Laura Farris is the MP for Newbury and Co-Chair of the Women & Work APPG
It wasn’t meant to be this way. When the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Women & Work got cracking last year, we set our sights high. Female employment was at record levels and the gender pay gap was close to zero for those under-40. Our focus on ‘wellbeing’ was supposed to address how workplaces could be improved for women, not whether they would be in them at all.
The last 12 months have revealed how fragile women’s employment can be. While the government's unprecedented furlough scheme has been a vital lifeline that has saved many many jobs, a number of studies have concluded that women have disproportionately borne the brunt of job losses and reduced income.
Sometimes the reason is sectoral – hospitality, retail and beauty have been particularly hard hit by this pandemic and employ large numbers of women. Sometimes it is economic – where low-paid roles have been dispensed with first. And sometimes it is a corollary of motherhood – where women have left their jobs, whether through redundancy or resignation, because they cannot simultaneously work and homeschool their children. The tsunami of the pandemic has highlighted the societal inequalities that persist in the home.
So how do we address this? First, our report recommends a Women’s Employment Taskforce to advise on specific policies to bolster female employment. This could include industry experts, trade union leaders and economists and, so far, the Department of Business (BEIS) has responded positively to this idea.
Second, we hope the Treasury are able to introduce additional economic measures to stimulate female employment, even if indirectly. The Government has demonstrated how effective targeted support can be – the Kickstart Scheme aimed at youth employment being a prime example. Reinstating the ‘furlough retention bonus’ could incentivise employers to bring back staff, particularly those on low pay (more likely be female).
Third, is the importance of mandatory Gender Pay Gap reporting (which makes a welcome return this October). This isn’t about saddling businesses with red tape, but about asking them to provide clear data around the numbers of women they employ and what, on average, they pay them. Pay disparities do not mean the same roles are remunerated differently. But to date they have revealed that the top earners in most organisations are men. And this has galvanised many organisations to look again at recruitment and promotional structures and implement improvements.
But it’s not all bad news. For many employees, the pandemic provided a year-long pilot on flexible working. And whilst many of us are probably yearning for office gossip and after-work drinks, the evidence shows that the benefit most valued by employees (after pay) is flexible working in some form. Greater autonomy over the work/life balance is linked to improved productivity and the retention of women. And when the dust settles on the last year, this is something I hope we can harness.