by Paul Waugh
Women now make up half London's workforce for the first time and are holding down some of
the capital's highest-paid jobs, according to a report published today.
A comprehensive survey of employment in the capital has found that women have benefited
most from booming service industries, while male-dominated manufacturing and construction
has reached an all-time low.
Unprecedented numbers of women estate agents, lawyers and accountants are responsible for
an overall rise infull-time female employment, researchers found. London At Work,
published by the London Research Centre, shows that the Nineties have seen a workplace
revolution as men lose out to female workers in the high-paid professions.
In a complete reversal of the traditional employment roles, men are now increasingly in
poorly-paid, part-time work while women take on full-time jobs, often in professions long
viewed as male bastions.
Male employment has dropped by five per cent at the same time as a two per cent growth in
the number of female workers. For the first time since records began, women make up nearly
50 per cent of all staff in London.
Young women are the biggest winners in the jobs market because employers value their
communication skills, while older men are likely to lose out in anything other than manual
posts, researchers found.
As well as the law, accountancy and real estate, women are employed in increasing numbers
in hotels, restaurants and computer businesses, the survey found.
"Trends suggest that women will have have an increasing role to play in higher level
jobs, where they have been traditionally under-represented," the report states.
While white-collar jobs power the London economy, factory closures have continued at a
rate faster than anywhere else in the UK, leaving only eight per cent of the city's
workers employed in manufacturing.
The number of estate agents, lawyers and accountants leapt by 15 per cent, with 54,000
more employees between 1991 and 1995 - the most recent year in which figures were
collated.
More than 650,000 Londoners now work in real estate, the law, rental businesses,
accountancy and information technology, making up 20 per cent of all the capital's jobs.
The construction industry has seen a massive slump, shedding a quarter of its jobs.
Today's report also includes a borough-by-borough breakdown of the capital's workforce and
reveals huge differences between inner and outer London.
Barking and Dagenham lost a massive 45 per cent of its manufacturing industry. Yet in
Hillingdon, the hotel trade rose by 142 per cent.
The report's author Lovedeep Vaid said today that women were clearly the main
beneficiaries of the white-collar boom. He said: "The capital has become increasingly
dependent on the service industry as its main source of employment. And women are
increasingly taking the top jobs."
The Technology Expert
As a woman in the male-dominated electronics industry, Tina Knight says her female
intuition has helped. As well as heading Nighthawk Electronics in Saffron
Walden she is involved in Women Into Business, a group which encourages more females into
management. Ms Knight employs around 15 staff in her firm. She said: "Women
suffer fools less gladly than men. They do make their own decisions, even if the weight of
opinion is against them. "They follow their gut feelings much more than men.
Listening is one thing, but at the end of the day it is me who is running the
company."
The Accountant
Anita Monteith, 40, wife and mother of three from Dulwich, is a financial consultant. She
also chairs the tax faculty at the Institute of Chartered Accountants, and is a sports
days and parents' evenings with husband Jim. Mrs Monteith got her first job at what
is now Price Waterhouse Coopers before she graduated. Her secret is time-management:
"I'm very organised and plan everything in advance. We have a part-time nanny but I
like to spend time with my family and that may mean working after I've put the children to
bed."
The lawyer
Catherine Newman became a QC in 1995 at the age of 41. She went to grammar school and then
University College, London. Married to stockbroker Ian Gouldsbrough and a mother of
two young children, she has a nanny and a cleaner and says it is vital to balance work and
family: "I get home as early as I can, around 7.15pm, because I like to put the
children to bed. Often I then go back to my chambers and stay until midnight."
The Estate Agent
Award-winning estate agent Joanna
Haydon-Knowell, 48, trained at theatre school with Dennis Waterman and Susan George.
However, she wanted to combine interior design and selling. So she started out as a
junior estate agent in Putney at the age of 36. After a year, she set up JHK in
Muswell Hill. Divorcee Mrs Haydon-Knowell, whose 30-year-old son Oliver works with
her, said: "I won the National Association of Estate Agents' award for the best
business two years ago, and last year the lettings award. "Women have a spatial
awareness and an affinity with the home that men don't." She added:"Women
are generally better communicators, which is important in my business."
© Associated Newspapers Ltd.,