Almost as many mothers as women without children are working, according to the latest government figures. With 66.5% of mothers in work, the gap between them and working women without dependents (just 0.8%) at 67.3% is the lowest it has been since records began 15 years ago.
Am I alone in being surprised at this? The increase in the last quarter of 2010 is due to a big spike in full-time work for mothers and a smaller rise in unemployment for young women, aged 16-24, which fits in with other government statistics showing that women are bearing the brunt of the recent round of redundancies.
In 1996, 23% of mothers worked full-time, up to 29% by the final quarter of 2010. The increase in full-time work is partly due to mothers getting older, according to the office of National Statistics. The peak employment age of 35-49 corresponds with this age group making up a far higher percentage of all mothers in 2010 compared with 1996.
What the department doesn't mention are the policy changes that have helped women return to work over the past 15 years that must surely have had an impact, such as the expansion of Sure Start and employment laws that have introduced better parental leave and pay and the right to request flexible working.
The TUC's Brendan Barber yesterday fretted that the current government is about to "turn the clock back by abandoning plans to extend family-friendly working, cutting childcare tax credits and forcing hundreds of thousands of women out of work through mass public sector job cuts". With changes to childcare tax credits starting in April, it's hard not to agree.
Also, given that low female workplace participation usually attends low economic growth, it remains to be seen whether these figures mark a high water mark for working women.
