The World Economic Forum's 2017 Global Gender Gap Report findings tell us that gender parity is over 200 years away but what does this mean for me and the majority of you, the women and men reading this article?Many of you will feel that we have already achieved gender parity in the UK, we all have access to the same educational curriculum, we all, we are told, have equal opportunities to move into higher education and whichever career we want, we can, if we wish, choose whether to have children. But is that really true, can it really be that the only area in the UK where we still need to create true parity is the gender pay gap - currently at 9% for full time work but 19% for all employment.
Over the next month, we will see the inside workings of the gender pay gap; at least in respect of companies with over 250 employees who legally have to publish their gender pay gap and bonus gaps, by pay range. 8000 businesses have to publish and so far only around 1000 have, with figures from the BBC, Barclays and Easyjet amongst others, creating anger and disbelief amongst female employees and the wider world. Many of the facts we are seeing, such as 81% of the best paid employees at Barclays being men, will lead us to ask the question "Why is this still the case in 2018?" My take on some of the answers is below. In the UK, the number of mothers in employment has tripled since 1951. In the early sixties, women in teaching, banking, nursing and many other careers, had to give up work when they got married. Career dead, finished. It was only as we moved through the seventies that we started to see some women establishing themselves in careers and returning to work once children were at school. It took another 20 years before it was common practice for mothers to only take a one or two year career break. It therefore follows that until very recently, women were just not moving up through the ranks in the same numbers as men. Fast forward to now and you would think that woman might have caught up. Certainly in 2011, figures showed that women in their twenties were gaining more first class degrees and earning equal per full time hour to men. But alarmingly, this age group now has a widening pay gap, increasing from 1.1% in 2011 to 5.5% now. Of real concern is the fact that the pay gap in full time pay for women over 40 is 19%. At our Oysters and Pearls events, Role and many wonderful Lancashire women in jobs across all industries spend the day with groups of16 year old girls who have not achieved A - C grades at GCSE. Most of the girls we mentor are learning social care and beauty. We look across the corridors to the construction and vehicle mechanics classes filled with 16 year old boys who also did not achieve 5 A-C grades at GCSE. These boys once qualified, will earn double what the girls do. Now, you might argue that those girls don't want to do outdoor bricklaying or oily car repairs and I fully accept that the majority won't, but why do we pay car mechanics twice as much to fix a car as we pay care workers to teach our pre school children or care for our parents? This is where the gender pay gap springs from. The fact that in the UK we do not value care. (87% of the people who work in care are women and it is the fastest growing industry in the UK). We also do not value the care mothers provide during the first years of a child's life and we know it's the women providing this, only 5% of men have elected to take parental leave. In Sweden, parents share parental leave, with 80% of their salary paid for 13 months after their child is born. Fathers have to take minimum 3 months off and the Swedish government are considering increasing it to 5 months. That's the type of policy that eradicates the gender pay gap. However, you might argue that Sweden still has a gender pay gap of 5% and that the health and care industries still employ 80% women whilst the trades and computer programming industries employ 80% men. We cannot alter nature. Women nurture, men make stuff. Don't get mad here and tell me to stop generalising, Sweden, where everything possible including quotas, has been done to reach parity, is living proof. What we can do something about is how we value caring based occupations and how much we pay people for doing them. But parity is not just about pay - it is about a level playing field in career progression, sharing the housework and sharing care of children and parents, it's about respecting women and men equally - from behind closed doors, to film and in the media and on a train and on Facebook. Ultimately parity is down to each individual and the examples they have seen as a child and way they have been influenced by their peer group and the messages they see everyday. Each one of us can help to create the conditions in which parity will thrive, even if what we are doing seems like only a small thing. Making sure your son does his fair share of the ironing, encouraging your daughter to look at engineering because she's great at maths, asking for a pay rise, speaking to your MP about the cost of childcare. You may not think that on a global scale, this will reduce the 217 years we need to achieve parity, but as Van Gogh said "Great things are done by a series of small things brought together." If you'd like to debate parity with me and a 50/50 panel on the 8th March at the Lancaster and District Chamber of Commerce International Women's Day event, which is an event open to men and women, please follow this link https://tinyurl.com/y767njaf
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Some of you will have heard me talk about my enforced sabbatical at Samye Ling Buddhist monastery in the Spring of 2016. Ceremoniously 'dumped' there by my eldest daughter, I was left there for a week and told to 'sort my bloody self out'.
After a whole life of cramming so much in to each day that people constantly said to me "I don't know how you do it" and working and mixing with people who replied 'Busy' when asked how they were; a week of no internet, no responsibilities, no work and no family to sort should have been a relief. But the reality was far from a relief, in fact it was scary as hell. I had a whole week of doing nothing - and in that nothingness I started to understand about wholeness. In the 20 months since, I haven't shaved all my hair off and donned Burgandy robes, or given up work and moved into a treehouse, but...... I have consciously and deliberately changed the way I work and the things I prioritise. People who have known me for years remark that I look younger, happier, calmer, which is lovely, but what is truly important to me, is that the anxious knot that lived at the top of my stomach as far back as I can remember, has dissolved almost to nothing and I believe that soon, it will be gone all together. I can recognise immediately, the things that feed the knot and I know how to instantly diffuse them. Many of the busy people I coach and mentor, men and women, are so used to living with this knot of anxiety, that they don't even realise it's not normal. They like the 'buzz' of constantly being 'on', being up against a deadline, fitting 30 hours into a 24 hour day, looking at the TV, mobile, internet all at the same time; but it's an addiction and the cortisol flowing through your body when you live like this, damages every cell and leads to chronic illness. I had to stop and be on my own for a week to realise that life does not become fuller the more you pack in, it becomes fuller when you pause and realise that wealth is not about the money you earn but what you would have left if all the money was gone. On 22.4,18, at the behest of many of my clients, I am hosting the first Role 5 day retreat for overworked and overwhelmed women. It's called STOP, because so many women have said to me during 2017, I just want to get off this treadmill and stop for a while. The retreat is at Carsaig House on the Isle of Mull (see the picture) and there's nothing there but sea, hills, space and time. It's a guided retreat for 14 women, encompassing Leadership Embodiment level one, which is a beautiful combination of Aikido and Mindfulness, plus Heartmath resilience coaching, drama based workshops around purpose and communication and optional coastal or hill-walking. The house is luxurious and the cottages are cozy. So, if any of you busy women want the best Christmas present you could ever dream of, ask Santa for a week of discovery and be prepared to discover someone you might have lost. Yourself. For full details and to book click the link below stop_incl_reg_form.docx That's the question we asked 30 girls today at Blackpool and the Fylde College at the end of our Oysters and Pearls event and do you know what they said? "I will believe in myself." "I will try to be confident." "I will take every opportunity given to me." "I will change my mindset to positive." Thanks to my fabulous team and to 30 fabulous Lancashire women who shared their time and their wisdom, we had a day filled with inspiration, fun and learning. The girls not only learned about the ins and outs of many careers, but also about listening, being focussed, being present, being daring and being their own 'loving boot'. The messages from our speakers. Alison Malcolm and Katy Mason were about stepping outside your comfort zone, choosing great supporters and finding your purpose, which sometimes takes many years. Heather Hardy CEO of Lancashire Charity Horseheard, offered 12 free places for the girls to work with horses on a Self Awareness and Life skills course, an incredible opportunity for any teenager wanting to develop their confidence and resilience and all the places were snapped up within 5 minutes. Actress Amy Strange inspired everyone with her own journey into acting and exercises involving lemons, balloons containing dreams and a human orchestra. It really was a day with a difference that truly made a difference. Thank you to the college for a lovely lunch and to North and West Lancashire Chamber of Commerce for helping us promote the day. And it doesn't end there....... all of our wonderful ladies have offered to mentor a student going forwards, which will truly change lives. So WOW and a massive thanks to everyone who helped me to promote the event, we will be delivering more of them in the Spring at colleges across Lancashire so watch this space! Our next Oysters and Pearls in on the 12th March at Nelson and Colne college full details below oysters_and_pearls_event_2018.pdf There's a lot of history at Colne Town Hall and yesterday Role, with the help of Katy Mason of Another Way, made a little more.
Colne Town Hall stands at the top of Albert Road and like many other Victorian buildings in Colne, is symbolic of the strength and pride found in many Northern Mill towns. Built in 1894 by Alfred Waterhouse, who also gave us the magnificent Manchester Town Hall, the building has seen its chambers filled with and led by many men over the years. In silent testament to this, their portraits adorn the walls of the staircase and also the Council Chambers. As part of the Pendle Business week, Role was asked to deliver a day of support and inspiration for women in business and the venue was Colne Town Hall. As I set up for the day, in the Council Chambers, I couldn't help but wonder what all those serious looking men, in their council robes, would have made of Role and the work we do every day to advance women into leadership roles in business and management and to mentor future generations of women. The start of our Women on the Up day is a presentation which charts the progress of women in the economy. Its a timeline of women's advancements over the past 150 years and indeed includes reference to the many female northern mill workers who supported the women's suffrage movement. I also talk about my own career, starting in the 1970s building a business in Greenfield Mill, Colne and ultimately leading me to the Chambers of Westminster, presenting to the Women and Equalities committee and representing the British Chambers of Commerce as their Ambassador for Women's Enterprise. As our 16 delegates arrived, there were many comments from them about embarking on this day of vision and self belief in a room where there were no portraits at all of women! However, our message was so powerful and our delegates so eager to succeed in their businesses and careers, that the room was soon filled to the brim with enthusiasm, as they shared their aspirations and goals. We had a truly motivational day, under the watchful guise of our serious male friends and we all agreed that the portraits, which have been privy to many great plans and decisions made about Colne and its people over the years, had been truly privileged to witness the vision and commitment of our 16 delegates, as they set down their plans to grow their businesses and careers and in doing so, advance women in the economy even further, in 2018. On my walk today
I pass: Old cottages with colour spilling over walls Blackberries ripening – Sodden fields where doe-eyed cows study me as they chew. I walk: On a thousand year old track under a million year old hill. I step: On tarmac, pebble, mud and grass and cross puddles on stones and streams on wooden bridges. I see: Sunlight glinting on green and speckled leaves and try to catch one as it falls. I hear: Water rushing a tractor idling birds chirruping. I taste: My hot coffee and later, a cold ice-cream. My feet are damp, my heart is warm and dry, I am in awe of these ordinary things just footsteps from my door which are in truth, incredible. |
If you enjoy my blogs, you can read more of my work in my book available here www.amazon.co.uk/Words-Walks-Wisdom-Wendy-Bowers/dp/1671172353
AuthorWendy Bowers, Archives
June 2022
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