Quick Question: Looking at gender-related issues for boards

Would a national four-day week increase gender parity in the workplace?

As a female governance professional, have you ever directly experienced discrimination in the workplace and been passed over for promotion because of your gender and/or ethnicity?

To align with International Women’s Day, this month we asked our audience about issues affecting women in senior roles. Over recent years and in the light of the Hampton-Alexander Review, there has been a focus on achieving better gender balance on boards, but what other factors do we need to take into consideration?

The first question we posed was: Does your company have specific plans in place to promote and generally encourage female board level appointments? For example, is there a gender parity target for your board.

The majority of respondents (54%) said no, with just 46% saying yes. However, when asked about support for talented younger female staff members to transition into senior roles within the company, almost three quarters (74%) reported that this was in place; support included mentoring, training and leadership courses, shadowing, networking groups led by senior women leaders and flexible working.

Looking at recent areas of discussion we asked whether a national four-day week would increase gender parity in the workplace. Participants were quite split on this question with 45% replying yes, and 55% replying no.

When asked ‘Would advertising the salaries relating to advertised jobs (rather than ‘market rate’) help to reduce the gender pay gap in the workplace?’ the majority (70%) responded yes, with only 30% saying no.

In response to ‘Have you witnessed senior female colleagues being passed over for promotion to a senior executive position or board appointment, in your view unfairly?’ only 20% said yes, and 80% no. When only female participants were asked if they had ever directly experienced discrimination in the workplace and been passed over for promotion, because of their gender and/or ethnicity, 44% replied yes, and 56% replied no. It is concerning to see a large proportion of women reporting that they’re not receiving equal treatment in the workplace though it seems that this is less visible to those who are not directly affected. It would be good to review every couple of years to record progress and targets in this regard.

We then asked, ‘Have you seen an increase in the importance and the availability of governance opportunities for women within your company over the last two years, during the COVID-19 pandemic?’ Again, this was split down the middle with 48% saying yes, and 52% saying no.
Our following questions were for women to answer. First we asked in what sector they were working; female participants were split as follows: corporate listed – 33%, corporate non-listed – 28.5%, charity/not for profit – 23.5%, health/NHS – 5%, other – 10%.

Next we looked at work during the pandemic, asking ‘Has the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on your ability to fulfil the duties and responsibilities of your role as a female governance professional? (e.g. having to step down from a senior role due to domestic childcare and/or caring responsibilities outside work).’ This was a positive and clear answer as 91% replied no, and only 9% said yes.
Our final question asked, ‘Does working from home have an impact on how you are perceived as a professional?’ Only 27% said yes, and 73% said no. This may be an indicator of a shift in attitudes resulting from the pandemic when lockdowns necessitated home and remote working. Perhaps this has helped us to recognise a more balanced approach to getting the job done.