Engender supports call for action on women's unemployment

15 Nov 2011

Engender are supporting a call for the UK and Scottish government to address women's unemployment in Scotland and the continuing under representation of women in Scottish boardrooms.  We are signatories to a letter sent to the Scottish Affairs Committee in Westminster and the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee in the Scottish Parliament calling for:

• An action plan to combat women's unemployment
• A voluntary code of practice to increase diversity

This is in response to the 20% increase in the number of women claiming Jobseekers Allowance in Scotland in the past year and to research which revealed that only there are only 10 women directors out of the 254 directorships available in our top firms.

The letter was covered in the Herald  'Warning on female workers'

The full text of the letter:

As you will no doubt be aware, recent Labour Market Statistics show that women have been particularly badly hit by job losses in Scotland, with the number of female claimants of Job Seekers Allowance having risen by 20% over the past 12 months, while the male number of claimants has flat lined or in some areas decreased.
At the same time, industry experts are highlighting there are particularly acute problems around female representation at a high level in both listed and private Scottish firms that need to be addressed urgently.
A recent survey by the Herald newspaper revealed that in Scotland, 30 of the largest listed companies have just 29 female board directors between them – and 10 have no women at the top table Even at those firms with female representation, women tend to have a solitary boardroom position, which means they hold only around one in 10 of the 254 directorships offered by the country’s leading firms. The figures put Scotland below the UK average.
Apart from the obvious inequity of women in Scotland struggling to reach the top of their chosen professions, it has also been suggested by several studies that the gender gap in representation at the top is bad for business. A report by consultants McKinsey (http://www.mckinsey.com/locations/swiss/news_publications/pdf/women_matter_english.pdf  ) concluded that the companies where women are most strongly represented at board or top level management are also the companies which performed best financially.
It is clear to us that Scottish women are bearing the brunt of a difficult employment market, and our concern is that these challenges will only inhibit the development of the vital “talent pipeline” required to tackle the lack of representation at the top of Scottish companies, and to ensure a successful gender balance throughout both the private and public sector and to make the most of Scottish women’s talents and expertise.
We the undersigned are writing to you as Chair of the Economy Committee/Scottish Affairs Select Committee because we believe that the causes of the disproportionate number of unemployed women needs to be subjected to serious analysis and an urgent action plan needs to be put together to combat such unemployment and get Scottish women back to work.
We also believe that there needs to be greater engagement with companies and organisations to learn from them what measures they have implemented to successfully improve female representation within their organisation.
Our hope is that from your conclusions, we may be able to work together to create a Scottish voluntary code of practice to encourage diversity. Such a code could comprise of a menu of measures that firms and organisations could choose to implement according to the size and nature
of their organisation. From our discussions as a group, we have learnt that even the smallest of changes in practice, at minimum cost, can make a substantive difference.
Scotland has a wealth of talent within its female workforce which we fear is currently being left untapped. We ask the Committee to use the impressive array of investigative powers at its disposal, to stand up for women throughout Scotland and to probe the issues we have raised as a matter of urgency.