Women and men in the labour market: Who's ahead?

Abstract

"A differentiated look at the employment situation of women shows that although more women have been integrated into the labour market over the last few years, this apparent increase in employment has largely been due to part-time work. Because of demographic change as well, the aim must be to use the employment potential of women better, that is, to encourage more women to take part in the labour market and increase their numbers. In order to guarantee their social inclusion, the full-time employment of women should increase. This means that an improvement in the legal framework conditions for combining family life and a career are necessary, above all in the form of child-care opportunities and all-day schools. Businesses also need to make their contribution. As far as school-leaving qualifications are concerned, women are a nose ahead, but they are not able to take advantage of this head start adequately during their professional life. But they do not only lag behind vis-à-vis career opportunities: many women often only chose between a small number of occupations dominated by the same sex and ones than are quite often badly paid. An increase in the proportion of women in male-dominated areas such as the sciences and engineering is essential, particularly in view of the future threat of a lack of qualified personnel." (Text excerpt, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

König, M. (2008): Frauen und Männer auf dem Arbeitsmarkt: Wer macht das Rennen? In: IAB-Forum No. 2, p. 22-27.