September monthly reading roundup

There are normally very few things that brighten up a Monday morning, but our monthly reading roundup is here just in time for an extra long coffee break (you deserve it!). September saw the marking of the first mothers’ equal pay day, parliament saw its first baby attendee and we all wished Serena Williams would be our best friend.

August monthly reading roundup

Our monthly news round-up is back! This month includes stories on the UK gender pay gap regulations, falling numbers of female apprentices, and unfair recruitment practice in higher education. Why not make yourself a cup of tea and take ten minutes out to catch up on our August bulletin on all things women and work?

Scot women shout out

Women’s campaign groups, equalities organisations, and individual gender advocates in Scotland do amazing things, often with very limited resources, and little attention. We are planning to highlight some of the people and groups making women’s equality happen, to celebrate their work and inspire others to take action. We’ll be doing this on Monday using the hashtag

We are hiring!

Close the Gap is hiring!

We’re looking for an enthusiastic person with strong organising skills to provide administrative support to contribute to the effective delivery of Close the Gap’s work. Committed to women’s labour market equality, you’ll be working within our small, busy team and also supporting the development of our policy and project work.

Our accreditation programme will ensure women are Equally Safe at Work

Close the Gap is pleased to announce that we are developing an employer accreditation programme to support the implementation of Equally Safe, Scotland’s violence against women strategy. Equally Safe critically recognises that gender inequality is a root cause of violence against women and addressing labour market inequality is a necessary step in ending violence against women. The employer accreditation programme will be initially piloted in a diversity of local authorities across Scotland, with the view of a larger roll out in the future.

Close the Gap assessment of Scottish gender pay gap reporting suggests most employers are not planning to take action to close their pay gap

The Gender Penalty: Close the Gap's new research on Scotland's gender pay gap

The current level of discussion around the pay gap is unprecedented as the deadline for large companies reporting their pay gap gets ever closer (just under two weeks to go, in case you wondered). At our conference in February, we launched our new research The Gender Penalty: Exploring the causes and solutions to Scotland’s gender pay gap.

Welcome to the pay gap

Close the Gap is proud to share this short animation on the causes of the gender pay gap, which we created with media co-op.

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.

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.

We're hiring!

Close the Gap is hiring!

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.

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

 

Statement in support of the Equal Recognition Campaign and reform of the Gender Recognition Act

As national gender equality organisations and campaigns, Close the Gap, Engender, Equate Scotland, Rape Crisis Scotland, Scottish Women’s Aid, Women 50:50 and Zero Tolerance support the realisation of rights of trans people.

Close the Gap calls for cohesive, strategic response as new figures show Scotland’s gender pay gap hasn’t budged

Close the Gap has calculated the new gender pay gap figures for Scotland following the release of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings by the UK Office for National Statistics this morning. The bad news is Scotland’s pay gap hasn’t budged since last year, which sees women still being paid on average 15% less than men. It’s even worse for women working part-time who earn on average a staggering 32% less than men working full-time. Again, no change since last year. In fact, there’s been very little progress on narrowing the pay gap at all in recent years.

Expert women’s organisations call for action on the Economy, Jobs and Fair Work committee gender pay gap inquiry

Close the Gap has co-ordinated a joint response from gender equality organisations in Scotland to the recent Scottish Parliament Economy, Jobs and Fair Work Committee inquiry report into the gender pay gap.

The Taylor Review: what does it mean for women?

The eagerly awaited report of the Taylor review of modern working practices was published last week, proudly declaring that “many of this review’s recommendations on quality work will directly benefit women”. However, a close read of this report reveals a staggering lack of gender analysis. This complacency, and the assumption that gender equality is implicit, sees women repeatedly left behind by policy making, and despite its assertions the Taylor review is no different. The report runs to 116 pages, is rather verbose, and includes extremely long and unclear recommendations. We’ve written this extended post as a handy guide to the review’s recommendations and themes, and what they mean for women and work.

Five highlights from the Economy, Jobs and Fair Work Committee's inquiry into the pay gap

Yesterday, Close the Gap welcomed the report of the Scottish Parliament Economy, Jobs and Fair Work Committee inquiry into the gender pay gap. The report No Small Change: The economic potential of closing the pay gap makes 45 recommendations, a number of which are refreshingly bold, to Scottish Government, its agencies, and employers. That the Committee undertook the inquiry is progress itself as the pay gap has hitherto been seen as the purview of equality committees. Increasingly though, the economic case for women's equality is gaining global traction. In 2016, Close the Gap published research which found that equalising men's and women's employment could be worth £17bn to Scotland's economy. The committee led with this figure for the comms around their report.

Close the Gap welcomes Holyrood report which finds clear economic gains to closing the pay gap, worth up to £17bn* to Scotland's economy

Close the Gap welcomes the Scottish Parliament’s Economy, Jobs and Fair Work Committee report which reinforces the economic imperative of tackling the gender pay gap, and calls for a national strategy.