Transcript Facts and Figures - Dr Helen Richardson

Recognising and Valuing Female
Talent in Sheffield: some facts and
figures
Dr Helen Richardson
Professor of Gender and Organisation
[email protected]
1
Starting Point
• Companies with the most women in
leadership outperform those with the fewest
• Women are creative and talented
entrepreneurs
• Women are the solution not the problem
• Sheffield needs to recognise and value its
talented women
[email protected]
2
Agenda
• Women at work in the UK
• British Labour Force survey - women and men
at work in South Yorkshire
• The state of Sheffield
• What is to be done?
[email protected]
3
Women at work in the UK
• Women dominate low pay and low grade work, job segregation prevails:
 Women work in the 5 ‘C’s’: catering, cleaning, caring, clerical,
cashiering
 Lifting heavy weights scores is valued whereas lifting heavy people is
regarded as caring work and not valued. Doing ‘dirty work’ scores
highly but not so when working ‘with human vomit, blood and faeces’
• Women are missing from the ‘top tables’ of power:
 17.3% FTSE 100 directors are women; 7 have all male boards
 There are 143 women MP’s (22%)
• The UK is 18/27 of OECD countries on 5 key indicators of women’s
economic empowerment including equality of earnings with men and
proportions in f/t work
[email protected]
4
Economic activity in South Yorkshire
(data from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, October-December 2012; 1420 adult
individuals (16-65) who usually reside in South Yorkshire)
• Equal numbers of men and women employed
• 82% men and 64% women work in the private sector –
over twice as many women than men work in the
public sector
• Women work mainly in admin, education, health, hotel
and restaurant sectors
• Men work mainly in manufacturing, construction,
transport and communications
• Equal Proportions in banking, finance and insurance
[email protected]
5
In South Yorkshire
• As you go up the hierarchy of better paid
roles, women dominate the lower end
• There are twice as many male managers and
directors in the region than female
• Part time work:
86% of male workers are full-time
57% of female workers are full-time - 43% work
part-time
[email protected]
6
The state of Sheffield 2013
(sources: An economic growth strategy for Sheffield consultation draft 2012; www.citiesoutlook.org and Sheffield First
Partnership: ‘State of Sheffield 2013’)
•
http://www.citiesoutlook.org/summary/sheffield
•
Sheffield’s private sector has a lower density of jobs using high level skills than
other cities – about 75% do not employ graduates and have no plans to do so
in the next 3 years
2:1 ratio of public to private sector employment
Primarily an SME economy
8% manufacturing (6% UK)
Business, financial and professional services (21%) UK 23%; Leeds 26%;
Manchester 28%). Knowledge intensive employment (12%); Manchester 25%;
Leeds 21%
Women are paid on average 9.6% less than men for doing work of equal value
Significant growth of creative and digital industries – becoming an important
hub
2 excellent Universities with talented and motivated graduates
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[email protected]
7
The state of Sheffield: prospects in ‘austerity’
• Unemployment has risen for men and women since the recession.
• By 2010 male unemployment had levelled off but for women there has
been a steady and continuing rise
• In the private sector there is a higher gender pay gap (24% compared to
17%)
• Low paid jobs are paid at a lower rate in the private sector
• Under-employment prevails and zero contract hours is increasing
• Cuts in services impacts on poor families especially women
[email protected]
8
What is to be done?
(particular acknowledgement to the Fawcett Society report 2013)
• We need some urgent and ‘joined-up’ thinking to utilise rather than
waste or lose the knowledge and skills from Sheffield City Region
• Protect and improve levels of pay and forms of work – a ‘race to the
bottom’ strategy will not help the local economy
• Widen access to job opportunities at every level for women and in
male-dominated sectors - the magic 30%
• The region needs to address the way men and women work for
certain industries and in traditional ways - embrace flexibility and
family friendly ways of working
• Address the power and pay gaps
• In the HE sector fully accountable Equality Charter marks (e.g.
Athena Swan) appear to be making a positive difference
[email protected]
9
WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE – IT’S TOP NOTCH AND
WILL BLOW YOUR SOCKS OFF
Assess performance in a non-gender specific way i.e.
one that doesn’t always favour males
Mixed male and female environments work better and if
you always recruit to the same spec your business may
not get the talent and new skills to keep up
[email protected]
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