Thursday 3 January 2008

Women struggle to pay off student debt whilst men prosper

It was reported yesterday in The Guardian that women take five years longer than men do to repay student loans.

Obviously this is largely down to the unfair pay gap between men and women's salaries.

However the report also puts it down to 'women taking time out to look after children'- perpetuating yet again the belief that all women are ready to drop their careers any second to have a baby and become chained to their homes looking after it. More likely this assumption means that they do not get promoted to higher paid jobs because they are judged not as reliable in career terms as men.

Just as I was getting worked up I read Kat Stark's comments, who is a women's officer at the National Union of Student's. She said:

"Women are taking longer to pay off their student loans because they are paid less, not because they are taking time off to have children. Within three years of graduating, over 40% of men are earning over £25,000, compared to just over a quarter of women. The pay gap is not a new problem - the government knew when it introduced the tuition fees that female graduates would end up saddled with debt to a worse extent to men...the government should consider whether they wish to perpetuate this injustice."

Thank god someone is talking sense. Although undoubtedly many women do take time off work to have children, others choose not to. As Stark suggests, the main reason women are paying off debt later, is because they are paid less, full stop. Not because every woman gives up her career to have children, this is a smokescreen to hide the fact that women are paid less than men.

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