Women already suffering from low incomes risk finding themselves excluded from the British labor market in the future, between family constraints, high training costs and automation of low-skilled jobs, according to a study published on Wednesday.
“Women are currently under-represented in science and technology (STEM) sectors and over-represented in low-paying sectors, such as distribution, cleaning, catering and personal care,” the study points out. British NGO Challenge Works.
If STEM-related professions “are expected to develop in the future”, low-skilled and low-paid jobs, occupied largely by women, “are the main concerned by the risks of automation”, continues Challenge Works. About three-quarters of employers in up-and-coming sectors say they hire people who can work full-time, often long hours, and in offices, according to the Opinium survey of 2,000 adults for Challenge Works. representative of the British population.
Women, although much less likely than men to create their own businesses, generally do so out of necessity, because they have not found a job that gives them, in particular, the flexibility of working hours or working from a distance in particular to take care of their children, or elderly parents. The study also finds that almost a third of low-income working mothers expect to have to give up working in the future to care for family members, knowing that child care or retirement homes often have astronomical costs compared to other European countries, and out of reach for many households in the UK.
A third of the women questioned also feel caught in a vicious circle: they do not seek better paid positions for lack of qualifications, but do not have the resources to obtain them. While the study focuses on the United Kingdom, Teodora Chis, who led the team that carried out the study, believes that “in many countries the burden of education and childcare falls on women also”.
In the United Kingdom, women find themselves “in front of a dilemma between training or taking care of their children” and the cost of childcare is so high that “often working was not advantageous”, notes Ms. Chis, questioned by the AFP. The researcher also points out that “systemic” or “cultural” factors contribute to job segregation, with women being turned away from certain STEM careers from an early age.
