More Women in ‘Male’ Apprenticeships Could Narrow Gender Pay Gap

22 Jul 2014

Research from think tank Demos suggests that the gender pay gap could be closed significantly if more women were encouraged to get into apprenticeships in traditionally ‘male’ sectors.

The gender pay gap is a hot topic in debates on equality and employment, and many a mind is mulling over how best to combat this issue. Demos research shows that there is a pay gap of £8,400 between industries with predominantly male apprentices, for example engineering, science and construction, compared to those with a high proportion of women apprentices like hairdressing, childcare and health and social care.

According to the research, only 3% of apprentices in engineering are women and only 2% in construction are women, compared to around 83% in health and social care and 91% in child care.

The think tank suggests that encouraging more women to enter these ‘male’ sectors will help to tackle the gender pay gap overall.

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