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Job losses during the recent recession were much less severe for women compared with men, as the downturn sent the male jobless rate to the highest level in 13 years.

A Statistics Canada study found the employment rate for men tumbled 2.9 percentage points to 65.2 per cent between 2008 and 2009, echoing a pattern in previous recessions of the early 1980s and 1990s. By contrast, the employment rate for women slipped by only one percentage point last year after reaching a high of 59.3 per cent in 2008.

"The impact of the recent economic downturn was less severe on women than on men," the analysis said. "Men were hit harder by the downturn because the industries hardest hit by employment losses in 2009 were male-dominated."

These sectors included manufacturing, construction and natural resources. By contrast, more women worked in stable service industries, such as health care, social assistance, and educational services, where employment continued to grow.

Last year, the jobless rate for women rose to 7 per cent, the highest in six years. Among men, it ballooned to 9.4 per cent – the highest rate since 1996.

The study also examined paid work for women from 1976 to 2009. In that time, the employment rate for women with children has been steadily growing. Last year, 72.9 per cent of women with kids under 16 were employed – approaching twice the rate of 39.1 per cent recorded in 1976.

The analysis found "considerable change" in their activity during this period. The overallemployment rate for women has climbed from 1976, when 41.9 per cent of women worked.

They are still, however, less likely to work than men. Last year, about 8.1 million women had a paid job in Canada, representing an employment rate of 58.3 per cent compared with 65.2 per cent for men.

More women with kids under the age of 3 are also in the labour force. Their employment rate was 64.4 per cent last year – more than double the proportion back in 1976. And 11.9 per cent of working women were self-employed last year, compared with 8.6 per cent in 1976.

Nearly three-quarters of employed women had a full-time job last year, though women were more likely than men to work part-time.

Most of them still work in occupations in which they have been traditionally concentrated, the study said. But they have increased their representation in several professional fields such as business and finance. The share of women is also growing in diagnostic and treating positions in medicine and related health professions.

Women made up 55.2 per cent of doctors, dentists and other health occupations last year, and 72.5 per cent of professionals employed in social sciences or religion.

Women may be working more, but they still aren't earning as much as men. A recent World Economic Forum report found the estimated earned income for Canadian women is $28,315, compared with $40,000 for men.

The reason for the gap is largely tied to motherhood, a separate Toronto-Dominion Bank study has shown. It found women without children tend to have similar wages to men with the same level of experience and education. Women with kids suffer steeper wage penalties the more they enter and exit the job market. The length of time they're away and the "skills atrophy" they incur during their absence tend to take a toll on their pay.

Women who leave the work force to have children tend to experience "an unexplained, but persistent" 3-per-cent wage penalty per year of absence, TD says.

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