How did the economic growth undergone in Spain between 1980 and 2017 affect female labour participation and the gender employment gap?

Economic growth has different impacts on gender gaps. In Spain, the growing labour market participation of women since 1980 has caused a reduction in the employment gap between women and men. However, this gap still persists.

Spain’s accession to the European Union in the mid 1980s was undoubtedly one of the most important drivers of economic transformation for the country. It intensified the process of economic liberalisation initiated with the arrival of the democratic period, attracted foreign investment and boosted innovation. Furthermore, this opening up was accompanied by the growth of the tourist industry, which had far-reaching effects on associated services sectors, with particular impact on female employment.

The major transformation that occurred in the labour market of the industrial and services sectors was accompanied by more widespread schooling and a rise in the level of secondary and university education attained by the population. This evolution of the educational system enabled women, in particular, to enter medium and high-skill sectors and occupations.

By educational levels and sex, the rise in employment is related primarily to three factors. First, the significant incorporation of medium-skilled workers, both men and women. Second, an increase in the supply of more highly skilled jobs, in which the participation of women rose significantly. And third, a gradual fall in unskilled jobs for men. The latter decrease is much more moderate for female employment, as women have continued to be associated with unskilled jobs, basically concentrated in the services sector.

The transformation of the Spanish labour market was marked by a higher female labour participation, due to the joint effect of the growth in market demand and the shift towards a more service-oriented economy, which contributed to reducing the gender employment gap.

By estimating the distribution of employment between women and men by sectors of economic activity, we are able to analyse in depth the impact that the economic cycle has on the participation of women and men in the labour market.

Until 2007, growth in employment was explained mostly by traditional services sectors (almost 75%), together with the construction industry and other services. On the other hand, reduction in employment was concentrated mainly in the primary sector. During the economic crisis and the following years (2008-2017), employment continued to fall in the primary and industrial sectors (from 31.7% to 24.4%), notably with a steep drop in construction (from 12.7% to 6.5%). For its part, job creation continued to be concentrated in services-related sectors (from 68.3% to 75.6%).

Which sectors are most feminised? As we can see in Graph 2.1, throughout the period analysed (1980-2017) female participation remained stable in commerce-related sectors (around 20%), whereas it dropped steeply in agriculture and the rest of the primary sector (from 15.3% to 2.5%), and took a more moderate but nevertheless substantial drop in the manufacturing industry (from 15.1% to 6.7%). There was also a sharp increase within skilled services, like financial intermediation services, real estate and business services (from 4.8% to 16.5%), the transport and communication sector (from 2% to 9%) and the health and social work sector (from 7.8% to 11.7%).
 

In the male labour market, shown in Graph 2.2, the main changes followed the evolution of the economy at large; that is, the largest reductions in employment occurred in agriculture and manufacturing, whereas in the services sectors labour market participation increased. Employment fell from 17.8% to 6.3% in the agricultural and primary sector, which went from being the second sector with most male employment in the Spanish economy in 1980 to the eighth in 2017. In the case of the manufacturing sector, the reduction was from 23.7% to 16%, causing it to drop from first position. The services sectors that registered the largest increase in employment were the sector of real estate and professional activities (from 2.8% to 10.8%) and the hotel and restaurant sector (from 4.7% to 10.1%).

The evolution of women’s and men’s participation in the labour market in the early years of the crisis was such that the trend towards the closing of the gender employment gap, as observed over the first 27 years analysed (from 1980 to 2007), in general continued. However, as of 2012, the historical downward trend of the gender employment gap levelled off. Since then, a worrying persistence of the gap has been detected.

The narrowing of the gender employment gap during the first years of the crisis was due mainly to the steep drop in employment in the more male-dominated sectors (manufacturing and construction), which suffered the first, most direct effects of the crisis. However, when the crisis began to wane, as of 2012, the gender employment gap stopped decreasing and levelled off, partly due to the mid and long-term consequences of the crisis in the more feminised services sectors, such as health and social work or education (in 2017, out of total hours paid in these two sectors, 72.5% corresponded to female employment, as opposed to 27.5% for male).
 

Since 1980 the Spanish economy has seen a growth in employment, and especially in female employment. Economic growth allowed a structural change that brought about greater labour market participation by women and an increasing incorporation of this population into high and medium-skill sectors and occupations. Furthermore, this economic growth was accompanied by greater demand, within which services sectors gained ever increasing importance. All these aspects contributed to the gender employment gap displaying a clear downward trend in the long term that extended from 1980 to the beginning of the economic crisis.

The gender employment gap continued to narrow during the first years of economic crisis. However, the consequences of the crisis in the more feminised services sectors halted this historical downward trend, giving way to a period in which the gender gap in employment persists significantly and to an important degree.

The results reported in this article are based on information concerning total hours of paid work by sector, without taking into account additional aspects such as the seasonality of jobs or the type of contract, in which the difference by sex is substantial. Likewise, this article does not consider hours devoted to unpaid domestic work and care, which are performed mostly by women. In this regard, it should be noted that the performance and organising of these tasks affect the labour participation and labour market conditions of women and men.

DUARTE, R., C. SARASA and M. SERRANO (2019): "Structural change and female participation in recent economic growth: a multisectoral analysis for the Spanish economy", Economic Systems Research, 31(4), 574-593, DOI: 10.1080/09535314.2019.1589425.