The problem of unemployment has been growing increasingly due to the rapid changes observed recently in the global context. The levels of unemployment have been affected by a variety of factors, such as political, economic, sociocultural, technological, and even environmental ones. In fact, the latter, namely, the rise in the extent of the COVID-19 pandemic, has increased the rates of unemployment significantly (Qian & Fuller, 2020). Therefore, the issue deserves to be discussed from multiple points of view. However, the rise in unemployment rates has not affected the global community homogenously; instead, some groups have suffered greater challenges than others. In this regard, considering the problem of the gender gap and the issue of gender inequality in employment appear to be warranted. This paper seeks to identify whether there is a correlation, as well as causation, between the extent of the gender gap and the levels of unemployment within the target community.
The problem of gender gap, as well as its possible connection to the issue of unemployment, has been touched upon in several studies. For instance, Hansen et al. (2019) define the notion of the gender gap in modern economy as “a level difference between the income distributions and captures the income difference between men and women at a given position in the income distribution” (p. 2). In the global economic environment, the phenomenon of gender gap remains one of the key signs of inequality being present in modern society. Remarkably, studies have shown that the levels of gender gap have been reduced slightly over the past few decades, yet the issue is still visible in the modern labor market (Kriaa et al., 2020).
In turn, the rates of unemployment have also been quite unstable, especially in light of recent events, namely, the rapid development of the COVID-19 pandemic (Qian & Fuller, 2020). However, while the specified factor seems to have recently been playing a major role in unemployment levels globally, the issue of gender gap has the strongest and the most consistent impact on unemployment. Namely, Hechavarría et al. (2018) explain that the problem of gender gap defines how male and female workers experience employment challenges worldwide. For instance, Hechavarría et al. (2018) establish that, in Europe, unemployment rates are much higher for male workers, which is mostly determined by the large gender gap and the fact that the number of male employees exceeds the female ones by a large margin. Therefore, there are substantial reasons to believe that the levels of unemployment are not only correlated with the gender gap, but also influenced by it to a significant extent.
The observed phenomenon is correlated t sex-based discrimination in the global economy, as well as in specific markets. Namely, the study by Dominguez-Folgueras (2020) indicates that preference for male workers has spiked in several industries during the crisis. However, the observed connection could also be attributed to the increase in the effects of gender stereotypes and the promotion of the role of a housekeeper and a mother as the default perception of women in some countries (Dominguez-Folgueras, 2020). Therefore, the problem of unemployment as it is influenced by the gender gap is worth studying in order to resolve the current problem of gender disparities in the workplace and employment opportunities.
References
Dominguez-Folgueras, M. (2020). Unemployment and domestic work in Spain: Did the 2007 economic crisis affect gender equality in the household? Journal of Family Studies, 1, 1-16.
Hechavarría, D. M., Terjesen, S. A., Stenholm, P., Brännback, M., & Lång, S. (2018). More than words: Do gendered linguistic structures widen the gender gap in entrepreneurial activity? Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 42(5), 797-817.
Kriaa, F., Mohamed, B., & Mathlouthi, Y. (2020). Determinants of unemployment duration for young men and women in Tunisia. Economics, Management and Sustainability, 5(2), 78-95.
Niels-Jakob Harbo, H., Karl, H., Erik, Ö., & Hans-Henrik, S. (2019). On using Pareto distributions for measuring top-income gender disparities (No. 9-2019). Copenhagen Business School.
Qian, Y., & Fuller, S. (2020). COVID-19 and the gender employment gap among parents of young children. Canadian Public Policy, 46(S2), S89-S101.