The proposals are part of a drive to close a 19.5% gender pay-gap by tackling occupational segregation – where men and women are overly concentrated in certain jobs, such as women and nursing or men and construction.
The gender pay-gap is measured by the Office of National Statistics as the percentage difference between the average hourly earnings of men and women working full-time across all sectors.
The DTI cites research which shows that over 60% of all working women are concentrated in just 10 occupations which typically pay the least. Although women make up 49% of the workforce, they make up less than 10% and just 1% of employees in engineering and construction occupations respectively.
The new drive will focus on helping women who want to work in male dominated sectors like IT, construction, engineering and science.
Ms Hewitt said:
"It's not government's job to dictate employment options to people, but we must give women more choice if we are to address the chronic pay gap. Career sexism limits opportunities for women of all ages and prevents them from achieving their full potential. It is simply wrong to assume someone cannot do a job on the grounds of their sex."
Ms Hewitt today also announced that the DTI will provide £80,000 of funding for an Equal Pay Experts Panel, run by the TUC. The project will advise hundreds of companies on equal pay reviews, carry out in-depth reviews in a small number of companies, and build on the TUC Equal Pay project which has already trained over 400 union equal pay representatives based in companies.
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