Engender blog

Guest Post: Women at the heart of decision making: How women’s goals and ambitions can shape and create better public policy

by Lynn Williams, SCVO. Lynn is also an unpaid carer.

I left university some 20 years ago (how did that happen?!) with real fire in my belly, angry at the injustice of poverty and how those in poverty were treated.

That passion for social change was never lost but was rekindled when I became part of the carers’ movement, which fights for support that should be readily available to help carers and their loved ones achieve the quality of life so many of us take for granted.

As an unpaid carer for my husband, that fight has affected our own, small family unit. Battling burgeoning bureaucracy in public services is a daily part of our lives. In those battles, carers talk about losing themselves and of having to give up on their own dreams and ambitions. For many, battling for appropriate care means leaving work and abandoning their career. I have seen this happen to fellow activists and it’s something which I fear.

I know what giving up work will mean – consider Carers Allowance which remains the lowest of income replacement benefits. It means being the target of the Coalition’s “slash and burn” policy agenda. It would mean being viewed in society as being something less. Politicians talk a good game. They say they value unpaid care –whether that be for children or family members. But watch Engender’s new video for the “Making Work Visible” campaign and see the reality. Paid work is still the prize in terms of economic policy – unpaid work remains unsupported and undervalued.

The Scottish Government estimates that by 2037, over one million of us will become carers. The impact of caring is borne disproportionately by women and it affects their place and value in the economy and within the labour market. Carers UK tells us that 2 million people have quit work to care and almost 3 million have reduced their working hours. This increases dependence on the benefits system and on tax credits which are being cut significantly. Poverty is therefore a likely outcome for far too many unpaid carers.

Meanwhile, the TUC highlights the “lack of well paid jobs for women who don’t work full time”. Too many jobs do not offer the flexibility needed to continue to balance work and care. Take all of this into account and then consider the increasing number of sandwich carers – those who care for an elderly relative and a disabled spouse or child. Devaluing the care economy and not dealing directly with the increasingly unbearable pressures on carers is a recipe for disaster.

And it is these very dreams and ambitions - the experience of women – which could provide some direction and vision as we come face to face with very serious and complex policy challenges – tighter finances, public service reform and creation of social security policy in Scotland. In the words of Ruth Bader Ginsburgh: “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made….It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.”

She was referring to the justice system, but her wisdom extends beyond this. As we leave behind International Women’s Day, the real catalyst for change will come when there are genuine opportunities for women at the very centre of the policy making process. We can start with the planned Carers’ Bill, the Smith legislative clauses and implementation of the refreshed Economic Strategy. We have an enviable and once in a lifetime opportunity to act and be the change that is so desperately needed.

International Women's Day - Let's #makeworkvisible

Happy International Women's Day!

Not a lot of people know that International Women's Day used to be calling International Working Women's Day.

But what does being a working woman actually mean? Governments and international bodies tend to recognise work as something you get paid for. You offer your services, skills and time, and your receive a wage for it. This wage then gets spent on rent, bills, food and goods, and paying other people for services, and so the economy functions. This is what's known as the 'formal economy'. Things which are deemed not to contribute to the formal economy are normally counted as 'leisure'.

There are huge problems with the formal economy for women – we still (in 2015!) have a pay gap which means women earn 13% less than men as full time workers and 32% less than men part-time. Women are more likely to be in precarious and low paid positions. We are less likely to become CEO (in fact, if you're a man named John, James, William or Robert you're more likely to be CEO than a woman!) and are still discriminated against in the workplace.

But perhaps the biggest problem with the 'formal economy' is that it doesn't recognise the value (economic or otherwise) of any work which doesn't fit into that rigid pattern of work-earn-spend. Work such as raising children, caring for relatives, housework and contributing to communities are not counted in budgets and figures such as GDP (Gross Domestic Product – the way which most governments measure economic activity), even though they clearly contribute to the wellbeing of the country. This sort of work is still predominantly done by women – 62% of unpaid care-givers are women, the majority of childcare is still undertaken by women, and the time men spend doing housework has only increased at a rate of one minute per day per year since the '70s!

Watch our brilliant new film 'Marginal-eyes' which highlights the problem of undervalued and unseen women's work!

Please help us spread the word about this important issue on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #makeworkvisible. We also have graphics highlighting the issue which can be found on our our Flickr page.

Cracks in the Glass Ceiling or Just a Trick of the Light? New Report on Women on Boards

What is this report about?

As part of the European Women’s Lobby’s Beijing+20 focus month on ‘Women in Decision-Making’, February sees the launch of the EWL’s latest report on women on boards, entitled ‘Women on Boards in Europe: Second Progress Report. Cracks in the glass ceiling or just a trick of the light?’

This Second Progress Report is part of the EWL’s ongoing work to ensure that parity at all levels of decision-making becomes reality. It tracks developments, progress, and stagnation regarding women on company boards in 11 European countries, including the United Kingdom, since the EWL’s first Progress Report on Women on Boards in 2012 – which was awarded the European Public Affairs Award for Report of the Year 2012.

What’s happening in Europe regarding women on boards?

Since the 2012 report, and ongoing campaigning in favour of binding legislation regarding gender parity on company boards across the EU, an EU Directive which aims to attain a 40% gender balance on non-executive boards in large, publicly listed companies across the EU has been proposed and is currently under consideration by the Council. Commissioner for Gender Equality VÄ›ra Jourová has committed to seeing the Directive passed within 2015.

We therefore find ourselves at a key moment to reflect on the developments in this area since 2012 across Europe and to learn from this reflection and analysis in order to best inform current and future policy-making in this area.

What has the United Kingdom done to crack the glass ceiling since 2012?

Positive steps

• The Davies Review in 2011 has led to good progress with many companies voluntarily committing to raising the proportion of women on company boards
• Among FTSE 100[1] companies, women’s representation on boards is at 22.8% (October 2014), up from 12.5% in 2011 and every FTSE 100 company has at least one woman on their board[2]
• Reaching the target of 25% of women on boards by 2015 is seen as essential to ‘prove […] that British business [can] fix this on their own’ and in order to avoid legislative quotas at the EU or national level[3]

Challenges

• While as a group, the FTSE 100 companies are on track to meet the 25% target in 2015, success is concentrated in a few companies and there are still 61 FTSE 100 companies who fall short of this target[4]
• Once again, we see progress is heavily weighted in non-executive directorships – 27.9% of non-executive directorships among FTSE 100 companies are held by women, in comparison to 8.4% of executive directorships[5]
• When we look at smaller companies, the situation is far worse. Among the FTSE 250 group[6], only 17.4% of board members are female and there are 29 companies with no female directors at all[7]

The way forward

The report makes five evidence-based recommendations, which should be taken into account as the future policy landscape regarding women in decision-making at the EU level and the national level is determined:

• Binding measures must apply to both executive and non-executive boards
• Further action is needed to increase proportion of female CEOs
• Effective measures require regular monitoring and intermediary targets
• Measures must be enforced with firm sanctions
• Quotas must be introduced as part of a comprehensive policy package that seeks to address the fundamental causes of women’s underrepresentation in economic decision-making

Gender parity in positions of economic power is of vital importance when it comes to justice, democracy and sustainable growth. Diverse decision-makers and leaders better represent, better understand, and better respond to the desires and needs of women and men in their diversity – and will be more open to cultivating a new style of leadership which will lead to much-needed transformative social change. As an important step forward towards a progressive, sustainable and inclusive Europe, the European Women’s Lobby demands the adoption and implementation of the current proposed EU Directive on women on boards without further delay. Moreover, we strongly encourage national governments to go above and beyond its requirements and to implement stronger measures to achieve gender parity at all levels of decision-making.

You can see the report with full references, and information on other countries, here.

Guest Post: Plan F for feminist: An alternative to the UK government's economic 'Plan A'.

Guest blog: By Angela O'Hagan.

As Frances O’Grady argues in the foreword to the CLASS publication “Election 2015: What’s at stake for work, pay and unions?” the forthcoming election is “a chance to reject a broken economic system”. That encapsulates the arguments from a feminist economics and feminist political analysis of the current economic system and the policy responses of the UK government that are increasingly harmful to women’s wellbeing and their economic and social autonomy.