Women's Preferences or Delineated Policies?
Figure 1: Female Labour Force Participation in the EU, in percentage: 2003
European Female Labor Force Participation Rates: 2003
* Refers to persons aged 16 to 64.
** Refers to data from 2002.
*** Provisional estimates based on changes between 2002 and 2003 in the ratios derived from the European Labour Force Survey.
Source: OECD, 2004.
The differences in female labour market participation across these three countries become more
apparent when we consider selected age groups. As Figure 2 shows, all three countries have a
relatively similar female activity level for women aged 25-54, yet Germany has a drastically lower
participation rate for young women, and both Germany and the Netherlands have considerably
lower participation rates for women over the age of 55.
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AIAS - UvA