After 'damp squib' International Women’s Day, politicians and employers need to be more ambitious about ending gender inequality – Kirstene Hair

Closing the pay gap between men and women could put an extra £55 billion in people’s pockets

It is meant to be a celebration, but this year’s International Women’s Day felt like a damp squib. Involvement seemed muted, and even those hailing the achievements of prominent females did so with less vigour. There was a frustration too, a sense that women were fed up with a lack of progress, that the event itself was becoming a tick-box exercise.

Many high-profile interventions didn’t have the ambition and impatience for change that most want to see. Women were pointing out that the virtues signalled on March 8 were not being turned into action all year-round.

But depressing though that is, as a general election approaches, so too does the chance for all political parties to make clear that this is a priority for modern Britain. With a quarter of women currently undecided about their vote, millions of ballots are in play.

Attitudes have changed since the last century, but progress on ending gender inequalities appears to have stalled (Picture: London Express/Getty Images)

Spinning too many plates

There’s often a gap between government words and action on this topic, but with the political will things could be improved radically. For a start, we need to recognise the confusion between “having it all” and “doing it all”. In most families, women take on the primary carer role and are more likely to do the lion’s share of organising and managing the home. Many are simultaneously working their way up the corporate ladder or building a business. “Having it all” is hardly an adequate depiction of their efforts to have a reasonable work-life balance.

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We desperately need to reduce the impossible number of plates women are spinning. But without adequate structures in place progress our efforts will continue to stall – it’s why the gender pay gap has hit its own glass ceiling.

Two major budget events in Holyrood and Westminster have recently passed, yet it felt an afterthought in both cases. That’s unwise from a governance point of view because reducing the pay gap would mean – in UK terms – an extra £55 billion of earnings. That boosts GDP, puts more spending money in people’s pocket, and creates a bigger tax base. Only one in five entrepreneurs are women, and that’s largely because they are being held back by gender-specific barriers. Again, levelling out that figure would level up the country’s finances.

Stigma in Sweden

The upcoming manifestos should also be ambitious about maternity pay. While the majority of organisations offer enhanced maternity pay, many don’t and £172 per week of statutory pay barely takes care of the shopping for a large family. After all, the pandemic’s furlough scheme paid people 80 per cent of their salary.

Of course, a significant number of men take their paternity leave but many are still opting out. The majority want to take a more active role in their child’s life, but there are still stigmas associated with taking time off. There is stigma in Sweden too, but it goes in the other direction; it is taboo for men not to take their full paternity entitlement and assume an active role in their child’s life.

Businesses, especially large employers, have an important role to play in this process. But the environment and ambition for change is created by the government of the day. Imaginative and ambitious plans are required. If all parties recognise that their political ambitions can be attained with the support of the female vote, perhaps they would treat the seriousness of this issue accordingly.

Kirstene Hair is director of Empower Coaching and a former MP for Angus