In December 2018, **women** represented 45.6% of total Social Security affiliations in Andalusia. Seven years later, in the past month of January, **that percentage had increased to 46.9%**. Although, in statistical terms, those 1.3 points may seem like a small advance, their real impact on the labor market is very revealing: **it confirms that female employment is gaining more and more weight in the autonomous community and is advancing, little by little, towards the longed-for parity with male employment**. In fact, during that period, the system has added 177,391 men in all its regimes, a figure widely surpassed by that of women. Specifically, 234,421 new female affiliates have been counted, that is, 57,030 more than menIn parallel, the registered unemployment data point in the same direction. In the last twelve months, the number of unemployed women has decreased in Andalusia by 34,528, while that of unemployed men has done so by 21,111. Therefore, it is they who sustain up to 62% of the entire decrease recorded at the regional level. If the analysis is extended to the period of the last seven years, the number of women who have left the unemployment lists also exceeds that of men by more than 16,600
Conclusive Data from the Active Population Survey
The Active Population Survey of the fourth quarter of 2025 yields other conclusive data: the female unemployment rate, currently at 17.45%, has fallen almost eight points (7.94) since the same period in 2018. **This represents an improvement greater than the community average (6.6 points less) and also far exceeds the national average, where female unemployment has been reduced by 5.02 points.** This sustained progress places Andalusia as the second region that has managed to reduce its rate the most during that period, only surpassed by Extremadura, with 11.8 points.
More indications that something is changing in the Andalusian labor market: the number of employed women has surpassed the threshold of 1.62 million, which represents 315,100 more than at the end of 2018. Once again, their contribution to the global figures is greater than that of men, as it accounts for almost 59% of the total increase. In other words, almost six out of every ten new additions to the community's workforce, across all productive sectors, are women.
What is happening to reverse a historical imbalance
One of the keys to this change in trend is the growing emergence of women in self-employment. Starting a business in Andalusia, something that until not long ago seemed a territory barred for female employment, is now a clear option for them. **So much so that, since January 2019, self-employed women have represented 55% of all new registrations in the RETA in Andalusia, ten points above projects driven by men.**The new self-employed workers have had in these last seven years the explicit support of the Ministry of Employment, Business and Self-Employment, a fundamental backing to shore up any business in its early stages. In fact, the department headed by Rocío Blanco has granted, in the current legislature alone, almost 33,500 grants to new female entrepreneurs for a value of 84.6 million euros. This amount has served, for example, to finance the zero fee, which compensates for Social Security contributions, as a general rule, during the first year of activity, but in the case of women it incorporates an additional advantage: it is extended up to 24 months when self-employment is resumed within two years of ceasing due to the birth of a child or other assimilated situations, such as adoption, guardianship for adoption purposes, foster care, or guardianship.Within this aid package, another notable measure from the Ministry is also included: aid for starting a business, which reaches a maximum of 5,500 euros and includes higher brackets for self-employed women under 35 years of age or over that age, compared to the 30-year threshold that applies to men. Actions in favor of this group also include two lines aimed at promoting work-life balance, specifically for the hiring of unemployed people to fill the positions of self-employed workers in their businesses when they have to be absent to care for newborn children, children under three years of age, or in situations of risk during pregnancy
The professional qualification of women: one of the keys
The improvement of professional qualifications is also favoring the growing incorporation of women into the labor market, especially in those branches of activity in which the Andalusian productive fabric demands more professionals. One of the projects promoted by the Ministry of Employment, the Preparadas program, precisely aims to foster female employment through training in skills linked to the use of new technologies. **The focus is on the rural environment, where the initiative is offering very positive results: more than 80,300 unemployed women from municipalities with fewer than 30,000 inhabitants or from vulnerable areas have already attended classes to acquire digital skills and receive advice.** The objective is for them to subsequently transform that knowledge into self-employmentIn addition to these specific actions, the projects promoted by the Ministry of Employment include, in most cases, higher amounts of aid when the beneficiaries are women, with the aim of breaking down the obstacles that usually hinder their access to the labor market on equal terms with men. This is the case, for example, of one of the flagship projects of this legislature, the Emplea-T program, which promotes the permanent hiring of unemployed people by SMEs, self-employed individuals, and local corporations, and which, in several of its lines, increases the subsidizable amounts by 1,000 or 2,000 euros when the hires correspond to women. To date, the program has favored the hiring of 6,060 women thanks to an investment of 34.2 million euros