Academic Dr Tom Schuller has attacked the working culture that leads to many able and well-qualified women are 'under-promoted and under-paid'
The visiting professor at the University of London’s Institute of Education, said: ‘Many women are consequently working below their true level of competence.’
Many, he adds, are held back by ‘covert or overt’ discrimination, a lack of self-confidence and insufficient contact with a senior manager who can mentor them.
Another major hurdle though for women is their caring responsibility, not just for their young children but also increasingly for their elderly parents.
His comments come after a report found the majority of mothers - a staggering 73% in fact - have never been promoted since they switched to working part-time after the birth of their children.
The report commissioned by the flexible working champions The Timewise Foundation, highlights the career crisis facing mothers around Britain, many of whom say they feel ‘trapped’ in jobs for which they are ‘over-qualified’ and ‘over-skilled’.
Around 2.2 million men work part-time in Britain, according to the Office for National Statistics, but they are over-shadowed by an army of six million women working part-time.
Dr Schuller adds there is a widely-held view that anyone working part-time is ‘not serious about their work and not serious about their career.’
He warned: ‘This will only really change when more men work part-time or do not stick to the conventional model of a continuous, full-time career.’
‘It is time to enable more men to work in ways that are currently the preserve of women. Men need to stop thinking about a career only in terms of continuously moving up a vertical ladder and think positively about lateral moves, perhaps working part-time."
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