But look more closely and see how the gap changes. Between the ages of 25 to 29, women participated just slightly more than men in the same age group, at 91.1 per cent compared with 87.5 per cent respectively.
Here’s the rub: This number dips for women in their 30s (90 per cent), but increases for men (97.6 per cent). By their late 40s, 82.7 per cent of women work compared with 96.1 per cent of their male counterparts.
This is something Ms Koh hears all the time, she told me in CNA’s Work It podcast limited series, The Leader’s Chair.
“There are a lot of examples of women who had to, in a way, ‘sacrifice’ their career development because of family. There have been too many stories I’ve heard, too many friends I know who had to give up their career,’’ she said.
And when the two meet at an inflection point, women choose to pick up the caregiving. She put it down to expectations women have of themselves, a way of thinking that is so entrenched they sometimes don’t even realise it.
This is why mothers are the first ones teachers call when their kids are sick or in trouble, said Ms Koh. They are the ones who run to the doctor or wake up early to make sandwiches.