Female labor force participation in France: a cohort analysis

In France the female labor force participation has doubled over the last thirty years. But at the same time part-time work and unemployment developed considerably. So it is not sure that the female labor force participation measured by the number of hours worked still increases. Subsequently the difference between men and women may not be reducing any more. The aim of this paper is to answer some of these questions. To do this we carry out a cohort analysis. The data are the enquêtes Emploi 1982-2002. For each cohort of women (born in a given year) we estimate an "average participation rate between 25 and 59 years old. We propose several definitions of participation according to whether it includes or not unemployment and part-time. We then compare the rates of the different cohorts and measure thus the growth of the female participation over time. The main results are as follows. The participation of the women (in employment or unemployment) does continue to grow. As a consequence the gap between men and women continues to reduce. But if unemployment and partial time are taken into account the participation no more increases: other things being equal the generation 1965-1970 will have the same participation rate (in full-time equivalent) as the generation 1955-1960. Moreover, the participation stopped to increase earlier for unqualified women than for qualified women. Nevertheless the difference between men and women continues to reduce because the male participation tends to decrease.