Persistently low employment of women in some countries can still be ascribed to a traditional perception of women’s role in society. According to observed data and prevailing social and cultural norms, women have been bearing the primary burdens of housework, childcare, and other family responsibilities. The unequal share of care responsibilities between women and men further worsens the disadvantages of women in balancing public and private life, with an impact on their employment and health outcomes. In this paper we investigate the role of family responsibilities in shaping employment and health outcomes by gender, in Italy and France, during and after the economic downturn. We use data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions for the time windows of 2007–2010 and 2011–2014. Our results support that gender differences in the share of responsibilities roles in the public and private sphere influence the employability and health perception of women.

一些国家的妇女就业率持续偏低仍可归因于对妇女在社会中的作用的传统看法。根据观察到的数据和普遍的社会和文化规范，女性一直承担着家务、育儿和其他家庭责任的主要负担。男女在护理责任上的不平等进一步加剧了女性在平衡公共和私人生活方面的劣势，影响了她们的就业和健康结果。在本文中，我们调查了在意大利和法国，经济衰退期间和之后，家庭责任在按性别影响就业和健康结果方面的作用。我们使用来自欧盟收入和生活条件统计数据的 2007-2010 年和 2011-2014 年时间窗数据。