IEB Report

Public Policies

Policies to Tackle Gender Inequalities in the Labour Market

IEB Report 3/2024: Policies to Tackle Gender Inequalities in the Labour Market

The labor market participation of women has been converging to that of men across many high-income economies during recent decades. For instance, in the euro area (and according to Labour Force data from Eurostat), the percent of females employed in the population aged 20 to 64 went from 54.9% in 2000 to 67.2% in 2019, an increase of 12.3 percentage points. Over the same period, the same statistic for men remained quite stable, showing an increase of only 2 percentage points. The OECD data on gender wage gaps also reveals a decrease in the wage gap (expressed as percentage of median earnings of men) in OECD countries, from 18.1% in 2000 to 12.6% in 2019. However, women continue to be underrepresented in high-income, high-status occupations, and overrepresented in part-time and insecure working arrangements.