The Likely Effects of Ageing on Women's Involvement in the Paid Workforce

This paper explores the potential effects of an ageing population on the paid work opportunities of women in Australia over the next half century. Demographic change is producing changes in Australia’s labour supply characteristics that will cause women’s employment to become increasingly important. Population ageing is likely also to produce additional demands for the type of labour that women have traditionally supplied. All this suggests that there will be strong pressure on female participation rates and hours of work. Women may welcome this change as a means of providing additional financial, economic and personal security and independence. However, to ensure that increased involvement in paid work doesn’t come at the cost, for example, of lower levels of fertility, there is a need for institutional support for both men and women as they attempt to combine increasing levels of paid work involvement with their other roles in the family and community.