As International Women’s Day this year focuses on embracing equity, new research* reveals that the gender pay gap in independent management consultancy continues to rise.

Despite multiple initiatives in favour of gender equality, such as shared parental leave, extended paternity leave, and flexible working, women are also still in the minority in the consulting sector, particularly at partner level.

Women in the independent consulting sector
The number of women in the independent consulting sector has increased from 19% in 2021 to 22% today – with 73% of those being over the age of 30 and 24% over 51 years of age.

Despite the increase in the number of women consulting, the latest data shows that the gender pay gap amongst independent management consultants in the UK has increased to 13% – with women earning on average £122 per day less than their male peers. This compares to a lower gender pay gap of 4% in France.

Popular industries
The share of women has also evolved according to sectoral expertise. Within the community, women are better represented in the textile (32%), pharmaceutical (28%) and biotechnology (28%) sectors, while they are only 10% or less in the electrical engineering, shipbuilding and industrial equipment sectors.

The top 3 areas of expertise reported by women in the network are marketing & communication, branding, and skills management & employee training, where they represent approximately 1/3 of the profiles. IT architecture, asset optimisation and IT strategy are the functional areas with the lowest proportion of women, with 7%, 9% and 10% respectively.

*Comatch (acquired by Malt in 2022)