“All the ‘good’ women have already been snapped up.”
“All the ‘good’ women have already been snapped up.” Companies have found all sorts of ways to explain their gender pay gap, some rather more eyebrow-raising than others. Our latest masterclass explored thought-provoking data, and practical ways to cut the gap.
When the 2018 amendment to the Equality Act 2010 came into force requiring organisations and companies with 250+ people to make their gender pay gap public, the results were startling.
8 out of 10 companies revealed they were paying men more than women. A third of businesses reported a higher pay gap than the 18.4% national median.
But what’s happening beneath the stats? And how are digital organisations tackling their own gender pay gaps?
On 4 July, BIMA’s Diversity Council hosted its latest Evening Masterclass on the Gender Pay Gap, moderated by Nancy Rowe, Head of Insight at RazorFish London.
Dr Marie-Claude Gervais, co-founder of Versiti and Dr John Whittle, Versiti’s senior researcher, explored public attitudes to positive action (i.e. the idea that, given an equal set of skills, experiences and performance, you favour the traditionally disadvantaged candidate).
Their study of attitudes among university students revealed a broad rejection of positive action for a range of reasons. Students felt positive action was driven by PR and HR; that it undermined a meritocracy and was patronising to a generation brought up to feel entirely equal.
John and Marie-Claude’s presentation then explored what companies can do to improve equality in the face of such attitudes.
Laura Chamberlain, MD of NOW, an organisation which was founded by women, is led by women and which works for the Women’s Equality Party, explained her company’s reality check when it found it too had a gender pay gap.
Inspired by Emmeline Pankhurst’s slogan, the company chose deeds not words, and took action. Laura’s presentation explores some of the measures NOW implemented to reduce the gap including unconscious bias training, changes to recruitment, family friendly policies, and ‘freeing the bird’.
It’s an enlightening masterclass and Q&A, with lots of insight, and plenty of practical takeaways for business.
Thanks to our expert panel and to everyone attended, and if you missed the event, you can catch up here.