Differentiated Educational Pathways and Gender Inequalities in the Estonian Labour Market: What Is the Impact of the Systemic Change?

Abstract

Estonia is an interesting country in which to study gender segregation, especially when comparing different historical periods. The main features of the Estonian situation during the Soviet period were the higher female educational level, gendered secondary education tracks, male concentration in the primary and secondary sectors, gender pay equity and high female labour force participation. The social and economic changes at the beginning of the 1990s have had an enormous impact on gender differences in the labour market. Despite the feminization of higher education, Estonia is faced with an increasing gap between male and female wages, which is now among the highest in the European Union, new discriminatory structures in employment practices and the feminization of poverty (Narusk and Kandolin, 1997; Hansson and Aavik, 2012; Roosalu, 2013).