23/08/13
The link above goes to Christopher Pissarides report "Women in the labour force: how well is Europe doing?" (2005).
Findings:
- Drawing on data from an OECD report 'Women at Work' 2002
- significant shift in female employment rates in the UK which occurred between 1960 and 2000. In 1960 43.1 percent of women in the 15-64 age group were in formal employment. By 1980 this figure had climbed to 54.5 % and by 2000 it had reached 65.2%.
- Gender gap narrows with higher educational attainment.
- Women's employment rate in 2000 was 73.1%. The gender gap with men was 14.4%.
- For women with education only up to upper secondary levels (i.e. GCSEs or O levels) participation was 49.7% with a gender gap of 17.3%.
- But for women with a university education, the employment rate was 86.4% and the gender gap only 8%.
- The better-educated group has a far higher employment rate than the less educated group and the gender gap is far less.
- The employment rate for women with no children was 6.8% higher than the average for women overall, at 79.9% and the gender gap here narrows to 5.4%.
- For women with one child, the employment rate is 72.9% with a gender gap of 17.1% and for women with more than two children the participation rate falls to 62.3% and the gender gap increases to 28.2%.
- Thus, the gender employment gap can be seen to widen substantially when the presence of children is factored in.
