The government is failing to hit gender targets in Whitehall, but which party is the most equal? December 29, 2014 Closing the gender gap at the top of politics is taking time. According to official data, only two government departments met the target of appointing as many women as men last year. In the 2013-14 financial year, less than 40 per cent of new appointments were women. As many as 10 departments performed worse in [...]
Women making up larger slice of high earners December 22, 2014 The number of high-earning women is rising faster than the number of high-earning men. The number of women who are now higher-rate tax payers was 17 per cent greater in the financial year 2013-14 (April to April) than 2012-13, according to official data crunched by Radius Equity. This is quicker growth than in high-earning [...]
Is the OECD right that inequality has significantly curbed economic growth? December 9, 2014 Lord Wood of Anfield, a shadow cabinet minister and adviser to Ed Miliband, says Yes. The OECD report confirms that inequality is not just a social problem, but a serious economic problem. It estimates that, over a 20-year period, high and rising inequality cost Britain almost 9 percentage points of growth, while policies designed to [...]
Thomas Cook’s Harriet Green would like to be fired by herself hears Inspiring Women conference November 20, 2014 Thomas Cook chief executive Harriet Green really wishes she could be a Buddhist. The travel boss, who gets up at 3.30am every morning to start work and laments that Thomas Cook doesn’t have an Asian business so she could hit the phones in the very early hours, believes deeply in Buddhist humanism but just can’t [...]
Flexible working: How it can boost women in work November 20, 2014 Companies underestimate the productivity benefits of the practice. The latest figures show that women are still under-represented in senior leadership positions, with only one in five FTSE 100 directorships and 7 per cent of executive directorships occupied by women. So it’s not surprising that we’ve seen a rise in the number of campaigns looking [...]
Where is the best place in the world to be a woman? UK slips eight places in World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index 2014 as Iceland retains crown November 19, 2014 The gap between the amount women and men are paid has narrowed to 9.4 per cent, its lowest since records began in 1997, according to the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Index 2014. But that still doesn't mean the UK is setting an example: after giving us Icesave and more volcanic ash cloud than we [...]
More women in boardrooms: How are FTSE-listed companies faring? November 18, 2014 More women than ever before are rising to to the top of FTSE-listed companies but there's still a lot to be done. A report by executive recruiters Norman Broadbent has found that companies are making good progress towards increasing female participation on their boards. This is line with recommendations from Lord Davies of Abersoch's report three [...]
Women “don’t get paid after today” claims #EqualPayDay report November 4, 2014 If you're a woman, you might want to down tools for the rest of the year, because from now on you are effectively working for free. That's the argument of a report claiming that the gender disparity in pay has actually grown to such an extent that, including full and part-time workers, men earn on [...]
Women of the Future awards: KPMG partner Claire Angell takes prize October 28, 2014 Pioneering female business stars gathered at the Hilton, Park Lane last night for the annual Women of the Future awards, joining secretary for education Nikki Morgan and Dragons’ Den star Kelly Hoppen. There were many City and London names in the running, but Claire Angell, director at KPMG took the professional award, as one of [...]
Gender equality in the workplace “won’t be achieved until 2095” says World Economic Forum, as UK slips to 26th place October 28, 2014 When it comes to gender equality, the UK is the 26th-best country in the world, below Rwanda, Nicaragua, Burundi, South Africa, the US and Moldova, a report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) shows. The UK's position has fallen from ninth, when the Global Gender Gap Report was launched in 2006, which the report attributed [...]