Women's Views on News |
| No change to graduate gender pay gap for a decade Posted: 17 Nov 2012 01:57 PM PST
A new report has found that male graduates continue to earn more than female, and this disparity matches that found ten years ago. The report samples more than 17,000 graduates six years after they applied to UCAS in 2006. It highlights average male earnings between £24,000 and £26,000, compared to average female earnings between £21,000 and £23,000. This disparity is similar to the one found in a previous study that tracked the 1999 graduate cohort for three and a half years after graduation. It underlies all the salary analyses in the report. Both studies were commissioned and funded by the Higher Education Career Services Unit (HESCU). Professor Peter Elias, co-investigator at the University of Warwick, where the research was undertaken, described the gender pay gap as "one of the more continuing and disturbing" findings. "The gender pay gap in graduate earnings… has persisted and shows no signs of diminishing," he said. "Male graduates with similar qualifications, experience and in similar jobs earn more than females at the outset of their careers." For some degrees the disparity is greater. Female law graduates currently in full time employment earn on average £8,000 less than their male peers. Research by the Fawcett Society has also found that the gender pay gap is up to 55 per cent in the financial sector and 33.3 per cent in the City of London. In addition to the disparity between male and female graduate earnings, the report also identified that the gender distribution of employed graduates by sector has not changed from the class of '99 report. With regards to subjects studied, Mathematics and Engineering had the highest proportions of male students, while Education and subjects allied to medicine were most female dominated. This reflects traditional gender patterns. The report also flagged that women are less likely to take courses of further study and that men are more likely to experience a significant spell of unemployment. The report is the final stage of a four part study, called 'Futuretrack.' Overall, the study surveyed two cohorts of UCAS applicants at four points in their careers. It is the most ambitious study ever undertaken of the relationship between higher education and employment. That the gender gap in earnings still persists is hugely disappointing and highlights how much still needs to be done.  |
| BBC explores body image in women’s sport Posted: 17 Nov 2012 08:00 AM PST
Earlier this year, the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF) published a report on girls' participation in sports. It made for depressing reading. Only 12 per cent of 14 year old girls meet official guidelines for physical activity, half think that "getting sweaty is not feminine", three quarters are self-conscious about their bodies during PE, and many feel that PE teachers overlook them in favour of those who are better at sport. Perhaps worst of all, more than half are put off sport and fitness completely because of their experiences in school. I can't be the only one for whom these findings did not come as much of a surprise. I was one of the less active, shall we say, at my school, and I can still easily call to mind how desperately I wished I could wear tracksuit bottoms instead of a netball skirt, and how dismayed I was when a teacher made me run the interform 800m and I knew I would come last in front of 300 smirking year eights (including boys!) As it turns out, I was far from the only one. During Body Beautiful?, a programme broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live on Thursday night, elite athletes discussed how they, too, have struggled with their body image. During the two hour special programme, sports broadcaster Eleanor Oldroyd, psychologist Linda Papadopoulos and heptathlete Denise Lewis heard from Olympians such as Jess Ennis and triathlete Hollie Avil in a wide-ranging discussion of the issues affecting body image for sportswomen and girls. Ennis revealed how, as a teenager, she would avoid weight training because it would change the way should looked. “You want to be the same as everyone else and look the same as your friends," she said. Eventually, she learned to look at the bigger picture: that “you can’t become Olympic champion or world champion without having a strength-conditioning programme." But the pressure did not end with adolescence. In May this year, reports circulated that a UK Athletics official had suggested that Ennis was too fat. Similarly, weightlifter Zoe Smith has faced tabloid scrutiny over her weight. Both Ennis and Smith said the media blew the stories out of proportion. However, the fact that the stories were reported at all shows the disproportionate scrutiny female athletes face when it comes to their bodies. When it comes to sportswear, too, women are subject to attention that would seem bizarre if applied to male athletes. Although some of Ennis' outfits are skimpy, so are Mo Farah's shorts; both wear clothes designed to optimise performance, but there are no editorials about what men wear to compete. The programme also discussed at length the influence of the women's magazine industry. According to Papadopoulos, the portrayal by many women's magazines of an ideal body type has taught girls "to look in the mirror, find something they don't like, and fix it." This fixed view of what a feminine body looks like is emphatically unhealthy. It teaches girls to focus on what their body looks like, rather than what it can do. They aspire to be objects of desire, and girls who strive for something (anything) else are seen to be the exception to the rule. Think of the belief, for example, that a girl with an interest in sport must be some kind of tomboy. Some uncomfortable questions were also raised. As a sportswoman, for example, what do you do when you're asked to lose weight to improve your performance? We heard from triathlete Hollie Avil, who competed for Great Britain in the Beijing Olympics. When Avil was a teenager, a coach made a throwaway comment about her weight which sparked insecurities which would lead to an eating disorder. At one point she consumed just 1500 calories a day, despite training four hours a day for three sports. While Avil was losing weight, her performances improved. Although she said she now realises that any benefits were short-term, at the time the improvements were enough to prevent her from adopting healthier eating habits. Eventually, her disorder led to stress fractures due to low bone density. She retired from the sport earlier this year, aged just 22, in order to put her body issues behind her. Some of the most striking moments were provided by listeners getting in touch to share their own stories. The story of the talented 1500m runner who wants a boob job, for example, illustrates perfectly how girls are taught to value their bodies in terms of how they look, rather than what they can do. In my case, the effects all this were mixed. I've gone on to run marathons, so I obviously wasn't put off sport for good; on the other hand, the memory of being given an E in cross country when I was 14 haunts me enough that the teacher responsible sometimes pops into my mind during long training runs. But not every self-conscious girl has a marathon-running mother encouraging her to turn off the computer and go outside, or the talent and coaches to help her through the difficult teenage years. Yet there is, thankfully, some room for optimism. We can tentatively hope that the positive coverage during and since the Olympics of successful sportswomen with healthy, attractive bodies of varying shapes and sizes will begin to change how girls see themselves. As Ennis said, “if sportswomen are put out there a bit more, it creates a real healthy body image for young girls to aspire to.” But no matter how much we vaunt our Olympic heroines as the new role models, girls remain vulnerable to the conflicting message coming from advertising and many women's magazines. The only way the next generation of girls will learn that they can enjoy sport and stay fit no matter what shape their bodies are is to tell them so, loud and clear. That's why I, for one, am glad the BBC is starting this conversation, and sharing the experiences of women who have had to deal with criticism of their bodies. As Smith puts it, "if you don't like me, well, tough": just the message many girls need to hear. You can listen to Body Beautiful? here until Thursday 22 November. A series of programmes exploring body image also begins on BBC3 on November 19.  |
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