Greece, labour market gender

As for Greece, between 2008 and 2013, the employment rate dramatically decreased by 26.7%; unemployment increased by 15 points both for women and men. In 2014 the male employment rate for the age group 20–64 (62.6% in 2014) remained almost at the level of 2013 (62.7%) while unemployment rates showed a (timid) decline since the onset of the crisis (the female unemployment rate for the age group 15–74 decreased from 31.4% in 2013 to 30.2% in 2014, and the respective male rate moved from 24.5% to 23.7%). This trend caused a differentiated impact as men tended to move out of the labour market while women intensified their efforts to obtain a job. It should be noted that women are not supported in their efforts to participate in employment by formal childcare services. The coverage rate of children by formal childcare services in Greece is low when compared to the EU-28 average. In 2013, only 14% of children under 3 years of age and 69% of children aged 3-6 years attended formal childcare services (against 27% and 82%, respectively, in the EU-28 on average). The rate had increased only marginally from 2011 to 2012 for both 0-3 year-olds and 3-6 year-olds but decreased quite strongly in 2013.

 Female participation in female-dominated economic sectors remained substantially stable in the reporting period: activities of households as employers (-1%); professional, scientific, and technological activities (-0.6%); human health and social work activities (- 0.4%); and other services (-1.7%). In education and financial and insurance activities, female participation significantly increased, respectively by 1.7% and 4.2%. On the whole, women in 2014 represented a greater part of total employees, increasing their share both in sectors where they were underrepresented (manufacturing, construction, water supply, transportation, and storage) and in female-dominated sectors (such as education and financial and insurance activities). 

In gender equality terms, what the experts report is that, during recession and crisis period, the gender gap declined but the increasing trend of gender equality arrested if not reversed. As for the GEI, its score improved slightly between 2005 and 2010 and worsened afterwards due to the severe decrease in achievements, even though there have been significant improvements in the reduction of gender gaps. The Sub-index Work score recorded a significant decrease, by far the deepest among EU-28 countries40 

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2016/571358/IPOL_STU(2016)571358_EN.pdf