News Article - 13 March 2007
Category:

More flexible working hours are needed to keep high-earning women in their jobs, a report has indicated.

According to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the number of females in senior business roles has fallen by 40 per cent since 2004, possibly due to more women choosing to stay at home and look after their children because of expensive childcare.

Statistics from the Daycare Trust highlight that the cost of nursery places has risen by more than a quarter over the five-year period.

Sarah Churchman, head of diversity at PwC, said: "At the top, things are moving slowly in the right direction but our middle management data paints a very different picture.

Ms Churchman added that companies often paid attention to any gender issues in senior roles, assuming that supplies of people from the middle ranks would feed through over time.

"For big companies, at least, this pipeline is shrinking at a worrying rate," she warned.

Recently, Careers in Audit discovered that 90 per cent of men felt they had been badly affected by businesses trying to improve the working environment for women.

Article keywords:

---

More industry news

• Think tank warns UK may have already slipped back into recession
• Growing demand for HR staff in technology and international sectors
• Boosting business growth a ‘priority’ to avoid Eurozone slowdown
• HMRC launches alternative disputes pilot scheme this week
• December employment statistics disregard gloomy recruitment predictions
• Eurozone manufacturing PMI shows modest improvement
• UK scores highly for economic governance by ratings agency
• Government launches two-year project focusing on manufacturing sector
• Burden of regulation on UK businesses ‘too high’

Back to news home page »