Women in the labour market

The social, professional and political situation of women in Poland after joining the EU has changed significantly. What influenced this?

Last year, it was 20 years since Poland joined the European Union. After decades of communism, followed by a difficult period of political and economic transformation, a new era of change began. As a country, we have become more and more visible in the European arena, and our voice has become more and more important. EU funds have enabled the implementation of many smaller and larger projects, such as the construction of roads, schools and cultural institutions.

Although society did not always agree with the changes brought about by EU policy, in general, Poland received many opportunities for development — not only economically, but also culturally. In the context of the situation of women, changes that provided better protection against domestic violence and discrimination were particularly important. Programmes and policies to promote gender equality in the labour market have also been put in place, which has contributed to the increase of women's work activity and encouraged them to take up work.

Although progress is not lacking in this regard, there are still wage inequalities, which we have written about, among others, here: The end of the pay gap? The Ministry is preparing a draft law.

In addition, women continue to face numerous problems in the workplace, arising primarily from the perception of them through the lens of gender.

There are two main types of segregation: horizontal and vertical segregation, each of which can be explained by a supply and demand approach.

Horizontal segregation refers to the unequal distribution of women and men in different sectors and occupations — for example, women are more likely to work in care, education or services, while men predominate in construction, mining or the military. Vertical segregation, on the other hand, concerns differences in access to senior positions — women are much less likely than men to occupy managerial and decision-making positions.

Supply segregation focuses on women's individual choices — according to this approach, women choose professions according to their own preferences, e.g. more oriented to family, career or trying to combine both aspects (the so-called adaptive model). Critics, however, point out that such an approach ignores structural constraints, such as the lack of available childcare or low wages in female-dominated occupations, and as a result does not fully reflect the complex reality of women in the labor market.

In turn demand segregation focuses on the actions of employers and their stereotypical perception of the role of women. These practices mean that women are more likely to be assigned specific professional roles, e.g. in care professions, and at the same time their opportunities for promotion and professional development are limited.

Due to the persistent—albeit gradually changing—picture of the labor market, women often take up jobs that are supposedly easier to reconcile with household chores. In practice, however, this is not always true - an example can be the irregular work schedules of nurses. Women's and men's career choices are largely culturally and socially determined, and legislative and economic changes often lead to breakthroughs that have a real impact both on the situation of women and on the condition of social life as a whole.

Women in numbers: Poland after accession to the European Union

As already mentioned, the situation of women on the labor market (and not only) after Poland's accession to the European Union has changed significantly — and in most cases it has changed for the better. To better understand the scale of these changes, it is worth looking at the figures.

At the beginning of the 21st century, just before Poland's accession to the EU and in the year of accession, unemployment in the country it reached 20%, and among women it was 20.3%. In 2004, 13.8 million people worked, of which 6.07 million were women. Female employment rate fell from 46.4% (2003) to 46.1% in the year of accession to the Union.

However, after accession to the EU, clear positive changes began to be observed in terms of employment and women's professional activation. One of the important factors was the development of entrepreneurship — more and more women start their own businesses and become employers. In 2023, as many as 34% of all economic activities registered with CEIDG were owned by women. While there is still a visible disparity with men, this is a significant advance.

A positive change is also the increase in the level of education of women. In 2023, 52.1% of working women had a higher education, while among men it was 33.3%. Although women continue to dominate the professions of care, education (80.7%), trade (54.4%) and the public sector, more and more of them are choosing technical and engineering majors. Female students in these fields are no longer, as in the past, exceptions met with disregard - although such situations still occur, the view of women in technical universities is much more normalized today.

The overall improvement in the situation of women in the last 20 years is also influenced by their increasing presence in politics and the NGO sector — largely thanks to the introduction of the quota law, which guarantees a minimum of 35% of representatives of each gender on the electoral lists.

Today we can see that in the Polish Sejm, for the first time in history, so many women hold ministerial positions (currently there are 9 ministers). This is an important signal that systemic changes also translate into a real participation of women in shaping public life.

Changes in regulations - what have they given us?

As you know, the European Union promotes workers' rights at the core of its values and strives to prevent them from being infringed. The very idea of European integration was based on social democratic foundations, presupposing equality, peace, security and respect for civil rights and freedoms.

Poland, as an EU member state, was obliged to implement a number of EU directives, which significantly influenced the shape of the national labour market. Among the most important of them were:

Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 — establishes a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation (including the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of age, disability, sexual orientation, religion or worldview).

Directive 2006/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 — concerns the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of women and men in the field of employment and occupation (including, inter alia, the principle of equal pay).

Working time directive (e.g. 2003/88/EC) — introduce minimum standards for the organisation of working time, such as:

maximum weekly working hours,
minimum rest time,
breaks in work,
annual leave,
regulations on night and shift work.

However, it is important that although the directive is a binding legal act in the EU, this does not mean that its introduction automatically changes the law in a Member State. Rather, the directive is an obligation to achieve specific objectives — it is a suggestion of the direction in which national law should go. Each state must fulfil these assumptions on its own, for example by introducing an appropriate law or amending existing legislation.

If a Member State fails to implement the Directive, it may be fined or referred to the Court of Justice of the EU.

One of the directives significant for women and still current is Directive (EU) 2023/970 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 - it is pending implementation in Poland. It aims to strengthen the principle of equal pay between men and women for equal work or work of equal value by increasing wage transparency and enforcement. Poland has time to implement the provisions of the directive by June 7, 2026. We wrote more about it here: The end of the pay gap? The Ministry is preparing a draft law.

Women in the EU

In the third quarter of 2023, women accounted for 46.5% of all employed people aged 15—64 in the EU, while men accounted for 53.5%.

The latest figures from Eurostat from 2023 say that women in the EU earn on average 12% less than men. The average for the European Union was 12.0%. In 2022, it was 12.2%.

In 2023, significant differences in the gender pay gap between the Member States of the European Union persisted. The highest levels of wage inequality were recorded in Latvia (19.0%), Austria (18.3%) and the Czech Republic (18.0%). The smallest disparities were observed in Belgium (0.7%), Italy (2.2%) and Romania (3.8%). Poland, with a score of 7.8% — the same as in 2022 — was ranked ninth among EU countries with the smallest wage gap.

An interesting fact remains Luxembourg, although socially and culturally justified — it was the only country where women earned on average slightly more than men, by 0.9%.

It is worth remembering that reading numerical data is a fairly dry reading. The pay gap may or may not reflect the overall level of discrimination against women in a given country. The phenomenon of discrimination is simply made up of many different factors linked together and the figures are just one measure.

New policies

Today, in Poland, in addition to grassroots movements for women, the slowdown has been Councils for Women in the Labour Market. Initiated by the Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy in March 2024, it consists of representatives of social partners, i.e. trade unions and employers' organisations, as well as non-governmental organisations, academia, specific industries such as uniformed services, and the government side. Its purpose is to conduct, among others, the Council for Social Dialogue in order to conduct discussions with representatives of representative trade unions, employers' organizations and the government side and promoting the empowerment of women on the labour market in Poland.

summary

After 2004, women in Poland gained greater access to the labour market, better legal protection and a higher level of education. At the same time, they continue to face challenges such as occupational segregation, the wage gap and the unequal distribution of household responsibilities. The implementation of EU directives and new national policies, such as the establishment of the Women in the Labour Market Council, could be a step towards a more equal future.

Sources:

Women in the labour market

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