The number of women resigning from information technology jobs in the United Kingdom has risen over the last year, and the pay gap between the genders has widened for the first time in 11 years, recent surveys reveal.

Research from the Chartered Management Institute and pay researcher Remuneration Economics shows that 5.7 percent of women working in IT resigned from their roles in 2006, a rise of 2.1 percent from the previous year.

In terms of pay, women saw an average pay rise of 2.9%, compared to a 3.1% increase for men, the first time in 11 years that men's earnings have risen more than women's.

But the National Management Salary Survey found that British female managers enjoy faster promotion than men, with a 37-year-old woman working as a team leader typically five years younger than her male counterpart.

Women are also more likely to receive a bonus than men, with just less than half in the IT sector (46.5 percent) receiving one-off bonus payments in 2006, compared to 30.8 percent of men. But these bonuses tend to be about 30% lower than men's—and make up a lower proportion of the total pay packet.

Compared to other sectors, women in IT are only the fifth most likely to resign: in the retail sector, 11.7 percent of female employees resigned in 2006, compared to 5.7 percent of female tech workers.