Diversity

The Power of Exclusion – the time for raising awareness is gone

10 March, 2020 By WiC

Women’s career progression continues to be headline news. From the gender pay gap to #MeToo, Time’s Up and the ongoing under-representation of women in executive roles, it’s clear that women need a larger role at the top.

Despite the emphasis on the lack of women at board level, the gender pay gap and the need for greater diversity in management, the recent kickback about female talent development has been fueled by a fear of being seen to be favouring women or discriminating against men by taking steps to increase the ratio.

A report from Talking Talent says that the time for raising awareness is gone. Awareness hasn’t moved the needle. It’s time to take meaningful action.

Not about excluding men

However, it is really important to remember that this is not about excluding men, it’s about providing a platform that facilitates creating content and coaching that is tailored for women. In recognition that women often have a very different experience of their careers by comparison to their male colleagues. And there’s a difference. This isn’t positive discrimination. You’re not hiring a woman instead of a man, you’re nurturing your talent pipeline and ensuring you get the best from every person in your organisation

Not women only

Women-only shouldn’t mean only women. The crucial message is that women-centric is not the same as women only. This is very different to dividing genders, segregating or diminishing. Positive female-focused programmes absolutely must integrate managers and leaders of all genders, providing wrap-around inclusion and awareness sessions that inform and engage the relevant stakeholders. There’s nothing more powerful than men in senior positions promoting programmes for
women and understanding the foundations of female talent and why the organisation needs to protect the pipeline in the first place.

Return on Investment

Females improve financial results. It has been long proven that diverse leadership delivers better financial results. According to McKinsey & Co organisations in the top quartile for executive team gender diversity are reportedly 21% more likely to experience above-average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile.*

Part of the ROI for these female-centric leadership programmes is that you are actively recognising a systemic problem, a shared set of experiences and challenges, for which you are designing a solution to address.

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Visit our searchable Knowledge Bank for a range of reports and studies on gender diversity, leadership and related topics.

Successes and Failures – reflections on women’s progress in 2019

10 March, 2020 By WiC

Liz Walker, Commercial Director at Distinctly, reflects on the successes and failures for women in 2019.

Like any year, 2019 has been a mixture of successes and failures for women’s rights. This is true whether we are talking about the rights of women in employment, women in the wider UK, or for women worldwide. One of the truly positive notes to come from the December 2019 Westminster election was that this Parliament has the most female MPs in history, and for the first time, more than a third of MPs are women. On the other hand, women at intersections with other minority groups, for instance LGBT women or women with disabilities, are facing a more hostile working and living environment than ever before. For International Women’s Day 2020, while we need to celebrate the great strides that have been made, we must also discuss the room for improvement that remains.

Successes

Highest proportion of women in work ever

One of the most positive statistics this year was that in August, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announced that the number of women in employment was at its highest level in history, at 15.46 million. This number has continued to rise into early 2020, with a new record already established at 15.61 million women in employment, equating to 72.4% of the women’s labour market. This continuing growth in women’s employment highlights that employers are becoming far better at hiring female candidates. Given that this growth in women in employment is credited with the growth in the UK economy that has occurred since 2012, this is a fantastic note of positivity.

Rise in working mothers

A major driving factor behind the growth of women in employment is that mothers are now far more likely to continue working, with approximately 72% of working-age mothers now remaining in paid work. While there is still a tendency for women who are parents to move from full-time to part-time work, this is still a positive trend, and has helped lead to a massive rise in the number of dual-earning families. This is believed to have been driven by a rise in flexible working opportunities.

1 in 3 FTSE 100 directors are now women

For the first time in history, 1 in 3 individuals on the boards of FTSE 100 companies are women. While this number falls behind target for the wider FTSE 350, this is still a fantastic growth given that only a decade ago women made up only 12.5% of FTSE 100 board members. With a growth in women in leadership roles, we can expect changes in wider workplace culture to continue at an ever accelerating rate. However, we still need to bear in mind that this is only the start of the change that is needed. The report also stresses the fact that some roles, such as finance directors, are still well below the 33% target, showing there is still significant room for improvement.

Failures

Statistics fail to show underlying problems

Unfortunately, while there are some very positive statistics for 2019, they fail to account for some underlying structural problems. First, women are still expected to be the primary provider of childcare, carrying out 60% more unpaid work than men, especially in terms of childcare provision. This is partly influenced by the fact that Shared Parental Leave, designed to allow parents to split the workload of looking after their newborn between them, has seen abysmal uptake. Only 9,200 new parents used the scheme in 2017/18, which was just over 1% of those eligible, highlighting the fact that cultural changes around childcare are far from complete. This has certainly not been helped by the fact that the cost of childcare for children under 2 has risen by 5%, meaning that in attempting to return to work, many women would actually be incurring a financial cost.

Similar socio-cultural issues can be seen elsewhere — for instance, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), women are still expected to undertake the majority of housework. This is believed to be a major factor behind many parents not taking up full-time roles when they return to work, even where it has a major impact on their pay. These underlying cultural problems are being slowly eroded, but they are still impacting the ability of working women to work in the roles they would like to, due at least in part to the need to balance their responsibilities as primary caregiver to their children against pursuing their careers.

Women are still facing pay-based discrimination, even in government

Mandatory gender pay gap reporting has now existed for companies with 250 employees and above for three years. Despite this fact, women are still routinely being paid less than their male colleagues, with little change to the 11% average pay difference seen over the past two years. Even women employed directly by the government, who purport to be looking to end discrimination against women, are failing to be paid an equal wage for the work they do. While 13 of the 18 government departments large enough to conduct reporting had managed to decrease their gender pay gap, one saw no change, and the remaining four saw an increase. Of the 18 departments, only one, the Department for Work and Pensions, had no reported gender pay gap. This raises serious questions about how the government could possibly hope to succeed in changing the private sector pay gap when it is busy failing its female employees.

Women in niche industries are still being failed by employers

Across the STEM and creative industries, women are still being left behind. While there are definitely positives, such as the number of women engineers doubling in the past decade, and 1 million women now working in STEM occupations, this shift has not been occurring consistently. In some sectors within STEM, women have actually dropped as a percentage of the workforce despite increased numbers, due to an even higher number of men entering these fields. A good example of this is Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) managers, where despite growing every year since 2015, the number of women in SET has dropped heavily as a percentage.

In fact, between June 2018 and June 2019, over 300,000 men entered STEM employment, compared with only 150,000 women. With men thus offering an even larger proportion of the overall talent pool, they are statistically more likely to receive promotions and pay rises, further contributing to the marginalisation of women in the STEM workforce.

This same struggle can be seen in the creative industries. Despite a 30.6% growth in the creative industries between 2011 and 2018, women still make up only 37% of the employees, with a growth rate of under 3% in the past 6 years. Between 2017 and 2018, the number of women in creative fields actually dropped, despite overall growth. Clearly, despite the fact that the picture across the wider workforce looks so positive, for women in STEM or the creative industries, there is a lot of work still to be done. As two major growth industries in the UK for the past decade, continued domination of these fields by men implies that — without major changes — gender imbalance in the UK economy is likely to persist for a long time.

See also Visualizing the data: Women’s representation in society (released by the UN)

Equality of pay and flexible working important to women across the world

12 December, 2019 By WiC

Thumbs up or thumbs down?

New research from Starling Bank, reveals that the gender pay gap is present in 2019 across all but one industry – skilled agricultural workers, such as senior farmers and landscape designers. The remaining 25 industries analysed revealed men to be consistently occupying more of the higher paid jobs within these sectors.

This is consistent with last year where skilled agricultural workers were again the only group where women are paid more than men. Over the last five years, the only other group of employees to reverse the pay gap has been secretaries and receptionists, who are still enjoying near-equal pay in 2019 with a pay gap of 1.6%.

The bonus gender pay gap

It’s not just annual salary that the gender pay gap can be seen in. Bonus pay, or incentive pay, is a financial reward for performance which is paid on top of an employee’s annual salary. Whilst not all industries offer incentive pay, amongst those that do offer and report on bonuses, the pay gap is stark.

Bonus gender pay gap by age

Younger women are beginning to earn equal or near-equal bonuses to their male colleagues but the gap between bonus pay in the over 40s is large.

Check out pay gaps in a variety of sectors using Starling’s online tool

Meanwhile, in the US, The Ivanti Women in Tech Survey 2019 surveyed over 800 women about their experiences and priorities working in the technology industry.

Equality of Pay

The report revealed that pay is still a key issue with 64% stating that equality in pay and benefits is the main factor that would attract them to a new role, while 46% suggested the industry still needs to close the gender pay gap to encourage more women into the industry.

Greater Flexible Working

According to over half of respondents (51%), greater availability of flexible working policies would attract them to a new role, while one third stated that greater support from their employer for part-time work in management positions would help progress their career.

Perception of Glass Ceiling greater than 2018

Interestingly, the perception of a “glass ceiling” holding women in technology back is greater this year than last. As many as 31% cited this as a key challenge, up from last year’s figure of 24%.

Other key findings from the report include:

Nearly 75% of respondents highlighted the importance of industry collaboration and partnership with schools and universities to encourage more women into technology
40% of respondents identified career coaching and mentoring as one of their top three priorities
Compared to last year’s key findings, the number of women who stated that they aren’t taken seriously in the workplace has decreased by 10%. However, this figure is still high at 53%
44% of respondents reported that companies are failing to adequately attract and retain female talent
When asked why women’s professional growth is often slower than their male counterparts’, 62% of respondents cited that stereotypes still favour men in leadership roles and that men and women in similar roles are judged by different criteria
Respondents ranked more employer focus on female advancement and career paths as the top way companies can help to progress women’s careers

Sarah Lewis, director of field marketing at Ivanti, said

Although some progress has been made, women in tech are still battling pay inequality and an organisational culture that continues to favour men in leadership positions. While women in tech movements are challenging the status quo, more needs to be done not only to entice talented women to work in tech but to make sure their aspirations are valued and supported.

Unpaid housework of 26 hours per week equals £11k per annum

30 October, 2019 By WiC

Whilst the number of women in employment is at its highest rate since records began, research by thinkmoney has uncovered that unfortunately, all isn’t as it seems.

After analysing the working patterns of Brits, their research has revealed that women make up two-thirds of all part-time roles. With part-time roles limiting employees progression, financial independence and retirement benefits – it is clear that there’s a part-time gender bias in Britain.

Morever, according to a recent study by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Brits are working two and a half weeks more, per year, than any other country in Europe.

While the average working week has decreased by 18 minutes over the last decade, at this rate it will take 63 years for British working patterns to match those elsewhere in Europe.

Key Findings

Women have more part-time roles than men – across all UK regions.

On average, women make up almost two-thirds (65%) of all part-time roles in the UK.
The ‘part-time gender bias’ is more prevalent in the North-East; women are responsible for almost three-quarters (71%) of all part-time roles

On the other hand, London has the least ‘part-time gender bias’. Women account for 51% of part-time roles (580k) whereas men make up a very close 49% (285k).

Revealed: Women Would Earn £11,009 From Unpaid Housework

With more women in part-time work, they naturally end up completing more work around the house – such as laundry, cleaning and for some, childcare.
However, this has led to women taking on 60% of all unpaid housework – each week women spend 26 hours on this, as opposed to men who complete 16 hours.
If women were to be paid for this housework, they would receive £11,009.

London workers put in the second least paid overtime hours in the country

London has one of the longest working weeks when adding together paid overtime and contractual hours (38.4 hours), but workers in the capital are only reported to work 176.8 hours paid overtime, along with the North East and South West. However, these figures only reflect paid overtime and it’s possible that the unreported, unpaid figures could be much higher.

Employees in South East work the lowest overtime hours

Workers in the South East put in the least paid overtime at only 166.4 hours (24 days). They work 62.4 hours less than Northern Ireland employees, or the equivalent of almost two working weeks.

The TUC estimates five million workers in the UK have put in more than £32 billion unpaid additional hours per year. So, overtime figures could be even higher than reported. Employees in Wales gave an extra £819 million of free labour in 2017.

Read about other geographical areas

It’s time to call an end to sexual harassment in the City

15 October, 2019 By WiC

In this article, Kaajal Nathwani, Senior Associate, Employment Law, Curwens LLP gives an overview of the law in relation to sexual harassment.

#Metoo

Since the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke in October 2017, the #MeToo hash tag continues to trend across social media on a global scale revealing the widespread prevalence of sexual discrimination and harassment in the workplace.
The floodgates have stayed open with countless scandals dominating the media, outing even the rich and famous, bringing both the unsuspecting and respected professions into disrepute.

British actresses Emma Watson and Kate Winslet, amongst others signed an open letter of intent at the height of the furore stating:

This movement is bigger than just a change in our industry alone. This movement is intersectional, with conversations against race, class, community, ability and work environment, to talk about the imbalance and abuse of power.

Say no

They, together with others have called for an end to what appears to have been ‘tolerance’ of sexual harassment, abuse and discrimination across all industry sectors, instead of saying no.

Thousands of women have found the strength through the public rise of the movement and the countless support groups which have been created, to speak out about the appalling extent of discrimination they have suffered. However there remain an even larger number who are still too scared to speak up, and continue to believe what they went through could never truly be (sexual) harassment; the silent victims. Many struggle to deal with the mental and physical effects of discriminatory treatment which is often the reason why they stay quiet for so long.

What is sexual harassment?

The Equality Act 2010 generally defines sexual harassment as unwanted conduct related to sex (behaviour) which has the effect of violating dignity or creating a hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.

There is a second definition which relates to unwanted conduct of a sexual nature which has the same purpose or effect as in the general definition. Whilst there is clearly some overlap, conduct of a sexual nature covers verbal and non-verbal physical conduct including unwelcome sexual advances, touching, forms of sexual assault, jokes, display of pornographic photos or images, and sending emails with content of a sexual nature.

Even if the conduct may not have been carried out by the perpetrator with the ‘purpose’ of having that effect (for example: ‘joke’ messages, or expecting the female to always pour the tea in meetings), if it has that ‘effect’ (someone is offended by it and does feel violated), it is deemed unlawful, if it is ‘reasonable’ for the conduct to have had that effect.

This gives another layer to the law, whilst this is considered a controversial test the law prevents those who may be oversensitive making claims in situations which no one else would consider as offensive.

What is unwanted?

Certain types of conduct are deemed unwelcome, unless invited. With less obvious behaviour, case law has provided guidance that the question to be asked in the context of each individual situation is whether the person, by virtue of their words or behaviour, has made it clear that they found the conduct unwelcome. There is no need to draw public attention, for example walking out of the room may be sufficient to demonstrate that the conduct was unwelcome. The test is that a “reasonable person” needs to understand that the recipient was rejecting the conduct.

On our doorstep

Whilst the #Metoo movement is global, the City of London is no stranger to the culture of sexual harassment and bullying in the workplace. Most recently, the insurance giant Lloyds of London has been publically vilified for condoning and even covering up an institutional culture of sexual harassment. A report revealed that 1 in 10 staff had witnessed sexual harassment whilst working for the City veteran.

A feature by Bloomberg Businessweek contained testimonies from female executives, with one referring to the office environment as a “meat market”, and another saying the harassment against women was “constant.” When has it ever been acceptable to hire the most attractive female assistants, or call females names such as “girls” or “totty”? Never is the answer, but this is the carry on, day in day out.

Silenced

The legal sector is also vulnerable to allegations of harassment. Historically renowned as a male dominated profession, there continues to be a gender imbalance at the top. Several women were interviewed by the Financial Times and one lawyer is reported to have said;

You don’t want to be labelled a troublemaker, someone who is not part of the banter, part of the club”; whilst a pupil barrister who endured groping by a senior staff member as well as a barrage of bouquets and sexually explicit letters from a client who became obsessed with her said “It never occurred to me that complaining was a possibility.”

Last week, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard that a male magic circle Partner groped an ‘exceptionally drunk’ junior female colleague after a night of drinking. The female in her twenties told the tribunal that on the same evening, he commented on her body, touched her and climbed on top of her after entering her flat following a shared taxi ride, to use the bathroom. When he continued to touch her she said she ‘tried to stop him’ but ‘couldn’t really push him off’.

The victim said that the events had left her feeling “numb” and not “brave, strong or senior enough” to raise a complaint during her time at the firm; an all too familiar story.
As the case concluded this week, the tribunal panel found that the Partner had breached two of the 10 Solicitors Regulation Authority principles: that lawyers must act with integrity; and behave in a way that maintains the public’s trust in both the profession and in the provision of legal services and ordered that the male partner pay a fine of £35,000, court costs of £200,000. He subsequently resigned from his position.

How can the law change

The Government Equalities Office consultation on Sexual Harassment in the workplace concluded on 2 October 2019. One of the questions asked was whether there should there be a change in the law, to extend time limits to bring claims of sex discrimination in the Employment Tribunal?

Surely, an extension to the current 3 month time limit (excluding any extensions applied by participation in the ACAS Early Conciliation process) is needed to account for the reality of sexual harassment and the impact on victims which inevitably results in months if not years before they feel strong enough to speak out, let alone bring any legal claim? Just look at the Weinstein allegations which recently surfaced but which stem back decades; time which has stood still for his many victims. Time should not play a factor in the ability to have access to justice in such sensitive circumstances.

The consultation report documents that anecdotal evidence suggests in cases of sexual harassment, that it may be some time before an individual comes to terms with the incident, and/or is able to even identify it as an unlawful (often criminal) act. Once someone has identified an act as unlawful, and decided that they wish to take formal action, their first step will be to engage their organisation’s internal grievance process. If the internal process is unsuccessful, they may then seek legal advice before progressing further. All of this could take months, if not years.

Whilst there is a compelling case for extending the Employment Tribunal time limit for discrimination cases, especially Sex Discrimination and Harassment, the real question remains, how long will ever be enough? Should there be a time bar at all?

If you have been a victim of sexual harassment or discrimination in the workplace, you are advised to raise an internal complaint to your employer via the grievance procedure and/or seek legal advice. In certain circumstances, it may be appropriate to report the matter directly to the Police.

The current time limit for issuing a claim in the employment tribunal is 3 months less one day from the alleged act of discrimination. It is mandatory to initiate the ACAS pre claim conciliation process before legal proceedings can be issued. Extensions to the three month time limit will be applied depending on the time spent in the early conciliation process. For further details please see the ACAS website.

Sources of help

Sexual Harassment Help Line
(Confidential Help Line run by Rights of Women)

Talk to Spot
(A confidential way for you to log experiences of harassment. Some companies subscribe to and use Spot internally, but you can use it for free as an individual.)