International Women’s Day
Date published:
Marianne O’Sullivan, Policy Advisor latest column for The Journal
With international women’s day this week, and with many firms reporting difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff, employers need to look at what they can offer to female employees o help them to progress in the workplace.
The Chamber’s Women’s Leadership Forum has been focussing on reducing the gender pay gap in the North East. It has produced a toolkit for businesses with some ideas of how businesses can start to take steps including prioritising training and mentoring activity and looking at recruitment processes.
At the Chamber we’ve also recently had Sharon MacArthur ‘Miss Menopause’ deliver training to managers with advice on how to create a menopause-friendly workplace. This can include allowing flexible working to help women who are experiencing irregular sleep patterns and access to quiet spaces with a cooler environment.
Improving access to childcare is also key to supporting women to progress in the workplace. The Chamber has recently written to Government highlighting the need for changes to childcare including lowering the age at which children are eligible for subsidised childcare, ensuring both parents have access to properly paid parental leave and increasing the amount of paternity leave.
Analysis by the Women’s Budget Group suggests that an investment in free childcare would create 1.7 million full-time jobs and increase women’s employment by 6.4%. In a 2021 survey of more than 20,000 working parents only a small number (16%) of women said childcare had not affected their seniority or income at work.
The theme for this year’s international women’s day was gender equality for a sustainable tomorrow. A survey from PwC in 2021 showed that 63% of respondents supported investment in green jobs but just one fifth (20%) of women believe they have the skills they need to work in a green job, compared to nearly one third (31%) of men.
We need to ensure that women are able to access green jobs in the future by removing barriers to adult education and training opportunities. The Government’s recently published Levelling Up White Paper includes a mission to increase the number of people undertaking high quality training, including women in these opportunities will be essential in creating a balanced workforce in the future.
In the Chamber we are continuing to do our best to highlight what can be done to support and develop women in their careers. We will all be missing out on so much talent if we don’t help everyone reach their potential.