As companies around the world are urged to “break the bias” this International Women’s Day (IWD), they must also look at the barriers in place that make equality progress painfully slow.
There was a meagre 1% growth in the number of women in senior management roles between 2018 and 2020, as reported on 7 March by the Women in Finance (WIF) Charter. That comes on top of a decline in the number of women in executive positions in the UK overall, down to 13.5% in 2021 from 14.2% in 2020, as published in the FTSE 100 Women Leaders report last week. Meanwhile, the overall gender pay gap in the UK currently stands at 15.4% - an increase from 14.9% in 2020.
To break the bias - the theme of this year’s IWD – we must break the barriers that create it. Let’s face it, most biases against women are because our leadership and management skills – as well as career commitment – are called into question because of family responsibilities. Such questions rarely seem to come the way of working dads.