Women are forced into lower-paid, traditional ‘female’ jobs because the education system is letting them down, according to a report issued by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC).

The education and training that is available guides girls and boys into jobs that are typically done by their sex: childcare for girls, engineering and plumbing for boys. This damaged women’s potential to earn a good salary, said the report, “because jobs with a mostly female workforce pay much less than those where it is mostly male”.

Women from better-off backgrounds managed to carve out careers in better paid jobs such as medicine and law, but those from poorly paid families did not enjoy the same access to careers advice and training opportunities, said the report.

The EOC’s survey found that 80% of girls and 55% of boys would be interested in learning to do a non-traditional job.