Source-country Female Labour Force Participation and the Wages of Immigrant Women in Canada - ARCHIVED

Previous studies have found a strong association between source-country female labour force participation rates and immigrant women’s labour force participation in the host country. This relationship is interpreted as the enduring influence of source-country gender-role attitudes on immigrant women’s labour market activity. However, the assumption that source-country female labour force participation levels closely capture cultural gender-role attitudes has not been carefully examined. Furthermore, little is known about how source-country characteristics might be correlated with immigrant women’s labour market outcomes after entering the host country’s labour market.

This paper extends the current literature by addressing three questions: What is the relationship between source-country gender-role attitudes and source-country female labour force participation? Does the relationship between the source-country female labour force participation rates and immigrant women’s labour force participation in the host country persist when source-country gender-role attitudes are taken into account? Are source-country female labour force participation rates and source-country gender-role attitudes associated with immigrant women’s wages in Canada?