Trends and Structural Changes in Women’s Participation in Economic Activity in 1970 and 2000

Abstract

This document deals with two main issues. The first is the changing profile of the specific rates of participation of female labor, justified on the basis of certain data and graphs presented by other authors; the transformation observed constitutes an additional feature in the feminization of labor markets. By way of a complementary explanation, the author mentions and comments on the “buffer”, “segmentation” and “substitution” hypotheses. This transformation is observed in the states classified within the high, medium and low levels of welfare. The second issue is the validation of the hypothesis in “U” for which three empirical models were constructed corresponding to the rates for the ages of 15-19, 20-49 and 50-64. Certain demographic and economic indicators were used as independent variables, the results of which suggest the acceptance of the “U” hypothesis for the Mexican case.