ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes our principal findings on how gender mediates the influence of human capital on type of employment and earnings and on how considering socioemotional skills helps deepen our understanding of that relationship. The STEP data have allowed us to examine gender gaps in 13 low- and middle-income countries and how those gaps differ across the earnings distribution. In doing so, we have added to the relatively sparse knowledge about the distribution of socioemotional skills in these countries and how those skills are related to labour market outcomes. In this chapter, we aim to link our empirical findings to a range of policy options that could minimize gender inequalities in human capital and in labour market outcomes. Our findings argue for defining learning outcomes more broadly to include socioemotional skills. The two broad types of policies that we discuss are those that focus on equalizing the human capital endowments of men and women and those that focus on “levelling the playing field” by ensuring that employment and wage structures do not discriminate between men and women.
