30,000 women lose their jobs every year as a result of becoming pregnant

Ageism
Young ambition
A recent poll for the EHRC revealed that almost half of those surveyed believe the discrimination most commonly faced at work is age. Successful business woman Ruth Badger says, ‘I suffered ageism for the first five years of my career; they wouldn’t promote me because they said I was too young, they even called me “the child”. It hindered my career, so I left and moved on.’ Internet business founder Rebecca* also feels targeted because of her age, ‘Shortly after I left school I worked for an insurance broking business. I was by far the youngest employee in the firm and one of only a few females. I was ambitious and had a meeting with a senior colleague who made it quite clear I would not be able to progress to a position higher than my male colleagues and if this was my ambition, I should perhaps looks elsewhere.’

Wisdom comes with age
A survey conducted by PRIME Initiative, a charity set up by Prince Charles to help people over 50 set up in business, revealed 3.6 million aged between 50–65 are unemployed, with 81% saying the attitude of employers to their age puts them at an automatic disadvantage. It also showed companies started by older people have a better chance of prospering, with 70% surviving the crucial first five years, compared with just 28% for younger people.
The recession has had a huge impact on the over 50s, of those made redundant just two in ten will find a job within six months, compared to eight out of ten for those aged under 50. Business woman Rosemary Paur says, ‘If I needed to get a job again now I am certain that I would suffer from ageism even though my CV as a former Executive PA who has worked for Chairmen and a Member of Parliament puts me at the top of my game, my age doesn’t!’ Of those who are made redundant at 50 only one in ten have a chance of finding a job ever again. Laurie South, CEO of PRIME, says ‘The ageism suffered by older workers is widespread, and the recession is making it even harder. The trouble is the government and industry are investing in youth and not in older workers, but the over 50s in my experience have as much innovation as anyone else. They probably reject more options than the young because their experience has shown them that there are some options that should not be pursued, they are prudent because they have more to lose. I think the banking crisis ought to have made us realise that running a risk is not per se a good thing, calculating that risk carefully and applying some prudence is what was required by our banks, and it’s exactly the same for our entrepreneurs.’

Recession recovery
Skills and experience from older workers could be the answer to holding businesses together, and getting them out of the economic downturn. Policy director of the EHRC, Alan Christie, says, ‘We must stop stereotyping and worrying about how many candles a worker has on their next birthday cake, instead of looking at what they can offer. It’s important to recognise that flexibility can help business weather the difficult times and prepare for the recovery, by attracting and retaining vital talent and skills, including older workers.’

Sexism
The pay gap
A recent report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) revealed women are still paid 20% less than their male colleagues. In the financial sector women working full-time earn 55% less a year on average than their male counterparts and 79% less in incentives and bonuses. Harriet Harman, the Minister for Women says the financial industry is a “breeding ground for discrimination”.
Pay discrimination still appears to be rife in business, particularly for women at the top working in stockbroking and fund management. Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Commission says, ‘The figures are shocking and indicate just how serious the pay gap has become in the financial sector. The truth is that however you look at the numbers, women do not have equal status or equal rewards. Nobody wants this kind of unfairness, including the businesses themselves. We are losing or not taking advantage of talented women from a crucial industry – something we can ill afford in these troubled times.’
In light of the report, progress is thankfully being made on the gender pay gap, with the government enforced Equality Bill asking large firms to conduct a yearly pay audit, and to publish the results. If not enough businesses volunteer to perform the audit by 2013 the government has the power to make them compulsory for large companies. But Kat Banyard from the Fawcett Society, which campaigns for gender equality says, ‘It’s a very weak measure, the government is only going to make companies with over 250 employees conduct the pay audit, yet still this is only 0.4% of all employers. Even if these powers were used, it would hardly go any way to tackle a deeply embedded problem, the fact that it’s been 40 years since paying women less than men was made illegal, yet there’s still a gap which shows the Equal Pay Bill is still not working. The government can’t keep setting targets, something needs to happen now’.

At the top
Women suffering pay discrimination is just the tip of the iceberg ¬– females are still struggling to be equal to men in the boardroom. A survey earlier this year revealed just 11% of FTSE 100 Company Directors are women and in 2008 the number of women directors increased by just 1%. It’s predicted it will take at least another 65 years for women to equal men in senior management roles. But why are women held back from the top positions? ‘From the moment women enter the workplace they are confronted by barriers and stereotypes about what makes good leadership and what women’s capabilities are,’ says Banyard. ‘To get into the board room you have to work long hours; women still do the bulk of caring and the long working hours culture that we have means they simply can’t complete on an equal level with men.’
Women are rare in the high-growth sector too, with many businesses founded by women dismissed as lifestyle businesses run from the kitchen table. Women run 16% of the 4.7 million enterprises in the UK, contributing an estimated £130m to the UK economy, however almost a fifth of the companies that don’t employ anyone are owned by women, with only 7% of women’s enterprises employing between 50 and 249 people.

The working mother
According to the Equal Opportunities Commission 30,000 women lose their jobs every year as a result of becoming pregnant – missing out on £12m in statutory maternity pay, and 45% of pregnant women that manage to stay in their jobs experience some form of discrimination from their employers or colleagues. Rosemary Paur, founder of the Global PA Network, suffered discrimination from her bosses when she became pregnant, ‘When I was pregnant with my first child over 20 years ago it was suggested that I stop work for the Sales Director as the job may make me too tired. It was very hard being a working mother as you constantly worry that you are neglecting the children. We still have an office culture of negativity at times and people make judgments of others, and the vulnerable in this are the part-time people and working mothers’.
Research from the Equalities Review discovered mothers with children under 11 are 40% less likely to be employed than men with children under 11, with the figure rising to 45% for single mothers. But even when the children are older than 11, there is still a 25% disadvantage, compared with men in the same situation. Liz Gardiner from Working Families, a company who supports working parents, says, ‘We’re concerned that pregnant women and those on maternity leave are particularly vulnerable in the recession. Recent examples include a woman being dismissed as soon as she told her employer she was pregnant, and cases of women on maternity leave being singled out for redundancy. More women than men have childcare responsibilities, and have a greater need to work flexibly and reduced hours. Sadly we have many women callers who tell us they are forced out of jobs because they can’t get the flexible hours they need to fit with their childcare, or face disciplinary action for taking time off for childcare reasons.’

Entitlement
Currently women are entitled to nine months paid maternity leave, with six months at 90% pay, and the rest at the statutory rate of £117.18 a week. To help combat the discrimination women face for taking time off a new paternity act was introduced, but men only get two weeks at the statutory rate. Liz says, ‘The Work and Families Act 2006 was introduced to grant additional paternity leave (APL) to allow fathers to take up to six months of leave. This would help balance the amount of time men and women take out of the workplace, and contribute to a change in employers’ attitudes to women. Sadly, although it was promised in the lifetime of this Parliament, APL hasn’t yet been introduced.”

Racism
Race to the top
Coming from an ethnic minority is a huge barrier to getting the top roles in business, according to research from a recent study by Business in the Community’s, Race for Opportunity campaign. More than 1 in 10 of the British population comes from an ethnic minority group but just 6.8% are in management positions, meaning white workers currently hold 93.2% of management positions in the UK.
It’s predicted by 2015 if growth rates continues 15.2% of the population in the UK will come from an ethnic group, but only 11.2% of the ethnic population will be in management roles, so for each generation of ethnic minority people entering the workforce a smaller proportion will reach senior levels than the previous one.
Sandra Kerr, National Campaign Director for Race for Opportunity, says, ‘Barack Obama won the most high profile management post in the world with the slogan “Yes, we can”. The evidence we have found is that without major and urgent policy intervention or action from businesses, the message to ethnic minorities aspiring to management in the UK is “No, you won’t”. The disappointing implication is that there may still be a colour bar to management jobs in the UK 33 years after the passing of the landmark Race Relations Act of 1976.’

White man’s world?
It’s not just in the world of business that ethnic minorities are under-represented; in Parliament just 2% of MPs are non-white, and the first black Cabinet Minister, Paul Boateng, was appointed only seven years ago in 2002. Teji Singh, property guru and founder of PR company Sterling Communications has experienced racial discrimination throughout her career, she says, ‘It was particularly difficult in the early stages in the media industry as I faced double discrimination on a gender and ethnicity level. At that time not many females from an ethnic minority background had joined the industry so there was some stigma attached, I really had to educate the people around me that it was perfectly acceptable for an “Asian female” to work in property and media. I faced the discrimination with determination and the view that all challenges are just hurdles to overcome, and will ultimately make me stronger. As a single, Asian woman, trying to get ahead in a male-dominated professional environment, I have challenged the stereotypes, and want to be testament that anything can be achieved in this life.’

Progress report
Racism in the workplace is slowly decreasing, banks and the finance sector have improved the diversity of their workforces in recent years, and employ more than a quarter of the total of ethnic minority managers. In the FTSE 100, 4.7% of the company directors are from a non-European ethnic background, an increase of 2.4% on 2004. In a recent survey for the EHRC 78% of Muslim women said they feel it’s now possible to reach senior positions in the workplace, and 33% said they could imagine themselves being the Chief Executive of the organisation they work for. Singh says, ‘In the UK it appears that the attitude towards ethnic women in business has reached a point where it’s largely accepted. I hope that with each year that passes, certain archaic traditions will die out and women, whatever their race, will be viewed with the same respect and value as men in both the working world and family life.’

*names have been changed

COMMENTS

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2010 07 08

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2010 07 23

Educating people about sexual orientation and gender identity. The reason that they are afraid of it is because the don’t understand it or haven’t ever been exposed to it or maybe both. If you want percentages, ect. on discriminaton, google glsen.org 2007 national school climate report.

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