It has been 50 years since the Equal Pay Act and questions over the impact of lockdown on the gender pay gap have been raised.
Workplace
Sam Smethers, the chief executive of the Fawcett Society, an organisation dedicated to gender equality, has said:
“In my view women’s workplace equality will have been set back decades by this crisis unless the government intervenes to avert it.
We’re looking at the prospect of a two-tier workplace where men go back and women stay home.
It’s taken us 20 years to get this far on female participation in the workforce, but it could take only months to unravel.”
A study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the UCL Institute of Education found that mothers were 47% more likely to permanently lose their job or quit. 1
4% were more likely to have been furloughed, especially as industries hit hard by coronavirus such as hospitality, retail, education and childcare have higher numbers of female employees.
The Gender Pay Gap
The government made filing gender pay gap data nonessential amidst the coronavirus crisis, meaning half of UK companies opted out of reporting the data. This raises questions about company attitudes towards gender equality.
Dr Wanda Wyporska, the executive director of the Equality Trust said:
“Undoubtedly women are bearing the brunt of this, as they did in austerity when 86% of cuts fell on women. There is a cumulative effect which constantly pushes progress back.”
Childcare
A survey by Pregnant Then Screwed found that 15% of mothers participating had been made redundant during the pandemic and that 46% of them said a lack of childcare was part of the reason for their redundancy.
72% of mothers had to work fewer hours due to childcare issues and 65% reported that childcare was that reason for them being furloughed.
According to the report, 81% said they needed childcare plans in place in order to work yet 51% did not have the necessary childcare to enable them to do their job throughout lockdown.
Joeli Brearley, CEO and founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, said:
“This lack of childcare is destroying women’s careers, they are being made redundant, they are being forced to cut their hours, and they are being treated negatively all because they are picking up the unpaid labour.”
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