Are you a BME woman? Participate in an event to shape solutions to BME women’s inequality at work.

Last year, Close the Gap published research on Black and minority ethnic (BME) women’s experiences of employment in Scotland. We are now developing a set of recommendations for employers to address the problems raised in the research and we are looking for BME women to get involved.

Our research, Still Not Visible, found that:

• Almost three-quarters of respondents reported they had experienced racism, discrimination, racial prejudice and/or bias in the workplace.
• 47% of respondents believed they had experienced racism, discrimination, racial prejudice, and/or bias when applying for a job.
• 42% of respondents indicated they had experienced bullying, harassment or victimisation because they are a BME woman.

To ensure our solutions are shaped by the lived experience of BME women in Scotland, Close the Gap are hosting an online engagement event.

The event will be held online via Zoom on the 24^th of June from 10:30 to 12:15

Agenda

10:30: Welcome and outline for event, Gillian Neish

10:40: Still Not Visible Research findings, Ruth Boyle, Policy and Parliamentary Officer, Close the Gap

10:50: Introduction to recommendation themes, Gillian Neish

10:55: Group discussions and design of additional recommendations

11:45 Group feedback to plenary session, Led by Gillian Neish

12:05 Next steps

12:15 Close

Click here to book for the free session.

Ahead of the event, we will be providing participants with guidance on how to connect to the event and resources for engagement, including a summary of the research and some draft recommendations.

If you are unable to participate in the event, but would still like to share your experiences, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please email rboyle@closethegap.org.uk for an engagement pack.

Lockdown on the gender pay gap

One casualty of the UK Government’s response to the coronavirus crisis is employer gender pay gap reporting. While this may not seem like a priority in the current circumstances, women’s pre-existing inequality means women are more at risk as they are the majority of frontline workers spearheading the response to the virus and are doubly impacted by increased caring responsibilities as childcare and social care provision dries up. For those women in precarious employment these additional responsibilities are even harder to accommodate due to variable hours and a lack of sick pay, increasing their insecurity in these already challenging times.

Women’s concentration in key worker roles, often hugely undervalued and underpaid, and disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care are two of the central causes of the gender pay gap. The current health crisis demonstrates clearly that we need a serious and concerted response to women’s inequality, perhaps more than ever.

While we acknowledge the heightened pressure on employers in the current crisis, the UK Government’s suspension of pay gap reporting seems like an unnecessary step, as pay gap reporting itself is unlikely to have a significant impact on employers’ ability to operate. Deprioritising women’s equality at this time ignores the gendered impact of the crisis and suggests that the UK Government does not consider gender equality to be a core part of its responsibilities. However, as the UK’s leading experts on the gender pay gap and women’s wider labour market inequality, our focus on employer action on the pay gap remains.

In 2019, we undertook a second assessment of Scottish employers’ gender pay gap reporting in order to assess compliance with and responses to the regulations, and to identify any measurable progress or change. This involved looking at a sample of 50% of Scottish employers which are required to report, examining how they have complied with both the legal requirements of the regulations themselves, and with the UK Government’s express expectation that employers use their reporting to drive action on the gender pay gap. The results show that significant problems remain.

Our analysis identified high pay gaps of up to 68% in male-dominated sectors such as sport & recreation, manufacturing, oil & gas, finance and construction and extremely high bonus gaps of up to 100% in male-dominated sectors such as construction, oil & gas and transport & logistics. Women’s under-representation in these higher-paid sectors is a key cause of the gender pay gap and it is important that more women are able to access this better-quality employment. However, these figures show that progress in this area alone does not secure women’s equality at work, as they continue to be over-represented in the lowest grades and lower-paid roles in these sectors. Those male-oriented workplace cultures and stereotypes about women’s skills and capabilities must also be addressed if we are to shift the needle on the gender pay gap.

The theory behind pay gap reporting was that, after uncovering a gender pay gap, employers would be compelled to take action to address the causes. However, our assessment found that employers are still not using their reporting to analyse, understand, and tackle the causes of their gender pay gap. Less than two in five employers had published a supporting narrative to explain the causes of their pay gap and less than a third of employers had set out a commitment to actions. Even those employers who had taken these welcome additional steps do not inspire confidence, with much of the analysis insufficient and unclear, and most actions unmeasurable. We know this is unlikely to result in effective and accountable measures to realise gender equality at work.

Our assessment also looked for examples of action taken since employers first published their gender pay gaps. This was all but absent with only 4% of employers providing evidence of steps taken. In setting out the gender pay gap reporting regulations, the UK Government clearly stated that their purpose was to encourage employers to tackle their pay gaps. Our assessment shows that this ambition continues to be unrealised.

So, what is behind this absence of progress? We can see that employers continue to lack a clear understanding of the gender pay gap and equal pay, and how these both differ and intersect. Employers continue to overstate and misconstrue the difference between the pay gap and equal pay and often ignore unequal pay as a potential cause of their gender pay gap. Many employers state that the pay gap as a “societal issue” while overlooking that employers are part of, and thus shape, society.

Throughout the assessment we saw employers use these assertions to justify their failure to identify or act on the causes of their pay gap. This persistent theme showed us that many employers appear to accept the gender pay gap as a given, a natural and immutable fact of life, and this has led to complacency and paralysis.

We know the pay gap is not inevitable, nor unchangeable. We know that employer practices on pay, flexible working, recruitment, promotion and job design, and the composition of their workforce, have a direct impact on the causes of women’s labour market inequality. This is a fact. And it is a fact that concerted action in these areas can improve outcomes for women, not just in the labour market but by advancing broader gender inequality.

We have long known that employers are extremely unlikely to act on women’s inequality at work unless they are compelled to do so. The current gender pay gap regulations are insufficient to this task: employers need more impetus to action, not less. It is crucially important that gender equality doesn’t drop off the radar at times of economic crisis, because in these times it’s women that are disproportionately affected. If we are not to see further setbacks to gender equality employers must be proactive in ensuring women’s equality and rights at work.

The COVID-19 crisis is likely to have a significant impact on the labour market and employers will have to adapt their practices if they are to emerge in a strong position. We hope that, given the increased visibility of their roles, this will include calls from the public and politicians to re-evaluate the rates of pay for those long-undervalued workers who have borne the brunt of the crisis, those key workers whose roles are only now being recognised as crucial to the functioning of our economy. We must not squander this opportunity to tackle the gender pay gap if we are to realise economic justice for women.

Coronavirus brings new focus to women’s continued workplace inequality

The impacts of COVID-19 are being felt by us all, with huge changes transpiring across our working lives and beyond. At this stage, coronavirus is not just a health crisis, but an economic crisis that will have long-term implications. The longer-term consequences will impact women’s equality by exacerbating pre-existing inequalities, particularly where our response is not well-gendered.

There are specific impacts for women as a result of their disproportionate responsibility for care; women’s concentration in low-paid work and dominance in frontline roles; women’s experience of domestic abuse; and the failure of social security to meet women’s needs.

Women comprise the majority of frontline workers, and have increased exposure to COVID-19

Most of the key worker jobs identified by the Scottish and UK Governments are female-dominated roles, including supermarket workers, nurses, carers, teachers and childcare workers. These roles are predominantly done by women, and for this reason many of these jobs are systematically undervalued in the labour market and some jobs, such as those in social care, childcare and retail, are characterised by low-pay, and poor terms and conditions.

Women may have increased exposure to COVID-19 as a result of their position in the labour market, comprising the majority of frontline workers in social care, childcare and health care. This exposure is likely to be intensified by ongoing problems around access to essential PPE and testing, which is causing additional anxiety among frontline staff. The Royal College of Nursing have raised particular concerns around access to PPE for staff working outside of a hospital environment, including care home staff and district nurses. Social care staff, the vast majority of whom are women, are not being afforded sufficient focus in the provision of protective equipment. Additionally, PPE is often poor fitting for women, as it has been designed as standard to the sizes and needs of men and any alterations involve the same PPE, but smaller. A TUC survey previously showed that 57% of women found that their PPE sometimes or significantly hampered their work. Ultimately, inappropriate PPE can impact on a woman’s work and their safety, leaving them further exposed to Coronavirus.

Precarious work, self-employment and problems with Universal Credit are likely to increase women’s in-work poverty

Women’s employment is becoming increasingly precarious, and 55% of workers on zero-hour contracts are women. Women on these types of casualised and precarious contracts face difficulties reconciling variable hours with caring responsibilities and may not have access to statutory sick pay. Now that schools and nursery facilities have closed, women on these contracts will face particular challenges in accessing paid leave to care.

Zero-hour contracts are a feature of social care work, with three-quarters of third sector providers using these types of contracts. Zero-hour contracts negatively impact predictability of shifts, regular income, household budget management, women’s in-work poverty and children’s poverty, problems which are likely to be accentuated by the ongoing crisis. Women in precarious work face additional difficulties in managing variable hours with childcare responsibilities, and a lack of employment protections will hinder women’s ability to take paid leave.

Increasing numbers of female social care workers are self-employed via online platforms or apps which provide an agency function. The rise in women’s self-employment in social care and in other sectors has coincided with a rise in low-paid self-employment and thus the delay in providing support measures for self-employed people may push women into poverty, including many women who are working in the gig economy.

There is no gender-disaggregated data on the UK Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme which intends to cover 80% of staff costs of PAYE-registered employers who cannot meet staffing costs. However, there are complications around the definition of ‘employee’, with no coverage for gig economy workers. As nearly 75% of women in the gig economy earned less than the taxable threshold, any loss of earnings is likely to push women into poverty.

The Women’s Budget Group note that women hold 70% of jobs that are not entitled to Statutory Sick Pay. Even where women are entitled to sick pay, the rate of pay is extremely low and insufficient. This puts women at even greater risk of poverty. As mothers earnings are a key factor in child poverty, this is likely to have long-term impacts on child poverty rates.

Social isolation policies increase women’s vulnerability to domestic abuse

One in five women in Scotland experience domestic abuse in their lifetime. With reports from China revealing that incidents of domestic abuse increased following the outbreak of the virus, particularly in lockdown, there is a risk that under self-isolation, perpetrators will further restrict their partners’ freedoms and threaten their safety. Financial dependence and poverty are both primary risk factors that diminish women’s and children’s resilience when experiencing domestic abuse and can prevent women from leaving an abusive partner. Increasing rates of poverty as a result of job losses, low rates of sick pay and unpaid leave, could increase women’s economic dependence and vulnerability to domestic abuse.

Women are likely to face additional childcare responsibilities

In line with existing patterns of care, women are likely to assume the burden of childcare responsibilities during this crisis, with potential impacts on women’s earnings, poverty and career prospects. Gendered assumptions around childcare responsibilities and the earnings gap between women and men mean that a higher proportion of women will have to take unpaid leave to care for children while schools and nurseries are closed and, where this is not possible, women may leave work altogether. Indeed, women are twice as likely to give up paid work in order to care. Women have reported having to use annual leave, sick leave and unpaid leave in order to care. This places women at greater risk of poverty, and also impacts their future ability to do childcare while in paid work.

Also, as women account for the majority of frontline workers, some of these workers may be forced to leave work or reduce their working hours due to the schools closing, which could result in services becoming even more stretched as women try to balance paid and unpaid care.

Lone parents, 90% of whom are women will be particularly impacted by school closures. Additional caring responsibilities will make it even more difficult for lone parents to either work from home or to find work, particularly when they will not have access to informal networks of family and friends to assist with care because of social distancing measures.

The lack of flexibility from employers, and access to unpaid leave, may force women into accessing the social security system, primarily Universal Credit, which is not designed to promote gender equality, or meet women’s needs. In particular, the single household payment will increase women’s economic dependence, and places increased risk on women experiencing domestic abuse.

Inflexible workplace cultures disproportionately impact women

Less than one in ten of those in the bottom half of earners say they can work from home. As women comprise the majority of low-paid workers, this makes it harder for them to protect their incomes in the face of social distancing measures. Women in the most at-risk sectors and occupations also have less to fall back on, being less likely to have savings, access to occupational pensions and being more likely to live in poverty.

The Resolution Foundation found that only 3% of employees in sales and customer service occupations and 19% of those in administrative and secretarial roles are able to work from home. This is compared to 34% of managers and senior officials. This has a profoundly gendered impact as women account for only 39% of managers, directors and senior officials in Scotland, but 77% of those employed in administrative and secretarial occupations and 66% of those in sales and customer service occupations.

As women are disproportionately responsible for care for children, sick people, older people and disabled people, the lack of quality flexible working makes it difficult for them to balance work with family life. However, the changes to working patterns necessitated by this ongoing crisis have highlighted that many more roles could have been done flexibly all along. However, it is not pre-determined that this new-found flexibility and changes to workplace cultures will be maintained once this crisis is resolved.

Our overriding concern is that, during periods of crisis, the Scottish Government’s focus on gender equality and the gender pay gap may slip. This, coupled with women’s under-representation in leadership roles, may lead to decision-making which further entrenches women’s inequality. Engender have highlighted that while old problems don’t go away when new ones come along, hasty responses to new problems can further entrench injustices and inequalities.

For example, the UK Government have made the decision to suspend employer gender pay gap reporting this year. This is likely to lead to further inaction on the causes of the gender pay gap by employers, and will ultimately compound women’s inequality in the labour market.

This global crisis has highlighted in exceptionally stark terms that increasing precarity in the labour market, diminishing worker’s rights, and social security changes have far-reaching implications. Women will bear the brunt of the negative consequences, whether as a result of the type of job they do, their access to unpaid leave, their additional caring responsibilities, their experiences of poverty and their increased vulnerability to domestic abuse. This crisis has once more called into question the systemic undervaluation of ‘women’s work’, such as cleaning and caring. The women doing these jobs, for low-pay and often in poor conditions, are now on the frontline in efforts to control this virus. The COVID-19 crisis demonstrates the urgent need to properly value “women’s work” in the health service and in social care, reprioritise social care services and make changes to ensure its proper funding in future, including increasing wages and improved terms and conditions for the workforce.

Overall, it’s vitally important that the responses to both the health and economic crises are gendered, actively considering the differing experiences of women and men across the development, design and delivery of policies and programmes. Otherwise, one of the key long-term impacts of COVID-19 will be to further cement gender inequality.

Close the Gap research finds that fixed term contracts are amplifying the inequalities and disadvantage that women face in the tech industry

At Close the Gap, we’ve started exploring how automation and the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ will drive changes in women’s experiences of work. To date, despite automation being something of a hot topic, little attention has been afforded to the impact on women’s employment specifically.

One of the expected impacts of automation is a growth in STEM roles. Women are currently under-represented in STEM and it is therefore likely that men will disproportionately benefit from future job creation, thus cementing women’s stark under-representation in the sector. There are also patterns of occupation segregation within tech sub-sectors with a dearth of women in AI and in its subsets of machine learning and deep learning, which has clear implications for the development of data-driven technologies.

As a key driver of the gender pay gap, occupational segregation is a core focus for Close the Gap but improving women’s representation within the tech sector is particularly important in the context of automation and potential changes in the broader labour market. As part of our wider work on automation, it is therefore necessary to explore the barriers to women’s participation and progression into tech roles.

Data from ONS highlights that in Scotland women account for just 16.9% of IT and telecommunications professionals which includes roles in programming, software development, web design and development, business analysis, and systems design. A similar proportion of women (18.0%) comprise IT technicians in Scotland.[1] UK-wide research by the PwC in 2017 found that only 5% of those in tech leadership roles are women.

Equate Scotland, Scotland’s national organisation working on women in STEM, does a range of work with women and employers in the tech sector to challenge the barriers that exist. There has also been a myriad of short-term, supply-side initiatives, predominantly in education settings, to address the under-representation of women in the sector, including coding clubs for girls, school-based activity to encourage more girls to take STEM-related subjects and outreach work such as tech workplace visits. However, we haven’t yet seen a strategic policy response to the persistent dearth of women in tech.

Research by Close the Gap with women working in the tech industry in Scotland [2] highlights that insecure working practices are likely to pose an additional barrier to women entering and progressing in the industry. This new data gleans useful insight into some of the changes that are required to job design if employers are to challenge the current patterns of occupational segregation.

Women’s employment in general is increasingly precarious, with women more likely to be in low-paid work, and on temporary and zero hour contracts. This new research highlights that this rising insecurity may be an issue for some women in the tech sector. The key findings include:

• Almost half (47%) of respondents had been on a fixed term contract in the tech sector and 45% viewed fixed term contracts as a common feature of their experience in the sector.
• 46% of respondents felt that fixed term contracts amplified the inequalities and disadvantage that women face in the tech industry.
• Half (50%) of respondents who had been on a fixed-term contract had experienced involuntary gaps in employment.
• Fixed term contracts were seen as having an adverse effect on the ability of respondents to plan for the future (70%), on their financial situation (53%) and their mental health (40%).

The majority of respondents viewed fixed term contracts as being both a positive and a negative (61%). However, only 9% saw fixed term contracts as being a positive feature of the tech industry, while more than a quarter (27%) believed such contracts to be a negative feature.

Some of the positive comments around fixed term contracts were that they can provide flexibility and can support a return to work after maternity leave or a career break. However, that fixed term contracts are seen as providing relative flexibility may also be reflective of the lack of other flexible and part-time working opportunities in the tech sector. Currently, just 6% of information technology roles are advertised on a flexible basis making it difficult for women in tech to balance earning with caring. A lack of quality part-time and flexible work in the labour market is a key contributing factor to women’s skills-related underemployment, occupational segregation and the gender pay gap. Given the technological infrastructure available in the sector, and the emphasis placed on agile working, the sector should be leading the way in flexible working practices.

Certainly, the tech sector remains characterised by horizontal and vertical occupational segregation. There are further differences in the types of work women and men do, with women more likely to be in project management, web design or technician jobs, while men are more likely to be programmers and engineers.

While 44% of respondents in programming and 51% of those in software development have been on a fixed term contract, this figure rises to 100% for those working in online education and to 70% for those in digital media. While sub-sectors use fixed term contracts to varying degrees, it appears that fixed term contracts are used to a lesser extent in those sub-sectors which are particularly male-dominated. Those roles where women are under-represented are the jobs which attract higher pay and more secure contracts.

Occupational segregation is reinforced by the prevailing workplace culture in the tech sector. Un-transparent and biased recruitment practice, and a lack of access to informal networks continue to prevent women from entering and progressing in the industry. Research published by ScotlandIS, the trade body for the digital technologies industry, also identified evidence of sexist workplace cultures in which women report feeling undervalued, being excluded from discussions and discouraged from pursuing more technical projects, being talked over at meetings, and being asked to do lower status admin tasks that are not related to their role.

Fixed term contracts were seen as having an adverse effect on key aspects of employment such as pay, progression and pensions, potentially exacerbating women’s existing inequality. Of those who were currently, or had previously been, on a fixed term contract half (50%) had experienced involuntary gaps between successive fixed term contracts which can have longer term impacts on women’s career progression, lifetime earnings and likelihood of experiencing poverty.

While a majority (60%) of respondents agreed that that they had taken a job or worked on a project below their skill level because of being unable to find appropriate work, this rose to more than three-quarters (78%) of respondents who had been on a fixed term contract. These insecure working practices are likely to be contributing to women’s higher rates of underemployment and the under-utilisation of women’s skills, which contributes to skill shortages and is a drag on economic growth.

In terms of the effects on broader life factors, fixed term contracts were seen as impacting the ability to plan for the future (70%), the respondent’s financial situation (53%) and their mental health (40%). A lack of affordable, flexible and accessible childcare is one key reason for women’s systemic inequality in the labour market, and respondents noted the additional difficulties of accessing childcare while on a fixed-term contract.

The research found that almost half (46%) of respondents felt that fixed term contracts amplified the inequalities and disadvantage that women face in the tech industry. However, among participants who had experience of fixed term contracts, this figure rises to 58%. In addition to the plethora of barriers facing women upon entering and progressing within tech, such as gender stereotyping and male-oriented workplace cultures, these results highlight that fixed term contracts may be an additional barrier.

STEM is both a key focus of Scotland’s Economic Strategy, and the Scottish Government Labour Market Strategy. However, these findings highlight that it is necessary to take a broader approach to efforts to address women’s under-representation, including tackling toxic workplace cultures and the quality and security of the jobs in tech that are more likely to be done by women. Addressing demand-side barriers to women entering and progressing within STEM is particularly pertinent given existing evidence on the potential impact of automation. Women workers are concentrated at the extreme ends of the automation spectrum, with women over-represented in jobs that are at the highest risk of automation, and under-represented in STEM where job growth is likely to result.

It is vitally important, therefore, that Scotland’s response to automation and the changing labour market is gendered, thus ensuring new technologies do not cement, or indeed, worsen existing gender inequalities. AI may accelerate digital disruption in the jobs market and pre-existing research and analysis has shown that this disruption is expected to have a gendered impact. As part of our new Women’s Future Skills project, this year Close the Gap will be bringing a focus to women’s skills and automation, looking at not only women in STEM, but also how technological change affects women’s employment in the wider labour market. Crucially, we’ll be looking at how gender competent policymaking can ensure that technological change doesn’t entrench women’s labour market inequality in Scotland.

Overall, this new data offers further evidence of the importance of fair and flexible work to women’s labour market equality. reviewing the design of jobs in tech, and developing gender-sensitive employment practice for example through offering flexible working at all levels, can enable more women to enter and progress within the sector, with benefits not just for individual women and their employers, but also for Scotland’s economy.