We study the impact of employment law on de facto labour market segmentation for 22 European countries from 1991 to 2014. Applying the concept of legal segmentation, we distinguish between the standard-setting (protective), privileging, and equalising function of employment law and analyse their effects on overall employment, standard and non-standard employment, strongly focusing on gender differences. Our analysis demonstrates that high privileging in combination with high standard setting favours male standard employment and female non-standard employment. Interestingly, we find that the equalising function, aimed at improving the protection of women and other marginalised groups, actually increases male non-standard employment.