Women and work: When talent is wasted
Where public spending on families, especially for infants, is higher or where reconciliation forms of employment such as part-time work are more common, both female education levels and employment levels are higher. In Sweden, where the percentage of part-time work compared to total work is 23%, the percentage of women between 25 and 64 years old with a high school or university education level reaches 85%. In Italy, where part-time work makes up 12.7%, that percentage is 48%. This data is found in "Female Education and Employment, Making the Most of Talents," the paper that Alessandra Casarico and Paola Profeta of Econpubblica presented today during the workshop "Institutions and the Gender Dimension," organized at Bocconi by the public sector research center.
Even when comparing the percentage of public spending on families to female education and professional levels, the study showed that, in general, the ratio was higher when that spending was higher. Sweden and Denmark are examples where 3.5% and 4% of GDP respectively are assigned to this kind of financial support and where the percentage of women with higher education is 85% and 79%. The percentage of employed women with higher education in both countries is over 75%. In Italy and Spain, two of the countries in which families receive less assistance, a little over 1% of GDP, there are less than 50% of educated women, while educated and employed women are 65% and 61%.
"It is well-known," explains Paola Profeta, "that the rate of female employment in countries like Italy is very low at 46.7% compared to an objective like Lisbon's 60%. It is less well-known that women with a high school or university education often don't work in these countries, unlike men and unlike what happens for example in Scandinavian countries." This occurs, according the model the scholars worked out, because when women decide whether to educate themselves, they do not have a clear idea of the costs they will face when raising their children after they become mothers. "There are therefore women," continues Alessandra Casarico, "who, if the cost is too high, decide not to work after discovering how much it costs to care for children, even if they are educated." Andtheir absence from the job market, stress Casarico and Profeta, "generates a waste of talent and a reduction of output compared to the potential output that would result from the investment in human capital."
A possible solution to avoid this waste of talent would be to introduce institutional measures that can support women facing the job market. "A public spending policy in favor of working women and a policy of tax relief would be appropriate," concludes Profeta. "In an ideal institutional and cultural environment, not understanding the cost of raising offspring at the time of deciding on education wouldn't be a problem, because any effective cost differences compared to expected costs would be neutralized by instruction." Providing incentives for access to the job market at least to educated women, using talent and human capital investment to the fullest would mean, the study concludes, placing the economy on a higher path towards growth.
Graph: Female higher education and part-time employment
Graph: Female higher education and family expenses in terms of GDP
Graph: Employed women with higher education and family expenses in terms of GDP