Women directors are paying a huge personal price to keep up with their male colleagues.

They are twice as likely to be divorced, three times as likely to be single and work longer hours.

There is still gross inequality when it comes to pay with just over a quarter of women directors earning more than £100,000 compared to 42 per cent of men in similar positions.

NatWest Black Card and Director magazine, which carried out the research, said the survey exploded the argument that women can "have it all".

Instead women often experience a dramatic drop in their quality of life when striving to reach the top in the male-dominated world of business.

The study of UK company directors shows the typical business leader is a married man, aged between 46 and 65 and educated to degree level.

However, women are rapidly rising through the ranks.

Across the board, there are ten times as many male business leaders as women but in the 26-36 age group, there are three times as many women business leaders as men.

But the research suggests equality is coming at a price.

Only 52 per cent of female directors are married compared to 82 per cent of men and 12 per cent of women were divorcees compared to five per cent of men.

Women also give up more time for less reward. Only one in five men give up one day of their weekend to work compared with one in four women.

This suggests women have to sacrifice more of their personal time in order to reach the top. However, men and women directors have the same attitude to annual leave - nearly half don't take all their holiday.

Fay Hogg, spokesperson for NatWest Black Card, said: "The younger generation of directors shows women climbing up the corporate ladder faster than their male colleagues.

"However, this success is often fuelled by working longer hours and sacrificing more of their personal time and happiness.

"Although today's female directors are breaking through the glass ceiling, success still comes at a cost."

Diana Horner, founder of the Sussex Women's Alternative Network group and director of an events management business in Brighton, said: "A lot of these issues revolve around childcare which is still seen as the woman's job.

"A lot of women directors play 'catch-up', either in the evenings or at the weekend, to get all their work done. I think employers should recognise this and build more flexibility into the working week."

She added: "Women who become a director at a big company may find themselves earning less because they have gaps on their CV where they took time out to have a child.

"I think a lot of employers probably use this as an excuse."

Jo Clayton runs her own concierge company and is one of the founder members of the Brighton and Hove branch of Women in Business. She felt the bones of the survey were sickeningly true.

She said:"Women are better at multi-tasking. A lot of them run a business, look after children and do yoga on a Tuesday night. They are dynamic but also putting a jolly brave face on it.

"Women still have to work longer hours and get paid less to reach the same position as men but I think they are determined to make it look as easy as possible.

"If those are currently the rules of the game there's no point whingeing about it - you will not get any sympathy."

Last week UK Independence Party MEP Godfrey Bloom caused outrage when he said that "no self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age".

Joanna Higgins, editor of Director magazine, said the survey revealed small business directors were the hardest workers.

She said: "Many men and women have a real passion for what they do and enjoy the hard work. The trick is persuading them to balance that with some time for reflection."

Thursday July 29, 2004