Chapter 3: Create fair employment and work for all

Being in good work is better for your health than being out of work. 'Good work' is defined as having a safe and secure job with good working hours and conditions, supportive management and opportunities for training and development.
(Public Health England. (2019). Health matters: health and work. Guidance)

There's clear evidence that good work improves health and wellbeing across people's lives and protects against social exclusion. Good work enables people to have an income, enables them to have social interactions, to have a core role within society, as well as identity and purpose.
(Public Health England. (2019). Health matters: health and work. Guidance)

On the other hand, unemployment is bad for health and wellbeing. It is associated with increased risk of mortality (for example; dying) and morbidity (for example; illness or disease). It is therefore important that women and men have equal opportunities to good work.
(Public Health England. (2019). Health matters: health and work. Guidance)

We know that social, economic and cultural factors prevent women from entering or remaining in employment. This usually lasts throughout their working life. This is the case in Gateshead, where a lower proportion of women work compared with men (75% compared with 82%).
(ONS. (2022) Annual Population Survey: April 2021 - March 2022 (Accessed from NOMIS))

As discussed in chapter 2, girls outperform boys at each educational level. Yet despite this good academic performance and the positive trends in women achieving a higher education, gender gaps in the workforce remain. Women are over three times more likely to work part time; are less likely to progress in their profession; they usually work in lower paying businesses and jobs; and have lower pension wealth. When in employment, women are less likely to have long term contracts and their work lives are often fragmented by transitions, owing to reproductive and women's health conditions, for example; periods, menopause, as well as caring responsibilities.
(Vijayasingham L, Govender V, Witter S and Remme M (2020). Employment based health financing does not support gender equity in universal health coverage. BMJ 2020; 371)

In contrast, it is men who are more likely to be in employment, at all qualification levels. It is men who are more likely to hold the top positions in the largest public companies. It is men who are more likely to earn considerably more money.
(World Economic Forum UK (2020). Zurich added these six words to job adverts and more women applied)

Employment rates and career focuses

For all adults who had a job, there is a higher percentage of men who are 'economically active' than women for all qualification levels. For example, of all men who have a degree, 94% of them were in employment, compared with just 89% of women. Interestingly, 50% of males without any qualifications were in employment compared with just 31% of females.
(ONS. (2022) Annual Population Survey: January - December 2021. [Accessed from NOMIS, 6 June 2022])

About 71% of women in both Gateshead and England are economically active (for example; are able to work) and are in employment. This is slightly higher than the North East. However, Gateshead has less self-employed women and, more women unemployed compared with both national and North East figures.
(ONS. (2022) Annual Population Survey: April 2021 - March 2022 (Accessed from NOMIS))

NOMIS Employment and Unemployment (April 2021 - March 2022) 
*Unemployed females value for Gateshead is from Jan-Dec 2021 as Apr 2021-March 2022 figure is not available due to the sample size being too small to make a reliable estimate

From a career perspective, women are more likely than men to study subjects related to education,and health and welfare, whereas men are more likely to choose the broad fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). In the UK, only 24% of the STEM workforce is female. Predominantly female professions like social work, nursing and early childhood development remain woefully underpaid.
(STEM Women. (2022), Women in STEM Statistics)

Gateshead College is working to prevent the next generation of female learners from experiencing barriers when it comes to making employment progress. The College is encouraging more females to take up courses that have traditionally been targeted towards males, including mechanics, automotive, engineering and manufacturing courses. And it's great to see that they are getting positive results. This is partly thanks to Charlotte Brass, a female engineering teacher who has drawn on her industry experiences to inspire more females into the sector.

Charlotte states: 
"I had many experiences of men telling me I couldn't do something because I'm a woman, so I came into teaching to show girls they can break the stigma."

Being a very visible female in the engineering sector, Charlotte is making a huge difference to women and girls as they enter the field.

"One of my students said she wouldn't have come to college if she didn't have a female teacher. She didn't think women did engineering, but she came along to an open event and immediately said she wanted to study here. That was great to see, and a real reflection of how things are changing for the better and how we, as a college, are at the forefront of that change."

This is generational change and will lead the way for girls and women to achieve in areas that previously were not possible and is a real success for girls and women of Gateshead.

Career progression

Women remain under-represented at senior level positions within businesses and organisations although there has been another strong year of progress for women on the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 350 Boards and continued good progress for women in leadership teams. The companies that started to address the shortfall of women in leadership many years ago continue to lead the way.
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An interesting pattern occurs in Gateshead. Of all women working between April 2021 to March 2022, 6.5% were in 'Manager and Senior Official' positions, compared with only 4.9% of all working men. When looking at 'Corporate Managers and Directors', just 2.3% of working women in Gateshead were at this level, compared with 8.7% of men.
(ONS. (2022) Annual Population Survey: January - December 2021. [Accessed from NOMIS, 6 June 2022])

Nationally, 19% of small and medium enterprises (SME) employers are women-led and this is an increase of 3% points on 2020 figures. However, 19% is still much lower than the 44% of entirely male-led SMEs. There are fewer women-led medium-sized businesses compared with small and micro businesses. The sectors most likely to have women-led businesses are health, education, other services and accommodation and food, with arts and entertainment joining them in 2021.
(Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. (2022). Longitudinal small business survey: SME Employers (businesses with 1-1249 employees) - UK, 2021)

Evidence has found that a woman's confidence is a bigger obstacle to employment than her competence. When it comes to work-related confidence, men are much further ahead than women. As described by Katty Kay: "Under qualified and under prepared men don't think about leaning in. Overqualified and over prepared, too many women still hold back. Women feel confident only when they are perfect." 
(Kay K (2014). The confidence code: The science and art of self-assurance - what women should know.)