The table compares the proportions of male and female employees across four different sectors – Catering, Banking, Manufacturing, and Education – in a single country over a 20-year period (1986, 1996, and 2006).
Overall, the most significant trend was a sharp decline in manufacturing for both genders, while participation in the banking and education sectors generally increased. Furthermore, gender preferences remained distinct, with women consistently favoring education and men moving toward service-based roles.
In terms of growth, the percentage of men in banking nearly doubled, rising from 11% in 1986 to 21% in 2006. Similarly, female participation in banking grew from 12% to 19%. Education remained a female-dominated field, increasing from 33% to 38%, while the male figure stayed relatively low, peaking at only 15% by 2006.
Conversely, manufacturing saw a dramatic collapse. For men, it was the most popular sector in 1986 at 32%, but this figure halved to 17% by 2006. For women, the decline was even more pronounced, dropping from 18% to just 6%. Meanwhile, the catering sector showed stability; while male participation rose from 16% to 22%, the female workforce in this area remained completely unchanged at 26% throughout the entire period.