Why Should We Support Women Today
Women and Work
At the current rate of change it will at least another 70 years to achieve gender-balanced boardrooms in the UK FTSE 100 leading companies according to government finding and it is damaging the UK economy
"This business case is backed by a growing body of evidence. Research has shown that strong stock market growth among European companies is most likely to occur where there is a higher proportion of women in senior management teams. Companies with more women on their boards were found to outperform their rivals with a 42% higher return in sales, 66% higher return on invested capital and 53% higher return on equity."Despite this evidence, women are under-represented on the company boards of UK plc. In 2009 only 12.2% of directors of FTSE 100 companies were women, and on the boards of FTSE 250 companies the proportion was just 7.3%. By 2010 these figures had moved to 12.5% for FTSE 100 and 7.8% of FTSE 250.
the Business case for UK plc to include women on FTSE
After over 35 years since the introduction of the Equal Pay Act (1970) ensuring equality in pay and conditions, women are still significantly earning less then their male peers. With the overall gender pay gap still standing at approx 20 per cent and only 33% of managers and senior official positions held by women according to government findings and the Women and Work Commission, they estimated that increasing women's participation in the labour market and in higher grade roles could be worth £15 billion and £23 billion a year to the UK economy.
"Women represent almost half of the UK workforce and increasingly hold influential positions. However, evidence from a range of studies suggest our labour market is still failing to make the best use of people’s talents. In particular, pay levels for women, while improving, still do not reflect their qualification levels.
Gender pay gap
The Office for National Statistics findings were: The pay gap between full-time men’s and women’s median earnings stands at 10.5 per cent, whereas the overall gap when comparing the pay of all men and women in work is 20.2 per cent.
22 % due to different industries and occupations in which women work
21 % due to differences in years of full-time work
16 % due to the negative effect on wages of having previously worked part-time or of having taken time out of the labour market to look after family only 5 per cent of the gap is due to formal education levels
But a significant proportion (36 per cent) of the pay gap could not be explained by any of these factors, suggesting discrimination may still be an important factor"
Above text taken from: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/equalities/women/women-work/
In short, we still have a very real inequality of pay and promotion for women in the workplace and we should be trying to help tackle it, after all it affects us all and in the current climate it is good for the economy too.
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.ukces.org.uk/ourwork/women-and-work
Further reading: Modern Workplaces Government Response Consultation on: Equal Pay June 2012 :