On the 8th of March each year, International Women’s Day provides organisations with a reason to celebrate the achievements of not just women in their industries and sectors, but women within their organisations too, for everything they’ve achieved and accomplished.
The EDI drive we have seen gaining real traction over recent years has placed underrepresented groups, including women in the workplace, at the forefront of discussions. Organisations want to do better and we’re seeing a purposeful movement towards providing equity and inclusivity in not only our personal lives but our working lives as well.
Yet, simply pledging allegiance to EDI publicly is not enough to make real change. Organisations need strategies and to map out initiatives to achieve their EDI targets.
Looking at the workforce through a people and culture lens can help us understand how we can get there.
With advice and guidance directly from our People and Organisation Development Manager, Ruth Wragg Jones, we illustrate the areas of organisation development which can help businesses to take a strategic view when it comes to creating true equity for women in the workforce.
In this article, we will look at the following area:
- Issues faced by women in work
- What are the root causes of workplace inequality?
- How organisation development can aid equality in the workplace.
Issues faced by women in the workplace
Whilst the number of women in the workplace has been continually rising (from 57% in 1975, to 78% in 2017), we are still seeing an uneven playing field in many aspects of employment.
In an attempt to bring things back to an even keel, the UK has implemented several pieces of legislation since the 1970s such as:
Despite this, over 5 decades on, women are still facing issues at work.
Let’s take a look at some of the main challenges women face when comparing their career journey to that of a man’s in the workplace.
Disparity in salaries
It’s common knowledge that there is a gender pay gap. Statistics from ONS show us that men make up the majority of workers in the top 10% of earners.
The UK saw gender pay gap reporting become compulsory for organisations over 250 employees, yet has this only made the issue more transparent, rather than tackling it?
Slowed progression
Whilst, according to the Women in the Workplace report by McKinsey, the number of women in C-suite roles has increased from 17% to 28%, women are still lagging behind when it comes to climbing the career ladder.
Women are only representing one in four C-suite leaders.
The report goes on to highlight that 80% of women in the workplace do have the desire and ambition to be promoted, so why aren’t organisations placing women into these senior roles?
Gender bias stereotypes
The centuries-old belief that women are not “meant” to be in paid employment underlies many behaviours in the workplace today.
These beliefs have resulted in detrimental stereotypes of women in the workplace, often leading to gender identity-based microaggressions.
Whilst this may be seen as a small issue from the minority, these stereotypes are sometimes the reason why many women are overlooked for promotions or pay rises.
What are the root causes of workplace inequality?
Even today, women are still struggling in the world of work. But why? Let’s consider some of the underlying reasons that contribute to this inequality in the workplace.
Pregnancy and maternity leave
Although positive changes have been implemented such as shared parental leave, organisations still aren’t seeing high levels of uptake in this area. As a result, women are the ones taking the hit on their careers rather than men when it comes to time off to care for a new baby.
It is still predominantly women who take prolonged periods of time off to have children. This could be in the form of a few months away from work, or longer gaps in employment. Statistics show that fewer than one in five new mothers return to full-time work after maternity leave. Furthermore, 17% of women leave employment altogether.
Caring responsibilities
A BBC survey found that 71% of women “felt they had assumed most of the responsibility for childcare”.
Statistics released by the ONS also highlight that men with children are more likely to work than those without, whereas it’s the opposite picture for women.
Having children of school age can be problematic for individuals looking to work full-time, especially when their roles aren’t able to offer them flexibility in the hours they operate. Consequently, more women are having to move to part-time hours – this percentage increased from 29% in 1985 to 44% in 2017.
Individuals who care for elderly relatives also spend considerable hours providing care, often in excess of 20 hours each week. Figures show that around 500,000 people leave employment each year to provide care and the majority of those individuals are women.
Caring responsibilities for women, be that childcare, facilitating wrap-around care, or even caring for elderly relatives, can impede women’s careers.
Menstruation, menopause and other reproductive reasons
Women in the workplace can face significant challenges navigating reproductive health issues, which can often result in needing regular time off.
The CIPD found that 69% of women have had a negative experience at work because of symptoms associated with their menstruation and more than 50% report that they have had to take time off work.
Symptoms of menopause can also seriously impact a woman’s ability to undertake her normal day-to-day role. A staggering 3 out of 4 women experience symptoms connected to menopause, such as issues with concentration and forgetfulness.
Infertility can also hinder women’s work-life balance. Whilst fertility treatments can take a toll on both an individual’s physical and mental health, there is no statutory entitlement to time off work for this type of treatment. This often leaves women in a difficult position with their employer.
Higher levels of imposter syndrome
Research suggests that 75% of women in the workplace have experienced imposter syndrome.
It’s an often quoted statistic that men will apply to a job if they meet 60% of the role criteria, whilst women discount themselves unless they are 100% qualified.
A KPMG study also found that 81% of executive women surveyed believe they put more pressure on themselves when it comes to avoiding failure, compared to their male counterparts.
Imposter syndrome can be crippling and can potentially put women at a huge disadvantage compared to men in the workplace.
How organisation development can aid equality in the workplace
These are serious and ingrained issues faced by women worldwide on a daily basis when trying to progress their careers in line with men. But employers can take crucial steps to lessen the impact of these challenges.
Let’s consider inequality in the workplace using an organisation development lens and outline exactly how leaders can help to level the playing field for women in the workplace.
Resourcing strategy
Skills-based recruitment
Organisations should always ensure that they recruit based on skills and not previous job titles. Women may not have had the opportunity to progress as quickly as male applicants because of time out of the workplace but this does not mean they don’t have the capability to undertake the role.
Advertise flexibility
Wherever possible, employers should consider advertising roles with the opportunity to be worked part-time, flexibly and remotely/ in a hybrid way. Approximately 45% of working women work part-time, so organisations would be limiting their pool of applicants significantly by not considering this as an option. Flexible hours can help women to facilitate things like wrap around care for their children. Offering flexible hours universally can also go a long way to ending the stigma of leaving the office at 3pm for the school run by enabling men to take up this option, too.
Targeted resourcing
Employers must also consider the make-up of their workforce. If women are under-represented in particular roles, hiring managers, in partnership with your people or resourcing team where relevant, can consider a targeted advertising strategy and offer application support to equip women to apply confidently to these roles.
Culture-add
Reducing the focus on ‘fit’ and, instead, focusing on team diversity can be invaluable. Hiring managers are often heard considering if a candidate would be a good ‘cultural fit’ for their organisation. However, they should be considering ‘cultural add’. Diverse teams are known to bring greater creativity and decision-making. Recruit for diverse thinking and experience: women can certainly bring these qualities to male-dominated environments.
Workforce planning
Provide true flexibility
As highlighted above, flexible working can be invaluable to working mothers. Organisations should not only offer this at recruitment stage, but also incorporate this into common working practices for the existing workforce. One in five women say flexibility has helped them stay in their job or avoid reducing their hours.
Career pipelines for women
Organisations should curate early career pipelines. Mapping the progression routes for critical roles within the organisation and assessing applications from women at each stage will help break down the barriers that gender inequality presents. Leaders should proactively seek to understand and tackle obstacles and blockages identified in this process.
Female talent pools
Talent pools for women can also provide equity for women in terms of workplace promotions. Leaders should look to identify high-performing women to support in progressing through the organisation.
Policy development
Creating not only inclusive policies, but policies that actively support women in the workplace is key. The playing field isn’t even, and men don’t need the same type of support as women in the workplace, which is why organisations need to consider what is equitable, not always what is equal.
Family friendly leave policies are a key area for organisations to review. Offering benefits such as enhanced parental leave pay and also raising the awareness of shared parental leave within the organisation are great ways to support women.
An example of a UK company who have done just that is Capgemini with the release of their extended family friendly policies and guides. The organisation replaced the individual maternity, paternity, adoption, surrogacy, and shared parental leave policies with two inclusive policies: primary parent family leave and partner family leave. These progressive policies offer equal parental leave and also generous enhanced pay for their employees, which is above and beyond the statutory requirements in this area, demonstrating their investment in their female employees.
The scope of policy development with the aim of supporting women in the workplace is much bigger than just parental leave. Other policies organisations should consider reviewing or implementing include pregnancy or baby loss, fertility, menopause, and menstruation.
Cultural change
Organisations should seek to truly understand what it’s like to be a woman working within the business. There are many ways to do this and analysing data such as pay, progression, roles, engagement scores, and retention can be an extremely insightful place to start. Leaders should also speak to people by facilitating focus groups and delivering pulse surveys.
It’s important to remember that cultural change is a marathon, not a sprint, and leaders must formulate a strategy on how they will achieve any type of change within the business. The key to getting traction with all change projects lies in commitment from C-suite, who can drive action and truly influence the shape of the workplace.
These actions might include:
- Maternity coaching. Providing coaching for all women returning to work after maternity leave demonstrates a commitment to supporting women in the workplace. Recognition of the life-impacting change they have been through and then choosing to support their return to work builds women’s confidence and reduces imposter syndrome.
- Leadership development. Developing leaders and managers into becoming empathetic, authentic leaders, with the ability to stand in the shoes of the women they lead is essential.
- Time to think sessions. Build knowledge; leaders should never underestimate the lack of knowledge about why we have, for example, International Women’s Day or the Equality Act to protect women. It’s also important to dedicate team meeting time to discussions about equality, allowing employees to air their views and have open conversations on these topics.
- Showcase women in leadership roles. Having a visible presence is key to shifting culture. Female leaders should be heard – being candid about their career struggles can also help other women see that it is possible to achieve success as a female in the workplace, whilst simultaneously shining a spotlight on the injustices in an attempt to tackle them.
- Build diverse teams. Leaders should also regularly review their workforce diversity. It takes time to build diversity and it may be the case that women are underrepresented in certain parts of the business whilst recruitment takes place. For instance, in the interim, organisations could seek to build diverse project teams, using cross-departmental representatives from within the organisations who can provide that diversity of thought.
- Create belonging groups. Allow time for women to come together and share experiences. Use the groups as a critical ear to gain thoughts and ideas where the organisation is looking to introduce new strategies or changes to ways of working.
How Fitzgerald can help create gender equality in your organisation
Our team of experienced people professionals, led by an all-female leadership team, have a deep understanding of how to empower women within organisations.
We can partner with your organisation to design a strategy to help your business to become inclusive and position itself to authentically support and empower women in the workplace.
Please contact our team on 0330 223 5253 or office@fitzgeraldhr.co.uk. We would be delighted to help you.
