1 Introduction
This is still a workplace designed by men for
men. There is a great deal that this Government still has to do
to make sure that we can allow women to play their full part.
[Rt Hon
Maria Miller MP, Women and Equalities Minister][1]
1. The Rt Hon Maria Miller MP spoke these words
when she gave evidence to the Committee in January 2013. Her views
highlight the continuing importance of an issue that we, and our
predecessors, have been interested in for many years. In April
2005, our predecessors on the Trade and Industry Committee published
Jobs for the girls: the effect of occupational segregation
on the gender pay gap[2]
and then our predecessors on the Business, Enterprise and
Regulatory Reform Committee published a follow-up Report Jobs
for the girls: two years on.[3]
This inquiry continues that work.
2. It is an individual's right to have the opportunity
to reach their full potential. If that does not or cannot happen,
it is a waste: a waste to that individual; a waste to the economic
benefit of the country; and a waste to society. We were interested
in exploring the issues surrounding the position of women at all
stages of their career and at all levels of the workforce, primarily
within the context of the economic argument of utilising fully
women's contribution to the workforce. This will also involve
a cultural shift that will involve men sharing domestic and caring
responsibilities in the home.
3. Some aspects of women's position in the workplace
have changed for the better over recent years. For example, we
heard from Professor Jane Dacre, representing the Royal College
of Physicians, who told us that "60% of medical students
are now female. […] Clever girls used to be nurses, now clever
girls become doctors".[4]
Often women's chances of achievement are reliant on the type of
work that they choose to do, and the context in which they carry
out that work. Indeed, within the medical profession, Professor
Dacre told us that 42% of partners in primary care were women,
compared with only 8% of surgical consultants being women.[5]
Opportunities available to women depend on the level of wages,
the choice of work, the flexibility of work on offer, maternity
rights, the cost of local childcare, and the use of fair and open
competition in job promotion. These factors are linked by perceptions
of how women should be, what careers they should follow, and the
roles that men take on. All these aspects of work are woven together,
and they can either help or hinder women's prospects in their
working and home life.
4. The underlying foundation on which all these
aspects of a person's life rests is their economic standing. The
Equal Pay Act 1970 was an attempt to equalise pay between men
and women. After over 40 years of the legislation being enacted,
full equality in pay has not been achieved. As with women's achievements
in the workplace, there are many reasons why women are paid less
than men: the types of jobs traditionally thought of as being
more suitable for women; the consequences of the responsibility
of raising babies and children still regarded primarily as being
that of women; the opaqueness of the pay system that hides unequal
remuneration; and the preponderance of men reaching the highest
levels of the workforce, and who—often unintentionally—make
strategic decisions based on their own experiences, rather than
on more diverse experiences, that in turn directly affect many
other people.
The Business, Innovation and Skills
Committee's inquiry
5. Our inquiry was launched in September 2012.
We sought written evidence on:
- whether the Equality Act, including
the Public Sector Equality Duty, goes far enough in tackling inequalities,
such as the gender pay gap and job segregation, between men and
women in the workplace;
- what steps should be taken to provide greater
transparency on pay and other issues, such as workforce composition;
- the impact of the current economic crisis on
female employment and wage levels;
- how gender stereotyping in particular occupations
should be tackled;
- what more should be done to promote part-time
work at all levels of the workplace, ensuring that both women
and men have opportunities to gain senior positions within an
organisation while working flexibly or part time;
- to what extent the recommendations in Lord Davies'
Report Women on Board, published in February 2011, have
been acted upon, and how successful the
- voluntary code of conduct has been; why there
are still so few women in senior positions on boards, and what
the benefits are of having a greater number of women on boards;
- how much consideration investors should give
to the percentage of women on boards, when considering company
reporting and appointments to the board.
Some evidence noted that a disproportionate number
of our terms of reference referred to women in senior positions.[6]
While we accept the fact that the majority of women (and the majority
of men) will never reach senior board positions, people in senior
positions make strategic long-term decisions affecting the running
of an organisation and the workforce within that organisation.
We therefore felt that it was important to highlight the issues
surrounding the low proportion of women in senior positions, while
nevertheless not treating the other issues with any less importance.
6. We received 103 written submissions, 27 of
which were confidential, and held six oral evidence sessions,
where we heard from 46 witnesses. Those sessions covered the following
issues: the stereotyping of jobs; employment law; the advancement
of women in senior management positions, including the European
Commission's proposals; women's involvement in STEM subjects (science,
technology, engineering and maths); the role of small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) and women; and finally the work of the Women's
Business Council and of the Government. We would like to thank
all those who gave written and oral evidence. We would also like
to thank our specialist adviser, Karon Monaghan QC, for her invaluable
help and advice during the inquiry.
Mumsnet and Woman's Hour involvement
7. We wanted a different approach to this inquiry,
to reach people directly affected by the issues concerning women
in the workplace who might not otherwise have considered contributing
their experiences. We welcomed Mumsnet's interest in the inquiry,
and their offer to set up an internet forum, where people could
post their views arising from our terms of reference. The forum
attracted over 100 comments, which can be found at the following
site: http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/a1633298-Parliamentary-committee-wants-your-views-on-issues-faced-by-working-women.
8. We were also extremely grateful to Woman's
Hour for its coverage of the inquiry, and for enabling us
to reach many more women who had direct experience of the issues
in the inquiry. Woman's Hour covered the inquiry on four
separate occasions, including an interview with the Chair of the
Committee, Adrian Bailey MP, two interviews with Ann McKechin
MP, and a programme devoted to the subject, involving a phone-in
with the presenter Jane Garvey and Rebecca Harris MP. Many listeners
contributed to the inquiry, by making comments during the phone-in—by
telephone or by social media—and by sending us confidential
and non-confidential written evidence. We received written evidence
that included anecdotal experience of some excellent equality
working practices, but also some shocking examples of inequality
at work, in both private and public organisations, including the
fields of education, the law, the construction industry and the
NHS. Much of the confidential written evidence highlighted such
inequality, and we were struck by the fact that so many women
did not want their names published. Many of those contributors
wrote in as a direct result of the Woman's Hour coverage.
All non-confidential written evidence can be found on our website.[7]
The contribution from Woman's Hour made a significant difference
to our understanding of the issues involved, and contributed to
our deliberation in the forming of some of the recommendations
in this Report, and we would like to thank all those involved
in making this possible.
1 Q 440 Back
2
Trade and Industry Committee, Sixteenth Report of Session 2004-05,
Jobs for the girls: the effect of occupational segregation
on the gender pay gap, HC 300-1 Back
3
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Committee, Second Report
of Session 2007-08, Jobs for the girls: two years on, HC
291-1 Back
4
Q 19 Back
5
Q 18 Back
6
Ev 225; Ev w17; Q 87 Back
7
www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/business-innovation-and-skills/inquiries/parliament-2010/women-in-the-workplace/
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