By Andy McCue, 19 September 2005 11:50
NEWS Female IT managers are for the first time earning more than their male counterparts and women are also climbing the corporate ladder faster, according to the annual salary survey from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).
Across all sectors the average female team leader, at 37 years old, is four years younger than her male counterpart, while female IT managers earn on average £45,869 per year - £779 more than the men do.
That puts female IT managers fourth in the female earnings league table with one of the biggest remuneration packages across all sectors, despite a £1,446 drop in the average salary compared to last year.
There is also evidence that women are increasingly making their presence felt in the boardroom: the number at senior executive level has trebled over the past 10 years, and women now account for 14.4 per cent of directors.
At the boardroom level, women's salaries are increasingly being supplemented by bonuses and, for the first time since the CMI salary survey started in 1974, they are receiving larger bonuses than male counterparts.
But this corporate ladder climbing also appears to come at a price. The total labour turnover rate for female managers across all sectors is 9.5 per cent compared to 6.5 per cent for men. The figures show women are also more likely to resign than their male colleagues.
The regional breakdown shows that female managers in the northwest and southeast of England are the biggest earners outside of London, with those in Northern Ireland and the Midlands the least well-off.
The CMI survey of 20,989 individuals across 200 organisations was carried out by Remuneration Economics.
Paul Campfield, director of Remuneration Economics, said in a statement: "It is encouraging to see that the number of female managers continues to increase but it is worrying that they are still more likely to resign.
"The implication is that female managers still face difficulties in the workplace and organisations should address these quickly because, unchallenged, these problems will demotivate and disrupt with the end result being poor performance and productivity levels."
Comments
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1. Andrew Cadman
As a man, I really do get sick to death - and, I admit, very worried, by the constant obsession with feminising all aspects of society.
Any area where men still dominate is depicted as bad and discriminatory, and area where women dominate regarded as a public good and reported in a triumphalist, politically correct tone.
And why the obsession with socially-engineering everything to produce a given outcome? Equality of opportunity is constantly confused with equality of outcome - the two are very different. If men and women tend to make different decisions in their lives - so what? Its extremely lazy thinking like this which is progressively alienating men from society alltogether as they find the balance tilted further and further away from them.
2. William Ashmore
Not surprised they are generally better more focused managers
3. Gary Bachman
So why has nobody asked the question why do these women get paid more than their male counterparts? If it reflects better performance then in what respect? Another piece of pseudo-journalism that tells only half the story.
4. anonymous
If 'lazy thinking is progressively alienating men from society - then I suggest that men stop indulging in this particular (lack of) activity. On 'the balance being tilted further away' if open competition in a male dominant environment favours the female sex this suggests that the dominance relied on discrimination not that the work has been feminised. If 'progress' allows woman to have carreers it does not mean they are now more equal than men just they have access where they were previously excluded. Women still bear the lions share of responsibility for children and home often alongside day jobs - true equality is when we can choose to balance our career and home responsibilities without major sacrifices or discrimination. I do not see how being more equality is said to diminish men, unless being equal to a female amounts to a drop in male status - do men need help to come to terms with being equally different?
5. Sarah
It just goes to show their are lies, damn lies and statistics. This is a classic example. As I well know, male-chauvenism is still rampant in both IT and general business attitudes. Because of sex discrimination legislation, though, it is just a bit more covert these days ....
Saying that I totally agree with Andrew when he says about the apparent polictial correctness that promotes women over men as this never (or very rarely) happens in reality anyway.
6. Hugh Bracey
It will be interesting to see how many female responses there are to this item.
7. David
If the rise of women continues as is being reported, will we be facing a future as depicted in the Two Ronnies sketch - 'The Worm Has Turned'?