In the seventeenth-century Florentine textile industry, women were employed primarily in low-paying, low-skill jobs. To explain this segregation of labor by gender, economists have relied on the useful theory of human capital. According to this theory, investment in human capital—the acquisition of difficult job-related skills—generally benefits individuals by making them eligible to engage in well-paid occupations. Women's role as child bearers, however, results in interruptions in their participation in the job market (as compared with men's) and thus reduces their opportunities to acquire training for highly skilled work. In addition, the human capital theory explains why there was a high concentration of women workers in certain low-skill jobs, such as weaving, but not in others, such as combing or carding, by positing that because of their primary responsibility in child rearing women took occupations that could be carried out in the home.

According to the passage above, women were "employed in primarily low-paying, low skill jobs." How do economists explain this phenomenon? Check all that apply (3).

Question options:

women had gaps in their participation in the job market

women's roles as child bearers interrupted their availability

women were not as capable as men and did not want harder jobs

women took lower paying jobs that could be carried out in the home