Are women achieving a work-life balance?

Women have exceeded the number of men working in the optical profession for more than a decade now. The General Optical Council reported the number of female dispensing opticians exceeded the number of males for the first time in 2003 and the number of female optometrists exceeded males in 2005 and this trend has steadily continued. Currently, female optical professionals account for 59% of the fully qualified GOC register, while 70.3% of new undergraduates this year were female.

Modern optical practices are frequently open for late nights and at weekends compared to a generation ago when they stuck to Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, enabling many practitioners, including women with children, to work more flexible hours. The 2015 Optical Workforce Survey, led by the College of Optometrists, found that millennials (born in the 1980s and 1990s) place a greater emphasis than previous generations on maintaining a good work-life balance and flexible working is the main career preference for optometrists and dispensing opticians.