“Progress being made for women in the workplace, but there is more to do”

This year’s International Women’s Day celebrates the achievements and successes of women and is a reminder of the conscious efforts we are all making as businesses to improve gender equality and improve diversity and inclusion.

This year’s theme for IWD is #BreakTheBias – focused on creating gender equality opportunities, and environments free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination.

As part of our newsletter today, I’d like to draw you to the story we released in which PwC released its Women in Work Index 2022. The pandemic has undoubtedly had an effect on progress from women, but it demonstrates there is still a lot to do beyond this when it comes to breaking bias and creating a more equal workplace.

The index measures the gender pay gap, the female labour force participation rate, the gap between male and female labour force participation rates, the female unemployment rate, and the female full-time employment rate.

From this, the UK ranks ninth out of 33 OECD countries, which is an improvement compared to 2020, when we ranked 16^th. We saw greater performance in lower-performing regions compared to the top, which shows a levelling out across the country.

It shows that there are changes being made – and more and more FM companies are focusing on how they make their businesses as diverse and inclusive as possible – but the stats show there is still definitely more to do if we are continue improving women’s opportunities in work.

To achieve this, we need to look towards more leadership roles for women through more opportunities; as well as drawing the support from organisations such as the IWFM’s Women in FM – which is making such a difference in encouraging inclusivity for all in our sector.

It also requires support from government and policy-makers within businesses too, which can support businesses with putting mechanisms in place to upskill and reskill women and aid succession planning.

We are making good progress and positive changes are being made – and we need to keep that momentum going.

Happy International Women’s Day.