In France, apart from students and pensioners, nearly 3 million people of working age (20-59 years old) declare themselves to be inactive in the census, and nearly 4 million are classified as inactive in the Labour Force Survey according to the International Labour Office's criteria: they are therefore neither in employment nor unemployed. According to the population censuses, between 1968 and 2018, the share of inactive women decreased sharply from 52% to 12%, while the share of inactive men doubled from 3% to 6%.

While the activity profiles by diploma and age have become more similar between women and men, family situation still makes a difference. In fact, unlike women, men still make little change in their activity behaviour when they have children. The Labour Force surveys show that 7% of inactive men were inactive for family reasons, or declared themselves to be househusbands compared with 54% of inactive women, even though this share decreased between 2013 and 2019. On the other hand, there were almost as many women as men among the inactive for health reasons and the so-called 'transitional' inactive (as they are closer to being active), whose numbers have increased since 2013. All in all, these recent developments would seem to be the beginning of reducing gaps between female and male forms of inactivity.