While the employment rate of single women of Belgian origin in Brussels shows that combining a family with work is difficult, for women of foreign origin, the situation on the labour market is even more precarious, according to the Brussels employment service Actiris.
In Brussels, one family in three is a single-parent family, while the average is one in four across the country. In 80% of the cases, the mother takes care of the children alone.
Among single mothers of Belgian origin, 71% have a job, while married or cohabiting women with children work in 83% of the cases. For single women, employment drops to 44% for women from a European Union country and even to 38% for single women of non-EU origin.
Diploma doesn’t seem to lead to better jobs for foreign women
Having a university degree or educational diploma doesn’t seem to lead to better-paying work, either.
According to figures from the King Baudouin Fund, 31% of professionally active, highly educated women with foreign roots work in poor conditions and for low wages.
Related News
- Thousands take to streets of Brussels for International Women's Day protest
- Less than a third of self-employed entrepreneurs were women in 2019
- International Women's Day: 'Climate change isn’t gender neutral'
But in 2018, 72.3% of women under 30 with a college or university degree found a job after registering with Actiris– more than their male counterparts, 67.6% of whom found a job through the employment agency.
The number of women who register as self-employed rose by 34.9% in the past ten years, but there are still 2.5 times more men who are self-employed as a main occupation.
