Abstract
In Australia there was a phenomenal increase in the number of older students returning to tertiary studies during the 1970s and 1980s. For example, in 1975, 40% of all university students were over 23 years old and by 1983 this proportion had increased to 47%. The greatest increase was among older women. This increase resulted in a dramatic growth in the number of both younger and older females gaining university degrees to bring them approximately on par with males and consequently a greater number of women joined the professional sections of the labor force. The overall participation rate of women at work increased from 40% in 1970 to 45% in 1980.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Anderson, D.S. and Vervoorn, A. E. (1983). Access to Privilege: Patterns of Participation in Australian Post-Secondary Education. Canberra: Australian National University Press.
Baidock, C. V. (1983). ‘Public policies and the paid work of women,’ Chapter 2. In: Baidock, C. V. and Cass, B. (eds.), Women, Social Welfare and the State in Australia. Sydney: Allen and Unwin.
Beswick, D.G. (1983). ‘The changing student population in Australia from the seventies to the eighties’. Journal of Tertiary Educational Administration 5(1).
Buchele, R. (1981). ‘Sex discrimination and labour market segmentation’. In: F. Wilkinson (ed.), The Dynamics of Labour Market Segmentation, pp. 211–227. London: Academic Press.
Currie, J. (1989). ‘Tertiary graduates and the labour market: Analysing class and gender effects.’ Paper presented at the International Colloquium on Gender and Class: Empirical and Theoretical Developments, University of Antwerp, Belgium, 18–20 September.
Currie, J. et al. (1984). Mature Age Study, Report No. 1, Background Characteristics and Experiences of Tertiary Students Prior to Tertiary Entrance. Perth: Murdoch University.
Eccles, S. (1984). ‘Women in the Australian labour force,’ Chapter 5. In: Broom, D.H. (ed.), Unfinished Business. Sydney: Allen and Unwin.
Kreckel, R. (1980). ‘Unequal opportunity structure and labour market segmentation.’ Sociology 14 (4): 525–549.
Szymanski, A. (1974). ‘Race, sex, and the U.S. working class,’ Social Problems 21 (5): 706–725.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Currie, J. (1991). Gender, wages and the labour market for tertiary graduates in Australia. In: Kelly, G.P., Slaughter, S. (eds) Women’s Higher Education in Comparative Perspective. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3816-1_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3816-1_16
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-5696-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-3816-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive