Gender data browser   l   What's new?  l  Key facts

Despite numerous improvements in women’s educational and employment outcomes, many countries have not achieved gender equality in economic opportunities and outcomes.

Recognising the importance of gender equality, the OECD has embarked on a Horizontal Project in Gender Equality in three areas key to economic performance: Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship.

17 December 2012: Gender Forum and launch of the publication "Closing the Gender Gap: Act Now!"  

22nd May 2012: Final Report to the Ministerial Council Meeting on the Gender Initiative: Gender Equality in Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship.

Press release: Tackle gender gap to boost growth, says OECD 

• h March 2012: Launch of the Gender data browser: a Ms-Excel interactive tool to explore and assess key gender outcomes in Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship. The browser allows users to compare and contrast the outcomes among OECD countries and the enhanced engagement partners across 16 key indicators. 

• Remarks by Angel Gurría: The OECD Gender Browser: A Benchmark for gender equality

• Press release: Only one in ten board members of top companies are women.

• 27-28 February 2012: ADB-OECD Joint Workshop on Gender and 3Es.
• February 2012: Highlights of the workshop on The Business Case for Women’s Economic Empowerment organised by BIAC, AmCham France and the OECD.
• September 2011: Background report (and 2-page brief) on Gender Equality in OECD countries in the Pacific Rim and other APEC countries, for the APEC Women and the Economy Summit in San Francisco in September 2011. The report is an adaptation of the OECD Gender Initiative interim report presented to the Ministerial Council in May 2011 (see below).
• May 2011: Interim Report on the Gender Initiative: Gender Equality in Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship presented at the 50th Anniversary Meeting of the OECD Council at the Ministerial Level.

Girls significantly outperform boys in reading in all OECD countries. Boys are ahead in mathematics, but the gender gap is small compared to reading.

Source: OECD PISA 2009

At university, women and men choose different fields of study.

In 2009, on average, only 26% of graduates in engineering, manufacturing and construction were women, compared to more than 75% of graduates in health and welfare degrees.

Source: OECD Education at a Glance 2011

Women are still less likely than men to participate in the labour market. When in employment, they are also more likely to work part-time.

In 2010, on average across OECD countries, 65% of women were in the labour force compared to 79% of men. Around 25% of women in employment worked part-time, compared to only 8% of employed men.

Source: OECD Employment database

Women do more unpaid work than men.

In all OECD countries, women spend more time than men doing unpaid work: on average more than 2 extra hours per day. In Turkey men spend less than 2 hours a day in unpaid work, compared with over 6 hours for women. By contrast, Norwegian men spend more than 2 hours per day in unpaid work, only one hour less than Norwegian women.

Source: OECD calculations based on Time Use Surveys

Although the gender wage gap has narrowed over time, it is still large.

Among full-time employees in 2010, women earned, on average, 16% less than men. Hungary had the smallest gender gap in wages (6%). In Korea women earned, on average, 39% less than men.

Source: OECD Employment database

Women are still under-represented in top corporate jobs.

In 2009, on average, women occupied only 10% of board seats in listed companies. This percentage varied greatly across countries, from 3% in Germany to 38% in Norway.

Source: OECD calculation based on ORBIS data

Women are less likely than men to own a business and employ others.

On average in 2010, only 2% of women in work were employers, compared with 6% of men. In Estonia, only 1% of working women owned a business which employed other people, while this percentage was highest in Greece at 4%.

Source: OECD calculation based on Labour Force Surveys

Women’s presence in national parliaments has increased, but gender gaps are still large.

In 2011, on average, women were occupying 25% of parliamentary seats in single or lower chambers of parliament, up from 16% in 1995. Cross-national variation is large: from 9% in Hungary to 45% in Sweden.

Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union