Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

Reducing Europe’s Gender Employment Gap

Massimiliano Mascherini 8th March 2017

Massimiliano-Mascherin

Massimiliano Mascherino

One of the common values that unites the European Union is that of equal opportunities: all citizens should have the same possibility to improve their lives and participate in the labour market regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. Ensuring equal opportunities in finding work also represents a key goal for Europe in facing the challenges posed by demographic change and achieving inclusive and sustainable growth.

Yet, for all the fine words, opportunities remain far from being equal and half of the population still seems to be held back from fulfilling their talents and reaching their goals.

Despite significant progress in reducing gender inequalities in the labour market over recent decades, gaps between men and women in employment rates still persist along with a consistent over-representation of women in low-paid sectors, part-time and temporary jobs. And while a long-term convergence in employment opportunities seems to be under way – setting aside for now their quality and conditions – recent improvements have been mainly driven by a relative worsening of the male employment rate. This in turn has come thanks to substantial job losses in male-dominated sectors during the economic crisis.

Recent data show that the gender employment gap, defined by Eurostat as the difference between the employment rates of men and women aged 20-64, stood at 10.4 percentage points in 2015: that of women being only 60.4% against 70.8% for men. To put it in concrete terms, this differential corresponds to 17 million women, which is roughly the entire population of, say, the Netherlands. Yet average figures mask a great heterogeneity among EU countries: Italy, Greece and Malta are amongst the worst performers while Scandinavian and Baltic countries provide more gender-balanced employment opportunities (see Figure 1). In Germany, the gender employment gap was around 8%, below the EU-28 average but well above Finland (1.5%), the country with the lowest gap in female employment participation. This picture not only presents differences in the structure of the labour market and composition of the labour force, but also reflects the diversity in terms of national institutional set-ups, policy regimes and cultural values – all known to have significant effects on women’s participation in the labour market.

Our job is keeping you informed!


Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Social Europe content.


We will never send you spam and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Thank you!

Please check your inbox and click on the link in the confirmation email to complete your newsletter subscription.

.
Figure 1 – Gender Employment Gap in Europe – source Eurostat

Economic and Social costs of the Gender Employment Gap.

There are clear ethical and political implications resulting from this inequity and closing the gender employment gap should be an urgent economic and social objective, for the individual and society as a whole.

While at the individual level participation in the labour market enables men and women to achieve economic independence and exercise control over their lives, at societal level the cost of the gender employment gap is intolerably high.

According to the latest Eurofound report, taking into account foregone earnings, missed welfare contributions and additional public finance costs, the total yearly cost of the lower female employment rate is estimated to have been around €370 billion in 2013, corresponding to 2.8% of the EU’s GDP. Moreover, the cost of a woman’s exclusion from employment throughout her working life is estimated at between €1.2 million and €2m, depending on her educational level.

As shown in Figure 2 the costs at Member State level vary from the most virtuous countries (Sweden and Lithuania) where they correspond to less than 1.5% of national GDP, to the worst performing countries, such as Malta, Italy, Greece where the yearly cost is higher than 5% of GDP. In absolute terms the highest loss is incurred by Italy with €88bn while in Germany amounts to €55bn or around 2% of GDP.


We need your support


Social Europe is an independent publisher and we believe in freely available content. For this model to be sustainable, however, we depend on the solidarity of our readers. Become a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month and help us produce more articles, podcasts and videos. Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

Figure 2 – Cost of the Gender Employment Gap as share of GDP, EU Member States- 2013- source: Eurofound.

To give an idea of the scale of the problem, let’s say that its overall €370bn cost corresponds approximately to the entire GDP of a highly productive country like Austria. So, if the Gender Employment Gap were a country, it would have approximately the population of the Netherlands and the productivity of Austria. Losing all this talent is a cost that Europe cannot afford anymore.

Moreover, participation in the labour market has not only economic impacts but also important social effects. It enhances a person’s perception of his/her overall quality of life and improves the quality of society. Women in employment are more empowered and evaluate their lives more positively than those outside the labour market. In these ways being in paid employment not only ensures economic independence that acts as a shield against poverty and deprivation, but also contributes significantly to better social inclusion.

Ensuring the freedom of choice

These dramatic numbers clearly show that the persistence of unequal employment opportunities between men and women in Europe should be addressed as a highest priority; closing the gap   should bring both a fairer society and substantial macroeconomic gains.

Despite several initiatives from the European Commission to foster female labour market participation, it is clear that the EU will not meet its targets. Therefore, a renewed and boosted effort is urgently needed at EU and national level because it will otherwise still take several decades for many member states to achieve EU targets and close the gender employment gap.

Lessons learned from Member States that have been successful in reducing the gender employment gap revel that effective initiatives aimed at increasing women’s (re)integration within workplaces go beyond traditional labour market policies and include combinations of adult and childcare support, paid parental and adult-care leave, and flexible working arrangements. While integrated policies are essential, if one is to achieve significant results more quickly, in many countries a cultural shift in tackling the persistence of gender stereotypes and fostering a shared and more equal division of family responsibility is also urgently required.

This blog post is based on research carried out by the author jointly with Martina Bisello and other researchers for Eurofound.

See also our focus page “What is inequality”.

Massimiliano Mascherini

Massimiliano Mascherini Is head of the social policies unit at Eurofound, having joined the organisation in 2009 as a research manager. He has a PhD in applied statistics from the University of Florence and has been a visiting fellow at the University of Sydney and Aalborg University.

Home ・ Politics ・ Reducing Europe’s Gender Employment Gap

Most Popular Posts

schools,Sweden,Swedish,voucher,choice Sweden’s schools: Milton Friedman’s wet dreamLisa Pelling
world order,Russia,China,Europe,United States,US The coming world orderMarc Saxer
south working,remote work ‘South working’: the future of remote workAntonio Aloisi and Luisa Corazza
Russia,Putin,assets,oligarchs Seizing the assets of Russian oligarchsBranko Milanovic
Russians,support,war,Ukraine Why do Russians support the war against Ukraine?Svetlana Erpyleva

Most Recent Posts

trade,values,Russia,Ukraine,globalisation Peace and trade—a new perspectiveGustav Horn
biodiversity,COP15,China,climate COP15: negotiations must come out of the shadowsSandrine Maljean-Dubois
reproductive rights,abortion,hungary,eastern europe,united states,us,poland The uneven battlefield of reproductive rightsAndrea Pető
LNG,EIB,liquefied natural gas,European Investment Bank Ukraine is no reason to invest in gasXavier Sol
schools,Sweden,Swedish,voucher,choice Sweden’s schools: Milton Friedman’s wet dreamLisa Pelling

Other Social Europe Publications

The transatlantic relationship
Women and the coronavirus crisis
RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?
US election 2020
Corporate taxation in a globalised era

Eurofound advertisement

Living and working in Europe 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic continued to be a defining force in 2021, and Eurofound continued its work of examining and recording the many and diverse impacts across the EU. Living and working in Europe 2021 provides a snapshot of the changes to employment, work and living conditions in Europe. It also summarises the agency’s findings on issues such as gender equality in employment, wealth inequality and labour shortages. These will have a significant bearing on recovery from the pandemic, resilience in the face of the war in Ukraine and a successful transition to a green and digital future.


AVAILABLE HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

EU Care Atlas: a new interactive data map showing how care deficits affect the gender earnings gap in the EU

Browse through the EU Care Atlas, a new interactive data map to help uncover what the statistics are often hiding: how care deficits directly feed into the gender earnings gap.

While attention is often focused on the gender pay gap (13%), the EU Care Atlas brings to light the more worrisome and complex picture of women’s economic inequalities. The pay gap is just one of three main elements that explain the overall earnings gap, which is estimated at 36.7%. The EU Care Atlas illustrates the urgent need to look beyond the pay gap and understand the interplay between the overall earnings gap and care imbalances.


BROWSE THROUGH THE MAP

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

Towards a new Minimum Wage Policy in Germany and Europe: WSI minimum wage report 2022

The past year has seen a much higher political profile for the issue of minimum wages, not only in Germany, which has seen fresh initiatives to tackle low pay, but also in those many other countries in Europe that have embarked on substantial and sustained increases in statutory minimum wages. One key benchmark in determining what should count as an adequate minimum wage is the threshold of 60 per cent of the median wage, a ratio that has also played a role in the European Commission's proposals for an EU-level policy on minimum wages. This year's WSI Minimum Wage Report highlights the feasibility of achieving minimum wages that meet this criterion, given the political will. And with an increase to 12 euro per hour planned for autumn 2022, Germany might now find itself promoted from laggard to minimum-wage trailblazer.


FREE DOWNLOAD

ETUI advertisement

Bilan social / Social policy in the EU: state of play 2021 and perspectives

The new edition of the Bilan social 2021, co-produced by the European Social Observatory (OSE) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), reveals that while EU social policy-making took a blow in 2020, 2021 was guided by the re-emerging social aspirations of the European Commission and the launch of several important initiatives. Against the background of Covid-19, climate change and the debate on the future of Europe, the French presidency of the Council of the EU and the von der Leyen commission must now be closely scrutinised by EU citizens and social stakeholders.


AVAILABLE HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us on social media

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube