Wales moves up to third on Women in Work Index
WALES has made the biggest gains of all the UK nations and regions over the last nine years of research into female economic empowerment.
The latest Women in Work Index from professional advisory firm PwC assessed a number of factors including the gap between female and male employment levels, pay and unemployment rates.
In 2010, Wales was seventh in the index, but according to the most recent data it ranks third, two places behind neighbouring South West. Wales performs well on the index as it has the second smallest gender pay gap.
Furthermore, Wales has a smaller gap in male and female labour force participation rates and lower female unemployment rate than the UK average.
Northern Ireland is ranked second and London bottom in 12th postion.
Felicity Rees, PwC Cardiff office senior partner for Wales and the west of England said: “Getting more women into the workforce and reducing the pay gap are priorities for the UK Government – and the economic benefits for doing so are huge. So it’s fantastic to see Wales performing so strongly in an area that receives ever-more attention from society as a whole.
“Previous studies we have carried out in this area provides evidence for why Wales, along with the South West, has performed strongly. Both have large hospitality sectors and a high concentration of public sector jobs, and both of these tend to have more balanced gender representation at all levels and hence smaller pay gaps.”
While the news is positive for Wales, the research reveals the UK is being outpaced by greater improvements in female employment prospects across 32 other OECD countries.
Although the UK performed above the OECD average and is second only to Canada when compared to other G7 economies, its current position (16th) has barely budged since 2000 when it stood at 17th position, despite improving its performance across all five indicators.
Jing Teow, economist at PwC, said: “Although progress has been made across both the UK and OECD, the rate of improvement is still slow, despite the prospect of huge economic gains from increasing female participation in the workforce for both the OECD and UK. Indeed both the OECD and UK could receive massive boosts to GDP amounting to US$6 trillion (£4.63 trillion) and £189bn respectively.
“But in order for these gains to be realised, businesses and governments need to work together to help get more women into work and ensure that there is a fair and equal pay structure. It’s also crucial that women get the right opportunities to upskill in the face of increasing automation as we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
On average across the G7, women account for only 30% of the tech workforce, and even fewer women occupy the top echelons of tech companies. According to PwC’s Women in Technology Index, which is part of Women in Work, Canada is the best performing country within the G7 in terms of gender representation and equality in the tech sector, with France in second place.
The outlook is less rosy for the UK. 1 ....................................... South West 2 ............................ Northern Ireland
3 ...................................... Wales
4 ............................................ Scotland 5 ........................................ South East 6 ............................... East of England 7 ....................................... North West 8 ........................................ North East 9 .................................. East Midlands 10 .................... Yorkshire & Humber 11 .............................. West Midlands 12 ............................................ London
In contrast to the main index, on which it is the second best performing country in the G7 and ranks in the top half of the OECD overall (16th), the UK is fifth out of the G7 in the Women in Technology Index. Its poor performance is driven by its worse than average performance on all indicators except the share of women on boards in the technology, media and telecoms (TMT) sector,#
Laura Hinton, chief people officer at PwC UK, said: “Technology is front and centre for all businesses and wider society so it’s vital we take steps to make the industry as inclusive as possible. It’s encouraging to see progress being made in opportunities for women across the UK as businesses invest in communities across the country, but more needs to be done.
“Long-term, targeted solutions will be vital in making changes sustainable. We know that, in areas such as STEM, women are under-represented so in order to build and sustain a pipeline of diverse talent, businesses need to work together to encourage girls at young ages through initiatives such as Tech She Can – a programme which inspires and educates young women to get into tech careers.”