Blog
Guest post: Young women and work
Written by Kirstin Gray, MSc Career Guidance and Development student at University of the West of Scotland.
We're very excited to have this guest post on our blog! Kirstin has recently completed a placement with Close the Gap, and we're really delighted to share her post on the pressures faced by young women entering the labour market, and the impact of gender stereotypes.
Young women and work
2018 is Scotland’s Year of Young People: one of its themes is Enterprise and Regeneration, celebrating young people’s role in the Scottish economy, and a second theme is Education. It also gives young people (aged 8-26) a chance to challenge the existing state of affairs, and therefore an exploration of young women’s experience in the labour market is warranted. At a time when Scotland wishes to celebrate young people it is pertinent young women’s voices are heard. My background is career guidance, more specifically labour market studies, with gender and inequalities at the forefront of my research interest. Armed with this background I write about women’s experiences in the labour market.
Sometimes you read something, and it stays with you. Sometimes it’s an intricate poem, a lyric in a song, a line in a journal or a snappy headline. A quote that has stayed with me comes from Work and Society by Strangleman and Warren, “…gender inequalities are structurally determined, not natural outcomes.” A concept I have been exposed to in my studies is whether or not we are individuated. We are not - we are socialised to act in a certain way, to conform and to maintain status quo in order that society can continue to function. From as early as the hunter-gatherers there have been gendered roles, an expectation that women and men should perform certain duties because of their sex. It is ingrained in society, and in the labour market women have been negatively impacted by this through occupational segregation, devalued work, invisible work, precarious employment and poor mental health. These are some of the issues that will be touched on in this blog.
Girls outperform boys in education, and in 2012/13 44.1% of girls achieved at least five awards at level 5 compared with 34.8% of boys. Despite this women are less likely to be in work than men, and those women who are in work are less likely to be in senior positions and more likely to be in part-time work. Occupational segregation begins in education where girls are less likely to pick STEM subjects, which are interdisciplinary subjects that underpin many top paid jobs. YWCA Scotland research discusses how women are not only discouraged, but also prevented from selecting subjects which are deemed to be “for” boys or men. This research also shows women are concerned about the impact of having children on their career, and feel they are not represented in the labour market on a senior and decision-making level.
It is often asserted that women choose jobs based on other advantages not concerning salary, such as convenience of the job. The truth is, women’s work has been routinely devalued, for example clerical, care and cleaning, and although these jobs are fundamental to society the salary for such jobs is extremely low. There is a common perception that women’s “choices” create the gender pay gap, including; taking a career break to have children, working part time and the type of work women do. The problem with this statement is that the causes that lead to the pay gap are described as free choices instead of structural constraints that have an impact on women in the labour market: discrimination, lack of flexibility, the glass ceiling, and pregnancy and maternity discrimination. Furthermore this idea assumes that women freely choose to do work in the home and care, rather than it being an expectation due to historical gender roles.
Young women’s experience of the labour market is entirely different to their male counterparts, in a labour market which is becomingly increasingly difficult to navigate. Precarious employment is filling the unemployment gap, and while it looks good for governments there is widespread in-work poverty due to low wages. Importantly, women experience a more complex and problematic situation. Recent research honed in on the emotional journeys of young women in the labour market and showed young women feeling increasingly more anxious, with self-esteem decreasing. This is despite young women outperforming young men academically.
This is where precarious employment comes into play. Precarious employment, including temporary contracts and low or zero hour contracts, is inherent in our society. It has become a norm, and a scroll through some job adverts sees the “benefits” of such modes of employment described as flexible working. This type of insecure work puts immense pressure on the employee. How do women fit in? Women are more likely to be in the industries that fall victim to precarious employment; catering, retail, care and clerical work to name a few. The socialisation of young girls influences their journey through education and choice of certain subjects. A sense of identity is interlinked with career maturity, and if that sense of self is socialised by gender roles it is no wonder that these processes repeat themselves and the pay gap remains.
Why does women’s greater academic performance lead to such dire results in employment? Society’s expectation of the role women should have in the labour market plays the most significant factor. Research from the Institute of Physics gives an insight into this: “87% of girls asked (aged 11-21) think women are judged more for their looks than ability.” The rise of 'aesthetic labour' suggests that in some areas of employment, such as retail, image has become an important factor to employers in choosing a candidate for a job. Instead of merit, therefore, it becomes who looks the best for the job. Gendered roles reinforce and amplify this.
What it means to be a young woman is determined by the structural inequalities that surround us. The Year of the Young Person 2018 is an opportunity to have young women’s voices heard. I urge you to share your experience of the labour market with anyone who will listen. In the words of Close the Gap: “Be What You Want” – not what society tells you.
Frequently asked questions: Women’s equality and the Gender Recognition Act
Close the Gap has joined with Engender, Scottish Women's Aid, Rape Crisis Scotland, Zero Tolerance, Equate Scotland and Women 50:50 to produce a Frequently Asked Questions on women's equality and the Gender Recognition Act.
What is the Gender Recognition Act?
The Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA) is the law that governs how trans people can get their gender identity legally recognised – and so have the correct gender marked on their birth certificate. The GRA is currently UK-wide legislation, but birth certificates are a devolved matter that the Scottish Parliament can legislate for.
Under the Gender Recognition Act 2004, it is possible to apply to a Gender Recognition Panel and obtain a full Gender Recognition Certificate. A person with a full Gender Recognition Certificate is recognised legally as having acquired a new gender, and their birth certificate is amended to reflect this. The process has been criticised as being too lengthy, complex, and intrusive. It also does not allow for recognition of non-binary people, or anyone under 18.
In November 2017, the Scottish Government launched a review of the Gender Recognition Act which includes proposals such as:
- Replacing requirements to provide medical evidence and to live in an acquired gender for two years when seeking legal gender recognition, with a self-declaration system;
- Reducing the age at which recognition can be obtained to 16, and considering options for under-16s; and
- Options for the legal recognition of non-binary people – people who do not identify as male or female.
The UK Government is also conducting a review of the Gender Recognition Act through a separate process.
How will the Scottish Government consultation work?
The Scottish Government consultation is open until 1st March 2018. You can respond as an individual, or on behalf of an organisation. If you respond as an individual, you can ask for your response to be treated as confidential, and it will not be published. Once the consultation has closed, responses will be analysed and the Scottish Government will publish a report. The analysis of the consultation responses could:
- Indicate the need for policy development or review
- Inform the development of a particular policy
- Help decisions to be made between alternative policy proposals
- Be used to finalise legislation before it is implemented
You can find out more information, including an FAQ about the consultation process here.
What is the position of national women’s organisations, including Close the Gap, Engender, Zero Tolerance, Scottish Women’s Aid, Rape Crisis Scotland, and Equate Scotland?
We support the Equal Recognition campaign and broadly welcome the reform of the Gender Recognition Act. The complexity, restrictions and expense of the current gender recognition process particularly discriminates against trans people who are disabled, migrant, minority ethnic, unemployed, homeless, experiencing domestic abuse, young or non-binary. Enabling trans people to smoothly change their birth certificates at the same time as they change their other identity documents is a positive step forward.
We will be responding to the detailed proposals in the consultation document, and making suggestions for implementation that avoid unintended consequences for women’s equality and rights.
How did you come to your position?
Our organisations have a long history of deliberation on the interrelationship between trans equality and rights and women’s equality and rights. Many of our organisations were involved in the ‘T in Feminist’ campaign, have worked on action research projects to identify barriers to service delivery for trans women, and have developed trans-inclusive violence against women services and specific support services targeted at LGBTI people.
Our position is based on internal dialogue within our organisations and their memberships about issues around sex and gender and women’s equality, our long experience of engaging with equality law and policy, and in service delivery at national and local level. It is also based on our many years of collaboration and discussion with Scottish Trans Alliance, and other LGBTI national organisations.
What difference will the proposed change to gender recognition make to women-only spaces and services delivered by your organisations?
None. We are not aware that any women’s organisation or group currently in our networks requires sight of a birth certificate in order to grant access to services or membership. All access to membership and services is based on self-identification. This will continue.
All violence against women organisations that receive Scottish Government funding provide trans-inclusive services. The requirement for trans inclusion plans has been in place for six years, and has not given rise to any concerns or challenges of which we are currently aware. Rather, trans women have added to our movements through their support, through volunteering, and as staff members of our organisations. In order to provide a definitive statement on this in our consultation response(s), national umbrella violence against
women organisations will be systematically gathering data on how well these plans are working at the frontline.
The social media discussion on the proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act has included concerns that victim-survivors of sexual violence and domestic abuse may be placed at risk. Rape crisis and women’s aid services prioritise women’s safety, confidentiality, privacy, dignity, and wellbeing above all else. Over decades of practice, services have developed ways of managing any risk to individual women’s wellbeing that may arise from interacting with other service users.
All of our organisations have processes in place to respond to the small numbers of perpetrators and so-called men’s rights activists who attempt to disrupt services or women-only space, or harass or hurt service users or women participating in our events.
This discussion has thrown up some misconceptions about what it is like to access violence against women support and advocacy services, and our organisations will be thinking about ways we can share more information about how rape crisis and women’s aid does its work.
We will also look in detail at any proposals that impose legal requirements on violence against women services to change our practice. The proposals within the consultation do not make any such imposition, but we will be discussing this with Scottish Government and with regulators in Scotland.
Do you have any concerns around the proposals?
We have two key concerns at the moment, and we are interested to hear from people who have identified any others.
Evidence from The British Psychological Society to the Women and Equalities Committee of the UK Parliament has flagged its concern at the small number of men convicted of sexual offences who (in their words) “falsely claim to be transgender females” in order to secure parole, explain their offending, or get increased access to women and children once they have been released from prison. They express concern that the GRA proposals will in some way enable this small group of perpetrators if mitigating action is not taken by criminal justice agencies.
Some of our organisations will be picking up the issue of women’s safety with Scottish Trans Alliance and the Scottish Prison Service and other relevant agencies, to explore plans for ensuring women’s safety in prison and in the community.
Some public bodies we have been talking to about data collection have suggested that the existence of non-binary people means that it is either ‘offensive’ or otherwise ‘not appropriate’ to gather data on the sex of service users, employees, or other relevant groups.
This is not correct, and we will work with Scottish Trans Alliance and other LGBTI organisations to share clear information around gathering and using gender-disaggregated data. Public bodies in Scotland are currently required to do this as part of their obligations under the public sector equality duty. Gender-disaggregated data is essential to designing policy and services that meet the distinct needs of women and girls.
How will you resolve any unforeseen problems?
We have engaged with Scottish Trans Alliance since its inception, and have a strong, trusting working relationship. We are proud of our history of working together, and have confidence that we can be frank about any difficulties we have about the unintended consequence of changes to law and policy.
We are allies in the fight against men’s violence against women, and against gender stereotyping and essentialism.
Our women’s organisations and Scottish Trans Alliance are all committed to enabling dialogue and creating space for difficult conversations to take place. We know that regression on human rights and equality is happening even as we see progress in other areas. We are still near the beginning of theorising sex, gender, gender identity and how they interrelate. That those conversations are ongoing and unresolved does not affect our ambitions for trans equality and rights, or for providing services that meet the needs of trans women who have experienced sex discrimination or men’s violence.
Should your organisations have carried out an equality impact assessment on the consultation?
Equality impact assessment is a policymaking tool that public bodies in Scotland are legally required to use when they develop, review, or change policy. Scottish Government has published information about what it calls a “partial” EQIA in its consultation document. The information provided does not meet the requirements of an EQIA, in our view.
Although our organisations use a form of EQIA when we develop some services, as a process it is not relevant to policy advocacy work like consultation responses. This is because we are not iteratively developing an intervention or policy measure ourselves, but responding to the work of policymakers that sets out a menu of options.
Our organisations will, of course, comment on the impact on women and women’s equality when we respond to the proposals in the consultation.
How can I engage with the consultation as an individual?
Individuals can complete a response to the consultation here where you can also access other Scottish Government documents relating to the Gender Recognition Act.
The website http://equalrecognition.scot/ also has lots of useful information about specific issues around the Gender Recognition Act and a guide to filling out the consultation.
We're hiring!
Close the Gap is hiring!
We’re looking for an enthusiastic person to work on an exciting new project to develop and pilot an Equally Safe employer accreditation programme. Equally Safe is Scotland’s violence against women strategy which recognises that violence against women is a cause and consequence of gender inequality, and that tackling women’s labour market inequality will reduce violence against women.
Committed to women’s labour market equality, you’ll be working within our small, busy team to develop and pilot an innovative employer accreditation programme. You’ll be working to influence employers to participate in the pilot to improve their equalities practice and advance women’s equality in the workplace. You’ll also be developing materials, writing reports and gathering data to support the effective delivery of the pilot.
There's some further information on the role below, including closing and interview dates, and a link to the application pack.
Programme Officer (Equally Safe Employer Accreditation)
Salary: £27,500 (plus 10%
pension)
Hours: 34 hours per week
Location: The post is based in Glasgow city centre at 166 Buchanan Street.
Close the Gap is committed to being an equal opportunity employer, and we welcome applications from all sectors of the community.
Flexible working options are available for this role.
The post is fixed term, funded until March 2020.
Organisation profile
Close the Gap is Scotland’s national policy and advocacy organisation working on women’s labour market participation. We work strategically with policymakers, employers and unions to address the causes of women’s inequality at work. We have been operating since 2001.
Application notes
You can download the application pack here:
Programme Officer job description & person specification
Guildelines for completing your application
Completed electronic applications must be sent to: info@closethegap.org.uk.
You may also return your application by post to:
Recruitment
Close the Gap
Third Floor
166 Buchanan Street
Glasgow G1 2LW
The closing date for all applications is Friday 19 January 2018. Interviews will be held on either Tuesday 30 January, Wednesday 31 January or Thursday 1 February 2018. You will hear from us by Thursday 25 January 2018 if you are being invited to interview.
We value diversity in our workforce, and welcome enquiries from everyone.
Seven principles for a gender-competent Scottish National Investment Bank
Scottish Government's Programme for Government for 2017-2018 announced the establishment of a Scottish National Investment Bank. The consultation on this closed on Monday this week.
Alongside sister organisations Engender, the Scottish Women's Budget Group, and Women's Enterprise Scotland, we've produced seven principles which we believe are vital for creating a gender-competent national investment bank.
1.
2.
Investing in infrastructure should not only mean investment in bricks, steel, and fibre optic cable. Investment in childcare has the same type of impact, and should be considered as infrastructure.
3.
Growth can come from sectors we don’t immediately associate with productivity such as childcare and long-term care. Unpaid care also underpins our ‘productive’ economy. We want to see care become a key sector of Scotland’s economic strategy and a focus of the Scottish investment strategy.
4.
Our investment bank should invest in research and development, but the jobs and technologies it creates should benefit men and women, boys and girls. Investment in science and technology should create opportunities for women and girls to benefit on an equal basis, reflecting the differences in their lived experience of health and wellbeing, play, propensity to care, cultural and social interests, and safety.
5.
Success shouldn’t only be measured by GVA or GDP but by an increase in wellbeing of the people of Scotland. Wellbeing indicators should be created and used to measure the bank’s performance.
6.
Women’s businesses should stop being undercapitalised, so that they can be as successful as men’s businesses. If the numbers of women-led businesses increased to equal those of men, it would lead to a 5% increase in GDP, equivalent to £7.6bn.
7.
The Bank should be governed by a gender-balanced, gender-competent leadership team. It should gather and publish gender-disaggregated data about its investments, programmes, and services. Its offer should be gender-sensitive and aware that many women start businesses because of their experience of sexism and racism in employment.
You can read our response to the consultation here.
To mark Equal Pay Day, Close the Gap launches new online tool to support employers to report their gender pay gap under new UK regulations
Today is Equal Pay Day, the day from which women are effectively working for free for the rest of the year because of the gender pay gap. Two weeks ago the new national gender pay gap figures were released, which showed Scotland’s pay gap hasn’t budged since last year, as women in Scotland are still paid on average 15% less than men.
There has been little progress on narrowing the pay gap in recent years. The gender pay gap will not close on its own, and it’s time for decisive action from employers to help close the gap.
To mark Equal Pay Day, Close the Gap has launched a new online tool for employers who are required to report their gender pay gap under the new UK Gender Pay Gap Information Regulations 2017.
The free tool, Close Your Pay Gap, is a unique, innovative online resource which enables employers to:
- Generate their pay gap information;
- Identify priority areas for their organisation by answering a short series of questions; and
- Receive a bespoke report and action plan for addressing the pay gap in their organisation.
The easy to use online tool provides detailed, tailored guidance around an organisation’s employment practice in five key areas which align with the causes of the gender pay gap:
- Pay, performance and bonuses;
- Flexible and part-time working;
- Recruitment and promotion;
- Training and development; and
- Workplace culture.
Employers that take steps to reduce their pay gap are more productive, more innovative and more profitable, and are able to draw from a wider pool of skills and talent. When employers take action on the pay gap everybody benefits, as evidence shows closing the gender gap in employment is worth up to £17bn to Scotland’s economy.
To use the tool visit www.closeyourpaygap.org.uk
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