Do family policies and labour market institutions hinder women from reaching the top? A multilevel analysis of the institutional drivers of the gender gap in top positions

This thesis investigates to what extent highly educated women's underrepresentation in managerial and senior professional positions in European economies varies. Secondly, it examines how family policies impact on this gender gap in top positions. In a last step, this thesis investigates what else - if not family policies - can explain why women are not only underrepresented in top positions, but why this gap is wider in some countries than in others. Following a multilevel approach, context-level data stems from various sources such as the OECD, Multilinks and Eurostat and is from around the year 2010. Individual-level data such as occupational positions stems from the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) 2010. Depending on data availability, models include between 22 and 31 European countries.

Using two definitions for top positions (managerial; managerial and senior professional), findings suggest highly educated women face an even greater gender gap in top positions than lesser educated women.

Secondly, the thesis partly supports the hypothesis following the welfare state paradox theory that family policies widen the gender gap in so far as the same family policies that help women enter the labour market, hinder women from reaching top positions. For example, generous childcare seems to actually widen the gender gap in top positions. Informal childcare and financial support however reduce the gap.

Thirdly, following the question as to what else could explain the gender gap, this thesis finds limited evidence for the impact of labour market institutions such as unions on the gender gap in top positions. The models however do suggest that in countries with strong Employment Protection Legislation (EPL) the gender gap for the highly educated is smaller.