Government policy and women in the labour market: The importance of public sector employment

Women have made important quantitative and qualitative gains in the labour market in recent years. A key feature of women’s employment is their disproportionate concentration in the public sector, and this helps to explain the advances they have made in the labour market given the availability of high quality jobs and opportunities for skills development in this sector across many local areas. This article explores how ongoing economic, labour market and welfare policy changes may undo some of the progress that has been made by women in the labour market, especially because of their vulnerability to job cuts in the public sector, the spatially uneven impact of such job losses and the particular dependence of women on local employment opportunities.