27 Apr 2018

Research: The rise and rise of women’s employment in the UK

Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies researchers, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, looks at changes in women’s working patterns over the last four decades. It shows that these big social and economic changes are in large part driven by mothers.

The rise and rise of women’s employment in the UK 1

Key findings:

The employment rate among women of ‘prime working age’ (aged 25-54) is up from 57 per cent in 1975 to a record high of 78 per cent in 2017.
This rise is largely the result of a change in working patterns at particular points in the life cycle, with more women in employment over the course of their mid-to-late 20s and early 30s.
Overall, the proportion of couples with children where only one adult works has almost halved (down from 47 per cent in 1975 to 27 per cent in 2015) and the proportion where both work has increased from 49 per cent to 68 per cent.
40 years ago mothers partnered with men in the bottom and top halves of the male earnings distribution were equally likely to be in paid work themselves, with employment rates of around 60 per cent. Those figures are now around 70 per cent and 80 per cent respectively.