Childcare locks women into lower-paid jobs

· Europe-wide study reveals entrenched lifestyle divide
· Domestic duties prevent females pursuing top jobs

December 6, 2007
The Guardian

British women are working in lower paid and lower status jobs than their male counterparts because they still shoulder the responsibility for housework and childcare, a Cambridge University study reveals today.

A “lifestyle divide”, in which women take on the burden of domestic duties, creates a vicious circle as they are then less able to work the long hours needed to win top jobs. They then earn less and are reinforced as responsible for household tasks, says the Europe-wide research.

The divide also leaves women with a longer working day, despite earning less, according to the study. The average working week for a woman in Europe is 68 hours, including paid and domestic work – longer than the average of 55 hours for a man in full-time employment.

The study, the first of its kind since EU members joined from the former eastern bloc, suggests efforts to reduce the workplace gender gap in the UK and the rest of Europe have made little progress since the early 1990s. It reinforces the warnings of several British studies that part-time working, now more accessible in the UK thanks to a right to ask to work flexibly, can lock women into low-paid jobs. more

About the study – University of Cambridge