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BEYOND GENDER: THE IMPACT OF AGE, ETHNICITY, NATIONALITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH ON WOMEN IN THE SINGAPORE ECONOMY

LINDA Y. C. LIM

Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, 701 Tappan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1234, United States

https://doi.org/10.1142/S0217590815500204Cited by:4 (Source: Crossref)

Abstract

This paper examines trends in women's labor force participation, sectoral and occupational distribution, and wage incomes relative to men, including by age and education. Since 1980, gender disparities in virtually all categories have substantially narrowed; those remaining result from women's continued disproportionate responsibility for family care, and additional factors affecting women at the highest levels of the labor force and income distribution. There are some areas of concern for women's economic future in Singapore, including the impacts of ageing, foreign labor and immigration, and wage stagnation experienced by low-income families under Singapore's economic development model.

This is a revised version of a paper presented at the 25th Anniversary Forum of the Association for Women in Action and Research (AWARE), organized in conjunction with the National University of Singapore Society (NUSS) Singapore, March 5, 2011. Thanks are due to Bernadette Tan and Yuchen Lu for research assistance, and to many colleagues for their thoughtful comments.

Keywords:

JEL: J: Labor and demographic economics

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