This paper provides a multidisciplinary review of research aimed at explaining the substantial
differences in women’s employment trajectories that still exist within and across countries. It covers
research that emphasises economic and/or normative rationalities in women’s employment decisions
and work that focuses more on the structural constraints to women’s employment. It discusses recent
research developments – conceptual and methodological advances – and based on the identification of
central research gaps and methodological challenges, it indicates avenues for future research. Finally, the
paper casts a critical view on the ‘explanatory power’ of contemporary research on women’s employment
and discusses appropriate research designs for the evaluation of policy effects on women’s employment.
