Companies must ‘bring women back’ after pandemic jobs blow, says The 30% Club chair

Naomi Ackerman
·2 min read
<p>Corporations need to “examine themselves” this year and ensure they retain female talent, Ann Cairns said (Shutterstock)</p> (Shutterstock / Ingus Kruklitis)

Corporations need to “examine themselves” this year and ensure they retain female talent, Ann Cairns said (Shutterstock)

(Shutterstock / Ingus Kruklitis)

The chair of female executive-led campaign group The 30% Club said companies must "bring women back" as they rebuild this year, as latest data reveals the extent of the pandemic jobs blow to London women.

Studies have suggested up to two thirds of the jobs lost around the world since March 2020 have been lost by women.

Latest City Hall analysis of Office for National Statistics data, released today, revealed that female unemployment in the capital has increased 3.5 percentage points over the last year, compared to 2 percentage points for men. Female unemployment stood at 7.2% in the three months to December, compared to 6.7% for men.

Executive vice chair of Mastercard and The 30% Club global chair, Ann Cairns, told the Standard: "It is about fixing the system, not fixing the women.

"In recent analysis, one quarter of women interviewed said they were struggling so much with things like home schooling and balancing family that they were thinking about stepping back from the corporate world. And therefore I think companies should be encouraged to put an emphasis on retaining their female staff, and any minority hard-hit by this.

"In the next year they should be examining themselves really closely to make sure that they are not continuing the trend, and that they are putting fair recruitment practices in place so that they start rebuilding and bringing women back."

Cairns said chief executives should start by "setting very gender balanced HR policies", including mid-career hiring and offering equal maternity and paternity leave periods - actively encourage men to take that leave.

Publishing gender pay gaps is also "crucial", she said. The Government suspended the requirement for companies with more than 250 employees to report their gender pay gap last year after the pandemic hit. This year companies have a six month grace period to publish.

Corporate boards should also look at their succession plans, and ask if they are "deep enough in terms of the number of women", and Cairns recommends matching female management with non-profit boards, to give them non-executive experience at board level.

Just a handful of FTSE 100 firms are currently headed up by women.

Last month the final report from the Government-backed Hampton-Alexander Review into gender and leadership in Britain’s biggest firms found that “significant progress remains to be made on the highest executive roles, such as CEO".

Read More

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