Half of women wish they had chosen careers in ‘male sector’

One in two women say they wish they'd chosen a 'male' sector
Shutterstock
Rashid Razaq7 November 2016

Almost half of British women regret their career choices and wish they had gone into better paid “male-dominated” industries, according to a new survey by Open University.

It found that 49 per cent of women wished they had opted for a job involving science, technology, engineering or maths — know as Stem jobs.

The survey of 1,011 women found 56 per cent said they were not told enough about Stem-related careers when they were growing up. Lack of female role models in those sectors was also cited as a factor.

The findings were announced ahead of Equal Pay Day on Thursday, the symbolic day of the year when campaigners say the average woman’s pay loses parity with the average man’s pay.

Dr Clem Herman, OU senior lecturer in computing and communications, said: “Analyses of the pay gap indicate that it is mainly caused by structural issues, in particular where and how men and women work.

"Key contributors to this pay gap include occupational segregation where women and men tend to work in different occupations and sectors. However, the good news for women Stem graduates is that jobs in Stem occupations tend to be higher paid.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT