Opportunity Now: Project 28-40

[EBearhug]

The Report came out today.

Project 28-40:The Report

For those who weren't aware, they did a survey in the autumn, particularly aimed at women aged 28-40 (i.e. those most likely to be having maternity leave), to see how women find the workplace. The findings came out today.

(Haven't read it yet.)

Thanks ebearhug, I heard about this when they were doing the focus groups... Looks an interesting read for all working women, the people who employ them, and people who represent them.

Just to clarify, it's not all about maternity leave... It's just that they've recognised that this is the age group where the gender pay gap really opens up, for lots of reasons, including maternity leave.

Thanks! Reading it now...

I signed up to attend a focus group for this but had to decline as it was out of city centre and mid-morning on a work day, so would've meant taking half day of leave and several hours of buses or a taxi.

Sad at the six personas - that there are none with parents who share parenting, rather than one or the other. Is that so rare? Of the four parents in our leadership team, two men appear to have wives who are primary (and work), the other two share childcare/sick days with their partners (one woman, one man).

Having a senior man obviously sharing childcare (pick ups/dropoffs are in his calendar, he is also a vocal feminist which is nice) was an encouragement to me to consider management.

It's an interesting read. I'm unconvinced by their personas - the "flexible, not interested in progression" quote (page 18 or 19) didn't seem to match that persona! Plus, given the repeated importance of flexible working options being promoted for both men and women, they didn't highlight it anywhere (anyone else concerned senior managers may only read headlines, not the small print! )

Overall message: shit line management disproportionately affects women. Fix that, and a lot of problems will ... well, not vanish, but become smaller.

And fixing shit line management will make things better for everyone, not just women.

For most of the recommendations, you can just say "people" rather than "women".

Yep, I wish they had just said "people" instead of "women" a bit more prominently.

Reading this thread and this article today was ... interesting:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/going_back_to_work/2042345-Is-it-fair-for-employer-to-make-me-do-5-days-worth-of-work-in-4-days

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/02/flexible-working-cult-of-parenthood-child-free-women