We are now celebrating 100 years since women (over 30) got the right to vote and we thought it was a good time to also reflect on where women currently stand in the workplace, as well as society.

Whilst it is clear just how far we have come as a country when it comes to women’s rights, it also serves as a nice reminder of how much work is yet to be done, particularly amongst claims of institutional sexual harassment going on in Hollywood, London & Westminster, and of gender pay gap claims in large reputable, institutions like the BBC.

Throughout history, women were largely limited to low-paid and poor status occupations for most of the 19th and 20th centuries, and earned less pay than men for doing the same work.

There were numerous reasons for this, but the main reason was the role of the woman in a family as the child bearer, largely staying at home to raise the children. The jobs that women did hold were usually low paid, low skilled and unregulated, meaning the conditions were generally fairly poor.

In 1920, the Sex Discrimination Removal Act was brought in, allowing women access to the legal profession and accountancy work. This was followed shortly in 1921 with unemployment benefits being extended to include allowances for wives.

Lots of changes occurred in society following this, including access to NHS health care for all, equal voting rights for all men and women, the inclusion of unmarried women in the war effort, equal divorce rights and equal inheritance rights.

In 1956, legal reforms meant that female teachers and civil servants should receive equal pay to men. It then took a surprising 12 years before the next influential equal pay dispute came to light, when women at the Ford car factory in Dagenham went on strike over equal pay, almost stopping all production. This influential movement led to the direct passing of the Equal Pay Act, which was then amended in 1985 to allow women to be paid the same as men for work of equal value.

1975 was then another big year for women’s rights in the workplace, with the Sex Discrimination Act making it illegal to discriminate against women in work, education or training. In the same year, the Employment Protection Act came in introducing statutory maternity provision and making it illegal to sack a woman because she is pregnant.

In 1986, the Amended Sex Discrimination Act enabled women to retire at the same age as men, as well as lifting the legal restrictions which stopped women from working night shifts in factories.

1999 saw a big change to maternity and paternity rights, when a law came in allowing men and women to take up to 13 weeks off work to care for children under five. This finally recognises the role of the father in child care, a role which had always historically defaulted to the mother.

Whilst we have come a very long way with women’s rights and there has been a huge increase on the number of women in the workplace, there is still a lot to be improved.

For example, current statistics show that there are not many women in continuous full-time employment after the birth of a first child. This is partly due to the lack of childcare, but also because women in Britain lose an average of 9% of their wage after their first child and 16% after their second child!

The number of women working within managerial roles in the UK is actually slightly higher than the EU average. We are starting to now see a pattern, as more women come into more powerful positions, more hidden and unfavourable cultures are arising from the woodwork, cultures we would not have expected to still be prevalent in today’s world!

One of the impacts of increasing the number of women in senior management roles is the change in organisational culture this brings. Naturally, the balance of men to women will shift to be more “equal opportunities” and this has highlighted many serious problems with the previous culture which had always been swept under the carpet.

An example of this is the culture of sexual harassment, or a culture of silence, which seems to have been prevalent up until this very day in the BBC, Hollywood, Westminster and the City of London, just to mention a few. In previously male-dominated organisations, these cultures seem to have continued without complaint, and have come about as a genuine surprise in a nation of equal opportunities, sexual discrimination policies and women’s rights!

“A “macho culture” of sexism and sexual harassment and an “atmosphere of fear” led many employees to keep quiet about concerns. There was, during the period covered by the investigation, a culture within the BBC which made it difficult to complain or to “rock the boat”.”

Only today a report revealed that 1 in 5 workers at Westminster had either experienced or witnessed sexual harassment – yet this is only just being addressed.

“This is a major step in bringing about the culture change that Parliament needs… ‘Consent training’ and lessons in how to recruit staff and avoid ‘unconscious bias’ will also be made available.” commented House of Commons Leader, Andrea Leadsom, in the BBC article.

It seems a shame that we are marking the centenary of the women’s right to vote amongst a groundswell of sexual harassment claims across the media and powerful organisations, but it also should be something we can be proud of when we see just how far we have come.

Organisations need to be aware of the unconscious bias that can often occur by accident during recruitment and promotion periods. We have discussed unconscious bias in our previous post about the gender pay gap, and Richard at Brightstone is able to implement unconscious bias in your organisation, should you want to make your managers more aware of it.

We all consciously want an equal and fair workforce, and we don’t just mean gender! We mean race, age, sexuality, marital status, disability, pregnancy, religion or anything else for that matter, so let’s make sure we don’t accidentally create something unequal. Get in touch with Richard today!