Women's skills going to waste
Women's skills, qualifications and experience remain largely under-utilised in the workplace, and employers are missing out on a vital pool of talent, reveals new research from the UK The EU-funded study by researchers at Sheffield Hallam University looked in detail at a number of factors affecting women's working lives, including part-time work, pay, unemployment and poverty. Their findings show that in spite of equality legislation and policies, women continue to face huge disadvantages throughout their working lives. Among other things, the study found that women are more concentrated at the bottom of the jobs ladder, and over half of all women working part time were working below their potential, their skills and previous work experience effectively going to waste. Although the proportion of working women who are graduates has increased sharply in recent years, this is not reflected in their position in the labour market. A total of 1.4 million women in the UK who want to enter paid employment say they are held back due to a lack of support and because they cannot find jobs which are flexible enough to meet their needs. Women in deprived areas are also particularly likely to struggle in their search for a job. Ultimately, all of this has a major impact on women's welfare, as women are more likely to live in poverty than men. 'Some women are still struggling to get into the labour market even though many employers are crying out for job applicants and reporting skills shortages,' said Prof. Sue Yeandle, who led the research at Sheffield Hallam University. 'If the national economy is to continue to prosper, then the skills, talent and enthusiasm of half its population cannot continue to be under-utilised in this way.' Lack of childcare support is behind many of the problems identified; many women have to fit their jobs around childcare and other domestic responsibilities, drastically reducing their employment options. Women who take a career break to raise children may also struggle to re-enter the workplace as their skills need updating and they lack experience. According to Professor Yeandle it is time to move on from an employment system designed for the last century. 'It makes good business sense to design jobs around real people's lives as this is the only way employers can recruit from the best possible pool of people and retain the talent they have,' she commented. Jenny Watson, Chair of the UK's Equal Opportunities Commission, pointed out that wasting talent in this way was having a detrimental effect on the economy. 'If the pay gap were closed, the Women and Work Commission estimates up to GBP 23 billion could be added to the economy per year,' she explained. 'It's particularly important to open up higher paid work to people who want to work flexibly so that they don't have to 'trade down' to find the working style they need and employers don't have to lose out on their skills and experience.' This view was backed up last week at an informal meeting of the EU employment, social affairs and health ministers in Finland. They emphasised the importance of increasing productivity by developing the quality of working life through effective measures at the workplace level. They also noted that equality mainstreaming needs to be speeded up, and called for better family policy measures to prolong the careers of men and women.
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