Women Just Want an Equal Chance, Right?

With two sisters and two daughters, I’m no stranger to believing that the world should be offering equal chances to women whether in academic potential, work or societal contribution. It should be meritocracy that defines opportunity, right? And choosing the best for the role should be based on ability rather than received wisdom around differences in sex or orientation.  If you are good enough to pass the test, pass the interview, pass the physical, pass the ‘face fits’ hurdle then selection is blind to sex. But I no longer believe this.

The problem lies with the tests, the interviews, the physicals and the conscious and unconscious bias that is presented on a daily basis. Boiled down, the belief is that employers want to give jobs to ‘the best people’ meaning that taking account of structural bias is irrelevant. Indeed, if I think I am objective in my view of opportunity it may mean I am less objective in my view around opportunity for women. Confused? It certainly has taken me some time to get my head around it but there is plenty of evidence when you get under the skin of our received wisdoms. Academia, whilst changing, still says that it has no gender bias yet even when unpacking citations, the accepted metric of academic prowess, men cite other men 70% more than women. And it’s citations that can have an impact on research funding, career progression and pay. And there is evidence to suggest that journalists cite male co-authors as the lead. Just think about that, why is it so? For impartial journalists to fall into such beliefs really made me think; what do we bring to work unconsciously that may affect the way we select, train and promote women? And recognise and reward?

It’s a subject that could keep me writing for much longer. On average women do far greater unpaid work than their male colleagues. Multiple journeys in one day for school children, for parents, for shopping. Preparing for the next day of school and meals. Whilst of course there is much change, the numbers continue to speak loud that we are a long way from equality and what needs to be done to address this first is equity. Think about it. Overcoming decades and centuries of missing data around the roles that women play in society whether maternal, psychological, emotional or scientific, artistic or economic. Or as military leaders or political figure heads. 

The shoots of acknowledgement are there; studies in Sweden demonstrate mother’s earnings increased noticeably as a result of fathers taking parental leave. But the workplace is still widely (not exclusively, I am pleased to say) formulated around the employee that is not encumbered by children. Or ill families. I am learning much of this from a great book by Caroline Criado Perez, Invisible Women. Google, for example, gave new parental employees vouchers for takeout meals, childcare and facilities on site like dry cleaners to reduce the non-paid workday errands that many face. Not to work longer hours but to redress the balance of life, the effect of which getting it wrong has a true effect. According to Perez, a study of British civil servants over 5 years found a much greater risk of anxiety and depression in women.  Not men. And other studies extend this to hospitalisation and mortality rate.

So what have I learned, and what do I continue to learn? As a champion for the Women’s Network I have discovered that allyship is not about just supporting, it is about shouting. It’s about positive action rather than positive discrimination. Whether supporting actions to close the gender pay gap or making sure that we continue to press for women in more senior positions in the Agency and the Civil Service.

I’ve also learned a lesson. Meritocracy favours men. Of course, people may disagree and I welcome the debate. It keeps the discussion alive, keeps us focused on the issue and means that whilst my mother, my sisters and my wife have lived through a period of change and improvements for women in the workplace, it will be my daughters who benefit from the ongoing spotlight and I genuinely think they are well placed to meet their own aspirations without recourse or bias, whether they choose to partner, have children or remain resolutely independent. Let’s not just confine the discussion to the recent International Women’s Day, but continue to challenge the parameters of meritocracy and harness the talent of all.