Whatever the truth of the aphorism that a mother's place is in the wrong, it seems that working mothers, at least, are in the wrong place. Or so concludes the Women and Work Commission (WWC), whose long-awaited report on the causes of the “gender pay gap”, the difference between men's and women's hourly earnings, was published on February 27th. The commission found that the pay gap (British women in full-time work currently earn 17% less per hour than men) was due not so much to a pattern of paying women less than men for doing the same job as to something far harder to root out. Women are making the wrong choices early in their careers and sliding into dead-end part-time jobs after they have children, with serious consequences for their lifetime earnings.

　　According to the WWC, the gender pay gap opens early. Boys and girls study different subjects in school, and boys' subjects lead to more lucrative careers. As a result, average hourly pay for a woman at the start of her working life is only 91% of a man's, even though nowadays she is probably better qualified.

　　摇摇篮的手

　　不管“妈妈处于不公平的地位”这句话是否真实，至少有工作的母亲似乎是处于不公平地位的。2月27日发表的、期待已久的“妇女与工作委员会”有关造成性别工薪差距原因和男女小时工资的差别的报告得出了这样一个结论。委员会发现造成工薪差距的（英国全日制女工每小时挣得比男工少17%）原因不全是习惯上的男女同工不同酬，而是有着更加难以根除的原因。妇女开始工作时就作出了错误的决定，生了孩子后就陷入了做临时工的死胡同，导致的严重后果就是终生收入受影响。

　　根据“妇女和工作委员会”的研究，性别工薪差距起因很早。男孩和女孩在学校学的专业不同，男孩学的专业能使他们找到获利更加丰厚的职业。结果妇女平均每小时的工资在刚开始工作时就只有男人的91%，即使如今某位女性可能比男人能力更强。