Women are making “positive strides of progress” towards greater financial resilience, says Hargreaves Lansdown, as the latest labour figures show the number of women working full time is on the rise.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the average weekly hours for women have trended upwards from 26.5 in 1998 to 27.9 in 2022, a total increase of 1.4 hours per week.
Average weekly hours worked by women were also 0.5 higher in 2022 than in 2019.
At the same time, the proportion of female workers working full-time has also increased.
The rising number of hours has been attributed to a shift within working patterns driven by the pandemic, with more employers willing to offer flexible working arrangements, such as hybrid working.
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The motherhood and ‘good daughter’ penalties have been holding back female financial resilience but the latest labour trends indicate that women are making small but positive strides of progress.
“We can see from the way the gender pay gap widens in our 40s that women laden with family responsibilities have often been left behind in their careers. Fortunately, there are signs that this is slowly changing, partly thanks to greater flexibility from employers.”
Streeter said it is “crucial” that businesses continue to support more flexible schedules to ensure women can continue to make progress, particularly with the gender pay gap continuing to show a deep discrepancy between men and women. Data from the Department for Work and Pensions also showed that the gender pensions gap is still at 35%.
Streeter added: “Enabling more women to take on more hours at work won’t just help boost career prospects but it will also help reverse the productivity problem plaguing the labour force. Overall, UK productivity is set to remain highly sluggish, with average weekly hours worked falling by 0.3 hours since 2019.”
