The Gender Dimension of Geographic Labour Mobility in the European Union

This study focuses on the gender dimensions of labour mobility within the European Union. It focuses on the experiences of mobile EU workers and considers the extent to which forms of intra-EU mobility are gendered. The concept of ‘worker’, for the purposes of this study, embraces not only employed citizens but also those ‘economically active’ people moving in search of work, those training for employment and family members who accompany an employed partner but who are not themselves employed at the point of entry. The focus on gender addresses several linked concerns. Firstly, whether migration motivations are themselves gendered: do men and women show different attitudes towards mobility? Secondly, whether the barriers to mobility are gendered: does mobility present different challenges for men and women? And thirdly, whether the outcomes of these processes are gendered particularly in terms of employment and career progression.