International Women’s Day (IWD), held on 8 March each year, celebrates the historical social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and is also a day of action against gender inequality around the world.

Each year the UN chooses a theme for IWD, this year it is ‘Women in leadership: achieving an equal future in a Covid-19 world’.

To me it wasn’t immediately obvious that the pandemic would have impacted so greatly on gender inequality but several respected commentators have estimated that the effects of Covid risk society losing a significant amount of the progress made in recent decades and have produced clear evidence that there have been some dramatic consequences already.

News outlets regularly report how Covid has led to a reduction in the treatment and screening for various life threatening conditions. The medical profession is expecting a significant increase in cancers, for example. The impact of missed breast cancer screenings and smear tests will undoubtedly lead to an increase in terrible illness and death for many women. I am not sure this was avoidable but nevertheless it is a tragic consequence of this awful pandemic.

Clearly it is not just healthcare that is being impacted by the pandemic. Marie Stopes estimates that over 9.5 million women and girls worldwide will lose access to contraception due to Covid, and the evidence seems clear that domestic violence towards women has increased during lockdown. In fact during the first 3 weeks of lockdown in the UK the resultant spike in domestic violence led to the deaths of at least sixteen women and children.

As the statistic in the image shows, physical and sexual violence towards women was already at an unacceptably high level. Being trapped in your home with a violent partner during lockdown must have been terrifying.

The pandemic has patently also had a dramatic effect across the board on employment in the UK. Unfortunately it is largely the sectors that are staffed mainly by females that have suffered the most such as retail and hospitality. In addition, the closure of schools has led to a disproportionate effect on women having to stay at home to look after children especially as the traditional free childcare providers, grandparents, have not been able to take the strain.

In fact a new term has been coined due to the effects of the pandemic on women’s employment. The so called ‘she-cession’ conveys how the Covid recession has impacted more on the above female dominated sectors, which is in stark contrast to most previous recessions that largely impacted on predominantly male sectors such as construction and manufacturing.

According to extensive research by LinkedIn, during the pandemic 20 percent of women said they had suffered job losses or wage cuts compared to 13 percent of men and last summer the Institute for Fiscal Studies reported that mothers were 47 percent more likely to have lost their jobs than fathers, and 71 percent of mothers reported that due to the extra burden of childcare during lockdown they were less effective at work.

Government stereotypical advertising on stay at home rules also haven’t helped, with pictures of women with babies, daughters helping mothers with housework, and even a mother next to an ironing board!

There is, however, a glimmer of hope from the pandemic for female employees. Enforced working from home has shown that flexible working can work well and save costs. Hopefully this will continue, and lead to better career prospects for women in the workplace who need to juggle a career with caring responsibilities. In addition, if both parents frequently work from home, evidence suggests that caring responsibilities are shared more, which again should lead to improved opportunities for women.

It is not hard to see why International Women’s Day has become a focal point for such an important movement and, despite lots of progress and excellent work around the world the original aim of the movement ‘to achieve full gender equality for women in the world’ from when it first started in 1911 remains relevant today some 110 years later. Still some way to go though I think!

Around the world there are lots of excellent initiatives to support IWD. Over twenty countries, including Russia and other high-profile nations, mark 8 March as a public holiday each year and hold events to publicise the importance of gender equality.

In the UK the IWD movement is well established and usually arranges marches and other events to mark the day. The first such march took place in London in 1914 from Bow to Trafalgar Square. Sylvia Pankhurst was due to make a speech at Trafalgar Square but, as was the norm at the time, she was arrested on her way to the event!

Although marches won’t be possible this year please see the IWD website www.internationalwomensday.com for other events they are arranging. Alternatively details can be found on social media with the following hashtags

#ChooseToChallenge  #IWD2021

Some of the figures regarding gender inequality are shocking. According to the IWD Choose to Challenge campaign, thirty three thousand girls become child brides every day around the world, and over 130 million are denied education.

To spread the word regarding International Women’s Day the campaign is encouraging all people, irrespective of gender, to post photos of themselves on Social Media adopting this pose to raise awareness.

You may remember Malala Yousafzai, the inspirational young female education activist from Pakistan who was shot in the head in 2012 at the age of 15 by the Taliban due to her campaign. She won the Nobel Peace Prize and recently graduated from Oxford University whilst continuing to campaign for female education. For a 2 minute read on her incredible story please follow this link:

https://www.malala.org/malalas-story

At 186hr we include Malala’s story as part of our ‘Diversity Awareness’ half day course that discusses sex, race and other areas where employees need to be mindful of stereotypes and not acting in a way that may offend others. The style of the course is conversational and aims to increase knowledge and awareness as opposed to telling people how to act and using the threat of legal action if they don’t, although clearly one of the aims of the course is to help organisations avoid any such claims as well as to improve the organisational culture.

On the course we also show this brilliant 3 minute video that asks the question – why did doing something ‘like a girl’ become an insult? It’s definitely worth a watch and makes you think. 

For more information on improving gender pay gap, gender equality and diversity in general please contact us

Groups worldwide plan successful IWD activity

Thank you for supporting International Women’s Day (IWD) and celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. Run annually on March 8, the day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

Below, we explain what individuals and organisations can do to promote International Women’s Day and gender equality. Clearly there is still lots to be done to achieve true equality. According to the United Nations, at the last count 29 percent of senior management roles worldwide were undertaken by females. This is the highest ever figure but clearly still a long way from where we’d all like it to be.

As far as the UK is concerned, my view is that we have taken great strides in recent decades to tackle discrimination in general and especially gender discrimination, although the gender pay gap figures remain stubbornly high so the work needs to continue.

In our 15 November blog we discussed the differences between equal pay and the gender pay gap and what actions organisations can take to tackle both of these important issues. For more details please follow this link below to view the article:

What is the difference between Equal Pay and the Gender Pay Gap?

The article explains in more detail the proven actions that have reduced the gender pay gap in UK companies. See the article for more details and a full list, examples include:

• Involving senior females in senior recruitment;
• Either encouraging or requiring recruitment agencies to provide minimum levels of female candidates for senior roles;
• Advertising in publications and websites with high female readership;
• Targeting female winners of industry or sector awards when recruiting;
• Training courses such as 186hr’s ‘Dignity and Respect in the Workplace’ course or ‘Diversity Awareness’ training;
• Targeted courses where high potential female employees are identified and offered the chance to attend female focused management development programmes, often including external female mentors.
• Making the company more attractive for its female employees e.g. through female groups where a high profile speaker is invited to a quarterly all female employee lunch;
• Improving flexible working and maternity pay / leave policies;
• Working towards a stated goal e.g. to aid female staff recruitment and retention Vodafone state ‘we are committed to become the world’s best employer for women over the next ten years’.

At 186hr we are passionate advocates of equality and managing diversity and inclusion. Please see our website for details of the above mentioned courses we can offer such as the above ‘Diversity Awareness’ and our most popular course ‘Dignity and Respect in the Workplace’. We also offer a consultation service to help employers tackle these issues in addition to helping them work on their gender pay gap.

With regards to tackling gender inequality in general, the IWD2021 movement recommends individuals or companies run IWD 2021 #ChooseToChallenge campaigns within their communities, networks, organisations, and groups.

Whereas 8 March is the focus of such campaigns, events are planned throughout the year so if you wish to promote the cause but have not started yet you are not too late, and what better day than today to make a decision to act on this important issue? If you do decide to start a campaign in your organisation then IWD recommends following these steps:

1. Identify your goals

Challenge yourselves on what you want to achieve from your campaign and what is your key message? The following are examples of what other companies have chosen:

• celebrating women’s achievements
• awareness raising
• influencing behaviour
• smashing stereotypes
• challenging bias
• reinforcing commitment
• launching initiatives 

2. Identify your audience

Who do you want to reach and engage with? Examples include

• the general public
• specific communities
• employees
• students
• customers
• a group of companies e.g. if there is a sector networking group.
• friends and family
• the media 

3. Decide what you can do

What activities will you undertake? The possibilities are endless but popular options include:

• holding an event (digital or hybrid)
• launching a project or initiative
• delivering female-focused activity
• activating a marketing campaign
• developing resources
• conducting research
• running a social media campaign
• making a video
• speaking at a local school
• collaborating with the media

If you would like any further information the IWD website goes into more detail about all of these actions.

Hopefully this article has motivated you to act regarding the important issue of gender equality. If you’d like to discuss this or any other HR topics further please do not hesitate to contact us