Some two million working women in the UK may be missing out on opportunities to develop their careers, whilst their male counterparts take the lead, according to research out today.

A survey commissioned by management training provider Cambridge Online Learning, revealed that twice as many women as men have missed out on training due largely to domestic demands or because they only work part-time. The survey showed that 15% of women had missed out on training opportunities as opposed to 7% of men.

Respondents said that the key obstacle to undertaking training was the lack of child-care provision, closely followed by domestic demands, such as needing to care for a relative. Part-time working also posed a problem, causing women to feel less entitled to training than full-time staff.

These results show that society still has some way to go before it can fulfil the ideal of working environments that fully support and recognise the abilities of women. As Denise Kingsmill CBE said in her 2001 report on women's employment and pay, on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills, 'now is the time to engender a step change'. Kingsmill recognised the disproportionate number of women working in lower paid, lower status jobs and their under-representation in management.

Angela Allen, Women's Management Consultant for Cambridge Online Learning, pointed to the imbalance between opportunities for men and women, saying: "Not one man in our survey cited lack of child care provision as a hindrance to training, yet it proved to be the biggest issue for women. There is still a widespread assumption that women are the homemakers and are therefore expected to bypass their career prospects in favour of family responsibilities."

Whilst there is clearly a long way to go to achieving equal training rights for men and women, the figures do, at least, suggest that the population as a whole has good access to training. 90% of respondents had experienced no problems in enrolling on or completing training courses.