'With an aging population and declining productivity growth, Europe faces serious challenges to raising its output growth. Adding to these challenges are the various gender gaps in the labor market. Despite significant progress in recent decades, there are still fewer women than men participating in Europe’s labor market, and women are more likely to work part time. Furthermore, a smaller share of women reaches the top rungs of the corporate ladder. .Against this backdrop, this paper investigates the drivers of female labor force participation in Europe as well as what effects greater gender diversity in senior corporate positions might have for Europe’s economic performance. Reexamining the factors driving women’s labor force participation is particularly important because in many European countries the process of closing the gender gap has stalled despite greater gender equality in human capital investment, declining birth rates, changing social norms, and equal legal access to employment opportunities. .For women in Europe the decision to work is not simply a matter of personal choice—policies matter, too. .More women in the labor force paves the way for increased diversity in senior corporate positions and better firm performance. The empirical evidence suggests a strong positive association between firms’ gender diversity in senior positions and corporate financial performance.'
'In 2015, the sixth EWCS interviewed almost 44,000 workers (both employees and self-employed people) in 35 European countries: the 28 EU Member States, the five EU candidate countries, and Norway and Switzerland. Workers were asked a range of questions concerning employment status, work organisation, learning and training, working time duration and organisation, physical and psychosocial risk factors, health and safety, work–life balance, worker participation, earnings and financial security, as well as work and health.'