Why access to quality early childhood education and care is a key driver of women’s labour market participation

Why access to quality early childhood education and care is a key driver of women’s labour market participation

(..) This may seem strange now, but just try to think of society in the 1960s. Just think how far we have come since then: In 1961, only 38 % of women were employed in the United States. In 2015, this figure was at 70%.

(..) Society has progressed a lot in fifty-seven years. Who would have thought in 1961 that someday women would no longer have to make a choice between their career and raising a family? Stronger access and provision to early childhood education and care services has greatly contributed to more equity in the workforce, but more is needed to ensure fully equal participation of men and women, whether at work or at home. Hopefully we will not have to wait another half century to see that happen. 

How does access to early childhood services affect the participation of women in the labour market? EDUCATIONINDICATORSIN FOCUSFEBRUARY 2018#59

The number of hours per week children can attend early childhood education and care services greatly influences whether women work full or part time: 

Countries with both high levels of participation in ECEC and greater intensity of participation (in hours per week) are in general those in which most mothers work full time. These include all the Nordic countries except Finland, and France, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Portugal. By contrast, in the Netherlands and New Zealand, an above-average proportion of children under the age of 3 attend ECEC, but for fewer hours per week. As a consequence, more than 40% of women with at least one child aged 0-14 are employed part time in these two countries.

Children from poor families still face barriers to accessing early childhood education and care services and their mothers to entering the labour market:

The bottom line 

While the benefits of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services to better learning are now widely acknowledged, a widespread and accessible provision for these services also helps support gender equality in the workforce. In particular, the availability, intensity, reliability and affordability of ECEC play an important role in engaging women full time in the labour market. While ECEC has experienced a surge of policy attention over the last decades, wide variations still exist across countries and its costs remains a barrier to accessing paid work for poor families and lone parents, mostly mothers. More efforts are needed to increase the provision and accessibility of free ECEC services, especially for children under the age of 3. 

Fields of education, gender and the labour market

Fields of education, gender and the labour market



The choice of field of education is rooted in the educational and personal experiences people have prior to reaching tertiary education. The acute gender segregation that is observed in some fields of education is likely to pave the way for grave imbalances in the labour market performance of men and women. Education fields with a larger share of women are typically associated with lower employment rates and lower earnings. However, even within the same field of education, employment rates and earnings are generally higher for men than for women. Inclusive labour markets and societies can only be achieved through long-term comprehensive and concerted actions.

Are boys and girls equally prepared for life?

Girls outperform boys in reading in all countries and economies by the equivalent of one year of school.

• In most countries and economies, girls underperform boys in mathematics; and among the highest-achieving students, the gender gap in favour of boys is even wider.

• The gender gap in mathematics performance mirrors the gender gap in students’ drive,
motivation and self-beliefs.

• Boys and girls tend to benefit equally when they are perseverant and motivated to learn, and have confidence in their abilities to learn mathematics. Consequently, the performance of both boys and girls suffers at the same rate when they lack motivation to learn and confidence in their own abilities.

Even at 15, boys and girls already have different ideas about their career paths.

The gender gaps in mathematics performance has largely remained stable over successive PISA assessments – which is not a good sign,considering that PISA results also show that both boys and girls can perform at the highest levels. More troubling, still, is the fact that the gender gap extends to students’ attitudes towards learning mathematics, which has repercussions in life well beyond school. Shrinking these gender gaps requires a concerted effort by parents and educators to challenge and eliminate gender stereotypes and bolster girls’ beliefs in themselves.

Closing the gender gap