Scope for pes action across eu member states by issue

• Author: Sansonetti, Silvia; Davern, Eamonn
• Pages: 16-26

Study Report on PES approaches to the promotion of gender equality

16

2020

2. SCOPE FOR PES ACTION ACROSS EU MEMBER STATES BY ISSUE

2.1 Introduction

This chapter deals with labour market data and trends from a gender perspective. The

analysis starts from trends in employment rates to focus on gender -based differences in

labour market participation and possible determinants.

Aspects such as unbalanced division of care duties, lack of care facilities , and segregation

in sectors and occupations are analysed in more detail, highlighting links with labour

market trends.

The last paragraphs are dedicated to the gender pay gap, which exhibited a stable yet

mildly declining trend over the last decade.

The gap is assessed in the light of other indicators concerning employment and poverty of

women, thus allowing for a more complete understanding of women’s position in the labour

market and society of the 27 EU Member States.

2.2 Drawing the overall picture

As a starting point for the analysis of gender differences in the labour market, recent trends

in employment suggest the scenario is improving over time for women, yet the gap

compared with men remains rather stable.

More specifically, the employment rate17 in EU- 27 experienced a stead y growth from Q2

2013 until the beginning of 2020, performing similar trends for men and women, the latter

actually anticipating the post -crisis growth (see Figure 118 where values for EU-27 time

series are included).

Yet, whereas the overall employment rate is close to the 75% target set by the Europe

2020 strategy, the gender employment gap has narrowed only during the tail of the crisis

to remain stable afterwards (from 13.0% in Q2 2010 to 11.7% in Q2 2013 and to 11. 4%

in Q2 2020).

Figure 1. Employment rate by gender, time series Q2 2010-2020, EU- 27 values.

Source: Eurostat, November 2020.

17 The employment rate is computed considering as employed all persons aged 20 to 64 years who were in one

of the following categories: a) persons who during the reference week worked for at least one hour for pay,

profit, or family gain; and b) persons who were not at work during the reference week but had a job or

business from which they were temporarily absent. The denominator includes all the population in the same

age group.

18 The graphs in this section were designed by Professor Antigone Lyberaki and Dr Thomas Georgiadis from

Panteion University -Athens. The authors of this report are grateful for allowing to update and use them.

68.0 68.1 67.8 67.6 68.2 69.0 70.1

71.4 72.4 73.2

71.6

74.7 74.6 74.0 73.5 74.0 74.7

76.0

77.3 78.3 79.0 77.3

61.4 61.7 61.7 61.7 62.5 63.3 64.3

65.6 66.6 67.4

65.9

60

65

70

75

80

2010Q2 2011Q2 2012Q2 2013Q2 2014Q2 2015Q2 2016Q2 2017Q2 2018Q2 2019Q2 2020Q2

Total Men Women