in all those countries except south africa women in the s were to less likely than men to be enrolled in tertiary education to the extent that higher educational attainments take time to translate into higher labour market participation we might expect the labour market integration of women to accelerate in these countries in the coming years however genderbiased social norms regarding the role of women in society and in the labour market constitute a major obstacle to progress and can be very persistent see box for an analysis based on the world values survey as social norms of this kind tend to be acquired at a young age policy action should intervene early in people s lives