International Women's Day
ePolitix.com Stakeholders comment on the issue of gender in the workplace in the run up to International Women's Day, which has been marked with debates in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
Comment from:
Stakeholder response: ACCA
To send a comment to the ACCA, click here
Clare Minchington, managing director of learning and technical policy, said: "It is clear improvement is needed in efforts to put women in the forefront of the business world – whether it is at FTSE 100 level or in the SME sector. But whether the Norwegian mandate model is used - a law passed in 2006 which demanded that 40 per cent of a corporate board must be given to women within a two-year period - is a whole other debate which needs to be furthered.
"However, one model we can certainly emulate is that of the US where the rate of female entrepreneurship is twice the rate to that of the UK."
Stakeholder response: British Retail Consortium
To send a comment to the BRC, click here
A spokesperson said: "The retail sector leads the way on diversity. It employs 3 million people and over 62 per cent of those are women. Across the UK workforce generally it is primarily women that take up flexible working opportunities, enabling them to work around child care responsibilities or further study.
"While doing so presents associated difficulties for women in other sectors, the retail industry presents an excellent opportunity to work flexibly without sacrificing career progression.
"The nature of the retail industry means staff can tailor their working hours to suit their needs. To a certain extent, all jobs in stores are part-time, as no employee will work all the hours during which a store is open. However, 60 per cent of all workers work part-time hours and 68 per cent of all women employees in the sector work part-time. As a result, the sector provides unparalleled opportunities for flexible working and unlike many other industries, take-up of flexible working is no bar to career development and promotion.
"As well as tailoring weekly hours to suit individual needs, the sector also offers a number of other flexible opportunities, such as school hours working, term-time working and annualised hours. In recognition of the fact that family matters may arise at short notice, there are also a number of additional flexible arrangements such as shift-swap and store-swap which can be made at short notice, as well as generous parental leave entitlement.
"In terms of career development, any member of staff showing potential, irrespective of hours, will be given opportunities to progress within the business.
"Whilst we acknowledge there remains a gender gap at senior management and board level across UK industry as a whole, the retail sector has been leading the way in developing original methods to address these imbalances. Many of our members have carried out extensive research within their businesses to pinpoint the reasons for gender disparity at senior levels.
"In order to address the training needs, enhance confidence and encourage women to progress, these businesses operate networking groups and mentoring schemes specifically for women.
"The BRC has established a diversity working group and members include most of the large high street retailers. The forum provides a useful opportunity for members to exchange ideas and share experience to enhance diversity and nurture talent within their businesses. We hope other industries will follow retail's example to ensure equal opportunities for all staff and that all talent is recognised, nurtured and valued."
Stakeholder response: Chartered Management Institute
To send a comment to the CMI, click here
Petra Wilton, head of public affairs, said: "International Women’s Day is a reminder of the challenges that remain for female managers. One of the most obvious issues is the gender pay gap. Our 2007 National Management Salary Survey with Remuneration Economics showed men's pay rises outpacing women's for the first time in over a decade, with women’s resignations at a five-year high.
"In fact, the pay gap has widened at all management levels, from team-leaders and middle management as well as in the boardroom. At director level, the gap is some 23 per cent, up from 20 per cent in the 2006 survey.
"Worryingly, this is despite that fact that women are enjoying faster career progression than their male colleagues. The average female team leader is 37, five years younger than her male counterpart. Women also achieve director roles at a younger age than men, aged 44 as opposed to 48.
"So it's clear that the pull of promotion isn't being matched by parity in pay.
"While it is welcome that Parliament has again debated these problems, employers also need to be debating the solutions – and taking action. The best employers have gone a long way to offering innovative solutions to the problems that their female managers have identified.
"For instance, flexible working, improved support around maternity leave and a focus on skills development over time can help women to overcome some of the barriers to career progression that they've historically faced.
"As Lord Haskel noted in the Lords' debate yesterday, the number of female professional managers is rising, as we've seen with increasing numbers of women among the Chartered Management Institute's membership.
"The Institute's Women in Management Network provides a valuable support network to women managers across all sectors and encourages the exchange of ideas, good practice and impartial practical advice. The Network's Eleanor Macdonald Memorial Lecture in Parliament on March 17 will be an excellent chance to further discuss how we can tackle the challenges facing women managers today."
Stakeholder response: Intellect
To send a comment to Intellect, click here
A spokesperson from Intellect commented: "Greater diversity leads to a higher level of innovation, creativity, productivity, stability and over all competitiveness. There is a very strong business case for diversity, yet gender remains a significant and worsening issue.
"All of our work in this area indicates that the technology industry is failing to retain women: they are leaving faster than they can be recruited and few are in senior positions. In addition, the number of women working in the industry is lower in Britain than it is in many other European countries. Consequently, Britain as a whole is losing out on skills, which can have a knock-on effect on productivity.
"Anecdotal evidence from a survey we conducted last year on perceptions of equal pay highlights how many women are turning away from careers in technology because of perceptions of inequality. Additional research from Intellect indicates the number of women employed in the IT sector has fallen to just 16 per cent.
"Unequal pay is fuelling this problem. Yet, the technology industry, which currently contributes around £120bn or 10 per cent of GDP to the economy, is suffering from an acute skills shortage. Attracting and retaining women in the industry could increase the industry's contribution to GDP by several billion pounds now and in the future.
"Our survey demonstrated how important transparent pay structures are. Over three-quarters of respondents said that if a company conducted an equal pay audit it would encourage them to work for the organisation. Yet, only four per cent were aware that their companies conduct these audits.
"Intellect urges the private sector to follow the lead of the public sector and implement equal pay audits as soon as possible. Such pay audits are inexpensive and are not time-consuming to conduct and are a valuable tool, for the smallest company, right up to the largest organisation. SMEs should not be put off by thinking that they are too expensive because they are not."
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