for a sample of oecd countries oecd showed that the growth in female employment tended to have an equalising effect on household earnings in all the countries studied despite substantial differences in employment levels and type of employment and in pay gaps across countries it then examines how changes in the distribution of female eamings and hours of work have affected the evolution of individual eamings and household income inequality for the period from the late s up to the economic crisis while most of the literature looks at aggregate employment trends the analyses below decompose different employment types fulltimeparttime fullyearpartyear to analyse the impact of changing patterns of women s employment in more detail the three pathways through which women s labour market participation affect the distribution of household income discussed here are first trends in individual gross eamings second trends in household gross earnings and finally total household disposable income after taxes and transfers