Effective government policies for advancing equality for women and girls: international evidence review

Work and employment

This section of the report highlights the key role that gender focused work and employment related policy can play in supporting women in the workplace.

The EU report on Gender equality and work-life balance policies during and after the COVID-19 crisis (EU Commission 2022) noted that unpaid care duties are key to gender gaps in the labour market. Unequal division of unpaid care work between men and women inhibits women’s access to, and raises barriers to continuity in, the labour market. It also leads to a greater proportion of women in sectors and jobs that may enable greater flexibility but are lower waged with fewer career progression opportunities. The report states that:

“Work-life balance policies are (therefore) key for supporting women’s labour market participation and employment and achieving gender equality in the labour market. Although cultural and social norms on the gender division of unpaid work in the household are still relevant, the availability, affordability and quality of childcare and long-term care services ... (and) flexible working arrangements all play an important role in promoting equal sharing of care tasks in the household enabling full and equal labour market participation.”

Source: Gender equality and work-life balance policies during and after the COVID-19 crisis

In this section, examples are given of a range of approaches being taken to tackle the types of challenges outlined above. The section has been broken down into three areas:

• supporting labour market entry and retention
• childcare and parental leave
• pay transparency

To note at the outset, as employment law is reserved to the UK, the examples in this section may only be applicable in a Scottish context either in collaboration with the UK Government or with further devolution of powers to the Scottish Parliament.

Supporting labour market entry and retention

Scottish context

The Scottish Government’s ‘Employability in Scotland’ website highlights that while women’s participation in the labour market contributes significantly to the Scottish economy, there are a range of barriers that can prevent women from achieving their full potential in all sectors and at all levels in the labour market. The other country examples set out below look at the sectors of academia and the paid care sector.

A study into Gender disparities in promotions and exiting in UK Russell Group universities (Harris, R., Mate-Sanchez-Val, M., & Ruiz Marín, M. (2025)) highlighted that, despite the overall increase in female professors, it takes women almost 15 years longer than men to achieve full professorships. Initiatives already seeking to tackle the barriers women can come up against in Scottish universities include:

• the Aurora Programme: 17 of Scotland’s 19 universities are involved in the Aurora programme, which focuses on women-only leadership development
• the Athena SWAN Charter encourages the careers of women in STEM fields, with 16 of the 18 eligible institutions in Scotland being members

The heavily female-dominated paid care sector faces recruitment and retention challenges, as highlighted in Skills Development Scotland’s Sectoral Skills Assessment for Social Care, 2024. The assessment highlights that the Social Care sector is considered to have a fragile workforce due to factors such as workforce demographics, ageing, burnout and wellbeing (mental and physical).

In February 2021, the Scottish Government’s Independent Review of Adult Social Care was published and made several recommendations in response to the pressures within the sector. In 2022, the Scottish Government and COSLA published a National Workforce Strategy for the Health and Social Care. It included a commitment that, despite employment law being reserved to the UK Government “… we are doing all we can with the powers available to us to promote fair working practices which attract and retain the best candidates into Health and Social Care.”

Example 6: Representation of women in the academic labour market in Germany

The example is based primarily on information obtained from the following source:

• Closing the gender gap in academia? Evidence from an affirmative action program, (2023) Fernandes et al., Research Policy, Volume 52, Issue 9

The example from Germany illustrates an incentive-based programme designed with the aim of reducing under-representation of women in a specific employment sector, within academia. A key finding from the research paper in which the programme is presented was that the programme increased the likelihood that a newly tenured professor would be female (at participating universities).

In their investigation into approaches to improving gender equality in the labour market, Fernandes et al (2023) wrote about the implementation of gender-neutral tenure clock-stopping policies.^[7] These allow for professors to take breaks from their teaching work for set periods of time, without impacting, in theory, on their careers. However, the researchers observed that these had limited impact on gender equality and could even result in an increase in tenure positions for men and a decrease for women. This outcome is explained as resulting from male academics using these breaks as career enhancing opportunities, time to write papers or books for example, while women are more likely to use them to fulfil caring roles.

Fernandes et al went on to focus on an approach in Germany through which universities received financial incentives, for example additional funding, for each female researcher appointed to a tenured professorship. The initial round of funding was for 2008-2012, with a second round for 2013-2017. In each of these rounds, the federal government and the federal states of Germany provided €150 million to fund the programme, resulting in a total of €300 million spent over ten years.

Universities wanting to participate in the programme were required to submit gender equality proposals setting out how they would contribute to the goals of the programme and outlining how they would: firstly, increase the share of female professors; secondly, contribute to female junior researchers’ career and personnel development; and thirdly, how they would work to increase the numbers of women in subjects in which female representation is particularly poor.

While acknowledging some limitations to the evaluation of outcomes, overall Fernandes et al point to the effectiveness of financial incentives as a means of reducing female underrepresentation in academic labour markets. They suggest that, through financial incentives, universities can be motivated to create gender equality plans tailored to each university’ needs and, by doing so, alter the appointments culture within the participating institutions. One approach noted, for example, was a levelling of the publication requirements for newly tenured professors, in acknowledgement of the evidenced gender disparity in these areas.

Example 7: Improving long-term care systems with an emphasis on gender equality in Spain

The example is based primarily on information obtained from the following sources:

• Gender equality and work-life balance policies during and after the COVID-19 crisis (2022) EU Commission
• Spirals of Inequality – How unpaid care work is at the heart of gender inequalities (2020) Women’s Budget Group

This example highlights the importance of reducing the structural barriers that hinder women’s access to the labour market, including lack of gender equity in terms of unpaid caring roles, and is chosen also as an example of a female-dominated sector in terms of workforce.

Selected from a thorough review of responses to COVID, and compared to policies pre-COVID across European countries, Gender equality and work-life balance policies during and after the COVID-19 crisis examined work-related pre-COVID and COVID-response policies. The approach from Spain focuses on care-systems as an example of a female-dominated sector. It highlights the importance of reducing the structural barriers – including the lack of parity in unpaid caring roles, with associated limited employment opportunities - that hinder women’s access to the labour market.^[8]

The Spanish Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan frames care reform as a macro-economic, gender-equality, and labour market strategy with explicit reform processes to professionalise and integrate care as infrastructure. It identifies the care economy, including long-term care services, as a strategic investment area that:

• supports functional autonomy for older and “dependent people”^[9]
• enables labour market participation for people with care responsibilities
• proposes a “Shock Plan” to modernise care infrastructure, expand telecare, and build new facilities
• includes a care reform agenda aimed at establishing a right to care services irrespective of employment status

It focuses on:

• professional care services (versus informal care)
• quality employment creation in care
• accrediting prior non-professional care experience to help workers enter the formal labour market and improve conditions

This approach explicitly treats care as both a service infrastructure and a labour-market policy tied to gender equality. It integrates care with broader economic and social reform rather than seeing it as an isolated welfare issue.

Supporting labour market entry and retention – Craigforth’s observations

While covering two very different sectors, the examples set out above have in common that they seek to address some of the barriers that can prevent women from achieving their full potential in the labour market.

In relation to academia, there is clearly a lot of ongoing work in Scottish universities (sometimes linked to wider UK initiatives). However, it seems likely that considerable potential remains across Scotland’s further and higher education sector. Whilst recognising that any measures need to be UK employment law compliant, the German example (Example 6) may suggest that a national approach – supported by funding if required – can help chip away at the barriers women may come up against.

The workforce related challenges that the social care sector faces are widely recognised and are a focus of much of the care related strategy and policy work being undertaken by the Scottish Government and its partners. In what is a rapidly evolving policy context, the Spanish example (Example 7) may highlight the critical importance of ensuring that any reform agenda does not lose sight of the gender-related barriers that the majority of Scotland’s care sector workforce face.

Childcare and parental leave

Scottish context

Scotland positions childcare as a core part of its national mission to make the country the best place in the world to grow up in. A core element of Scotland’s current childcare policy is the commitment to expanding funded early learning and childcare (ELC). The system is built around universal entitlement, quality standards, and a multi‑agency approach, with statutory guidance outlining duties for local authorities, definitions of ELC, and expectations for delivering high‑quality, inclusive services.

Currently, all 3‑ and 4‑year‑olds and eligible 2‑year‑olds are entitled to funded ELC. In August 2021, entitlement increased from 600 to 1,140 hours per year (around 30 hours per week in term time). The main aims of the expansion in ELC were to:

• ensure children’s development improves and the poverty-related outcomes gap narrows
• improve family wellbeing
• increase parents’ and carers’ opportunities to take up or sustain work, training and study

The 2025/26 Programme for Government sets out plans to:

• design and deliver childcare services for priority families working in 23 ‘Early Adopter Communities’ across six local authority areas
• expand the ‘Extra Time’ programme, providing funded breakfast and after school and holiday clubs across Scotland, supporting 5,000 children and their families most at risk of poverty
• deliver a ‘Bright Start Breakfasts’ Fund to create more free club places for families who need it most across Scotland

As Employment law is not a devolved matter, legislation governing parental leave (including maternity, paternity, shared parental leave, and parental leave rights), is set by the UK Parliament. As elsewhere in the UK, fathers in Scotland are entitled to statutory paternity leave, shared parental leave, and unpaid parental leave.

However, Fathers Network Scotland reports that “dads in Scotland are making limited use of their workplace entitlements, often because they feel too worried or embarrassed to use their paternity rights fully”. They go on to reference research by Moran, J., & Koslowski, A. (2019) which found that “Workplace culture, line manager relationships, the ‘modelling’ behaviour of peers and gendered leave practices all impact on how fathers feel about using work-family balance policies, and whether they are likely to use them.”

Example 8: Introducing fathers’ quotas to promote men’s take-up of parental leave in Norway

The example is based primarily on information obtained from the following sources:

• Empowering Women at Work - Government Laws and Policies for Gender Equality International Labour Organisation, (2021)
• Leave Network website, including details on Norway’s policy on parental leave as of 2020
• International Review of Leave Policies and Research 2025. Bungum, B. and Kvande, E. (2020) ‘Norway country note’, in Koslowski, A., Blum, S., Dobrotić, I., Kaufman, G. and Moss, P. (eds.)
• Designing parental leave for fathers – promoting gender equality in working life (2020) Kvande E, Brandth B. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 40 No. 5-6 pp. 465–477

Lack of equity in the performance of unpaid caring roles, is widely noted as a crucial and problematic area in the realms of gender-equality. It is especially problematic in terms of, not just provision of caring services, but in terms of cultural norms and expectations. This example, cited in Empowering Women at Work - Government Laws and Policies for Gender Equality, demonstrates that policy design can impact on social norms and behaviours.

In 2013, Norway introduced a reformed parental leave policy designed to address the gap between fathers’ and mothers’ parenting commitments by offering financial incentives to increase men’s take-up of parental leave.

Parental leave benefits are funded by social insurance, or general taxation in the case of non-employed women. Self-employed workers are eligible for the same leave benefits as employees, as are same-sex parents.

Under the reformed system, a set quota of leave paid at 100% (or an extended number of weeks at 80%) is reserved separately for mothers, and for fathers on a ‘use it or lose it’ basis. The length of the father’s entitlement has varied since the 2013 reform, however, there has been a consistent number of fathers (seven out of ten) who have taken exactly the number of weeks corresponding to the father’s quota, regardless of its length. The introduction of a father’s quota significantly increased the take-up of leave by fathers (to 90%) by 2019. Kvande and Brandth (2020) observed socio-cultural impact too, noting that the non-transferable right has contributed to leave taking turning into a modern fathering norm.

Other example: Promoting a fairer distribution of unpaid care work through leave policies in Germany

The example is based primarily on information obtained from the following sources:

• How can we become more equal? Public policies and parents’ work family preferences in Germany Bünning, M. and Hipp, L., (2022) Journal of European Social Policy, Vol. 32(2) 182–196
• Empowering Women at Work Government Laws and Policies for Gender Equality (2021) International Labour Organisation

The International Labour Organisation’s report notes that Germany’s leave policies are designed with the stated goals of “giving parents more time for family life, establishing a healthy balance between family and work, promoting shared parenting...”.

In 2015, Germany introduced the Parental Allowance Plus, which offers financial incentives for parents to share parental leave and employment together. The Parental Allowance is paid for up to 14 months if both parents take parental leave (12 months if only one parent takes it). It amounts to 67% of prior earnings (up to a maximum of €1,800 per week). With the addition of the Partnership Bonus, parents can also receive an extra four months of allowance if both parents work 25–30 hours per week.

An analysis of the impact of the German policies found that increasing the number of partner months in the parental leave scheme considerably increases fathers’ preferences for taking longer leave and mothers’ preferences for taking shorter leave. By 2020, the share of fathers taking parental leave (of a minimum of two months) had increased substantially - from 7% in 2008 to 36% in 2020.

Example 9: Supporting childcare costs – babysitting vouchers in Italy

The example is based primarily on information obtained from the following source:

• Gender equality and work-life balance policies during and after the COVID-19 crisis EU Commission 2022

In its response to the COVID crisis, this scheme introduced in Italy is not included as an exemplar of “best practice” but as notable because of its effective support for self-employed and freelance workers.

During the global pandemic crisis, up-take of COVID-response financial support to parents differed [across Europe], with monitoring data showing that up-take was higher by women (for example, in Spain and Italy). The most popular policy response in Europe was to provide direct financial support to parents to help with childcare costs, involving reducing childcare costs (e.g. in Belgium and Spain), or a one-off or regular direct additional childcare allowance (e.g. in Bulgaria, Germany and Lithuania).

In Italy, a babysitting voucher scheme was introduced through a Decree (D.L. 18, 17 March 2020) with vouchers being provided to private-sector, self-employed and freelance workers who did not take parental leave. Health sector and other essential services employees could also receive vouchers, theirs being of a higher value.

The value of the voucher was doubled in May 2020 and the potential use of them was expanded to include services provided by child summer centres.

The babysitting voucher is notable as a flexible response to the COVID situation, offering alternatives to work absence or loss of pay. The numbers of people using the vouchers in 2020 was high, with more than 1 million applications fulfilled overall, the majority of whom were women (women also represented 79% of the babysitters paid through the vouchers).

The inclusion of self-employed and freelance workers being able to access the babysitting vouchers, along with the overall flexibility offered, are key aspects of note for this policy.

Childcare and parental leave – Craigforth’s observations

Whilst Scotland’s capacity to implement the specific approaches used in Norway and Germany (Example 8) may be constrained by employment law being largely a reserved matter, they may point to the potential of addressing the workplace and societal culture that may be acting as a barrier to fathers’ take-up of existing parental leave options.

Scotland’s current focus on childcare and ELC includes a focus on increasing parents’ and carers’ opportunities to take up or sustain work, training and study. There have been a number of recent policy developments, particularly in relation to childcare hours, and there is nothing to suggest that the focus is shifting away from this critical area or that a gender-aware approach is not key to fundamental and sustainable change. The type of flexibility offered by the Italian approach (Example 9), in terms how parents can use the resources to which their family is entitled, may have some potential going forward, and particularly at times of national emergency.

Pay transparency

Scottish context

In 2025, the gender pay gap for full-time employees in Scotland was 3.5% (compared to 6.9% in the UK). Although Scotland had a narrower gender pay gap for full-time and all employees than the UK in 2025, the gender pay gap for full-time employees in Scotland widened from 2.0% in 2024; this was due to men’s hourly earnings (excluding overtime) increasing at a faster rate than women’s hourly earnings (excluding overtime). It is also important to note that 42% of women employed in Scotland work part-time compared to 13% of men.^[10]

Close the gap reports that 2025 provisional results indicate that the mean gender pay gap in Scotland is:

• 10% when comparing of men’s and women’s overall average hourly earnings;
• 8% when comparing men’s and women’s full-time average hourly earnings; and
• 22.9% when comparing men’s full-time average hourly earnings with women’s part-time average hourly earnings.

The Scottish Government’s Gender Pay Gap Action Plan was published in March 2019. Its aim is to deliver a cross-government approach, tackling the causes of the inequality women face in the labour market. The plan includes over 60 actions to help the Scottish Government meet its commitment of reducing the Gender Pay Gap. The Action Plan has since been reviewed to ensure actions remained fit for purpose and supported women through Scotland’s economic recovery from the COVID pandemic, with the Gender Pay Gap Action Plan Annual Report published in March 2021. The report details progress and new actions to be taken forward.

UK legislation requires organisations to report gender pay gap data if their organisation has 250 or more employees on a specific date each year. As part of a commitment to open and transparent government, Scotland’s public sector has been required to publish gender pay gap data for a number of years.

As it is covered by employment law, pay transparency is a reserved matter, meaning that processes that aim to improve corporate responsibility in relation to gender inclusion and equity would require to be voluntary. However, promoting a culture that explicitly values and rewards companies and organisations that prioritise these things is possible.

Example 10: Workplace gender equality and pay reporting in France

The example is based primarily on information obtained from the following source:

• Empowering Women at Work Government Laws and Policies for Gender Equality (2021) International Labour Organisation

This example from France illustrates a dual approach to promote gender equality in the workplace by increasing transparency and strengthening worker protections.

France introduced a statutory gender equality index in 2018, creating a mandatory framework through which employers’ progress on workplace gender equality is measured and made publicly available. The index evaluates performance across a set of indicators relating to pay differences between women and men, access to progression and pay increases, treatment following maternity leave, and women’s representation in senior and highly paid roles.

The reporting requirement applies to employers with 50 or more employees and is updated annually. Published results must draw on workforce data across a range of dimensions, including recruitment, training, working conditions, and work-life balance, with outcomes assessed by occupational category. Implementation was phased, with earlier compliance deadlines applying to larger employers than to small and medium-sized enterprises.

The legislative framework includes enforcement provisions. Where employers fail to publish their results, or where performance remains below the statutory threshold after the relevant compliance period, financial penalties may be imposed, capped at 1% of the total wage bill.

Alongside these transparency measures, French labour law requires employers to engage in regular collective bargaining on gender pay equality. This obligation, first introduced in 2006 and subsequently strengthened, requires negotiations to focus on identifying and addressing pay gaps, supported by the provision of gender-disaggregated data. While there is no requirement to reach an agreement, employers are expected to participate meaningfully in the process, with sanctions available where this duty is not fulfilled.

An analysis by the European Commission’s network of legal experts on gender equality and pay transparency legislation in the EU highlighted France’s pay reporting and pay equity collective bargaining obligations as an example of ‘best practice’.

Example 11: Equal pay certification in Iceland

The example is based primarily on information obtained from the following sources:

• Empowering Women at Work Government Laws and Policies for Gender Equality (2021) International Labour Organisation
• Achieving equal pay through legislative measures, HeForShe website

Over more than a decade Iceland has been seen as one of the most successful countries in promoting gender pay equality. As of 2025, they lead the way globally, in terms of gender parity (as defined by the World Economic Forum).

The principle of equal pay for work of equal value has been enshrined in Icelandic legislation since 1961. The country has since taken a more proactive approach by adopting an Equal Pay Certification Law (2018), which requires companies to prove that they are paying their workers equally, rather than waiting for complaints to be made before enforcing equal pay.

Companies with more than 25 workers must complete a certification process demonstrating that they provide equal pay for work of equal value. Workplaces with 250 workers or more had until the end of 2018 to qualify for certification, while smaller companies have been given more time depending on the size of their workforce, with all companies with a workforce of more than 25 required to be certified by the end of 2021.^[11] Companies must renew their certification every three years.

Accredited auditors award the certification after assessing companies’ compliance with the Equal Pay Standard. The Standard is an administrative tool laying down rules and requirements that must be met and was developed through a tripartite process involving trade unions, the employers’ confederation and government officials.

The impact of its Equal Pay Certification Law is as yet uncertain, but it is a promising policy for further narrowing Iceland’s gender pay gap. Iceland is also a member of the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) Steering Committee.

Example 12: Supporting companies in achieving pay equity Switzerland

The example is based primarily on information obtained from the following source:

• Empowering Women at Work Government Laws and Policies for Gender Equality (2021) International Labour Organisation
• Data collection: Results of the pay‑equity analyses in Swiss companies (2023) University of St Gallen for the Swiss Employers Association

The International Labour Organisation’s report, Empowering Women at Work Government Laws and Policies for Gender Equality, sets out that Swiss employers are under a constitutional obligation to respect the principle of equal pay for work of equal value. This example has been recognised with an UN Public Service Award and a nomination for an Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) award. An aspect of the initiative was an online, free to access, tool, in four languages.

An amendment to the Swiss Equality Act – which has been effective since July 2020 – added a new section on equal pay between female and male employees. Both public and private employers with 100 or more employees were required to undertake an internal equal pay analysis (by the end of June 2021). If they wish to participate in public tendering, employers are required to address any unexplained pay discrepancies.

The Swiss Federal Office for Gender Equality (FOGE) has created a free, publicly available online Excel-based tool – Logib – to measure the gender pay gap. Available in four languages, Logib allows companies to enter their pay data for analysis and identify any gender-specific pay differences. The FOGE also provides a list of companies and organisations that provide further assistance in evaluating pay equality.

The result of analysis must be communicated in writing to employees, and listed companies must publish the results in their annual financial report. Unless the first analysis indicates that there is no unexplained pay gap between male and female employees, it has to be repeated every 4 years.

The International Labour Organisation’s report notes that, while there are no penalties for violations of the provisions, such violations could affect the employer’s commercial status and reputation.

A 2023 survey, commissioned by the Swiss Employers’ Association (SAV) and analysed by the University of St. Gallen, found that 99.3 % of the 615 surveyed companies complied with the equal-pay requirements. However, more recently, in 2025, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice has reported a disappointing number of companies are not complying fully, with limited awareness of legal obligations, knowledge gaps, and lack of sanctions cited as amongst the reasons for non-compliance.

Pay transparency – Craigforth’s observations

As with parental leave, Scotland’s capacity to act around pay transparency may be limited by the need to comply with UK employment law. However, and in line with the observations about parental leave, the three examples set out above (Examples 10-12) may give food for thought in terms of influencing the prevailing culture.

What all three examples have in common is that they shine a light on pay inequality and promote transparency both with companies and organisations, but also beyond. It may be there is traction here not just in terms of what government expects, but also in relation to what customers and consumers are aware of, and value.