Gender, Labour Markets, and the 21st Century: Deconstructing Persistent Inequalities

We are delighted to invite you to an insightful event hosted by the Bayes Global Women's Leadership Programme, where we strive to inspire, equip, and connect women on their unique leadership journeys, extending beyond traditional corporate roles to encompass community involvement, mentoring, and diverse forms of success.

Professor Barbara Petrongolo, a distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy. Drawing on her extensive research in labour economics, Professor Petrongolo will deliver a lecture on "Gender, Labour Markets, and the 21st Century: Deconstructing Persistent Inequalities".

The allocation of work is to date heavily gendered in virtually all countries, both in the labour market and in the home. Women continue to be less likely to participate in the labour market, and those who are employed work fewer hours on average and earn less per hour worked than men. Moreover, women's under-representation in market work is outweighed by their disproportionate share of unpaid work in the home, leading to an unbalanced specialization of roles.

Are women held back in the labour market because they are less willing to engage in competitive careers and/or they especially value caring for their children? In fact, research has shown that men and women are on average similar in their preferences and attitudes but face different career-family trade-offs. Besides valid arguments of social justice, differential entry barriers into certain professions raise obvious questions about the efficient allocation of women’s talent.

While it would be tempting to conclude that family-friendly workplaces could provide a solution to women’s quest for the desired work life balance, there is a risk that this solution may further entrench gender segregation across firms and professions. Conversely, research has established that, if women’s involvement in the labour market is shaped by prevailing gender norms (actual or perceived) around their primary role in raising children, progress towards gender equality requires redressing gender stereotypes via policy, education, and information interventions.

Professor Barbara Petrongolo, University of Oxford,  Professor of Economics

Barbara Petrongolo is a Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellow at Nuffield College. She is Fellow of the British Academy and Research Associate at the Centre for Economic Performance of the London School of Economics. She previously held positions at Queen Mary University of London, the London School of Economics, the Paris School of Economics and the University of Carlos III (Madrid).

Her primary research interests are in labour economics. She has worked extensively on the performance of labour markets with job search frictions, with applications to unemployment dynamics, welfare policy and interdependencies across local labour markets. Her work also researches the causes of gender inequalities in labour market outcomes, with emphasis on the role of employment selection mechanisms, structural transformation, household interactions and gender norms.