Women At Work In Croatia

This paper analysis the evolution of employment and unemployment gender gaps in Croatia since 1996, and compares them with those in other transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It also provides the examination of female employment characteristics, distinguishing by age group, level of educational attainment, working times, and family situation. Our main findings are as follows: (i) taking into account gender employment gap in Croatia and other transition countries, women's relative position in employment is not worse than in the EU 15 countries, on the contrary the data suggest that it is even better (however, employment rates for both men and women are lower than in the EU 15 countries), (ii) the gap in employment rates in Croatia is mainly the result of differences that exist in older age group, over 50, where the gap is higher than the gap for „prime age“ group, (iii) the educational gender gap in Croatia is narrowing for all levels of educational attainment and the gap in employment rates is significantly lower for the higher educated categories, (iv) only 11% of all employed women in Croatia work part-time, which is significantly lower than in the EU 15 countries, but it is similar with other transition countries, (v) gender gaps in employment rates between mothers and fathers in Croatia are higher as the number of children rises, (vi) gender unemployment gap in Croatia is higher than in the most other transition countries (unemployment rates are higher for less educated women), and (vii) labour market adjustment for females during the mid- transition period was mainly through lower female participation rates rather than by higher unemployment.