UK to Have More Working Women than Men by 2014 - Building Gender Balanced Business

• By 2014, there will be more working women than men in the UK, the Policy Exchange institute estimates, based on an analysis of trends in employment.

• Young women already have higher employment rates than young British males, with 30% of 16- and 17-year-old women working versus 23% of their male counterparts.

• The total gap in employment levels at the end of 2009 was 6 percentage points; down from 35 points in 1971.

• But women will work fewer hours, on average, and of course earn less than men even as they overtake men in total numbers of employees.

• The report by (centre-right) institute did not focus on the watershed moment for the equality in the economy, given that working-age women and men are at near parity in the UK (which will tilt more toward women as the government accepts that they don’t all retire 5 years earlier than men). Instead, it dwelt on the “Full Monty generation” effect of men on the dole whose wives work.

• The parity will complete a three-decade trend, in which employment among women rose from 56% in 1971 to 69% in 2009; employment among men fell to 75% from 92% in the same period.

• Neil O’Brien, director of Policy Exchange, said: ‘We are having a Full Monty-style recession with women faring much better than men.

• Canada first reported a majority female workforce in 2007; the US was expected to have passed the mark in 2009.

The Daily Mail report