Labor Force Gender Index (LFGI)

The Labor Force Gender Index (LFGI) is a 4-item measure that uses data from the Canadian Labor Force survey to create a gender index based on gender roles and institutionalized gender. The four main measurement components to the LFGI include responsibility for caring for children, occupational segregation, hours of work relative to partner/spouse, and education relative to partner or spouse.

Short Measure

Scoring Procedures

To calculate the final LFGI score, the values from each of the 4 categories are summed, resulting in a score ranging between 0 and 10 for each respondent. Higher scores indicate more traditionally feminine gender labor market roles and lower scores indicate more traditionally masculine gender labor market roles.

Responsibility for Caring for Children
Response options are recoded as follows:
0=no reduction in labor market participation due to personal or family responsibilities;
1=part or full week absence due to personal or family responsibilities; and
2= working part-time due to personal or family responsibilities.

Occupational Segregation
The 47 occupations are reclassified into 4 groups using occupational data from the 1997 Labor Force Survey:
0=occupations where less than 26% of workers were women;
1=occupations where 26 to 50% of workers were women;
2=occupations where 51 to 74% of workers were women;
3=occupations where 75% or more of workers were women.

Hours of Work Relative to Partner of Spouse
Open-ended numerical responses are grouped into the following 4 categories:
0= respondent working, but spouse not in the labor force;
1=respondent working more hours than their spouse;
2=respondent working the same number of hours as their spouse; and
3=respondent working less hours than their spouse.

Respondents not currently living with a spouse are grouped with respondents working more hours than their spouse.

Education Relative to Partner or Spouse
Responses are coded into the following 3 categories:
0=respondents with a higher level of education than their spouse;
1=respondents with the same level of education as their spouse; and
2=respondents with a lower level of education than their spouse.

Respondents without a spouse are grouped with respondents with a higher level of education than their spouse.

Original Citation

Smith, P. M., & Koehoorn, M. (2016). Measuring gender when you don’t have a gender measure: constructing a gender index using survey data. International Journal for Equity in Health, 15(82), 1-9, doi: 10.1186/s12939-016-0370-4