policy attention has focused on women s own behaviour and choices but women have been investing more in their education and participating more continuously in employment without reaping the expected benefits it is time to focus instead on changing the environment in which women are making choices this brief focuses on policies needed to change employment arrangements this would involve raising and extending minimum wage floors to reduce the penalties that come from being at the bottom of the wage hierarchy improving the valuation of women s work through strengthening legal and collective regulation extending gender pay audits and action plans and improving womens employment opportunities by developing progression opportunities in femaledominated jobs and sectors and enabling mothers to remain in or return to employment