Changing Patterns of Gender Representation in Canada's Technology Sector and the Care Economy: Two Differing Tales

Gender segregation is a persistent form of labour market inequality, though patterns differ across time and economic sectors. Focusing on the care economy and the technology sector, we examine longitudinal trends in gender distributions for educational credentials and occupational participation. This sector-specific analysis reveals two polarized patterns of gender segregation. In market-based care activities, labour force gender imbalance is intensifying even in the face of labour shortages. Fewer men are found in most care and communal fields of study and occupations. In the technology sector, and despite concerted efforts to improve gender balance, little change has occurred in the share of women in computing, engineering, and physics. This lack of gender change in key subfields of the technology sector is, however, often obscured by women's increasing prominence in the biological and life sciences. While there has been a historic erosion of gender segregation in Canadian schooling and the labour force, the current extent of segregation remains high, and its erosion has not only stalled in the technology sector but also in the care sector, where gender imbalance is seriously worsening. In both sectors, gender-responsive recruitment is essential, but recruitment must be nuanced and targeted to specific fields of study and occupations.