Gender Gap in the CIS Region

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the issues of gender disparities the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region, with a special focus given to countries covered by the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP)1. The analysis is conducted several dimensions: labour participation, economic opportunity, political empowerment, educational attainment, and health and demography. Beside the comparative study of in region differentials done for the CIS, I analyze the trends gender disparities comparison to: EU-12 and EU-15, using data for the period 1985-2005. The study confirms the existence of slightly different paths which gender disparities have evolved over time. While EU-15 women participation labour market, their remuneration, and position public life have significantly increased, majority of the CIS countries a gradual decrease of female labour activity was reported. In addition female representation politics and public life has shrunken after and during the transition period. On the other hand such fields as secondary and tertiary education attainment, health, and demography male population the CIS region has became more disadvantaged, which also leads to enlarging gender gap.