capital theory and Feminist theory. Job segregation theory has also been considered, though to a much lesser extent. The data have also been explored for the possible impact of some determinant variables, such as education and occupation, on the observed gender based differences.