Population aging and gender gaps: labor market, family relationships and public policy

This chapter provides an assessment of the complex relationships between population aging and gender gaps in the labor market, family relationships and public policy in OECD countries. Population aging and gender gaps are closely related. Recent evidence shows that, in countries where women participate more in the labor market, fertility rates are higher, thus suggesting that gender equality in the labor market may counterbalance the aging process. The current trends of aging and gender equality are changing the labor force composition, by increasing the proportion of elderly workers and of women. Aging and gender equality also interact in the private sphere, influencing family and intergenerational relationships: the aging process challenges the role of grandmothers as childcare providers and imposes a reconsideration of elderly women as care‐receivers. All these interactions create new pressure on public policy. The pandemic is challenging the current relationships between aging and gender equality: gender equality in the labor market is stalling, birth rates are declining, family relationships ‐ both intergenerational and intracouple‐ are under pressure, due to the increased amount of childcare and housework together with the lack of support by grandparents. Further research is needed to understand how public policies will deal with population aging and the closure of gender gaps in this new context.