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How Much Is a Woman Worth in the Workforce?

Labor Market Aspects of Gender Inequality in the Neighboring Hungarian Communities of Central and Eastern Europe

Summary/Abstract: The paper examines the labor market characteristics of the Hungarian communities in neighboring countries, taking into account the wider context of the Central and Eastern European region. In addition to the Eurostat and OECD Statistics our study is based on a representative survey, coordinated by the Research Institute for Hungarian Communities Abroad in the summer of 2018. A novelty in the analysis was that in addition to macro-level national data, we compared the situation of 2585 Hungarians, aged between 18–49 from Transylvania, South-Slovakia, Vojvodina, and Transcarpathia. The focus of the analysis was on the employment rate gaps and working hour differences of men and women, as well as mothers with small children. Beside the structural conditions we tried to reveal the effects of so-called “soft variables” (gender role attitudes, value structure) on labor market participation chances. The results showed that Hungarian minorities have a strong traditional perception of gender roles and, accordingly with a traditional division of labor, in which house chores and child-rearing tasks are typically a women’s responsibility, and which has a direct repercussion on their paid work. Thus, one of the key conclusions of the multivariate analysis is that the employment gap between women and men persists even if the effects of factors other than gender are kept under control. That is, gender ceteris paribus determines their labor market participation.

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