MNHQ here: Your thoughts on the Commons report about the pandemic 'turning back the clock' on sex equality

[JuliaMumsnet]

Hello

As you may have seen, the House of Commons’ Women and Equalities Committee published a report on the 9th February called Unequal impact? Coronavirus and the gendered economic impact. (We did a quick thread about it on twitter here). The cross-party committee, chaired by MP Caroline Nokes, found that inequality problems have been made worse for many women during the pandemic with government economic support policies "skewed towards men”.

The report looked at issues like domestic violence, childcare, maternity discrimination and more and at how sectors dominated by women had been worse hit by the pandemic, like retail, and received less support compared to male-dominated industries, such as construction. It challenged the Government, specifically the Equalities Minister, for not taking gender into account when it designed and implemented strategies.

The report concluded, unsurprisingly to many of you, that the pandemic had set back gender equality.

This echoes what we’ve heard from you - whether on forums or surveys - which is why we’ve been calling for a Women’s Strategy so we don’t go back to the 1970s in terms of maternal employment and women's place in society.

We’d like to know what you thought of the report and of the 20 recommendations for the government, which include:

• Equality Impact Assessments of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) - and other industrial schemes.
• Training schemes specifically aimed at women in the Digital, AI, and the Green Economy
• Amending the Flexible Working Regulations 2014, to remove the 26-weeks’ service threshold for employees to request flexible working arrangements
• The DWP to change the design of Universal Credit so it poses fewer risks for women’s financial independence by conducting or commissioning research into its gendered impact. They also suggest maintaining the £20 uplift.
• The DWP to expand and tailor its offer for mothers seeking employment, so that it encompasses retraining and re-skilling for jobs in the most viable sectors - and to train its staff about childcare demands on parents.
• Conducting a study to examine the adequacy of, and eligibility for, Statutory Sick Pay.
• Introducing legislation in this Parliamentary session to extend redundancy protection to pregnant women and new mothers.
• Publishing an early years strategy which sets out how childcare provision can best support not only working parents, but also those who are job-seeking and re-training.
• Urgently reinstating gender pay gap
• Exploring the potential to require the reporting of parental leave policies and to support The Equal Pay Bill.

The full report is here.

Thanks.

MNHQ

I’ve just had a quick look & was astounded & delighted to see that they actually talk about the importance of sex-based data.

I really welcome this and I'm hoping this focus will help women get back into work whether the inequalities stem from the pandemic or were existent before it. As someone who has taken a chunk of time out due to caring responsibilities it's not easy to get back in. I'll be watching with interest as to how this develops.

Thanks, MNHQ. Will bookmark to read later.

Thank you. 💐

My first impression is that equality isn't integrated into Govt policies, its seen as a separate issue that gets tacked on when convenient.

Pregnant Then Screwed lost their discrimination case recently. onpregnantthenscrewed.com/were-threatening-legal-action-against-the-chancellor-for-indirect-sex-discrimination/

pregnantthenscrewed.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Final-Judgment-Motherhood-Plan-and-Chamberlain-v-HMT-and-HMRC-.pdf

Thank you Mumsnet HQ, will have a look! X

I’ve responded, and filled more govt based surveys than ever this year.

I expect its frustrating for the govt to keep asking women what they need, when we keep telling you what we actually need, and not just what you want to give us.

Thank you @JuliaMumsnet.

Could you change the thread title from "gender equality" to "sex equality" please?

thank you for sharing this MNHQ, it is a very (below) interesting report and I hadn't realised it had been released.

I agree with the point in 2.25 re a focus on getting women into STEM. The barriers to this seem to be getting ever higher, from adults/teachers presenting STEM as a 'gendered' skill area that girls aren't naturally good at, to the rather misogynistic attitudes of those already working in the area.

5.88 Pregnancy & Maternity Discrimination. This is such a complex area. I personally know several small business owners who have said that they think twice about employing a young, recently married woman in case they need time off for a baby.
Certain types of business attracts greater numbers of young women and in a very small business, if several valuable employees are off on maternity at once it can have a huge impact on the business.
A balance must be found between preventing discrimination on the grounds of pregnancy/maternity (or the assumed intention in the future) and the needs of small businesses whose operations, profitability and chances of survival are challenged by the requirements of maternity provision. Greater government support for such businesses may be helpful.

I agree generally with the proposals and note Section 7 in particular. This report could turn out to extremely important as it may be the last of its type that uses mostly accurate recorded at birth sex data. The widespread trend (and the standard being set by the ONS) for companies to record data based on self-recorded sex or gender rather than birth sex undermines the quality of the data available. People don't change role or pay grade based on identity, the inequalities are based on sex. We have no way of knowing how much impact this will have but it could easily end up masking issues especially when looking at narrow topics.

I also note that gender seems to be used in place of sex when referring to a selection of protected characteristics in para. 130.

Disaggregated data from Government
127.The need for data disaggregated by sex and indeed other protected characteristics, has been made strongly and repeatedly to us.176 We note that there is a disparity not just between departments as to what data is disaggregated and when, but indeed within individual departments.177 We heard from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) that they were committed to providing disaggregated data.178 Other witnesses also stressed how fortunate we were to have robust and reliable data sets, at least in part as a result of the commitment of the ONS.179 Government ministers and officials also pointed to the availability of ONS statistics.180

128.Whilst we are grateful for the work the ONS has done, and note the recent establishment of the Inclusive Data Taskforce,181 this is not a substitute for action by the Government to make data from administrative sources available. ONS data inevitably suffers from a time lag, and we note with concern that the publication of UK labour market statistics is significantly slower than in other countries.182 The covid-19 pandemic is the clearest possible example of real-time policy making requiring real time data. Further, administrative data is not affected by the same sampling concerns that have affected survey results over the pandemic.183

129.Robust equalities data is crucial to effective policy responses. We have been frustrated by the lack of data disaggregated by sex and other protected characteristics. The lack of intersectional data in large government data sets continues to frustrate meaningful analysis.

130.We recommend the Government require all departments to collect and publish data disaggregated by sex and protected characteristics in a way that facilitates reporting and analysis on how, for example, gender, ethnicity, disability, age and socio-economic status interact, and can compound disadvantage.

130.We recommend the Government require all departments to collect and publish data disaggregated by sex and protected characteristics in a way that facilitates reporting

They’ll be hoping that Fair Play for Women manage to make ONS reverse their decision & collect accurate sex-based data in the census, then.

Thanks MNHQ .

This is not about gender. This is about sex based inequality.

No-one's identifying 'into' the group that are disadvantaged by the pandemic.

@ArchbishopOfBanterbury

This is not about gender. This is about sex based inequality.

No-one's identifying 'into' the group that are disadvantaged by the pandemic.

this

[quote Thelnebriati]My first impression is that equality isn't integrated into Govt policies, its seen as a separate issue that gets tacked on when convenient.

Pregnant Then Screwed lost their discrimination case recently. onpregnantthenscrewed.com/were-threatening-legal-action-against-the-chancellor-for-indirect-sex-discrimination/

pregnantthenscrewed.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Final-Judgment-Motherhood-Plan-and-Chamberlain-v-HMT-and-HMRC-.pdf[/quote]
As evidenced by the government dropping the requirement for organisations to report gender pay gap in light of the pandemic. So a "nice to have" just at a time when the need was greatest.

I was really pleased to see this report and campaign. I heard of so many friends and family members where it was women who had been furloughed, women who had taken early retirement, women who took on the bulk of childcare and household responsibilities (even seemingly the only ones who could sort out an online food order) and those that weren’t furloughed always seemed to be the ones having to get up early and work late to fit around everyone else’s routines.

Individually it always seemed the reasonable thing for the woman to do these things, but then there was the dawning realisation that it was majority women shouldering the burden for sorting out the challenges posed by Covid.

I fully support the report which has put some evidence and stats behind the campaign.

Individually it always seemed the reasonable thing for the woman to do these things, but then there was the dawning realisation that it was majority women shouldering the burden for sorting out the challenges posed by Covid.

The number of threads on here where the woman is a key worker and thinking of giving up work because their 'D'H is the main earner and so refuses to do any of the childcare is so depressing.

And I agree with the PPs, we need to use the word 'sex' not gender because all these issues are because of the discrimination women face because of their sexed bodies not because of their feelz.

Also, and here's a maths one. The sex pay gap should be reported as a percentage of the women's pay not a percentage of mens pay, the current reporting minimizes the gap. So, in 2020 the gender pay gap was 15.5%, so for every pound men earnt full time women earnt 84.5p. If men's pay is expressed as a percentage of women's pay using the same numbers they earnt 18.3% more than us.

Eek. I put FT women but that is the overall pay gap, the FT pay gap is smaller.

I am beginning to think that striving for equality for women is like Sisyphus. Nothing is ever really achieved, or at least only on a temporary basis. As soon as another economic crisis comes along, we are back at the beginning, rolling the bolder up the hill. The division of labour is alive and well. It is also true with race, disability and the rest.

It's time for a really radical re-think. Women during their childbearing years (a general term) are unable to give their energy to fighting campaigns and it is left to those younger (many are woke and not realising the fight belongs to them) and those older like me, who are not on top of all the arguments.

I don't know why this has come as a surprise and I have no answer. At the very beginning of the first lockdown many of us realised women (without money) would be badly impacted. I am distressed for all women who have suffered and will continue to suffer from the effects of covid-19.

It is extremely important that we acknowledge, unless women become front and centre of what happens in our society, then the effects continue through generations. Women bring up the next generation. This is especially important for women at the lower end of the socio-economic scale. All is distressing, in the extreme.

Guess what, it wont be affecting transwomen

I second and support every single message above.

@JuliaMumsnet are we allowed to share your post and the report on other Social Media channels?

Really keen to spread the campaign and report further.

"BoreOfWhabylon

Thank you*@JuliaMumsnet*.

Could you change the thread title from "gender equality" to "sex equality" please?"

Agreed,how're we to reach sex equality if those who 'identify' as women are included into statistics?
@JuliaMumsnet

Bookmarking to come back to later. Thank you.

My opinion on the flexible working arrangements is that not only should they be applicable from day one, they should in some jobs be such that the employer has to prove they are harmful to the business, the burden on them to prove the request is unreasonable. I also think that wfh for certain jobs should be the default (for at least a minimum part of the week)- far too many instances of people being forced to be in offices currently who can wfh very well, just because of power mad or useless managers.

@peak2021

My opinion on the flexible working arrangements is that not only should they be applicable from day one, they should in some jobs be such that the employer has to prove they are harmful to the business, the burden on them to prove the request is unreasonable. I also think that wfh for certain jobs should be the default (for at least a minimum part of the week)- far too many instances of people being forced to be in offices currently who can wfh very well, just because of power mad or useless managers.

A 1000 times yes to this. I'm in a situation where my line manager refused my request for flexible furlough when lockdown hit this January (full time working single parent now homeschooling, they made the rest of my team redundant in the last lockdown), then told me that as he expected my output would be less due to homeschooling that I needed to seriously consider going part-time permanently. I refused as I know my output is more than I'm paid for, and am now being sidelined which I expect will lead to redundancy. I havnt been there quite 2 years yet so expect this will happen just before that date so I have no rights.

The effects of the pandemic are already affecting women in employment and I fear this work is already far too late. We need to get back to the future.

Per Joanna Cherry, for the word 'gender' substitute 'sex'.