Across Europe and Central Asia, women’s economic potential remains underused due to barriers to jobs – stemming from limited access to finance, caregiving burdens, and entrenched norms – and resulting in slower and less resilient growth. Tackling these challenges demands data-driven, evidence-based policy solutions for jobs in the region.
The Mend the Gap policy research workshop, held in Rome in May 2025, rose to this task. Co-hosted by The World Bank’s ECA Gender Innovation Lab and Institute for Economic Development; the Axa Research Lab on Gender Equality at Bocconi University; the Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF); and LABOUR: Review of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations, it brought together leading researchers and policymakers to share insights and strategies for impacting the jobs landscape.
Claudia Olivetti’s keynote speech highlighted persistent constraints facing women’s access to jobs, tracing the career costs of motherhood, social norms, and labor market constraints, and set the stage for the workshop’s focus on drivers and solutions.
Here's a glimpse of the compelling research shared at the event.
When Care Comes Early. Public childcare and family leave aim to boost women’s work, but how effective are they where informal care is common, or labor markets are fragmented?
· In Uzbekistan, preschool expansion paid off. A recent policy boosted women’s labor supply by 12%, especially in financially constrained families, challenging the view that informal care reduces public childcare demand (Abdurazzakova et al). [ppt]
· In Romania, even part-time care helped. Mandatory half-day preparatory classes increase maternal employment by up to 4 percentage points, especially for women with greater barriers, but most jobs are part-time, revealing limits to part-day support (Robayo-Abril and Rude). [ppt] [paper]
· Türkiye’s “child penalty” is steep—and persistent. Following childbirth, women’s employment drops over 40%, often into informal work, though grandparents, progressive norms, and childcare can ease the impact (Perova et al). [ppt]
· Shared leave matters—especially when it’s truly shared. Portugal’s shared parental leave increases women’s wages when fathers share childcare, especially for primary earners (Monteiro et al). [ppt] [paper]
Care Doesn’t End at Kindergarten. Care responsibilities persist as children enter school, shaping the jobs of women, and their retirement and aging.
· Caring for aging parents also sets women back. In six European countries, parental health shocks widen gender employment gaps—especially where informal care falls on daughters (De La Vega). [ppt]
· Pension credits can narrow long-run gaps. Norway’s pension reform for mothers raised lifetime benefits and reduced the gender gap, though it also prompted earlier claims, and slight job exits (Garcia Lopez). [ppt]
When Culture Shapes Choices: Expectations, not just policy or income, shape (and can limit) jobs for women.
· Norms don’t always follow the money. After trade shocks, households often stick to traditional gender roles instead of maximizing earnings, revealing the inefficiencies norms create (Uccioli).
· Migration carries culture. When ethnic Turkish women migrated from more progressive Bulgaria to Türkiye, they spurred changes in local women’s labor force participation and fertility, especially in male-dominated industries (Kirdar et al). [paper]
· Family roles shape early outcomes. In Albania, young women are more likely to be NEET due to family responsibilities, as marriage and caregiving contributes more to women’s inactivity than men’s (Miluka and Meurs). [ppt][paper]
What Starts in School Doesn’t Stay in School. Early education choices shape long-term jobs, pay, and career outcomes.
· Majors matter—a lot. In Italy, women’s choices of majors explain nearly 60% of the early-career pay gap, as they tend to enter lower-paying fields (Rizzica et al). [ppt][paper]
· Preferential admissions help—partly. Chile’s college access policy boosts long-term outcomes, especially for women, but raises dropout risks for marginal students, underscoring the need for support alongside access (Miglino et al). [paper]
· Working more doesn’t always mean earning more. Across countries, women's underrepresentation in long-hour, high-reward jobs continues to widen the gap (Checchi et al).
Building for more and better jobs. Broad infrastructure and policy changes can improve women’s jobs outcomes.
· Fiber optics opened doors. In Türkiye, high-speed internet boosted women’s jobs and wages via remote work, but road projects did not (Demir and Grover).
· Social spending works—if well-placed. In Italy, childcare, education, and health investment helped lift overall employment and growth, but the gender gap narrowed mainly in the South and among high-skilled women (Reljic and Zezza). [paper]
· Macroeconomic policy matters. Fiscal slowdowns hit women hardest. In ECA, gender-sensitive countercyclical fiscal policies can mitigate these impacts (Bogetić et al). [ppt] [paper]
Shifting the Rules of the Game: Institutions, Discrimination, and the Limits of Reform. Despite policy changes, structural and institutional barriers still limit women’s full economic participation.
· Quotas create ripple effects—even where they're not required. In Italy, a law mandating gender quotas on boards of listed companies boosted representation in unlisted firms connected through shared directors, showing how networks, not just regulation, can improve jobs outcomes (Guiso et al). [ppt] [paper]
· Entrepreneurship is still not a level playing field. Across Europe and Central Asia, legal, financial, and cultural barriers still hinder women’s entrepreneurship, highlighting the need to align policy with practice (Behr and Xi). [ppt]
· Temporary contracts carry a hidden penalty. In Italy, women are less likely to hold permanent jobs, and those on temporary contracts are less likely to have children, suggesting a cycle of exclusion driven by statistical discrimination and fertility expectations (Fanfani et al). [ppt]
Conflict, Crisis, and the Gendered Shape of Migration and Fertility. War and conflict reshape labor markets, household choices, and migration patterns in ways that impact jobs for women.
· When men stay, women move. Following the Russia-Ukraine war and the 2024 Moscow attack, male migration from the Kyrgyz Republic to Russia fell due to fears of conscription and xenophobia, while female migration rose amid shifting labor demand and family survival strategies (Rude et al). [ppt] [paper]
· In conflict, the desire for sons grows stronger. After the Nagorno-Karabakh war, families in Armenia and Azerbaijan exposed to violence experienced increased fertility, especially those without sons, driven by intensified cultural preferences and rising sex-selective practices (Mancuso and Ferrero). [ppt]
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