Women and men participate in the labour force in different proportions and have a different distribution across various types of employment. In general, proportionately fewer women than men are in paid employment at all ages. Women, more frequently than men, are found in the service sector, and less frequently in the industrial sector. The most common employment status for both women and men is “employee”. Among those who are in employment, women are more likely to be “family workers” and less likely to be “employers” or “self-employed”. In all countries, men dominate in crafts and trade, and women in service and clerical occupations. However, a more detailed analysis of the ECE countries show a more diverse regional picture.

 Women are more often unpaid family workers, in temporary or part-time jobs, or in the informal sector without job security. By the same token, men generally have more stable jobs and more often at a managerial or senior level, than women. Time use studies in the ECE region show that women spend much more time than men in unpaid work, often more than twice as much. Men, on the other hand spend more time in paid employment. Women’s reproductive roles and discriminatory perceptions of the value of women vs. men in the labour market are important factors shaping this trend. Majority of women in the countries where female “inactivity rates” [i.e. not in the labour force] are among the highest in the ECE region (e.g. Turkey, Greece, Ireland, Switzerland: 60-80%) cite ‘homemaking’ as the reason for not working. Having at least one pre-school child at home affects women’s labour force participation negatively and men’s positively, and both parents tend to register a higher proportion of their time in unpaid work.

 While women’s participation in the labour force in Europe and North America has increased, and in return, gender gap in the labour market shrunk in recent decades, women generally still have less salaries, career opportunities and authority than men. The provision for maternity and paternity leave combined with universal welfare benefits contribute to the creation of a more equal society, where men and women can fulfil their responsibilities at work and in the family on the basis of equity. This is of critical importance for the shaping of policies on labour market participation.

 Examples of policies in the region:
Finland: policies supporting women and men's participation in the labour market
Norway: family policy reforms in the 1990s
Sweden: part-time work among women