International Women’s Day: Worklife in numbers

To mark International Women’s Day market researcher Lucid has released findings from its latest survey (Gender Equality in the Workplace, which surveyed more than 1,000 consumers across various sectors within the UK workplace) that looked into the progress of gender equality across the US and UK, barriers and challenges for women in the workplace, and how this maps out across different generations today.

Overall, the research has found that the UK in particular is making great strides towards equality as compared to other countries where this progress isn’t as clear and transparent. As a society, we shouldn’t be complacent though, as the research points out there is still work to be done specifically with regards to equal pay, sexual harassment, and parental leave.

Key Findings:

Businesses across the UK are making advancements to gender equality; however challenges still exist to promote a more equal, positive, and safe work environment for women:

• In the UK, 82% of men and 73% of women see advancements are being made in the workforce to improve gender equality.
• 70% of respondents feel there is a gender pay gap between women and men in the UK work world.
• 72% of men feel that the pay gap will be resolved, but 51% of UK females surveyed are less inclined to believe the gender pay gap will ever be resolved.
• A third of women in the UK and US feel that equal wages should be a top priority for promoting a more equal playing field for women.
• While pay parity tracks extremely high as a challenge for gender equality in the workplace, sexual harassment ranks as the highest barrier to women’s equality in the workplace, according to 52% of UK male and 45% of UK female respondents.

In the UK, surprisingly, both men and women are becoming more vocal and outspoken about gender bias, particularly amongst the younger Gen Z and Millennials generations:

• In the UK, more than half (52%) of male respondents revealed that they have personally challenged gender bias in the workplace, versus only a quarter of men in the US who state they have challenged it.
• In the UK, the majority of these men (more than half at 55% and 51%) who have challenged bias fall into the Gen Z and Millennials generations, which decreases as you move up to Gen X (32%) and Baby Boomers (23%).

While most parents feel supported in their roles and responsibilities outside of the workforce, there is still work to be done when it comes to parental leave, maternity and paternity policies in particular, in future:

• Of those parents surveyed, almost all parents feel they are supported (55%) or somewhat supported (35%) by their employer when it comes to parental needs; yet 82% still feel their employer could improve the policies around maternity and paternity leave in the future.