Abstract

An increasing participation of women in the labour market seem to be a key to overcome the problems of the EU labour market and to achieve the objectives of Strategy Europe 2020. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to identify differences in the situation of women in the labour market in selected countries such as those in the Baltic Sea region and to attempt to verify the hypothesis of the existence of discrimination against women in the labor market in the analyzed region. Participation of women in the labour market will be compared with the activity of men in these markets. The author analyzes selects nine countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, i.e. Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland, Sweden and Norway (the only country outside of the EU). Research period covers the years 2000-2011. Analysis of economic activity and employment indicated the increase in labour force participation and in employment among women in all countries in the period 2000-2011. Although, it remains a high diversity in levels of the analyzed indicators between the "old" EU-15 countries (a high level of activity and employment) and the New Members of the EU (a low level of activity and employment). The determinants of high activity and employment among women are: high education, work in the service sector and the age between 55-64 years. These conclusions are confirmed by the analysis of unemployment rates in selected countries, where the falling rates of unemployment are recorded in most countries especially among women with higher education. Furthermore, the analysis of gender employment gap indicates that the gap between the employment rate of men and women quickly reduces among workers with higher education and in the age group 55-64.

Authors (2)