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We're hiring!

Programme Officer - Equally Safe at Work (NHS & third sector)

We’re looking for an enthusiastic person to work on the expansion of Equally Safe at Work, Close the Gap’s employer accreditation programme, in NHS boards, and the third sector. Committed to women’s labour market equality, you’ll be working within our small, busy team to influence improved gender-sensitive employment practice, and supporting employers to gain accreditation. You’ll also be designing shared learning opportunities, developing materials, writing reports, delivering events and building relationships with stakeholders.

Equally Safe at Work launches in NHS boards, and the third sector

Following the success of Close the Gap’s employer accreditation programme, Equally Safe at Work, with local authorities, we are pleased to be launching a new pilot of the programme with the NHS and the third sector. The evaluation of the pilot with local authorities highlighted that Equally Safe at Work was an important lever for enabling employers to take substantive action on gender equality and demonstrate leadership in violence against women.

An Unequal Burden: New briefing outlines how Covid-19 has affected women’s employment, financial security and unpaid work.

Women’s inequality has been exacerbated by the social, economic and labour market implications of the Covid-19 crisis. However, the lack of gender-sensitive, sex-disaggregated data created barriers to achieving a full understanding of women’s experiences of the pandemic. In particular, intersectional data relating to the experiences of disabled and Black and minority (BME) women in Scotland during the crisis is almost entirely lacking.

The Child Poverty Delivery Plan maintains a strong focus on work and earnings, but the need to address women’s poverty is less visible

The Scottish Government has published its updated Child Poverty Delivery Plan setting out the actions it will take to tackle child poverty across 2022 to 2026. The impact of Covid-19 and the ongoing cost of living crisis have contributed to a rising tide of poverty in Scotland, rendering the refreshed Plan more important than ever.

Equally Safe at Work employer accreditation opens to new councils

Following the success of our Equally Safe at Work pilot with councils, Close the Gap is pleased to roll out this world-leading accreditation programme with a new cohort of councils from March 2022 to July 2023.

Scotland can’t become a fair work nation without realising fair work for women

As a result of women’s pre-existing inequality in the labour market, women’s employment has been disproportionately impacted by Covid-19 job disruption. This means that the pandemic has significantly increased the challenges to realising gender equality at work. Other labour market changes, such as automation and the threat to employment rights that Brexit presents, also create risks to women’s equality at work.

Scottish Government’s commitment to improving the quality of work in Scotland, through its flagship policy of fair work, therefore remains pivotal. However, fair work must mean fair work for women, too. Fair work policy development must be better gendered if it is to create change for women in Scotland.

We're hiring!

Close the Gap is hiring for two new positions! The first is for the role of Research and Evaluation Officer to support the delivery of our innovative Equally Safe at Work employer accreditation programme. The second is for the role of Communications and Administration Assistant, to assist with expanding our communications work and the smooth running of the organisation. You can find more information for both roles, and details of how to apply, below.

The pandemic hasn’t drastically changed the flexible working landscape, we still need regulatory and cultural change

The lack of quality flexible working opportunities in the UK labour market remains a key cause of the gender pay gap. The lack of flexibility sustains women’s concentration in low-paid, low-skilled work. This also results in women’s under-representation at management level and in senior grades. Improving access to flexible working is thus critical to addressing women’s low pay, tackling women’s poverty and child poverty, and closing the gender pay gap.

The Value of Social Care

The creation of a National Care Service is an opportunity to improve the lives of people who use social care and their families and carers. But whatever form it takes, a reformed social care system must address the undervaluation of its workforce if it’s to succeed in improving the quality and provision of care services in Scotland. To do this, we must acknowledge the reason that care work is so undervalued – because it’s seen as “women’s work”.

Equal Pay Day 2021: A look at BME women’s inequality at work

From today – Equal Pay Day – women are now effectively working for free until the end of the year. New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that Scotland’s gender pay gap has narrowed slightly from 10.4% to 10.1%, suggesting women’s workplace inequality remains stubbornly entrenched. As with last year, the data comes with reliability warnings due to the impact of COVID on the sample size of employer pay data. Further COVID-related factors such as the recent end of furlough and the impact of labour market shortages also won’t be reflected in gender pay gap data for some time.

Women are more likely to experience long Covid but, once again, the system of support doesn’t meet their needs

The emergence of long Covid has exposed yet another way in which the pandemic has disproportionately affected women in Scotland. Long Covid describes symptoms that persist four weeks after contracting the virus. A TUC survey found that those with long-term Covid symptoms experienced brain fog (72%), shortness of breath (70%), difficulty concentrating (62%) and memory problems (54%). These symptoms have led to workers having to reduce their working hours, or stop working altogether.

Challenge Poverty Week: The next Child Poverty Delivery Plan must prioritise action on women’s labour market equality

Across Scotland an increasing number of women, and their children, are locked in the grip of poverty. We know that women are more likely to be in poverty than men; are more likely to experience in-work poverty; and are more likely to experience persistent poverty than men. The pandemic has exacerbated these trends, with women who were already struggling now under enormous financial pressure.

What will the end of furlough mean for women’s employment?

Despite the latest data showing that one-quarter of employers across the UK were still using the scheme, the UK Government’s Job Retention Scheme is scheduled to finish at the end of September.

Furlough has been a welcome, if imperfect, intervention by the UK Government. The scheme has supressed unemployment, with cumulative data showing that over 910,000 jobs in Scotland have been furloughed over the course of the pandemic. Given women’s concentration in service sectors such as retail and hospitality, the scheme has enabled women who work in these sectors to protect some of their income during prolonged periods of sector shutdowns.

The decision to end the scheme in September has been viewed by some as an arbitrary decision, not tied to any particular milestone in the pandemic or the state of the economy. Indeed, the trajectory of the pandemic still remains somewhat unclear. In Scotland, positive cases and hospitalisations have been on the rise again and it is likely that there may be further surges in the winter months. In the absence of furlough to protect jobs during any future lockdowns or sector shutdowns, there are concerns about unemployment in the coming months.

What’s Violence Against Women got to do with women’s labour market inequality? Close the Gap’s new animation explains.

Close the Gap has developed a short animation for Equally Safe at Work that explains the link between violence against women (VAW) and women’s labour market inequality. Tackling women’s inequality in the workplace is a necessary step in preventing VAW, so employers therefore have a key role to play.

We're hiring!

Close the Gap are hiring for three new positions to support the delivery of our Equally Safe at Work employer accreditation programme.

Making sure a green economy also works for women

Prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19, green jobs and green skills were a key aspect of Scottish Government’s efforts to transition to a net zero economy. The ongoing crisis has brought further weight to these considerations, with focus turning to the importance of building a greener and fairer economy in the aftermath of the pandemic.

How will political parties promote gender equality in the labour market? What we learnt from the women’s election hustings

Coverage of the Scottish Parliament elections, which are now only a few weeks away, have been very much focused on COVID-19 and Scotland’s economic recovery. So far, equalities considerations have been notable by their absence. Within mainstream public dialogue and formal televised debates, there has been very little, if any, focus being afforded to promoting gender equality.

One year on: New Close the Gap research highlights the impact of COVID-19 on women’s employment

COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on Scotland’s economy. Women’s labour market participation has been impacted in multiple and specific ways by sector shutdowns, furlough, job losses and increases in the amount of unpaid work, particularly childcare and care.

Close the Gap’s new research, One Year On: The impact of COVID-19 on women’s employment in Scotland uses labour market data, statistics relating to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, and Scottish Government labour market analysis to assess how COVID-19 has impacted women’s employment and labour market equality over the last 12 months.

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