Patterns of recent employment growth in the EU: implications for gender equality - Background paper

Despite progress during the last generation, gender gaps in the labour market are closing only gradually, if at all. At EU level the gap remains at over 17% and has not declined in recent years. Variations in national gender pay gaps around this average figure do not reveal any obvious pattern in terms of economic growth or development; the grouping of countries with the lowest gender pay gaps (<10%) – Belgium, Italy, Malta, Poland and Slovenia – includes both ‘old’ and new Member States with very different rates of employment growth and economic growth. This short report - based on recent Eurofound publications – will try to draw out the implications of recent employment growth for gender equality in the European Union.