Great news! The Gender Gap has closed! Equality has been established! The battle is over! Good job, guys – let’s all put out feet up, have a cup of tea and survey all we’ve done.
In case you’ve missed it, new figures released by Department of Culture, Media and Sport show that women in full-time work under 40 earn almost the same as men for the first time ever (down from an 11% gap to 1% since 1997). Getting less fanfare are the stats that show that women aged between 22 and 29 now earn 0.3% more than men. That’s right – that bloke sitting next to you? You’re potentially getting an extra £3 for every £1,000 he earns. Bet you’re laughing all the way to the bank.
Getting less fanfare are the stats that show that women aged between 22 and 29 now earn 0.3% more than men
But what happens when you turn 30 that causes that figure to basically get flipped around? And why does the gender pay gap shoot up to 26.7% for 40 to 49 year olds?
The obvious (or maybe not-too-obvious) answer is that once you get into your thirties, you’ll probably start to think about having a family (the average age for women giving birth in UK is currently 29.8 – this increases to 35 for graduates). And the fact is, that while the way women are treated and viewed in the workplace has evolved enormously over the last 20 years, this only comes good in the formative years of our careers when we’re able to put the same time and energy into it as our male counterparts. The minute childcare, part-time work and maternity leave come into the equation, we’re right back where we started.
The minute childcare, part-time work and maternity leave come into the equation, we’re right back where we started
Maria Miller, Minister for Women and Equality agrees that the structure of modern workplaces still needs to evolve further if it wants to continue to work for women once they’ve had children. ‘If we are to truly see parity for women in the workplace the corporate culture needs to modernise and change to reflect modern society,’ she told The Debrief. ‘The workplace was designed by men, for men. Women don’t need special treatment, they just need an equal playing field. The Government is modernising the workplace by introducing a system of shared parental leave, flexible working and childcare tax provisions. However, it's not just down to government. Businesses have to play their part, too, and they are now realising it makes no economic sense not to.’
We focus so much establishing our career in our twenties – getting a decent degree, a decent internship, working hard and making sure we get noticed, how many of us are stopping to think about what comes next?
Jess, 29, is a freelance writer, and feels that the impact having a child would have on her career and finances would be so prohibitive, she might not do it at all. ‘I’ve started to think that it's possible I might never have children, and a lot of that is connected with financial and career fears. I love my job, and I’ve only just got to the point where I’ve started to make enough money to take care of myself,’ she tells The Debrief. ‘My boyfriend is also a freelancer, and although we're both busy/in work, if we have any spare money it goes towards a future rainy day/quiet period. And as a freelancer I’d say half the work I do is assigned because I’m available and in a position where I can turn work around really quickly. If I did have a baby I’d be so scared about falling off the radar and losing jobs because I wasn’t available to do them.’
‘I've started to think that it’s possible I might never have children, and a lot of that is connected with financial and career fears.’
A Mumsnet survey carried out at the end of last year revealed that three-quarters of British women felt like having children had made it more difficult to progress in their careers. Similarly research carried out for the Work & Family Show earlier this year discovered that women still take on most of the childcare in a relationship – even when both partners work. Jess’s boyfriend is also self-employed, so she hopes that if they were to have kids they’d share the responsibility equally, but that ideal seems to be far from many women’s realities.
Right now, we look at our boyfriends cooking 50% of our evening meals, happily cleaning the bathroom grouting with a toothbrush of an evening, and thank our lucky stars that we’re part of such an evolved generation. We assume that, when we have children, we will split the load evenly with our partners, because that’s how everything else is done. Your career won’t suddenly take on lesser importance than his, because why would it?
We assume our careers won’t suddenly take on lesser importance than his, because why would it?
But you know those abstract issues other women – those with children – have? Childcare, maternity leave and part-time work? In a few years those problems might become yours if corporate and government policies don’t evolve to reflect the world we live in.
Still the signs are pointing in the right direction that they might be – if slowly. Yes. the gender gap does increase as you get older, but it’s still going down overall. Similarly, last year two million working mothers in the UK were the main breadwinners – an increase of 80% over 15 years. And let’s not forget the fact that, for the first time ever, when we’re in our twenties we may well be earning a historic 0.3% more than our boyfriends. If that’s not worth feeling optimistic about, what is?
Follow Rebecca on Twitter @rebecca_hol
Picture: Rory DCS
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.