BozenaDr Bożena Wielgoszewska, one of our #DataImpactFellows, discusses the recent research she has undertaken with colleagues at UCL on the gender wage gap project.
What did we find?
Professor Alex Bryson, Dr Francesca Foliano, Professor japan rcs data Heather Joshi, David Wilkinson and I found that the differences between men’s and women’s earnings has decreased, but that progress has slowed in recent years. Dramatic change only took place with major events, such as war or big policy change. Later cohorts seem to face better conditions but the gap is still large and, at our estimated rate of convergence, it will not close for another 40 years.
The Covid-19 pandemic has further highlighted labour market inequalities between men and women and raised questions about the future progression towards gender equality. Some expect that more widespread flexible working and normalisation of working from home will lead to greater gender equality. At the same time, others argue that the position of women, jeopardised by taking a bigger share of housework during lockdown, will reverse the progress.