The proportion of women working full-time has actually decreased from 55.6 per cent in 1984 to 54.6 per cent in 1993. The ratio increased to 73 per cent by 1984. In 1994 women were earning 80 per cent of the wages of their male counterparts. Yet women are significantly over-represented in the lowest income groups. Job segregation Job segregation is a feature of women's participation in the labour market.
Women still tend to work in a more limited range of occupations than men.
83 per cent of women work in service industries, compared with 56 per cent of men. All girls up to the age of 16 are required to study science, technology and maths under the National Curriculum in England and Wales. And girls are outperforming boys in science subject examinations at age 16 and 18. Women now take up around half of all further, higher education and university places. The UK Report to the Fourth Conference on Women states 'Women's representation on local authorities and on other public bodies has increased to around one in four and one in three places respectively.