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If women are so far ahead of men, why are they so far behind? Reports from both sides of the Atlantic show that female students dominate university courses, yet women still do not make it to the top. A report on inequality in the UK said last week that girls had better educational results than boys at 16, went to university in greater numbers and achieved better degrees once they got there. “More women now have higher education qualifications than men in every age group up to age 44,” the report said. In the US, 57 per cent of college graduates in 2006-07 were women. Women form the majority of all graduates under 45. Yet few women make it to the boards of companies in either country. In the UK, the proportion of women on FTSE 100 boards rose fractionally from 11.7 per cent to 12.2 per cent last year, according to the Cranfield University School of Management, but that was only because of a fall in the size of the boards. In the US, women accounted for 15.2 per cent of board seats on Fortune 500 companies, according to Catalyst, the research organisation, which said the numbers had barely budged for five years. The hopeful way of looking at this is that the rising generation of female graduates has yet to reach director age. Give it 10 years and they will dominate boards as they do universities. If that were true, however, we would surely see the number of women director numbers moving up by now. The first year that women college graduates outnumbered men in the US was 1982. These graduates must be entering their 50s – prime director age. There is evidence that the younger generation of women is thriving in the workplace. A recent report from the Pew Research Center found that the earnings of US-born 30- to 44-year old women grew 44 per cent between 1970 and 2007, compared with a rise of only 6 per cent for men. In this age group, 22 per cent of wives earned more than their husbands in 2007, compared with 4 per cent in 1970. Yet, even for this cohort, there was still a large pay gap, the Pew research found, with women earning on average only 71 per cent of what men earned. Why? The traditional answer is discrimination. The Pew report said prejudice still played some part, although it was hard to quantify. There are, no doubt, still nomination committees that secretly believe women cannot hack it, just as there must be some top executives who are still quietly racist and homophobic. But that cannot be the whole answer. Attitudes have shifted. Can employers really be that much more sexist than university admission officers? The UK inequality study contains a telling detail. There is still a significant pay gap between men and women – 21 per cent – but for women in their 20s, the difference is only 6-7 per cent. Why does the gap then grow? Because of the pram in the hall. “While it is not the only factor, women's pay relative to men's declines not just at the moment of first becoming a mother, but through most of the first child's childhood,” the report said. Mothers work less and stay away from the long-hours tasks that win promotion. There have been attempts to keep mothers' careers on track. The UK government announced last week that it planned to allow mothers to transfer the last six months of their maternity leave to the father, with three months of that paid. Allen & Overy said recently that partners would be allowed to work four-day weeks and take longer holidays, following other leading London law firms such as Freshfields and Linklaters. But there must be some doubt how effective these initiatives will be. The UK government has assured businesses that it expects fewer than 6 per cent of new fathers to take advantage of the additional paternity leave. While the lawyers' initiatives are, no doubt, sincerely meant, Louise Ashley and Janet Gaymer of Cass Business School, who have researched the impact, say the cultures of top firms do not easily lend themselves to flexible working. Clients demand instant answers and all-night sessions. One female lawyer told Ms Ashley: “The women I see who are cracking it as a partner have made that their whole lives.” This is the crux of it: no one, male or female, gets to the top of anything without neglecting friends and family. It is as true of reaching the chief executive suite as it is of winning an Olympic gold medal. That does not mean nothing should change. Working lives no longer finish at 50, or even 60. By the time children have grown up, those highly-educated mothers still have a good few decades in them. Where are the companies smart enough to spot the opportunity? I am a professional editor from China Products, and my work is to promote a free online trade platform. http://www.himfr.com/ contain a great deal of information about oil tin can,iron candle holder,gucci leather shoes, welcome to visit!
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