Bridging gap.

Minister for Women Ruth Kelly has launched a new drive to step up efforts to reduce the gender pay gap and promote better work-life balance throughout the workplace.

She announced that more than 100 firms and organisations have signed up to a Exemplar Employer scheme since its launch in September.

The scheme requires organisations to give a clear commitment to reducing the gender pay gap through projects ranging from encouraging women to find out and enter into jobs traditionally done mostly by men, to supporting mothers to return to work, to creating better quality opportunities for staff working part-time. The first wave of organisations signed up range from high street names such as Asda to city companies such as Goldman Sachs to Parcelforce to construction firms.

Schemes include:

Online job-share registers to support women returning from maternity.

Projects to retain women at a senior management level through mentoring schemes.

Support groups for parents.

Flexible working intranet sites.

Parent support groups to help make childcare arrangements easier.

Behind-the-scene days and apprentice schemes in engineering and construction.

Ms Kelly also launched and opened bids for a new Quality Part-Time Work Fund, available to employers to finance trouble-shooters who will advise on how to create and retain more part time jobs for women at a senior level. Both the Exemplar Employer and quality part-time work schemes have been created by the Government in response to the Women & Work Commission report, which looked at the causes of the gender pay gap. Creating a more flexible working world was one of the key recommendations made by the Commission as a way to increase the number of women in the workplace.

Ms Kelly said: "Just because a woman trades down her hours does not mean she should have to trade down her status. The best employers understand the hard-headed business reasons for extending quality flexible and part-time roles for women".