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Working Women Market Assessment 2003
Key Note Publications Ltd, May 2003
Women have long been subject to the inflexible demands of the workplace, and forced to juggle the many aspects of their lives, such as childcare, care for the home, care for relatives and the care of their partners, with the financial needs of their homes and families. As a result, and despite increased awareness of inequalities within the workplace, they have been forced to take lower status, lower-paid jobs, often on a part-time basis, with fixed hours.
The 'long-hours culture' experienced by a great many British workers in administration and managerial positions has worked against women, whose family demands prevent their working additional hours, and limiting their ability to travel away on business. They are also less likely to be able to commute long distances to work, or to relocate in order to further their careers.
It is unsurprising, then, that women are less likely to reach the top positions in commerce and industry. For example, only around 5% of board positions in the Ftse 350 companies are occupied by women.
There is no doubt that women have both the skills and ability to perform well in the workplace. Academically, women outperform men at every educational level, and in practically every subject.
Women also outnumber men in the workplace at entry level, with 37,000 more women than men entering the workplace in the UK in 2002. Women's salaries are increasingly important to the overall household income: 70% of women respondents in a specially commissioned survey claimed that their earnings were essential to their household finances.
Government and industry alike recognise that women are an integral part of the labour market. In order to fully exploit the contribution women can make to the economy, a dialogue has been initiated, designed to encourage industry to become more flexible when employing women.
The population is changing. Younger women entrants to the labour market expect more, the population is ageing, and dual-income families are the norm. This is coupled with a changing marketplace, where deregulation, a global economy, increased competition and new technologies are increasing customer service demands. Industry has to become customer-centric in order to compete efficiently, and this means structural re-engineering. Along with this restructuring, the old, male-dominated hierarchy has to go, replaced by greater equality and recognition of women's contribution.
The Government's paper, 'Balancing work and family life: enhancing choice and support for parents', January 2003, set out its policies for the new working tax credits introduced in April 2003. A joint statement, signed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown and the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and Minister for Women, Patricia Hewitt, claims:
'these initiatives are radically reforming the system of support for families - tackling poverty and investing in the potential of every single child in our country. Enabling parents to balance work and family responsibilities can make the difference between their participation in the labour market, or their exclusion. For the employer, it can make the difference between being able to retain a valued member of staff or incurring the costs of recruitment and further training. And for children, it gives them the best possible start in life'.
The Government is supported by an alliance of business leaders - Employers for Work-Life Balance - chaired by Peter Ellwood, the Group Chief Executive of Lloyds TSB Group PLC. The alliance aims to share best practice and establish a one-stop shop for employers for information on work-life issues, and includes some of the major employers in the UK: BT, Marks and Spencer, Asda, J Sainsbury, Hsbc, the BBC and Littlewoods, to name just a few.
In addition, at the Improving Life at Work conference held in January 2003, Patricia Hewitt launched 'Advancing Women in the Workplace' - a good practice guide for employers.
All of these measures go some way to breaking down the resistance of employers identified in the 2001 Working Women Market Assessment report. There is still a long way to go, but the impetus is getting stronger and organisations can no longer just pay lip service to women-friendly policies, but have to embrace them if they are to survive.
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