A major inquiry into the skills gender gap is being undertaken by the National Skills Forum and the Associate Parliamentary Skills Group.
The study by the two bodies, which are managed by Policy Connect, an organisation linking industry and Parliament, will help to inform future policy.
They say the current skills gap between men and women in the UK is costing around £23 billion a year, some 2% of GDP.
Policy Connect says the impact on industry and on individual women looking to rejoin the workforce is not known.
Over the next nine months, researchers will look at:
- the reality of the gender skills gap for women and businesses
- current public, business and political perceptions of the issue
- the role of Government policy
- how to raise awareness of the problem
- policy recommendations.
It will consider what women feel are barriers to them gaining new skills or upskilling and how the skills gap is affecting productivity and UK business in general. The Forum will talk to a wide range of women employees, MPs and Peers and leading employers. A final report will be published in February 2009.
Dame Ruth Silver, who will direct the research, said: "We already know that a significant gap exists in terms of pay and opportunities between men and women and that, by far, women end up with a worse deal than men. What this work sets out to do is to begin the urgent task of understanding the gap in skills between men and women, how that affects women’s lives and careers and what we need to do to tackle it to allow women a fairer chance in the job market."
Flexible working ‘could replace pay rises and bonuses’
Bosses are looking for low-cost incentives to encourage and reward staff in place of pay rises and bonuses as the credit crunch bites, says a new report.
A survey of 1,200 business leaders showed nearly half had but back on pay rises and bonuses and a third were predicting job losses. Half of bosses said they had serious challenges to face in keeping staff motivated.
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Discrimination 'could explain two thirds of gender pay gap'
Two thirds of the pay gap between men and women could be due to unobservable facts such as discrimination, according to a Government study.
A report from the Office for National Statistics found that a third of the gap between men and women's wages could be due to factors such as educational qualifications and motivation, but two thirds could not be explained.
The hourly gender gap between men and women has fallen between 1998 and 2006 from 19% to 16%, which Barnard said could be due to a fall in discrimination.
The gender gap was highest outside London where men earned around 4% more than women, compared to 7% outside London. Women faced the biggest gender gap in industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, fishing and finance.
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