The presentation focused on a study which analyzes the relative impact of labor market context and social policy arrangements on the gender employment gap in Central and Eastern Europe. The study relies on the 2008 and 2012 waves of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions as well as a number of macro level data sources to study the impact of various macro and meso-level factors on gender inequality in access to employment. The results show that typical growth indicators, global market integration and social policy arrangements are not at all or only weakly associated with the gender employment gap. Instead, the labor market context, specifically the degree of segregation and the size of the public and service sectors, are more important for shaping women’s labor market opportunities relative to those of men.
