Dimensions of Inequality in Canada (review)

• Published in: Canadian Ethnic Studies Vol. 39; no. 1-2; pp. 239 - 241
• Main Author: Kovacs, Zoltan B
• Format: Journal Article Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: Calgary Canadian Ethnic Studies Association 2007; Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal
• Subjects: Children; Community Programs; Data Analysis; Earnings; Employment Level; Ethnicity; Families & family life; Family Income; Females; Green, David A; Heads of Households; Homogamy; Households; Human Capital; Income inequality; Kesselman, Jonathan R; Labor; Leisure Time; Males; Marital Status; Nonfiction; One Parent Family; Parent-child relations; Parents & parenting; Sex roles; Single fathers; Single mothers; Single parent family; Social sciences; Wives; Women; Working women; Canada
• ISSN: 0008-3496; 1913-8253; 1913-8253
• DOI: 10.1353/ces.0.0015

The most significant changes in earnings inequality in Canada has been in the economic progress of women. Women's real earnings increased significantly during the 1990s while men's earnings were declining (307). Over the last two decades "male earnings inequality increased more than female earnings inequality" (307). However, family earnings inequality, after declining in the late 1980s, increased again in the early 1990s (307). Increased assortative mating trends have played a noticeable role in increasing levels of family income inequality. Married women in the upper deciles of the family earnings distribution enjoyed rising incomes; however, many of them in the lower deciles saw their earnings erode due to their husband's earnings slipping into the lower deciles of the male earnings distribution. Furthermore, significantly more women were finding themselves sole heads of households (339-340). "The vast majority of single parents are still mothers (only 2.8 percent of children lived with single fathers in 1997)" (224). Children in singleparent families or in families with one parent working were in the lower deciles of the family earnings distribution (243). Notwithstanding the significant gains in women's real earnings, "the Canadian labour force continues to be more genderdifferentiated than ethnicity-differentiated" (266). Further research is needed to examine and alleviate these inequalities.