Gender inequalities in wealth

Why do they exist and to what extent are they an issue in the UK

today

Background

• Since the Equal Pay Act 1970, it has been a legal requirement to pay men and women doing the same job the same wage

• Why then, do women still earn less, on average, than men?

Lower pay

• gender pay gap • Female workers earn, on average, 19.5% less

than their male counterparts (Office for National Statistics, 2011).

• pay gap varies – 55% in the finance sector – up to 33.3% in the City of London (Fawcett Society

2010). • At the current rate of improvement, female full

time workers should expect to reach wage equality before 2067.

“At the current rate, it will take at least another two decades to close the pay gap. Women who work full time will earn on average £330,000 less than a man over theirworking lives – that’s the price of a family home. It’s amazing that we still think this is something that a decent society can live with”Trevor Phillips, Chair of Equality and Human Rights Commission

Occupational Segregation

• Pay gap is partly due to the concentration of female workers in lower paid sectors of the economy.

• The “five Cs” of employment.

• EHRC study “Staying on” found that 75 percent of women still work in these five areas of industry.

Selected industries by gender (2005)

Average pay £/h

% women % men

Top earners

Directors and Chief executives of major organisations

56.33 17 83

Medical practitioners 33.01 37 63

Lowest Earners

Sales and retail assistants 6.16 72 28

Kitchen and catering assistants 5.74 73 27

Part-time work

• 42% of women work part-time compared to 9% of men.• Of working women who have children aged 0-10 years,

65% work part-time. • “lifestyle divide” : women take on the burden of domestic

duties, creates a vicious circle as they are then less able to work the long hours needed to win top jobs. 

• “Double burden” – The average working week for a woman in Europe is 68 hours,

including paid and domestic work – the average of 55 hours for a man in full-time employment.

Glass Ceiling

• an invisible barrier which appears to prevent women from rising to the top-positions in their chosen career.

• women may be discriminated against by employers or choose not to apply for promoted positions due to lack of provision for childcare and flexible working

Women make up:3% of executive directors11% of FTSE 100 company directors20% of secondary school head teachers7% of senior police officers

Lone parenthood

• Number of lone-parent families in the UK has trebled in the last 30 years.

• 9 out of 10 lone parents are female

• 57% of women lone parents do not work and of those who do work, most work part-time.

Child poverty by family type

In couple families with work

33%

In couple families without work

17%

In lone parent families without

work42%

In lone parent families with work

8%

Source: Household Below Average Income, DWP; the data is the average for

2002/03 to 2004/05

Welfare dependency

• 20% of lone mothers claim benefits• lack of family friendly employment.

– a majority of single parents had seen no or few jobs they could apply for advertised at part time hours (62%); within school hours (97%); as a job share (95%); or flexible in some other way (97%). 

• A lack of affordable childcare prevents many from finding sufficiently well-paid employment, and as a result, lone parents often fall into a cycle of welfare dependency.

Longevity

• pensioner poverty has fallen dramatically, from a high of 30% in 1995 to around 16% now

• However poverty rates amongst older females are 5% higher than for older men

• Why?– Women live, on average 4 years longer than men,

and therefore usually outlive their partners. The means widows face the higher cost of running a home on a single income

– Women earn less over a working life and have fewer savings and due to career breaks, make fewer contributions to provide for a pension in retirement.

However

• There is reason for optimism

• Significant progress has been made in many areas and women now enjoy a stronger and better-paid place in the workforce than ever before.

Growing female contribution to the working economy

• 1955: 45.9 percent of women of working age were in employment

• 1995: 66.6 percent. • April 2011, women

accounted for 46 percent of Britain’s working economy

• Female entrepreneurship is also increasing: female-run businesses contributed £60 bn to the UK economy last year.

“It’s easy to let life’s obstacles stand in the way of your success, instead of seeing every experience as something to learn from.”

Michelle Mone

Co-owner MJM International

Michelle Mone: Successful Businesswoman

Pay gap narrowing

• Gap between full-time male and female workers was just over 10 percent - its lowest ever.

• Female part-time workers actually earn 5.6% more than their male counterparts.

• Increasing numbers of women are also working full time– In 1980, women accounted for 89% of part time

workers, down to approximately 80% today.

Shattering the glass ceiling• The gender segregation of the world of work is less marked than it

once was. • sixty-five percent of entrants to law courses are female. • In politics too, whilst still disproportionately low, female

representation is rising. – currently 34.5% of MSPs in the Scottish Parliament are female (a 0.8%

increase since 2007) and 21.5% of MPs at Westminster (the highest to date).

• Public sector organisations fare best: one-third of chief executives in the NHS and one-quarter of top civil servants are women.

• Increasingly too, high-profile female figures are breaking through the glass ceiling to take up powerful positions in traditionally male dominated fields such as banking, business and law.

BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING: BUSINESS

“More well-qualified women are now coming up through the ranks. We will therefore see a radical change over the next generation as those who previously had limited opportunities and exposure in the business arena can now make the next step on the career ladder.”

Nosheena Mobarik, Chair, CBI Scotland (from September 2011)

BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING: THE POLICE

“I’ve been involved in policing since the age of 16 and I have done a variety of jobs in different roles. At no time have I felt I have been subject to any direct or indirect sexism.”

Norma Graham, Chief Constable, Fife Constabulary

BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING: TRANSPORT

“I took on this role because I am driven to succeed. I am my own worst critic and have always worked in a male-dominated environment so I don't know any different.”

Mary Grant,Former Managing Director, First Scotrail

BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING: POLITICS

Nicola Sturgeon and Fiona Hyslop are in the Scottish Cabinet.

Scottish Labour and Scottish Conservatives both have female leaders

But Caroline Flint resigned from the Gordon Brown UK Cabinet in 2009 claiming used female members as “window dressing”.

Caroline Flint accuses the Prime Minister

A REPRESENTATIVE PARLIAMENT?

Just 21.5% of MPs are female. The number of Labour women has fallen from 94 to below 80 – about 30% of Labour MPs. The number of Conservative women has risen from 18 to about 48 – about 16% of  Conservative MPs. The number of Liberal Democrat women has fallen from 9 to 7 – about 13% of Liberal Democrat MPs. The number of SNP MPs stayed the same, 1, 16.7%.

Louise Mensch, Conservative, Corby - left parliament claiming “family commitments”

Jo Swinson, Liberal Democrat, East Dunbartonshire.

And in Scotland…

• 34.1% of Members of the Scottish Parliament are women (up 0.8% from 2007).

• At the current rate of change, it will take Labour around 20 years to get to 50-50 male/female MPs, the Lib Dems around 40 years and the Conservatives around 400!

Task• Now read p41-46 of Modern UK Social Issues and take notes relating to the first 8 bullet points on p49 (do not go onto gender health inequalities at this stage)