Women may make up the majority of the Island's work force, but they're getting paid an average of $10,000 a year less than men, according to a just-released report.

The Final Report of the Task Force on Women's Issues said despite the fact that women comprised 53 percent of Bermuda's work force, "residual attitudes and traditional thinking still position men as primary wage earners and women as primary care givers''.

And despite the fact that women in Bermuda were generally better educated that men, the median annual income for women was just under $30,000 while for men it was $40,000.

"Across the board, women earn 75 cents on the dollar compared with men's salaries,'' the report stated.

According to the report, the top three employers for women were in retail, banking and education.

On Friday, Legislative Affairs and Women's Issues Minister Yvette Swan unveiled the final report of The Task Force on Women's Issues.

"This report is doing what it says, it is giving us the status on women,'' Mrs. Swan had said.

But she was quick to point out that the report was not a slight against men and noted that many of the issues identified in the report applied to the whole community.

The report also uncovered: Girls still tend to be guided towards careers in traditionally female fields.

And it used the example of the information technology field where girls were most likely to be advised to become users of the technology while boys were encouraged to become developers of that technology; Single mothers formed a large part of Bermuda's lower economic levels; The question of whether or not women planned to have children was still asked in job interviews, directly or indirectly, even though to do so was illegal, a fact not widely known; Although 19 percent of the full-time Police officers were women, only one had risen above the rank of Inspector; Of the 78 Government boards examined in 1997, only nine were chaired by women and no parish councils were chaired by women; and Men still dominated senior management positions in the Civil Service. Of the five permanent secretaries, one is a woman and of the 61 department heads, 13 are women.

But the Task Force said that women were well represented, and in fact outnumbered men, in the education field.

"The hierarchy of the Ministry of Education, from Permanent Secretary down, is dominated by women: 80 percent of education officers are women and all senior education officers are women.'' Mrs. Swan said: "Generally the findings show that women have made great strides in recent times. In a positive vein, women have made positive strides but there is discrimination and a glass ceiling.'' Among the 190 recommendations, the Task Force suggested: An emergency housing facility for women; Establishing an Equal Opportunity Commission through an Equal Opportunity Act; An Equal Pay Act; That Government initiate the process to extend to Bermuda the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women; Forming a Domestic Violence Intervention Unit within the Police Service staffed by officers who had received special training in these issues; and Setting and enforcing a deadline for mandatory accreditation of mammography equipment and its operators.

Mrs. Swan had added that overall Bermuda was "right on track'' with respect to women's issues.

"We're right on track, although we weren't always,'' she said. "The position of women is not that bad, but there are some anomalies to be corrected.'' And she invited the public to give her its reaction to the report which will be debated in the Legislature in the fall.

The Task Force was established in December, 1995 to review and assess the status of women in Bermuda. It was also charged with recommending legislation, policy initiatives and programmes.

Chaired by MP Kim Young, the committee looked at issues like employment, domestic violence and child care.