Starting close, growing apart: Why the gender gap in labour income widens over the working life

This chapter begins with an overview of women’s working lives – how they differ from men’s, and how those differences impact their labour income throughout the lifecycle. It then focuses on the reasons behind these different career pathways, pointing to key forks in women’s professional lives that could lead to career traps, and examining the specific roles played by professional mobility, childbirth and part‑time work. The chapter also provides a framework to help countries identify their country-specific sources of inequalities so as to meet the complex and multifaceted challenge of gender labour inequality. The chapter finally provides policy recommendations on how to address these country-specific sources of inequalities for further improvements of women’s position in labour markets.