Thailand's Education Gains Leave Women Behind at Work as Unpaid Care Takes Its Toll

A 15.8 Point Gap in a Country That Needs More Workers

Thailand's women are entering higher education at much higher rates than men, yet only 58.9% of women aged 15 to 64 participate in the labour market, compared with 74.7% of men. The Thailand Country Gender Equality Profile 2026 puts unpaid care at the centre of that 15.8 percentage point gap, which has barely changed in two decades.

The profile, launched at Sustainability Expo 2026 in Bangkok, connects women's employment prospects to an urgent national challenge. About one in five people in Thailand are now over 60, and more than one in three are projected to be over 60 by 2037. Families will need more care while the economy needs more people in paid work.

UN Women, the UN Population Fund and the UN Resident Coordinator's Office produced the profile with Thailand's Ministry of Social Development and Human Security. Its findings point to a practical problem: education and health services have helped women develop their abilities, but childcare, elder care and workplace support have not kept pace.

Somchai Yensabai, UN Women Thailand country programme coordinator and chair of the UN Gender Theme Group, presented the findings. He framed the challenge as turning existing commitments into everyday opportunities:

"The crucial question today is not whether Thailand has gender equality policies, but whether those policies, combined with real practice, let every woman and girl benefit equally," he said in Thai.

Labour market participation includes people who are working and those seeking work. The profile's figures mean that about 41 of every 100 women in the specified age group are outside that market, compared with about 25 of every 100 men.

University Success Has Not Removed Barriers at Work

Women recorded a higher education enrolment rate of 51.6% in 2024, against 38.6% for men, a difference of 13 percentage points. Girls' enrolment in primary, secondary and university education now matches or exceeds boys', according to the profile.

Thailand's health record also shows the benefits of sustained public spending. Universal health coverage began in 2002, and the profile gives life expectancy as 81 years for women and 72 for men. UN Resident Coordinator Michaela Friberg-Storey said the country's education and health achievements demonstrate what sustained investment can accomplish.

Women's access to particular careers remains uneven. They account for only 28.9% of graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, collectively known as STEM. These subjects prepare people for many technical and scientific occupations that the profile identifies as drivers of future growth.

The World Bank's Gender and Inclusion Notes, published in 2023, already recorded participation of about 59% for women and 75% for men. The institution also warned that COVID-19 had affected women disproportionately and that their recovery had been slower.

A UN Working Group's December 2024 statement gave higher participation figures, 80.5% for women and 94% for men. The age range and statistical basis behind those figures are not specified in the statement's employment discussion; the 2026 profile explicitly identifies its figures as covering ages 15 to 64.

The Work That Keeps Women Out of Paid Employment

Unpaid domestic work was the main reason given by 87.3% of women of prime working age who were outside the labour market in 2019, compared with 16.3% of men. The World Bank's analysis records the same figures, grounding the profile's central argument in an earlier finding.

Women spend 3.2 times as long as men on unpaid care and housework, according to the profile. Cooking, cleaning, caring for children and helping older relatives consume time that could otherwise be available for paid employment, training or rest.

The profile estimates the value of women's unpaid care at about 4.2% of gross domestic product, compared with 1.3% for men's. Together, those estimates equal 5.5% of GDP. This assigns an economic value to work performed without wages, rather than money paid into household bank accounts.

Childcare services leave substantial gaps. The profile says there is no government assisted childcare for children under three, while estimates from 2022 suggest at least 30% of children who should receive childcare are outside coverage. A shortage of elder care staff and facilities leaves wives and daughters doing much of that work too.

Social expectations reinforce the pressure. More than one in three respondents in a survey agreed that a preschool child suffers when the mother works. For women deciding whether to return to employment, the shortage of services sits alongside a widespread expectation that mothers should provide care themselves.

Motherhood Has a Larger Wage Cost Than Fatherhood

Women earn about 6% less than men with similar qualifications, according to the 2026 profile. The UN Working Group's 2024 statement put women's wage shortfall at 10.94%. The World Bank's research also finds different gaps across types of employment, with shortfalls of about 9% to 11% in informal work and 4% to 6% in formal work.

The World Bank's Country Gender Action Plan adds a more specific finding: in 2019, mothers earned about 11% less than women without children, while fathers earned about 3% less than men without children. It connects the larger motherhood gap to reduced working hours, limited childcare and expectations that women should be the main family caregivers.

Average hourly earnings tell another part of the story. The World Bank found that women's average hourly pay slightly exceeded men's in some measurements. Average earnings across all workers and comparisons between workers with similar qualifications measure different things, so the results can move in different directions.

Women's occupations have also changed. Between 2005 and 2019, the share of employed women working in services increased from 41% to 53%, a rise of 12 percentage points. Yet the profile says women remain concentrated in occupations with lower pay, limiting the financial return from their education.

An Older Population Creates a Growing Need for Care

Thailand could need up to 250,000 additional paid care workers as its population ages, according to the profile. Building those services could help families in two ways: relatives would receive professional support, and unpaid caregivers would have more time to pursue paid work.

International Labour Organization simulations cited in the profile project that women would take 83% of new jobs created through investment in paid leave, early childhood care and care for people needing continuing support. The simulations also project that 82% of the jobs would be formal. These are modelled results tied to investment, rather than jobs already created.

Formal employment generally gives workers clearer access to legal protections and employment benefits. That matters in care services, where turning unpaid responsibilities into paid work will improve livelihoods only if the jobs provide adequate wages and working conditions.

The UN Working Group on discrimination against women and girls, in its December 2024 statement, called for better care services for older people and people with disabilities, alongside improved conditions for care workers. It also urged childcare services with longer hours and greater flexibility.

Older women can face barriers both as caregivers and as people needing assistance. The Working Group identified poverty and restricted access to health and social services among older women from ethnic minority, indigenous, refugee and stateless communities. It called for elder care programmes and pension access regardless of status.

Family Leave Proposals Seek to Share Responsibility

Thailand's government is developing "time for family" leave that would allow workers, including men, to take leave to care for relatives. Kurupin Singnoi of the Department of Women's Affairs and Family Development said the National Family Policy and Strategy Committee had approved the measure.

Discussions are continuing with the Office of the Prime Minister over civil service rules and with the Labour Ministry over private sector policy. No implementation date was given. The profile also recommends paid paternity leave equal to maternity leave, alongside affordable childcare for children under three and expanded elder care.

Thailand's leave arrangements have changed over several years:

• 2019: The Labour Protection Act (No.7) B.E. 2562 extended maternity leave from 90 to 98 days, with 45 days paid, according to the World Bank's legal account.
• December 2024: The UN Working Group described maternity leave of 98 days and paternity leave of 15 days guaranteed only in the public sector.
• 2026: The gender profile describes paid maternity leave of 120 days and protection against dismissal during pregnancy.
• 2027 to 2031: The next Thailand-UN Cooperation Framework provides a forthcoming planning period for incorporating the profile's recommendations.

Leave for fathers and other family caregivers would spread access to time away from work beyond mothers. Childcare and elder care services would address the continuing daily needs that remain after a period of leave ends.

Businesses Are Testing Routes Into Markets

Women make up 38% of managers and majority own 33.4% of firms, according to the profile. Their share of newly registered entrepreneurs is higher, at 40.5%. Access to customers, finance and workplaces that accommodate care responsibilities will affect whether those businesses can grow.

Siriporn Dechsing, a senior sustainability executive at retailer CP Axtra, said women own about 51% of the company's suppliers. The company aims to raise that share to 60% in 2026, an increase of nine percentage points.

CP Axtra uses an online platform that allows prospective suppliers to pitch products in the evening, including women who cannot easily travel to Bangkok. More than 1,700 suppliers have joined, about half of them businesses owned by women. The platform addresses a concrete difficulty: reaching a major buyer without spending time and money travelling to the capital.

Every Makro and Lotus's branch has a room where staff can express and store breast milk, according to the company. Women have also entered its fleet management operations, a field previously dominated by men.

Wittawat Lamsam, assistant director-general of the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion, said a definition of women entrepreneurs introduced in 2025 is being applied. Banks pursuing environmental, social and governance goals could use it to set lending targets. Women's issues are also included in the next SME master plan, which covers five years.

Decision Making, Safety and Protection Remain Unequal

Women held 19.8% of House seats and 22.5% of Senate seats after the February 2026 elections, according to the profile. The House share is 10.2 percentage points below Thailand's 30% target. Women occupy no more than about 10% of senior local executive positions, and only two of the country's 32 prime ministers have been women.

Violence is another major concern. The profile says 32.9% of women aged 15 to 49 who have had a partner have experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner. UN Women's country data separately records that 9.3% experienced such violence during the preceding 12 months in 2018. The latter measure covers a specific year of experience, while the profile's figure covers whether women had experienced it.

About 61% of the population receives social protection beyond healthcare, according to the profile. Extending coverage to migrant workers and other vulnerable groups remains a challenge. The UN Working Group also found that nearly half of women in the labour force worked informally, often as domestic workers, street vendors, agricultural workers or workers based at home.

For women in those jobs, policies centred on conventional employment contracts can leave gaps. The profile's recommendations pair greater access to formal work with wider protection, credit and care services, addressing the conditions that determine whether women can earn a secure income.

Budgets and Better Data Are the Next Tests

Thailand's progress will depend partly on whether public spending follows its gender equality commitments. Gender responsive budgeting means examining how spending and revenue decisions affect women and men, then using that information when deciding where money should go.

Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, UN Women Deputy Executive Director, said Thailand had already established a substantial legal and policy framework. She described how the profile could help turn analysis into action:

from describing inequality to addressing its root causes

Gumbonzvanda called for the findings to shape budgets and legislation and to be incorporated from the beginning into the Thailand-UN Cooperation Framework for 2027 to 2031. Kurupin also identified gender responsive budgeting and caregiver training as priorities.

UN Women's Thailand data dashboard shows the scale of the measurement challenge. As of December 2020, only 45.9% of the indicators needed to track the Sustainable Development Goals from a gender perspective were available. Missing information included key employment measures and comparable data on assets, harassment and poverty.

The immediate policy choices are concrete: fund care services, share leave between women and men, open credit and supply chains to women, and measure who benefits. Together, those choices address the gap between helping women gain qualifications and enabling them to use those qualifications throughout their working lives.

Key Points

• Women aged 15 to 64 participate in Thailand's labour market at a rate of 58.9%, compared with 74.7% for men.
• Women spend 3.2 times as long as men on unpaid care and housework.
• The profile projects that more than one in three people will be over 60 by 2037, increasing demand for care.
• Proposed family care leave has committee approval, with implementation discussions continuing.
• The UN recommends affordable childcare, expanded elder care, equal paid parental leave and better access to finance.
• The Thailand-UN Cooperation Framework for 2027 to 2031 is a forthcoming opportunity to put the findings into policy and budgets.