SSummary - starting out

Original title: Werken aan de start

Women in the Netherlands have been outperforming men in education for many years now. However, this superior educational achievement does not translate into a better position on the labour market. More women work today than in the past, but still fewer than men. Women work part-time much more often than men, and (partly as a consequence) they also earn less.

There is a suspicion that these differences between men and women arise at an early stage in their careers. In this study, the focus is therefore on young women and men aged between 18 and 35 years. The aim is to discover whether there are differences between the early years of young women and young men on the labour market and, if so, how these differences can be explained. We also investigate whether the labour market position of young women and men in the Netherlands differs from that of their peers in other European countries. Both quantitative and qualitative research (focus groups) has been carried out for the purpose of this report.

The study was conducted by the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP) at the request of the Emancipation Department of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. It was funded jointly by the Emancipation Department and the European Commission.

As well as staff from the SCP, researchers from the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA) also worked on this publication.