Understanding economic inactivity and NEET status among young women in the UK and France

ABSTRACT

This article examines the position of young women in the UK and France who are defined as not in education, employment or training (NEET) and economically inactive (EI). While the challenges facing the young unemployed are well documented, far less is known about economic inactivity and its propensity to impact to a much greater extent on the lives of young women. The UK and France share some similarities with regard to their NEET EI female populations, in terms of the relative size of the group and the barriers young women face, despite being exposed to very different types of policy intervention and welfare support. Drawing on quantitative evidence (via the Céreq) from France and a recent qualitative study in England, the paper provides a deeper understanding of the characteristics and trajectories of young women who are NEET and EI. It highlights a need for policy interventions beyond employability initiatives: policies which tackle the barriers that young women, especially young mothers, face in accessing employment, as well as their difficulties in securing good quality and sustainable employment.

KEYWORDS:

• NEET
• young women
• economic inactivity
• comparative analysis
• France
• United Kingdom

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Statistics produced by the OECD (2020).

2. In 2016, the state expenditure amounted to 233 millions euros in France.

3. The monthly amount for a person is €559.74 or, for a single parent with a child, €958.37 (April 2019).

4. French Center of Research on Education, Training and Employment is a public establishment under the aegis of the two Ministries of Education and Labour.

5. It is important to note that the NEET indicator is calculated based on a group of school-leavers, not on an age category.

6. One-third of female school-leavers, for the first two cohorts, and one-quarter, for the following two cohorts, had one or more children over the five years of observation, while the number of fathers decreased from 15% to 10% over the same period.

7. The desire to live together for some time before starting a family also certainly comes into play (Buisson and Daguet 2012).

8. Compared to 24% among the female panel.

9. They received financial assistance of €479 (median monthly amount at the time of the survey).

10. They received financial assistance of €773 (median monthly amount).

11. The median monthly salary was €1,380 at the time of the survey.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [ES/N018672/1].

Notes on contributors

Magali Danner

Magali Danner is a Senior Lecturer in Educational Sciences at INSPE (National Institute of Professorship and Education) and Researcher at the Institute for Research in the Sociology and Economics of Education (IREDU) at the University of Burgundy in France. Her research activities focus on the effects of pedagogical innovations on school success, inequalities in accessing higher education, and the professional integration of young women on completion of their studies.

Christine Guégnard

Christine Guégnard is a Senior Researcher in Educational Sciences at the Institute for Research in the Sociology and Economics of Education (IREDU)/Centre for Research on Education, Training and Employment (Céreq) at the University of Burgundy in France. Her research interests include youth transitions into the labour market, access to higher education and careers in hospitality, relating to gender, social, and ethnic inequalities from a comparative perspective.

Sue Maguire

Sue Maguire is Honorary Professor at the Institute for Policy Research, University of Bath. Her research activity focuses on education, employment, skills and inequality and specifically, the challenges faced by disadvantaged groups of young people. She has managed and participated in large-scale and multidisciplinary studies focusing on youth transitions, as well as advised policymakers at national, EU and international level.