📰 1LV Round up: A selection of articles, interviews and news that will make you think about gender equality and women in the workplace. ⬇️
Where have all the female leaders gone?
A call for more women to represent EU member states has stalled. A list of overwhelmingly male candidates was put forward despite an instruction from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for each member state to put forward one male and one female candidate. Not a single country did this; 16 of the 21 names known (at the end of August) were men. This means just six women may hold posts in the next EU executive. The European Women’s Lobby, an umbrella group working towards gender equality in the EU, said it was indicative of an ‘old boys club’ mindset and ‘beyond embarrassing’.
Mind the gap
Ultra Electronics, the defence and security technology firm, and Northchem Healthcare are some of the employers that missed deadlines to report their 2023-24 gender pay gap data. Private sector organisations across Britain, and English public bodies with 250 or more employees are legally required to provide the information by 30 March; private and voluntary sector employers across Britain are required to provide it by 4 April.
Sport beats the boardroom
The Paris 2024 Olympics shone a light gender equality on – and off – the fields of play. Measures were in place to promote balanced media coverage during the Games. They were also in place to increase the number of women in coaching, broadcasting and sports governance roles.
Paris 2024 milestones included: a more gender-balanced sports programme, with 28 out of 32 sports reaching full gender equality; a more gender-balanced number of medal events, with the competition schedule including 152 women’s events, 157 men’s events, and 20 mixed-gender events. It means more than half of all medal events at the Games will be open to female athletes.
Why Paris 2024 shone a light on gender equality
The equal split of male and female athletes at the Olympic Games has been used as a yardstick for the corporate world. According to Forbes, in American healthcare and related occupations women might represent almost half the workforce, but men make double the salary (almost $150,000 a year compared with just over $77,000 a year). It is a similar story in the marketing industry where men earn almost $32,000 a year than women. And whilst women account for 70% of Human Resource Managers, they earn 15% less than their male co-workers.
More support for women in the workplace
New research into workplace policies and women’s health has revealed that only 14% of businesses offer flexible working, and only 12% have a wellbeing strategy in place. Benenden Health polled 5,000 female employees and 1,000 business owners in the UK to better understand the status of women’s workplace health policies. Findings also reveal just 15% of those surveyed provide above-statutory leave and only 12% of businesses currently carry pregnancy-loss leave policies. The findings back up what’s long been known – that not only does the UK have one of the largest women’s health gaps across the G20, but with better health outcomes women are more focused and productive in the workplace.
How the 1LV WE+ Measure is impacting women in the workplace
The One Loud Voice WE+ brand is all about Women and Equality and so much more. The three core pillars of work are: WE+ Measure, which is all about best practice metrics; WE+ Allyship, which is about gender partnerships; and WE+ Support which is advisory and coaching. The WE+ Measure allows organisations to measure their gender equity inputs against established best practices that achieve gender equality outputs. It benefits the organisation and the women who work there. It’s gamechanging. To find out more visit https://www.oneloudvoice.co.uk/benchmark
Women who made history…
In 2024 women in the UK have greater opportunities and rights thanks to some trailblazers. These are rights that have been hard won…here we celebrate some of the women who made them happen:
1865 Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was the first Englishwoman to be openly recognised as a surgeon
1929 Margaret Bondfield became the first British Female Cabinet Minister
1973 Sybil Phoenix was the first black women to be given an MBE
1997 Marjorie Scardino became the first female FTSE CEO
2015 Bobbie Cheema-Grubb QC became the first Asian women Hight Court judge
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