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

Placemarking

What about shared leave? It's not mentioned. There is currently no financial incentive for partners (especially makes) to take leave. Plus it doesn't add any extra time so you don't save on childcare.

We need to push the responsibility of childcare onto men too that's the only way it will change. Give them the opportunity for a year off as well as the mother.

There's also no regional variations in the 30 free hours or tax free childcare. I'm in London and my bills are double what they would be elsewhere. Not everyone in London is on a mega salary. There needs to be recognition of this. A London weighting perhaps?

Plus get rid of the 26 week requirement to be eligible for maternity pay. This stops women moving jobs if there is any chance they might conceive and leaves them in a terrible situation if they get pregnant by accident and miss out on leave - especially enhanced leave. I'd also remove requirements that women have to return to a job or pay back enhanced leave. This means women can't pursue better opportunities.

I'll offer a thoughtful response once this thread has been corrected to say sex equality, MNHQ.

You're asking us to comment on whether we think women have been more more adversely affected than men by the pandemic — so you acknowledge that there are two sexes and sex is determined by biology.
Sex is what determines the inequality. Who knows what gender means? Women can't self-identify out of their sex-based oppression simply by saying they're male.

Plus get rid of the 26 week requirement to be eligible for maternity pay. This stops women moving jobs if there is any chance they might conceive and leaves them in a terrible situation if they get pregnant by accident and miss out on leave - especially enhanced leave. I'd also remove requirements that women have to return to a job or pay back enhanced leave. This means women can't pursue better opportunities.

Very idealistic but entirely unrealistic for anybody trying to run a business, and more likely to make the situation of some companies not wanting to hire women of child bearing age worse rather than better. Things can't all be based around what people may prefer, there has to be a consideration for what might work in the real world too

Hello - we've just changed the thread title to say 'sex equality' but will leave the OP as it is because this is the language used in the committee's report and to be honest is probably what will make the most sense to readers across the whole of Mumsnet.

Thank you @JuliaMumsnet

Thanks for changing the title. I haven't yet read the full report, but I would have thought the differences in expectations of bearing the load of covid are plain for anyone to see. The practical difficulties of supervising and facilitating home schooling children whilst also trying to work from home, or the difficulties of carrying out caring responsibilities during lockdown, including the inability to get any respite from those responsibilities, have all fallen disproportionately to women.

This thread: Pregant then Screwed have lost the ir case re Covid support www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4168836-Pregant-then-Screwed-have-lost-the-ir-case-re-Covid-support

This article: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55837160

Have all given me pause for thought lately.

So sorry to hear that Murray.

I hope it works out well for you

Will read the report later and post back.

Thanks, JuliaMumsnet. It's appreciated.

Thanks for flagging this @JuliaMumsnet .
Training women in 'male' jobs like tech is great, but what about investing in childcare? If childcare was universally funded that would create a lot of jobs and also give women who want to work the choice to do so.

Thanks, @JuliaMumsnet

I’d like it to be clearer that caring responsibilities falling unequally on women, includes care for older adults as well as children. In fact it often involves supporting both groups at the same time.

It absolutely has done.

I know no men who have had to adapt work due to school/ childcare closures etc. But every mother has!

I have a practical suggestion. When it comes to redundancy, instead of last in first out, there should be criteria which puts
women with children as last out
then men with families
Single women
Single men first out

The broad areas for me are women as default carers and the limited flexibility in some roles - especially ones that are low paid - to combine caring responsibilities with working.

I'd love to see a high profile scheme championing working carers of both sexes. The equipment to companies being able to badge themselves as green or as diversity champions.

Companies would need publish data on how many of their employers had caring responsibilities and how much time they are given to meet those responsibilities, divided into paid and unpaid categories.

@highame

I have a practical suggestion. When it comes to redundancy, instead of last in first out, there should be criteria which puts women with children as last out then men with families Single women Single men first out

Speaking as a single woman who still has bills to pay, I’d rather not.

I've read the recommendations. What about giving the CMS / women more teeth to pursue fathers for maintenance payments, thereby alleviating part of the financial burden that disproportionately falls to women (also freeing up a mother's finances to pay for her pension, or more secure housing)? Why can't CMS payments be always automatically deducted from wages and the CMS given powers to pursue men who hide their true earnings, e.g. via business tax arrangements, or cash in hand.

Some of this is around the UK cultural background as well. Many of the threads desperate mothers have posted on here during the pandemic have been about fathers playing a game of who-blinks-first with regards to childcare arrangements, home schooling and relative job importance. That's not necessarily something government can legislate for, it's more of a social change, where men who behave like this need to feel and know that their behaviour is shameful, and they need to proactively want to support the women in their lives. No idea how you go about fixing that tbh.

The government should prioritise financial education, especially of girls - again, how many threads on here are started by women who don't know how much their partner / husband earns, don't know what investments/savings they have as a family, have taken time off work to raise children in exchange for unequal access to family money, don't have pensions etc., etc. Also careers education needs to place heavier emphasis on pensions, salary and job benefits, not just 'do what makes you happy', because finding a job that makes you happy is great, but sometimes in life you need to prioritise income over immediate happiness. This would also help with the conversion about gender stereotyped jobs; invariably the "male" ones are more highly-paid (compare, e.g. plumbers vs. childcare assistants)... a focus on income instead might attract more women and girls to high-income careers, rather than trying to break / reframe stereotypes (which as an issue only seems to be getting worse - pink 'girls' Lego, that only lets you build one thing ffs, vs. the normal Lego 'for boys' where you can build anything).

Thanks for this. Looks really important

I haven't read the full text yet, from the extract, I am disappointed that it doesn't appear to include caring responsibilities for adults.

Caring for elderly family members also falls disproportionately on women, often just at the time that might be considering getting their careers back on track after the early years of child rearing.

@milfreal56

The clock turning back on sex equality can only happen because ultimately men controlled the clock going forward on sex equality as well. Its time the clock was taken out of middle aged men's hands completely.

@Shedbuilder

I'll offer a thoughtful response once this thread has been corrected to say sex equality, MNHQ.

You're asking us to comment on whether we think women have been more more adversely affected than men by the pandemic — so you acknowledge that there are two sexes and sex is determined by biology.
Sex is what determines the inequality. Who knows what gender means? Women can't self-identify out of their sex-based oppression simply by saying they're male.

Why can't they?

Take a testosterone course, top surgery and you'll never be mistaken for a woman with your big bushy beard and biceps.

And you'll be free of oppression apparently?