Demands to end gender pay gap

TRADE and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt will today warn that tackling 'career sexism' in the workplace is vital to closing the pay gap between men and women.

She is expected to criticise the 'macho male image' surrounding some jobs when she speaks at a Downing Street conference and announce a new drive to help women who wish to work in male dominated job sectors such as IT and science.

She will address delegates in the gender and work summit organised by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), which will be hosted by Chancellor Gordon Brown.

The calls for change come as a new study from the TUC, the unions organisation, found even teenage girls earn lower wages than boys and are still unlikely to choose traditionally male-dominated jobs.

The research, which focused on 16 to 24-year-olds, found that the pay gap between men and women begins opening up among teenagers, with girls paid on average 16% less than boys.

The study also found that 14% of young men aged 16 and 17 work in manufacturing, compared to just 6% of young women.

The Equal Opportunities Commission said today's Downing Street summit will call on policymakers and business to find ways of improving Britain's productivity levels through giving women a fairer playing field at work.

The Department of Trade and Industry plans to provide funding for a pay experts panel run by the TUC which advises firms on equal pay policies.

Women in full-time employment earn 19% less than men, according to the EOC.

Research conducted last year found most people believed the wages gap between men and women is the result of 'natural differences' between the sexes.

The figures showed that less women hold less than 10% of leading positions in FTSE 100 companies, the police, the judiciary and trade unions.

Pay analysts Income Data Services (IDS) reported last week that the gap between the pay of women and men was wider than thought and had not narrowed as quickly as previous figures suggested.

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