I recently attended an event at a state school in London that was meant to broaden girls’ knowledge about possible careers. I find it worthwhile to widen girls’ horizons, especially since still at university the only career paths there seemed to be were banking, law, and consultancy. Misinformation plays a role in forming ambitions but what struck me the most that day was how ambitious these twelve and thirteen year old girls were. Frequent conversations about the reasons for the gender pay gap as well as the lack of women in senior positions often place the onus on internalised issues, such as lower confidence. But where and when do these issues originate? If at twelve or thirteen girls still say they want to be lawyers and doctors and CEOs and architects, when do they temper their ambitions? A prevalent opinion is that girls are encouraged to study social sciences and languages, for example, because professions in these areas are seen as more ‘flexible’ and ‘comfortable’ than those after reading engineering, maths, physics, and even economics. By ‘flexible’, I mean jobs that are more compatible with having children. The biased provision of maternity leave in the UK, as well as expensive childcare, reinforces gender roles and means that women are more preoccupied than men with finding work that can more easily fit around raising children. But these views relating to ‘suitable female employment’ are outdated.

Much creative work, which attracts women, is done in relatively small companies, where it is difficult to provide a certain degree of flexibility. The same is true for the education and health services industry, where 75 percent of employees are women. That number is nearly 80 percent for health care and social assistance. Big, established firms, many of which are in traditionally male fields, such as consulting and accounting, have the size and market pressure that mean they often provide a work environment that can be moulded to individual needs. This happens partly as a result of chasing a clean image and trying to avoid bad press – in response to regulation or as a move to keep pace with competitors. Diversity policies are reinforced by strong HR departments, which many small firms lack.

Although salary comparisons are often futile due to differences in roles and hours worked, they can indicate interesting trends. For instance, while only 23 percent of architecture and engineering workers are women, women earn 85 percent of what men do in the same occupation. In education and health services, which is made up of 75 percent women, the earnings gap is larger, although also more variable. The earnings gap increases to 22 percent in education, training, and library occupations. The most favourable earnings comparisons seemed to be in more technical areas. Female computer support specialists earned 106 percent of their male counterparts’ wages and bookkeepers, accountants, and auditing clerks had the same salaries regardless of gender.

A McKinsey report found that part of the barrier to women’s upwards career movement is a deficiency in role models and sponsors as well as lack of access to informal networks. These can generally be more easily found in larger corporations that often run mentor programmes and organise regular networking events. More rigid and prescribed career paths that can be found in such firms can also benefit women, as nearly twice as many women in middle management than in entry-level positions aspire to top management roles.

It’s important to keep up the momentum of the ambition that I saw exhibited by those young girls. It is surely impossible to shelter girls completely from the burden of expectations, stereotypes and gender roles, as well as many of the realities of being a woman, but there needs to be a concerted effort to counterbalance these pressures. This effort should originate in schools. Career events are only part of the equation. Girls should not be steered towards humanities in a conviction that it’s more ‘women-friendly’. Girls’ ambitions should be nurtured. A friend once told me about her grammar school, where many of the girls’ ambitions and chosen career paths focussed on being a PA. Such a job often involves long hours and low pay so it seems that these decisions were heavily influenced by a lack of confidence and ambition rather than the benefits and flexibility. Career counsellors, teachers, and parents should focus on broadening girls’ ambitions and challenging established assumptions and stereotypes while corporations would themselves benefit from changing their image to reflect a more inclusive, flexible environment offering a decent work/life balance.