The thesis provides a novel analysis of the differences in unemployment between males and females, taking into account, in addition to the rate, other important aspects of unemployment that have welfare implications for both individuals and the society where they live. It consists of three contributive chapters.Chapter 2 proposes a measurement of the differences in unemployment between males and females based on an index by Shorrocks. The latter is estimated by quarter for France during the period 2003:1 to 2008:3 using three different methods: synthetic cohort method, Salant's method and a method using directly the interrupted durations. The first method uses the interrupted durations to obtain an estimate of the distribution of completed durations while the Salant method do the same but assume that the labour market is in a steady state. Chapter 3 builds from Chapter 2's results and proposes a purely empirical analysis of the gender gap in unemployment in France. It examines in addition to the gender differences in the unemployment rate, the gender differences in mean duration and distribution of durations. The chapter also provides a comparative analysis of different methods of regression-based decomposition. It finishes with an analysis of the reduction of the gender gap in unemployment in France between 2003 and 2008 Chapter 4 provides an analysis of the gender difference in the number of unemployment spells and the distribution of these spells across the labour force. The importance of the matter relates to the fact that a repetitive unemployment may cause lower paid work and unstable jobs and therefore lead to poverty and social exclusion.