We often consider our society mostly gender neutral and it seems only the vocal minority publicize anything contrary. However, there are gender inequalities that may not be first noticed. Why do we accept these obvious disparities between how society appears and how society actually is? I think both men and women should have equal rights, pay, job opportunity, and anything else they desire. This should not have to be claimed, this should be an inherent right. In addition, it is definitely not just our Western civilization at fault. Africa has some of the poorest gender gap index statistics in the world. In addition to Asia, with their one child policy.

The UK is 18th out of 145 in the Global Gender Gap Index 2015 scoring 0.758. 1 being perfect equality and 0 being absolute inequality. There is therefore a disparity in the equity of treatment between men and women in the UK. The metric takes into account economic participation, educational attainment, health, and political empowerment. Top of the list is Iceland with 0.881. Bottom is Yemen with 0.484. Below the median value of 73 are mostly third world countries. Interestingly, Greece (0.685), China (0.682), Turkey (0.624), and United Arab Emirates (0.646) make an appearance. 87th, 91st, 130th, and 119th respectively.

In the Workplace

Starting at the top of the pyramid, ninety-three of the bosses of the FTSE100 companies are male. There are only seven women. In fact, there are more men named John than there are women, 17 John’s with the top job. That’s an overall female-male ratio of 0.075. A recent Ernst and Young report showed that for every one woman on the board of American companies, there were 1.03 jameses, Roberts and Williams. These statistics are astonishing and truly shine a light on the excessive difference between the number of male and female CEOs. How can this be justified in a first world country in the 21st century? Thankfully, however, this seems to be improving. Almost 23% of boardroom roles are now filled with women in the UK, up from 12.5% in 2010. This follows a government-backed campaign urging companies to ensure at least 25% of their board members are female. Although, most are non-executive, part-time directors. Increasing the numbers of chief executive and chair jobs is proving more difficult: only 3.5% of these roles are occupied by women. That is a truly astounding statistic. 96.5% of chief executive and chair jobs are men. The highest paid, most responsible jobs in our country are statistically, predominantly male-filled.

Heather Jackson, founder of An Inspirational Journey, an organisation that advises companies on getting more women into senior roles, said it takes “a good twenty years to get a good CEO in place, developing them from middle management”. But, she added, too many companies were cutting back on programmes and training aimed at improving gender balance at the top. “The systems and processes are in place, but it is the desire to implement that is going wrong,” she said.

“They are talking about it rather than walking it.” This shows the issue may be resolved with time. However, there are things the government can do, such as the policy to achieve 25% female directors of the FTSE100 by 2015. The EU warned if this was not met, quotas could be enforced. So in future, if this voluntary approach fails to yield improvements, companies could be forced to improve their gender equality statistics.

In Asia, women working in China are most likely to share an equal footing with men, according to a gender diversity study by non-profit organisation Community Business. The number of women holding senior positions jumped the most – to 35.6% from 20.7% in 2011. “China’s economic growth creates greater opportunities for women,” said Fern Ngai, CEO of Community Business. “In addition, the one-child policy means that daughters, as the only child, have access to the best education and are expected to pursue a career.” This obviously isn’t the case in our economy, where economic growth(GDP) was just 2.3% in 2015, compared to 6.9% in China over the same time period. This is an interesting positive outcome of the one-child policy introduced in China between 1978 and 1980. However, there were also negative consequences to the one-child policy in terms of gender disparities. The sex ratio at birth in mainland China reached 117:100 and remained steady between 2000 and 2013, substantially higher than the natural baseline, which ranges between 103:100 and 107:100. According to a report by the National Population and Family Planning Commission, there will be 30 million more men than women in 2020, potentially leading to social instability, and courtship-motivated emigration. Of the six countries in the world economic forum report, China was the first to allow statutory paid paternity leave. Chinese working mothers are entitled to 98 days of maternity leave, compared with 80 days in Singapore, 70 days in Japan, 60 days in Malaysia and India, and 50 days in Hong Kong. 35-year-old Shanghainese Huang Yue-er who has a two-year-old son, enjoys flexibility in her work day at a mainland banking software firm: “I get shorter work weeks sometimes when my child falls sick or there are school events that I have to attend,” she said. “My boss understands and I don’t feel penalised for rushing off to take care of my child.”

However, cultural values tend to keep women from becoming too successful in the workplace according to 29-year old Elyon Song who works as a marketing senior executive in Guangzhou. She says “when I go home, I still get asked by my parents and relatives about when I’m going to stop working and find a boy to settle down.” This reflects the global position of women in the industry of company executives. It seems lots are making their mark on the employment roster, but past societal norms still nip at their heels. The problem could just be generational, and when the last generation dies out gender inequality will die out with them. But this all builds up an ideal that nothing but time is required. And I think this is true, but without government quotas, enforced or not, change is unlikely to happen. A solution could be yearly transparency reviews into companies to evaluate their female to male ratios, and quotas to go along with this.

Locally, here in Manchester, there are reports of gender inequality in the council and the university. The percentage of female councillors in Manchester’s 10 boroughs range from 27% and 28% in Bolton and Wigan, to 44% in Tameside, the highest of the ten. This is not exclusive to Greater Manchester, between 1997 and 2010, the number of female councillors in the UK only rose by 3% – from 28%-31%. Another report revealed that male professors at the University of Manchester are paid over £6,000 more than female professors. Meaning, females earn less than 93% that of males salaries. In the national rankings, Manchester is relatively low, 70th of 87, with the University of Leicester at the top with females earning 78.7% that of males. The report, conducted by the University and College Union (UCU), notes that Russell Group universities generally have a greater gender pay gap. The report also found that unless the rate of progress seen over the last ten years changes, the gender pay gap could remain until 2050. A solution to this issue would be equal pay reviews and working to solve any pay disparities. The UCU reports that many employers fail to undertake equal pay reviews. While there are problems locally, there are local people working to solve gender equality globally. Hispid, a new fashion company launched in Macclesfield is employing workers to make silk scarves in poverty-stricken areas of Pakistan. The company “provides regular work for a small group, not little bits of work now and then with a large group. We now have ten women and a couple of men on our books, although we do try to work with women particularly, and the women are paid equally to improve equality out there. We help people who need work. We work on an ad hoc basis, there’s no factory, set hours or deadlines.” This idea is working, but highlights a need for unions in developing countries, where workers are deprived of the generally guaranteed hours and living wage we enjoy here in the UK.

Last year it was revealed that in the UK 97% of employees who died at work between 2009-2014 were men. 528 people died in 2014 at work, 510 being male. There is an on-going debate for more equality for women doing ‘men’s’ work. However, “on average, women cannot do the physically demanding work that the average man can do, and these tend to be the jobs where there is a greater risk of fatal injury e.g construction, or utilities” says Bryan Richards of the health and safety consultancy, Arinite. It seems part of the government’s manifesto to improve the number of women in the construction industry and is highlighted in a speech by Nicky Morgan in 2015. She says “stereotypes still persist.” Women make up just 12.2% of the construction workforce. The UK has the lowest proportion of female engineers in Europe. 9% compared to Sweden’s 25% or Germany’s 15%. I don’t think women should be pushed into the construction industry just because our statistics are low. However, I don’t think they should be discouraged by the apparent stereotype. There is obviously a disparity, but it is unclear where this stems from. It seems a societal view that construction workers are not female. I think the solution to this is more women construction workers on television and in film, and more government-led initiatives for women to enter the construction industry. Such as STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) who work to ensure every young person has the right to a broad and balanced education that includes, but is not limited to, STEM subjects.

Conclusion

Overall, I have discovered that gender inequality Is a widespread issue in todays world. More so than I think the global media portray. I for one was unaware to the extent of the global issue of gender inequality. I thought it to be a ‘mostly solved issue’ and people’s use of gender pay gap statistics to be distorted truths due to a higher number of women leaving employment due to pregnancy. However, I find that it may be more of a societal issue than a prenatal issue. An issue with the way society sees women and what they are or are not capable of. I don’t necessarily believe all jobs should have a 50-50 split of men and women. But I don’t think that what we see today, especially in the executive range, is fair and just for women. Women should have the same opportunity as men. And for there to be more ‘John’s as CEOs than women of the top FTSE100 companies is frankly ridiculous.

Bibliography

Bush, M. (2016, March 8). US Women Make Strides Toward Equality, But Work Remains. Retrieved from Voice of America: http://www.voanews.com/content/international-womens-day-us-women-gender-equality-work-remains/3223162.html

(2016, March 8). Women in Germany await workplace equality . Retrieved from dw: http://www.dw.com/en/women-in-germany-await-workplace-equality/a-19099867

Ford, L. (2016, March 15). UN Women’s head: ‘Historic shift’ needed to find concrete ways to end gender inequality. Retrieved from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/mar/15/un-women-historic-shift-concrete-ways-end-gender-inequality-commission-status-women

Foster, E. (2016, March 8). Gender pay gap exposed at University of Manchester. Retrieved from The Mancunion: http://mancunion.com/2016/03/08/gender-pay-gap-exposed-university-manchester/

Grove, J. (2013, June 13). Gender survey of UK professoriate. Retrieved from Time Higher Education: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/gender-survey-of-uk-professoriate-2013/2004766.article

MACKENZIE, P. (2015, April 7). HISPID – the fashion company helping to fight gender inequality across the world. Retrieved from CheshireLife: http://www.cheshirelife.co.uk/style/fashion/hispid_the_fashion_company_helping_to_fight_gender_inequality_across_the_world_1_4024403

Manion, C. (2016, March 8). Expats praise Denmark’s ‘progressive’ gender equality. Retrieved from The Local DK: http://www.thelocal.dk/20160308/denmark-international-womens-day-internationals

Moore, K. (2014, February 24). ‘Not good enough’: Gender inequality in Greater Manchester politics and lack of female councillors. Retrieved from mancunian matters: http://www.mancunianmatters.co.uk/content/240267825-not-good-enough-gender-inequality-greater-manchester-politics-and-lack-female

Rodionova, Z. (2016, March 8). Gender inequality: young mothers paid 15% less than childless colleagues, TUC finds. Retrieved from The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/gender-inequality-young-mothers-paid-15-less-than-childless-colleagues-tuc-finds-a6918956.html

Stone, J. (2015, July 14). This is what gender inequality in Britain looks like in charts. Retrieved from The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/this-is-what-gender-inequality-in-britain-looks-like-in-charts-10386937.html

World Economic Forum. (2015). Global Gender Gap Index 2015. Retrieved from World Economic Forum: http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2015/rankings/