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A paradox at work

by Irene Krechowiecka
So-called women’s skills are much lauded in the workplace these days, but will they actually get you where you want to go? Irene Krechowiecka investigates boardroom cartoon

Has the last decade been a good one for working women? Certainly there’s been much said and written about the value of women’s work styles and the latest National Management Salary Survey, released by the Institute of Management shows that the gap in earnings between men and women in the top jobs is narrowing.

Despite this, many women feel their working lives are conducted on a sloping playing field where men have the advantage. A slightly different view of working realities comes from this year’s UK Graduate Career Survey, in which female students were shown to have much lower expectations than their male counterparts. When asked what they expected to be earning five years after graduation men averaged out at £35,400 a year and women at £28,900.

Women make up half the country’s workforce and according to the IM survey, female managers have now almost redressed pay inequalities.

  • In 1990 women earned on average 38 per cent less than their male counterparts, today they earn 8 per cent less.
  • The average woman manager gets £33,000 a year - still £3,000 less than her male colleagues.

Despite almost universal agreement that women’s management styles are more effective, they are under half way to fulfilling their quota of management roles. Only 22 per cent of managerial posts are filled by women. At board level things are even worse. Although female board membership has increased from 1.6 per cent ten years ago to 9.6 per cent today, there’s still a long way to go before the much-acclaimed soft skills of the female manager make an impact on the shape of the working world.



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