evidence: Female labor force participation is highest in some of the poorest and richest countries in the world. And it is lowest in countries with average national incomes somewhere in between. In other words: in a cross-section, the relationship between female participation rates and GDP per capita follows a U-shape. This is shown in the scatter plot here. [...] As we can see, the trends are consistent with those for labor force participation: In the period 1980-2016, the majority of countries saw an increase in the share of women who are employed. This is what we would expect – it means that by and large, the participation of women in the labor market was driven by employment, rather than unemployment. [...] While the years after World War II saw a rise in women’s labor force participation across every OECD country, growth in participation began at different points in time and proceeded at different rates in each country. In 2016, for example, Sweden’s female labor force participation rate was 70%, while it was only 56% in Germany and 40% in Italy. Researchers comparing broad policy configurations argue that the different types of welfare states that emerged in rich countries after World War II have contributed to these differences.20