Gender equality in the labor market: challenges and institutional change

Abstract

Given the current interest in achieving equal opportunities for women at all decision-making levels, it would be interesting to fully understand the circumstances that continue to limit their full and effective participation in the labour market. Effective measures that allow progress towards the intended change can only be adopted based on actual knowledge of how things really are. With the purpose of making a contribution in this field, the present work aims to discover the main challenges faced by women in Spain, in comparison with the rest of Europe, as well as offer some thoughts on the institutional changes required to overcome inequality. To that end, we used a sample of 43,850 working women and men collected by Eurofound in 2015. The analyses were carried out using mean difference tests and Chi-square estimates and confirm the existence of challenging issues in the form of wage gaps, glass ceilings and glass walls, as well as conventions that condition the full participation of women at work. Based on these findings, we reflect is upon the institutional changes required to advance gender equality in the labour market, which must cover the regulatory, normative and cognitive spheres.