Girls outperform n boys at school. In high school they are more likely to turn to general education, and then to continue their studies into higher education, especially long courses. However, there are fewer girls in scientific or selective courses. All in all, recent generations of young women are now better qualified than men.

In general, women tend to reach the major milestones of residential autonomy and the founding of a family earlier than men. In the intermediate age groups, while the most common situation is for people to live in a couple, there is an increasing tendency for unions to break up. Women take longer than men to form a new union after a break-up, especially when they have children, and they represent 84% of parents at the head of a one-parent family.

In the working-age population, women’s activity patterns are similar to those of men: two thirds of women aged 15-64 are active in the labour market compared with three-quarters of men in the same age group. The share of female managers has increased from 31% to 42% in twenty years. However, work interruptions related to children remain much more common for women, and women who work are four times more likely to be working part-time than men. Finally, while the gender wage gap has lessened slightly in the last twenty years, women’s wage income is still on average 24% lower than men’s. Only a quarter of this difference can be put down to differences in working hours.

At more advanced ages, living conditions are more difficult for women than for men. Differences in careers mean that on average women retire one year later than men and their direct pension entitlements are 42% less than men’s. Women make up the majority of those aged 65 and over (57%) and their share increases with age, due to their longevity. After 65, women are more likely to live alone than men, and more often in institutions and in situations of dependency.