As shown above, there is a strong economic case for making gender equality a core pillar of demographic policy responses. The dual pressures of population ageing and persistent gender inequality can benefit from coordinated, cross-sectoral policy levers and a strong government response.
Women, work and the population puzzle
Gender-sensitive responses to demographic change
Gender and demographic policy intersect in ways that can either compound risks or create powerful synergies. A recent mapping exercise grouped measures to address the socioeconomic challenges of demographic shifts in China, Japan, Korea, and Thailand into four categories: measures aimed at increasing the size of the workforce; directly increasing birth rates; enhancing family-friendly workplaces; and addressing long-term care and ageing populations (UN Women, 2025[18]). These policy measures are not mutually exclusive. However, without a gender-sensitive approach, they risk working at cross-purposes, potentially reducing their efficiency and entrenching existing inequalities without addressing the root causes of demographic challenges. More specifically, risks include:
Policy inefficiencies due to blind spots: When demographic policymaking does not incorporate gender considerations, it can undermine other policy priorities. For example, fertility measures often (implicitly or explicitly) encourage women to assume most unpaid caregiving responsibilities, reinforcing traditional gender roles. This increases women’s responsibilities in the home, making it harder for them to enter or re-enter full-time employment. As a result, efforts to increase birth rates may inadvertently reduce women’s labour force participation, reducing the overall effectiveness of both sets of policies.
Reinforcement of existing inequalities: Entrenched gender norms and stereotypes often disproportionately assign unpaid work to women and paid work to men (OECD, 2023[19])). These disparities lead to inequalities across the life course, culminating in significant gender pension gaps and economic insecurity at retirement. For example, women aged 65+ receive 26% less retirement income than men on average in the OECD (OECD, 2023[4]). Considering these drivers and outcomes as part of demographic, labour market and social protection policy planning can support policymakers to simultaneously address barriers to women’s economic participation and avoid reinforcing existing structural inequalities.
Missing system-level opportunities: High-quality, well-paid health and care systems are essential for healthy ageing and productivity. This is particularly important in the context of OECD countries and South-East Asia, where the demand for paid, formal care is forecast to grow rapidly in the short- and long-term (OECD, 2024[20]) (OECD, 2024[21])). A gender-blind approach to expanding care systems risks undermining overall system efficiency. For example, efforts to address labour shortages in the long-term care sector in some OECD countries have focused on recruitment and service expansion but may sometimes overlook the gendered dynamics of care work. In some countries, the continued undervaluation of predominantly female care workers has led to persistent low pay, poor working conditions, and high turnover, weakening both the quality and sustainability of care provision (OECD, 2024[1]). By missing the opportunity to professionalise and better remunerate the care workforce, countries risk entrenching gender inequality while failing to build the high-skill, high-value care systems that ageing societies require
Risk of low policy uptake if gender impacts are ignored: When demographic policy design does not consider potential gender impacts (e.g. unequal care responsibility or barriers to employment), they risk appearing unfair and result in low uptake among the populations they intend to reach (OECD, 2023[4]). This can lead to reduced trust in government initiatives, and reluctance to engage with or benefit from the policy measures, ultimately undermining the legitimacy and effectiveness of demographic strategies. A gender-sensitive approach to demographic policies, informed by measurement tools like population surveys (OECD, 2025[22]), can help support broad acceptance, improve uptake and policy effectiveness.
Governments can play a leading role in aligning demographic challenges with gender equality goals by leveraging their legislative, regulatory, and fiscal authority, including their role as major employers and procurers. To do so effectively, they can apply tools such as gender impact assessments and gender budgeting to demographic policy areas. This, however, requires sustained institutional capacity, technical expertise, and robust gender-disaggregated data.
Importantly, there is popular support for these approaches. Survey evidence suggests that most people in OECD countries want to see policy responses that simultaneously address population ageing, worker shortages and gender equality. The 2024 OECD Risks that Matter (RTM) Survey finds that 65% of respondents, across 27 OECD countries, are somewhat or very concerned about population ageing beyond the next ten years, with rates highest in Korea (85%), Portugal (80%), and Spain (77%) (OECD, 2025[22]).
In light of these concerns, including the negative implications for growth, a majority of respondents, on average across countries, consistently support three policy measures to address population ageing and worker shortages:
getting more women and underrepresented groups into the workforce,
increasing the use of technology to improve efficiency in the workplace, and
encouraging part-time workers to transition to full-time work.
The highest policy priority – favoured by 66% of respondents – is for measures to support the greater participation of women and other underrepresented groups in the labour market. Over 70% of respondents call for more women and underrepresented groups to work in Spain, Greece, Chile, Ireland, Mexico, Portugal and Israel.
63%, on average, support measures to increase the use of technology to improve efficiencies in the workplace, and 56% call for part-time workers to transition to full-time work. To note, this goal is not unrelated to that of supporting the greater participation of women in the labour market. Women, and particularly mothers of dependent children, have high rates of part-time work relative to fathers and people without dependent children (OECD, 2024[1]).
Share (%) of respondents who support specified responses to population ageing, by country, 2024
Note: RTM-27 is an unweighted average. Respondents were asked “Population ageing may lead to worker shortages in the coming years. To what degree do you oppose or support the following measures to address worker shortages in your country? (a) Encouraging longer working lives, (b) Encouraging people to have more children, (c) Increasing migration to bring more workers into the country, (d) Supporting the greater participation of women and other underrepresented groups in the labour market, (e) Increasing the use of technology to improve efficiencies in the workplace, (f) Encouraging part-time workers to transition to full-time hours.” Response items (a) through (f) were randomly rotated. Response options were: “Strongly oppose,” “Oppose,” “Neither support nor oppose,” “Support,” “Strongly support,” “Can’t choose.” Estimates refers to the combined share of “Support” and “Strongly support.”
Source: 2024 OECD Risks that Matter Survey (https://oe.cd/rtm).
A gender-sensitive approach to population ageing calls for both targeted gender equality policy levers and the systematic integration of gender considerations into broader demographic strategies.
Policy levers
Women’s labour force participation is a powerful lever for revitalising economies and societies facing demographic decline. Governments can mobilise a combination of policy levers to address structural barriers and promote women’s full economic participation. Australia provides an example of how addressing structural barriers requires policy action across a wide range of areas (see (OECD, 2023[4])).
However, persistent gender gaps in unpaid care work and career interruptions continue to limit women’s ability to access, retain, and advance in paid employment, exacerbating workforce shortages. When in the labour force, women often face systemic obstacles that limit their progress in advancing to managerial roles, earning as much as men for work of equal value, and owning businesses (OECD, 2023[4]). Legal frameworks and programmes focused on incentivising women’s labour force participation and tackling structural barriers – including gender gaps in unpaid caregiving – will be important to help ease the impacts of the demographic transition.
Indeed, research indicates that the success factors for enabling women and men to combine work and family are (at a minimum) well-designed family policies like parental leave, childcare services and financial support; family-friendly working conditions, in particular shorter working hours, workplace flexibility and stable, quality employment; and more gender-equal and family-friendly social norms and sharing of caregiving and other unpaid domestic work (OECD, 2025[5]); (Yang, Hwang and Pareliussen, 2024[23]). These factors are mutually reinforcing, and strong investment in one dimension may not necessarily compensate for shortcomings in other areas (OECD, 2025[5]) (Yang, Hwang and Pareliussen, 2024[23]). For example, affordable childcare may not enable women to work more if work hours are long and inflexible – e.g. beyond typical childcare hours – and parents do not share caring responsibilities.
Equitable, gender-responsive care economy strategies can also contribute to high quality care systems when they increase service and job quality, foster workforce development and workplace safety, promote pay equity and attract more men into the sector (OECD, 2024[1]); (ILO, 2024[24])). This can help meet growing elder, disability and childcare demands, promote women’s employment (in, ideally, good-quality jobs) and economic security, boost local job creation and create family-friendly economies where care responsibilities are shared (ILO, 2024[24]); (OECD, 2024[21]); (UK Women's Budget Group, 2016[25]). As part of their efforts to build the care economy, Australia has prioritised improving wages in the care sector (see Box 3.1). Similarly, Korea has placed gender equality and the care sector at the heart of its approach to supporting an ageing society (See Box 3.2).
Similarly, the impact of ageing on the economy will be greatly mitigated if citizens age in good health, allowing them to continue working in a productive way, participate actively in public life, and remain independent up to an advanced age. Indeed, healthy ageing and robust health systems are essential to counter slow growth or decline in the labour force (André, Gal and Schief, 2024[26]); (OECD, 2025[5]). For example, limited workplace accommodations for menopause can significantly affect women’s employment outcomes and well-being. Physical workplace constraints such as restricted access to toilets, poor ventilation, uncomfortable uniforms, and inadequate workstations can exacerbate symptoms and reduce productivity (Victorian Government Commission for Gender Equality, 2023[27]). Evidence from the United Kingdom shows that over a quarter of employed women aged 40–60 report menopause symptoms have negatively affected their career progression, while nearly one in five have considered leaving work due to insufficient support (CIPD, 2023[28]). Research further indicates that menopause can contribute to lasting declines in employment and earnings, increasing women’s reliance on social transfers (Conti, 2025[29]). However, greater awareness and improved access to menopause-related healthcare and workplace support can mitigate these economic and social costs, enhancing both gender equality and labour market retention (Conti, 2025[29]); (OECD, 2025[5]). See Box 3.3 for an example of how Chile has integrated a gender lens into both ageing and workforce strategies to support women’s economic security.
Drawing on OECD recommendations, evidence and leading practice, policy options can include:
Adopting gender-responsive legal frameworks that promote gender equality in the world of work, in line with international standards. For example, the OECD Gender Recommendations (OECD, 2024[1]); (OECD, 2016[30]) and ILO conventions relating to violence and harassment (No. 190), discrimination (No. 111), equal pay for work of equal value (No. 100) and protections for parents (No. 183 and 156).
Enhancing efforts to embed CEDAW anti-gender stereotyping and gender mainstreaming obligations into legal and policy systems.
Developing targeted policies and policy combinations that focus on:
tackling labour market discrimination, including gender pay gaps and horizontal and vertical segregation of the labour market
ending harmful gender norms that assign women disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care, limiting their paid work options, and that contribute to gender segregation in fields of study
ensuring good-quality, well-paying jobs with adequate access to work-life supports such as child and elder care, flexible work and generous paid parental leave to support retention
fostering girls’ and women’s acquisition of digital skills and competencies to prepare for ongoing changes in the world of work
preventing and addressing workplace sexual harassment and violence including technology-facilitated gender-based violence
promoting an equitable, gender-responsive care economy to increase service and job quality, workplace safety, pay equity and attract more men into the sector
developing healthy ageing and women’s health strategies to improve women’s health and workforce development and support their continued participation in the labour market
Australia’s approach to improving wages in the care sector is anchored in its national workplace relations framework under the Fair Work Act 2009, which sets minimum employment standards and establishes the independent Fair Work Commission (FWC) to determine minimum wages. In 2022, the Australian Government amended the Act to include gender equity as a statutory objective through the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022. This change requires the FWC to consider gender impacts when setting minimum wages, strengthening the gender pay equity provisions in the Fair Work Act. Following this legislative reform, the FWC commissioned research into gender undervaluation in women-dominated industries and launched the Gender Undervaluation Priority Awards Review to assess whether sectors such as health, community services, disability support, Aboriginal health, pharmacy, and childcare have been historically underpaid.
In April 2025, the FWC’s preliminary decision confirmed that these industries had been undervalued due to gender bias and recommended wage increases of up to 25 per cent (summary of decision). This decision, currently under review through public hearings, is expected to deliver significant pay rises once finalised. In parallel, care-sector employees have pursued Work Value Cases – worker-led applications testing whether wages reflect the true value of work. Notably, some aged care workers succeeded in securing substantial wage increases in 2023, and a new case for nurses and midwives is currently underway. Together, these initiatives represent a landmark step toward gender pay equity – formally recognising and revaluing care work as skilled and essential labour.
Korea’s Fourth Basic Plan for Low Fertility and Ageing Society (2021–2025) marked a major policy shift by placing gender equality and quality of life at the centre of its strategy. While maintaining the core structure of previous plans, it was the first to explicitly define the creation of a gender-equal and fair society as a primary goal. The plan took further steps to address structural barriers in the labour market and caregiving that disproportionately affect women, while also expanding support for diverse family forms beyond the traditional marriage-based model.
Key policy measures under the Fourth Plan include:
Increasing parental leave benefits for both mothers and fathers, along with expanded support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
Recommending the adoption of Gender Equality Disclosure System
Improving the quality of public childcare services and expanding accessibility
Enhancing support for single parent families.
In 2024, additional measures were introduced under the Initiative to Reverse the Declining Birth Rate initiative. These included raising the income replacement cap for parental leave to improve the adequacy of benefits; extending paid paternity leave from 10 to 20 days to encourage men’s uptake; allowing parental leave to be split into four blocks instead of the existing three blocks to enhance flexibility; and expanding support for SMEs by increasing subsidies for replacement workers. The government also announced plans to integrate childcare and early education for children aged 0–5 under a unified system, and to streamline previously separate public after-school programs and public after-school care services.
As of 2024, Korea’s total fertility rate (TFR) stands at 0.75, showing a halt in the long-standing downward trend since 2015. The share of men among parental leave users rose from 4% in 2013 to 25.7% in 2023. The share of families receiving cash and care benefits has continued to increase, and public spending on family benefits reached 1.65% of GDP in 2022 – more than double the level recorded a decade earlier.
Source: Korea’s Fourth Basic Plan for Low Fertility and Aging Society (2021–2025), and the Initiative to Reverse the Declining Birth Rate.
Chile has embedded gender mainstreaming at the core of its ageing, decent work and workforce policies, with a particular emphasis on improving older women’s participation in the labour market, challenging harmful gender stereotypes, and reforming the care economy to promote quality jobs and attract men to caregiving roles. The IV National Plan for Equality between Women and Men (2018–2030) promotes flexible working arrangements and work-life balance policies as key to increasing women’s participation in the workforce, especially for older women and caregivers. It also prioritizes the redistribution of unpaid care responsibilities between men and women. The National Strategy for the Exercise of Economic Autonomy in Women, the Ministerial Gender Commitments 2022-2026 and the interministerial initiative ‘Chile For All’ (Chile Para Todas) are complementary policy frameworks that focus on improving women’s economic security and wellbeing through women's skill development, women’s participation in non-traditional sectors, improved access to affordable and quality childcare and support for caregivers.
Implementation of these frameworks is co-ordinated through a gender mainstreaming methodological guide issued by the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality in February 2025. The guide contains minimum standards on training and gender impact analysis as well as policy and programme planning, design, implementation and evaluation. The guide also supports ministries to meet their obligation to explain how they will implement their programme of work as well as regularly report on progress against a set of gender indicators and measures. Progress reporting is then evaluated by a network of gender experts. A dedicated gender mainstreaming fund has been established to support activities.
Source: Based on information provided to the OECD Secretariat by the Chilean Ministry of Women and Gender Equality.