Women could soon be taking over the traditional role of breadwinner, stereotypically held by men, according to Britain’s chief executive of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.

The new research reveals that young women aged 22 to 29 are now being paid more, on average, than their male counterparts.

According to a survey by the Chartered Management Institute, female bosses in their 20’s are now paid more than their male counterparts doing the same job. The survey also revealed that salaries for women increased by 2.4 percent in the past year to February, while salaries for men increased by 2.1 percent. However, the report said that women executives still earned 25 percent less than men when all age groups were taken into account.

These findings were based on a survey of 34,000 managers. This closing gender pay gap follows years of increased educational achievement by women and men and the continually evolving viewpoint held by employers that women are more ambitious and efficient.

Mary Curnock Cook, chief executive of the Universities and College Admission Service said the effect could be a result of higher numbers of better-qualified women coming into the work place. Cook also believes that the role reversal could lead to more women entering the workforce while their partners stay home to take advantage of their higher earning potential.

“To me this is a particularly interesting point because if in their mid-twenties women are earning more than men, this opens the possibility that we could see a tipping point at which it becomes more the norm for women – as the higher earners in a family – to return to full-time work, leaving their men folk to play the part of main career for children in the family,” said Cook,  as she gave the Elizabeth Johnson memorial lecture at the Institute of Physics.

“That could have a profound effect on the representation of women in senior roles and their pay rates across the spectrum,” she stated.