About IWD
With the first event held in 1911, International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women’s achievements or rally for women’s equality.
What’s the International Women’s Day 2022 theme?
The campaign theme for International Women’s Day 2022 is #BreakTheBias. Whether deliberate or unconscious, bias makes it difficult for women to move ahead.
In the UK Workplace
In the UK workplace significant improvements have taken place over recent decades to help create an equal working environment. Government led legislation such as the equal pay act, which covers equal pay, and statutory paternity leave and shared parental leave introduced in 2015 have helped to create a more flexible working environment for all.
Despite huge improvements the recent gender pay gap survey (see below) in 2018 showed that over three quarters of companies were paying men more than women, with men being in more senior positions and receiving larger bonuses (2018, ONS). The current gender pay gap figure has remained at around the 8.5% rate in the UK, dipping to 7.9% during the pandemic.
Representation in certain industries remains an important factor. Whilst the number of female CEOs in the top 100 companies in the UK is at its highest number since figures were recorded (1999) there are still only 8 female CEOs in those 100 companies. In small-business women remain under-represented with 1 in 3 entrepreneurs in the UK being female.
Things are clearly improving and continue to do so. Within the accounting profession in particular there are now 49% of women working in the profession across all the seven main professional bodies (ACA, ACCA, CAI, CIPFA, CIMA, ICAEW, ICAS) with ACCA reporting that 57% of its currently enrolled students are female. This is encouraging news, and the number of women managers continues to grow across accountancy firms. There remains however, a larger proportion of men in partner roles, with only 17% of women taking this position in larger firms and 11% in smaller accountancy companies.
Figures and statistics are useful tools to help highlight many issues in the workplace, but we need to analyse and question the reasons for these disparities and continue to challenge workplace decisions and behaviours of ourselves and our colleagues.
To mark International Women’s Day 2022 Bryden Johnson will be donating to Reigate and Banstead Women’s Aid.
Further Reading
UK Gender Pay Gap Statistics, ONS
The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship
Global Gender Gap Report – World Economic Forum