a sentence without a connection? it's my repeat question.

[atssarbia]

The example sentence:

Women have entered the labour force in large numbers, a fact which has strongly affected the personal lives of people of both sexes.


At first, I would like to put a number into the two sentence like below.
1) Women have entered the labour force in large numbers
2) a fact which has strongly affected the personal lives of people of both sexes.

It doesn't have a connection word like 'although', 'because', 'and', 'but' etc. I wonder How I can understand the relation between 1) and 2).


Two kind replyers ansswerd that the front part is the same as a fact which, that is, Women have entered the labour force in large numbers = a fact which.



If so, but I still can't understand why the writer used a fact instead of the fact.


Anyhow, Can I understand this sentence like " it is a fact that Women have entered the labour force in large numbers, and it has strongly affected the personal lives of people of both sexes." ?


Do I understand this sentence correctly?

 

[Raymott]

The example sentence:

Women have entered the labour force in large numbers, a fact which has strongly affected the personal lives of people of both sexes.


At first, I would like to put a number into the two sentence like below.
1) Women have entered the labour force in large numbers
2) a fact which has strongly affected the personal lives of people of both sexes.

It doesn't have a connection word like 'although', 'because', 'and', 'but' etc. I wonder How I can understand the relation between 1) and 2).


Two kind replyers ansswerd that the front part is the same as a fact which, that is, Women have entered the labour force in large numbers = a fact which.



If so, but I still can't understand why the writer used a fact instead of the fact.


Anyhow, Can I understand this sentence like " it is a fact that Women have entered the labour force in large numbers, and it has strongly affected the personal lives of people of both sexes." ?


Do I understand this sentence correctly?

Yes, that's what it means. "a fact" is not necessary. I think it was only included to avoid any ambiguity about the reference of "which". It could have been written like this:
Women have entered the labour force in large numbers, which has strongly affected the personal lives of people of both sexes.

The "which" clause refers to the whole of the main clause. In this case, it's unambiguous, but if it read something like, "in a large number, which has ...", then the "which clause could also refer to "number".