Labor market gender inequality in Ukraine

Type of the article: Research ArticleAbstractDiscriminatory distribution of professions and wages affects the workforce. This paper aims to assess gender employment and pay gaps within Ukraine’s labor market, utilizing data from 2013 to 2021. Before the full-scale war, according to the Gender Employment Gap Index, female and male employment were concentrated in different occupational groups, with the list of female and male professions unchanged. While the Duncan index (0.338–0.364) confirmed pronounced gender occupational segregation, the Karmel-MacLachlan index (0.041–0.046) demonstrated that its weighted effect was moderate, as the most segregated occupations accounted for a relatively modest share of the employed population. The gender pay gap in Ukraine remained stable, with an unweighted gender pay gap of 8–12% and a weighted gender pay gap of 9–12%, and by type of economic activity, within these same limits. The most discriminatory industries did not impact the overall gender pay gap. Therefore, lowering gender gaps in Ukraine is not feasible without targeted policies in the major industries, where the largest number of people are employed. Since the full-scale war, women have become more proactive not only in registering sole proprietorships and assuming ownership in businesses but also in military employment. Yet, the results point to the structural entrenchment of women in less profitable industries that perpetuates inequality regardless of changes in the average pay gap.AcknowledgmentThe paper was funded as part of the “Financial tools for reducing economic inequality in Ukraine” research project (No. 0124U002254), conducted at the State Organization “Institute for Economics and Forecasting of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.”