Was 2024 a Good Year for Women’s Careers in the UK?

The year 2024 brought a mix of improvements and challenges regarding women’s careers in the UK. In the last decade, the job market has changed significantly: more women entered the labour market and moved up the career ladder. However, the deeply rooted problems, such as the gender pay gap and underrepresentation of women in specific industries, are still present and require attention and effort.

Improvements in Employment Rates

Since 2010, the participation of women in the labour market has been increasing steadily. In 2024, the employment or actively seeking work rate reached 72% of the working-age population from 65% in 2010. This has been supported through strengthening parental leave, flexible working arrangements, and better childcare. Policies that have encouraged women to return to work after career breaks contributed to the reduction in the employment gap between genders.

Despite these gains, women are still underrepresented in full-time employment, and part-time work is often the reality because of family caregiving pressures. In 2024, about 40% of women were employed part-time, compared to only 12% of men. This shows that more effective support systems are needed to manage professional and personal responsibilities.

Rise in Leadership Roles

The share of women holding senior leadership positions has also been enhanced: 45% of executive leadership in 2024, and 42% of the UK investment and professional services senior management, are women. This significantly improves the below-one-third figure applied in most positions in 2010. While companies recognize such a diverse leadership team for equity purposes, their value is positive concerning organizational performance impact.

In male dominated industries, not surprisingly, there are fewer women in the leadership pipeline. For instance, construction and manufacturing both report less than 15% of leadership positions being held by women.

Technology companies remain stubbornly male-dominated, despite women making up an equal proportion of users. Technology is shaping our world more than ever, but women’s voices remain a small minority there, with  female leaders making up just 26% of the senior roles.

The Persistent Gender Pay Gap

Yet, the gender pay gap still overshadows the progress that has been made. In 2024, women in full-time employment earned an average of 7% less an hour than men. Compared with a 15% chasm recorded in 2010, little change has been documented so far.

It is widest in finance, where women in senior positions take home almost 30% less than their male counterparts. This gap, which has barely narrowed in recent years, underlines the challenges of breaking through in male-dominated industries where rewards are often highest.

To address this, there is a need for mandatory gender pay reporting, among other initiatives targeted to ensure salary transparency. However, critics say that more needs to be done to fix the gaps with penalties for non-compliance and incentives for companies making substantial progress.

Industries Where Women Excel

Some sectors have conventionally been a preserve of women, with healthcare, education, and professional services leading the pack. In 2024, women were 78% of the workforce in healthcare and 74% in teaching positions. Their high participation rates often set them apart for leadership roles in these fields.

Equally, women have made their presence felt in the more creative fields of media, design, and advertising. These are fields that require much communication, empathy, and collaboration in which women have been able to thrive and innovate.

But this increased presence in these fields is set against their relative absence in areas such as engineering, technology, and construction. Despite active attempts to recruit women into STEM professions-that is, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics-in 2024 only 28% of the UK’s STEM workforce is female. Breaking down barriers in these traditionally male-dominated fields remains a priority.

Careers That Need More Women

Large areas of technology, finance, and politics still show a serious deficit in gender diversity. In 2024, women took up only 18% of IT specialists and 32% of MPs in Parliament. It is not only the quantity of women that such industries lack but also their distinctively female points of view, enriching decision-making processes.

Such efforts to bridge the gap have included scholarship programmes for women in STEM, mentorship initiatives, and gender quotas in political party selections. While these initiatives have yielded some success, there is still a long way to go to achieve parity.

Salary Evolution and Opportunities

It is from these bases that, over the last decade, women’s salaries in the UK have grown incrementally with the increased valuations of their contributions. In 2024, the average annual salary for women was £35,200 compared to £27,800 in 2010, which is a rise of 26% adjusted for inflation, compared to 21% for men during the same period.

Interestingly, in entry-level hiring, women are more likely than men to be offered positions for which they are equally qualified. A 2023 study found that 58% of job offers for certain roles went to women over men. However, this does not hold for mid-career or senior positions, which still remain male-dominated.

The Role of CV Presentation

Writing a good CV remains a cardinal skill for securing jobs. Most CV examples UK of job applications often present clarity, brevity, emphasis on achievement, and applications related to the specific role on offer. These capabilities become ever more necessary with women advancing towards higher job posts because, if it can be developed well, then sometimes an open door replaces a barrier to entry.

Conclusion

The year 2024 marked a year of progress for women’s careers in the UK, with growing representation in leadership roles and narrowing pay gaps. But challenges, such as underrepresentation in certain industries and the persistence of the gender pay gap, remind us that this journey toward equality is far from over. With further commitment to changing the status quo, the UK will be able to foster a work environment where women flourish and succeed across all sectors.