Men will soon lose their traditional role as the main breadwinner of the family to women, according to Britain's head of university admissions. New research have revealed that young women aged between 22 and 29 are now being paid more on average per hour than their male counterparts. Women's average hourly pay is now just over 10 pounds an hour, compared with just under 10 pounds an hour for men. Another survey from the Chartered Management Institute found women bosses in their 20s were now paid more than men doing the same jobs. It also said salaries for women went up by 2.4 per cent in the year to February, compared with 2.1 per cent for men. Mary Curnock Cook, chief executive of the Universities and Colleges Admission Service said the effect could be a result of higher numbers of better-qualified women coming into the work place. It could mean a role reversal, with more women going out to work while their partners stay at home to take advantage of their higher earning potential, Cook believes. "To me this is a particularly interesting point because if in their mid-twenties women are earning more than men, this opens the possibility that we could see a tipping point at which it becomes more the norm for women - as the higher earners in a family - to return to full-time work, leaving their menfolk to play the part of main carer for children in the family," the Daily Mail quoted her as saying. "That could have a profound effect on the representation of women in senior roles and their pay rates across the spectrum," she stated.
