The Office of National Statistics has released a report (coincidentally less than a month after the Women and Work Commission came out with their own report on the significant gender pay gap in the UK) on how good British women have it in the workplace:

Women's employment has increased from a rate of 56 per cent in 1971 to 70 per cent in 2005. . .This is equivalent to four million more women in work over the last 35 or so years, with much of the increase driven by the rise in working mothers.

Over the 10 years to spring 2005, the employment rate for married or cohabiting mothers increased by six per cent and the rate for lone mothers rose by 14 per cent, reflecting increases in both full-time and part-time employment.

In response, the Equal Opportunities Commission made it a point to show that the ONS figures skews the pay gap for working mothers by using the median full-time gender pay gap of 13 percent, while almost two-thirds of women with kids under the age of 12 work part-time. (Where the pay gap is almost 40 percent.) As their spokesperson said:

"These figures are nothing to celebrate. Although more women are in work, the real question is - where are they in the workplace?"