Women’s employment in Lithuania

Although Lithuania, as well as other Central and Eastern European countries, has a long-time tradition of women's involvement in paid work, their equal role in the labour market as well as in the other domains of public life still remains a challenge. The article reviews women's employment patterns in Lithuania in the period of socio-economic and political transformations (the 1990s) and during the last decade – the time of integration to the EU and recent economic crisis, based on data of national statistics and EUROSTAT information as well as on the findings of sociological investigations, conducted by the author and other Lithuanian scholars. A retrospective analysis of the womens labour force participation trends is given in the first chapter, focusing on the dynamics of female employment/unemployment rates, labour market segregation and working time arrangements. The second chapter discusses womens employment opportunities and explores the role played by the state in affecting women's labour force participation and occupational achievement. The key advances (an implementation of equal gender opportunities policies and human resource factor) as well as persisting barriers (situation and debates on sexual discrimination, traditional gender role stereotypes) are examined in this chapter.